worst shithole of a major american city

i'm gonna guess university of central florida, which for some unknown crazy reason had the highest enrollment in the country. wiki says it's second now. had some friends and tennis team pals transfer there.

― andrew m., Wednesday, October 5, 2011 12:57 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark

yeah, UCF it is. there's prob a lot of factors as to why they have so many students... when i saw the campus in 06 it was like a community college hollowed out in the middle of a forest, but i've heard that it looks way better now

re: houston, it has all the terrible things about new orleans (weather, crime, lack of trees, giant roaches, etc) and none of the charm.

I've spent a lot of time in both Houston and Dallas and Dallas wins this thread easy. Houston's achille's heel is its hellacious traffic which does count for something... (ok and the humidity.) But there's more to be found under the surface in Houston whereas Dallas is basically just surface. Dallas is just this awkward failed amalgam of wannabe-la and wannabe-nyc that just feels like... Phoenix?

lots of philly love. maintain that compared to the rest of the marquee american cities -- LA, SF, Seattle, Chicago, NYC, Boston, DC, Miami -- it is by far the biggest shithole. obvi if we're including 'major american city' to include fresno and detroit it's got competition but otherwise stand by my claim

inside and all around Rice University there are some beautiful trees!

actually prefer giant roaches who make their presence known to the little ones hiding in the walls.

As a resident of Houston for 22 years, it has all the issues of an suburban sprawl, but its culture is limited to them. The major social outlet for most residents appears to be megachurches, even the most walkable neighborhoods are pedestrian unfriendly, the nearest decent hiking trail or beach is 600 miles away.

the weather is totally unbearable though. growing up there, however, has made consistent temps below 50 just as unbearable for me :-/

I'll admit, though, I don't think Dallas (or Tulsa, or OK City etc.) have any edge on Houston (save weather). Houston's major calling card is probably the reasonably priced restaurant scene.

i think seattle, boston miami and dc are all shitholier than philly tho de gustibus etc

i'm always gonna be curious how Houston is doing, i think. i root for it.

oh i like seattle a lot, not that i could ever live there

I mean Charalambides will never release an album entitled Dallas

yeah plus Dallas will never produce weird Jandek album covers.

the only American city that I have a crush on is New Orleans; kinda don't see what the big deal is about any other American city. There's lots to love about the USA as a place of intense natural beauty, but not its cities. IMO etc

i am blind w/ love for nyc but most of the rest of the cities in this country i can take or leave. i hear nice things abt chicago.

cmon you do not see what makes NYC a fairly interesting and unique place in the world?

xp

For what its worth, Jacksonville has the worst walkscore of the top 50 cities. OTOH, its on a lake and 10 miles from the Atlantic.

being from Texas and have a certain experience of what cities are like here, i have to say i go pretty gaga over most the marquee cities and im pretty jealous of people who get to live in them (with at least a moderately healthy income).

10 miles from the Atlantic.

― der dukatenscheisser (Sanpaku), Wednesday, October 5, 2011 1:17 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark

i'm not sure if i can think of anything potentially more disgusting than a beach outside of jacksonville

NYC is kind of as much a monument as the grand canyon in some ways, imo.

New York is definitely interesting but I don't know that it's all that unique in the world. I can think of a couple cities that are comparable in terms of what they have to offer but a lot cleaner and less oppressively crowded than NY. Don't get me wrong, I love NYC. I always have and I always will but I would never want to live there again. It's just too much for me after a while.

no city has the same mix of density and diversity

I've spent very little time in NYC, just a couple of days in Manhattan at a conference about 15 years ago. It seemed like there was a lot of traffic. I wasn't sure what the monumental sights were: I guess the buildings are very big, but you can't really go into many of them because they're just businesses or residential. The parts along the water seemed shitty. Getting to/fro LaGuardia was ugly (in Queens? or is that Brooklyn?), just a bunch of ugly brick-ish buildings that looked the same, lots of gaudy billboards, typical American city stuff.

The cities I love are all in Europe or Asia, & what I love (as a visitor) is their monumentalness, their sense of history, that you can walk amongst. New Orleans's the only city in the USA that I've ever gotten that feeling, that there's something deeper there than just modern capitalism.

well, dude

i think what you're getting in the European cities is perhaps pre-modern feudalism then?

oh, whatever, im not going to try and sell people on new york, you either get it or you dont

There is a lot of traffic. He's right about that, at least.

There are ways to not get it, and then there are ways, though.

queens is hella ugly it is also super interesting and cool tho, like a bizarro America without white people. I wouldnt say you've seen ny tho.

xp

Sometimes I wish I hadn't grown up right outside NY so that I could get that first time visiting it feeling other people get to experience. One of my roommates in college was from some rural town in Nebraska and her first day in NYC was the first day of orientation. I can't even imagine how awesome and terrifying that must have been.

I think my honest answer to this question is Las Vegas.

I guess the buildings are very big, but you can't really go into many of them because they're just businesses or residential.

Do...you require to be able to go into buildings in order to justify their existence apart from whatever function they serve for people who live or work or do things in them? Do you require to be able to go into MONUMENTS for them to...er, count, or something?

There's lots to love about the USA as a place of intense natural beauty, but not its cities. IMO etc

― Euler, Wednesday, October 5, 2011 1:15 PM (17 minutes ago) Bookmark

imo too

you can go inside a lot of the buildings in NYC, fwiw. euler youd probably like the met! and the morgan library! and the village, and bits of brooklyn. theres a ton of history in new york, it just doesnt go back much further than a few centuries. but anyway im not sure "history" is the reason to love new york city. i think "culture" is the reason.

I am def in the minority on this but cities in america rarely have the level of pop density I like to keep things interesting. but I may be the world's biggest people watcher, so

I'm pretty sure I hold that title.

you can enter a higher % buildings in manhattan than any other city in the country. because there is retail etc on the bottom floor . so that's a pretty bizarre critique. "why would I want to go to Dallas? it's mostly just single family houses and I can't even go into them..."

a recent visit to NYC proved that the city has a spirit impervious to the attacks of hipsters and investment bankers and trustafarians and duke grads

i think euler meant, like, old churches, and stuff? we dont really have a ton of those. there are a bunch of storefront churches but im not sure they have quite the architectural or artistic vibe that hes looking for

guys u can go into any building you want to #protip

#occupyanybuildingyouwantto

#justgoin

lol this thread will now go on forever because somebody said they didn't love ny

nb I have loved ny from the second I set foot in it in august of '94 but it is impossible for me to imagine any citizenry being more "what do you mean you don't love this?" about their town, it's like the Old Faithful of native pride

and it's multiplied by 5 when the person isn't actually from NY but lives there now

I don't actually love new york I just hate the rest of America more

yeah NY is actually kind of boring but it's less boring than a lot of other cities in america

oh please

I hate how NYers feel that being in NY gives them a 'license to be wacky' because 'hey it's new york'

what