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A place I've never been to. A place I'll never go

jacobfilipp.com

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Re: A place I've never been to. A place I'll never go

#41

Post by nox101 »

nomdep wrote: post #3

Why almost every store have their names written in Chinese (?) and English. Is the post a joke with photos from Asia malls (or AI generated)? Or it’s just common in that part of Canada?

I don't know about Canada but SF, LA, NYC,

https://bestneighborhood.org/race-in-san-francisco-ca/

Zoom out can you can zoom into any city and see at least in SF, LA, NYC there are huge areas where you can expect non-English to possibly be common. Sorry it doesn't cover Canada but I'm sure some searching can bring up something similar.

Re: A place I've never been to. A place I'll never go

#42

Post by kstenerud »

netsharc wrote: post #29
morkalork wrote: post #17

I can empathize with the author after moving away from Toronto almost 20 years ago, so much from when I was a teenager is gone. I'm not "from" where I live now, and where I'm "from" no longer exists, I just feel perpetually detached from everywhere now.

Apparently people who grew up in East Germany have this but worse. Their "home culture" (TV shows, snacks made by the state snack factories) got "demolished" when East Germany got absorbed into Germany...

I had trouble getting an apartment in Leipzig a few years ago, because so many of the (older) landlords didn't want "Wessies" in the house who would just leave in a couple of years rather than staying and joining the house community.

Re: A place I've never been to. A place I'll never go

#43

Post by [deleted] »

Maxatar wrote: post #37
joemaller1 wrote: post #26

> The good thing is that, after 5 years of > construction, a beautiful new mall stan… just kidding! > > This is Canada. The place where construction > has to stop because you’re not allowed to uproot > a tree on your own property. Or a vindictive neighbour > holds up your project in Committee of Adjustments, until > you build them a new deck as a bribe. Or construction > is blocked by a surprise Heritage Listing on y…

Yeah it's an exaggerated rant, including the idea that you can't uproot a tree on your property which is only somewhat true, but it's not much different than most developed countries including the U.S. With little exception, there is a heck of a lot of construction in Canada. Canada has among the highest construction per capita in the world.

[deleted]

Re: A place I've never been to. A place I'll never go

#44

Post by dingdong33 »

supportengineer wrote: post #4
nomdep wrote: post #3

Why almost every store have their names written in Chinese (?) and English. Is the post a joke with photos from Asia malls (or AI generated)? Or it’s just common in that part of Canada?

I see that everywhere in USA also.

I’ve been twice in USA recently and I didn’t see that anywhere.

Re: A place I've never been to. A place I'll never go

#45

Post by jader201 »

I like that Google Maps now lets you view a time in the past of a location on Street View. I hope this serves as an archive of sorts of how things used to look, at least from the outside, for decades/centuries to come.

If the various locations I’ve lived and visited become unrecognizable like this, at least it would allow me to get a glimpse of how it used to look.

Re: A place I've never been to. A place I'll never go

#46

Post by pstrateman »

joemaller1 wrote: post #26

> The good thing is that, after 5 years of > construction, a beautiful new mall stan… just kidding! > > This is Canada. The place where construction > has to stop because you’re not allowed to uproot > a tree on your own property. Or a vindictive neighbour > holds up your project in Committee of Adjustments, until > you build them a new deck as a bribe. Or construction > is blocked by a surprise Heritage Listing on y…

surprise heritage listing?

that's not a thing, you would 100% know when buying that a building was listed

Re: A place I've never been to. A place I'll never go

#47

Post by AnimalMuppet »

Jcampuzano2 wrote: post #24
AnimalMuppet wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I see it in Chinese restaurants, sure. And in Chinatowns. (And with Spanish in the southwest.) I don't see it on "almost every store" "everywhere in the US", though.

I think you're simply taking "everywhere in the US" too literally then if your interpretation of that was "almost every store".

"Almost every store" is a direct quote from nomdep.

Re: A place I've never been to. A place I'll never go

#48

Post by mrweasel »

mitthrowaway2 wrote: post #6

I have a similar feeling when I bring friends to places I spent lots of time, but which have now been completely transformed by redevelopment. I can walk through and visualize my old surroundings as if they were still there, but I just can't convey them to others who are visiting to the first time. The best I can do is show old google maps photos.

Earlier this week I went back to the small town where I went to school, something I've been meaning to do for the past two years. It's still a nice small touristy coastal town, absolutely relaxing, with wonderful fresh air and a really nice walk in the beautiful spring weather. But it's not exactly the same town. Stores have close, buildings repurposed, neighborhoods redeveloped and some things have just been torn down. I used to recognize a ton of people, but the population have changed over the past 25 years, now I don't know anyone.

Going back was nice, especially the few things that had stayed the same, but expecting everything to just freeze and wait for you to return one day was perhaps a little naive.

Re: A place I've never been to. A place I'll never go

#49

Post by acchow »

joemaller1 wrote: post #26

> The good thing is that, after 5 years of > construction, a beautiful new mall stan… just kidding! > > This is Canada. The place where construction > has to stop because you’re not allowed to uproot > a tree on your own property. Or a vindictive neighbour > holds up your project in Committee of Adjustments, until > you build them a new deck as a bribe. Or construction > is blocked by a surprise Heritage Listing on y…

> The place where construction has to stop because you’re not allowed to uproot

Strange take for Toronto where houses are being torn down and rebuilt as larger houses or high rises everywhere

Re: A place I've never been to. A place I'll never go

#50

Post by ElFitz »

mattpallissard wrote: post #30
morkalork wrote: post #17

I can empathize with the author after moving away from Toronto almost 20 years ago, so much from when I was a teenager is gone. I'm not "from" where I live now, and where I'm "from" no longer exists, I just feel perpetually detached from everywhere now.

I've tried explaining this feeling to people so many times. Unmoored is a good word. We now live in a place where the locals are warm and welcoming, but I'll never be one of them. My kids are, but I'm just a little different. When I go back to where I was raised, I'm no longer a local there either, just a little bit different. It's more than the place itself changing. It's as if there is some continuity that's been b…

As a kid we never lived in a country more than a few years. Now, everywhere feels a bit off. And I feel a bit off everywhere.

Which, you are right, isn’t bad. Just odd.

Unmoored is adequate.

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