What city says, "You should be more philosophical"? What city says, "You should be more romantic"?
Of those I know: Cambridge, Paris.
Cities and Ambition
251–260 of 313 posts
Re: Cities and Ambition
#252The thing you're missing about San Francisco is that in the early to mid '90s, commercial real estate crashed hard enough that you could get plush offices with bay views for less than a tilt-up in a Mountain View office park. That's one reason that so many internet startups ended up there instead of the valley back then. When things heated up in the late '90s, the combination of hipness and by then very expensive office space made it even more desirable in those "let's spend as much money as possible to show how serious we are" days of internet bubble 1.0 silliness.
Re: Cities and Ambition
#253I live in Columbus, OH and as I read PG's essay I was wondering what Columbus tells you. And seriously, I just kept thinking about one thing: "You should play college football." College football is king in the Bus, and the players and coaches are our royalty. It's kind of a scary thought, but I'm as big a Buckeye fan as anyone else, so I'm partly to blame. But I also admit that I don't want to live in a place where t…
Being an OSU student, I have to agree with you, but to be fair, I think Columbus also has some more interesting things to say, depending on where you live.
Brewery district: You should drink better beer.
Short north: You should be more artistic (in terms of both art and "sophisticated" things like wine-tasting).
Anywhere near High Street: You should hear more live music.
Honestly, Columbus has a thriving music, art, and gay community, and I think that makes it kind of a cool city. There's this very strange dynamic of party-going OSU students, diverse foreign-exchange OSU students, sports-crazy Ohioans, business-minded corporate-types, and aesthetic art aficionados.
Maybe, most of all, the message of Columbus is that diversity is good.
Re: Cities and Ambition
#254I live in Columbus, OH and as I read PG's essay I was wondering what Columbus tells you. And seriously, I just kept thinking about one thing: "You should play college football." College football is king in the Bus, and the players and coaches are our royalty. It's kind of a scary thought, but I'm as big a Buckeye fan as anyone else, so I'm partly to blame. But I also admit that I don't want to live in a place where t…
Being an OSU student, I have to agree with you, but to be fair, I think Columbus also has some more interesting things to say, depending on where you live. Brewery district: You should drink better beer. Short north: You should be more artistic (in terms of both art and "sophisticated" things like wine-tasting). Anywhere near High Street: You should hear more live music. Honestly, Columbus has a thriving music, art,…
That is a much better message, I think you're probably right. Really, I love Columbus, and I'm disappointed whenever someone says that there is nothing to do. There are always a ton of events and cultural experiences to enjoy, you just have to make the effort to look.
Perhaps Columbus could find it's own specific niche within high-tech? I've been impressed by the Tech Columbus initiative.
Re: Cities and Ambition
#255Earlier quoted context omitted.
Places I've lived: Sydney: You should spend more money on real estate. Melbourne: You should spend more money on clothes. London: You should have been here 150 years ago. Davis, CA: You should leave Davis, CA.
Tokyo, Japan: Doing nothing, even for a minute, is a sin.
Having spent some time in Tokyo, I must say that the most striking thing for me was that at any moment of the day, the streets are flooded with people going too and fro. It was amazing.
-m
Re: Cities and Ambition
#256Very interesting! This reminds me of http://creativeclass.com/whos_your_city/ which I came across recently.
I live in Denver, and I've been increasingly aware that it doesn't feel like a very ambitious place, at least in the ways that I care about.
I'm considering Boulder... could somebody with a lot of time spent there speak to what messages Boulder sends? And how well it (really truly) lines up with the ambitions of tech entrepreneurship, intelligence, and living well?
Re: Cities and Ambition
#257Thank-you for discussing this topic as it's been a major endevour of my life for the last 3 years (http://frye.blogs.com/thebox/2008/05/on-cities-and-a.html). I wanted to get it out of the way so to speak, so I could focus on life's more essential aspects such as living, loving and producing interesting work.
Re: Cities and Ambition
#258Fascinating idea. It will be interesting to see if the idea of online communities does allow for the kind of synergy (for want of a better word) that you describe in New York or Palo Alto.
I’ve been trying to learn to use online communities to replace the live contact the we used to get from working for big corporations with large campuses. I’ve been at it for the last 9 months or so and I’m not finding the same kinds of feedback or support that I got from lunch with colleagues.
As a kid growing up in the 50’s we were told that if you built a better mouse trap, the world would beat a path to your door. Your essay confirms my life experience, that the world will only show up at your door if you live in the right neighborhood!
Re: Cities and Ambition
#259Just a thought about Boston. I live in Boston and it definitely is as described, though I have heard that it (especially Cambridge) bloomed culturally more when overgentrification was prevented by rent control. To the extent that there still are some good independent cafes and lots of good bookstores, and interesting events, Boston/Cambridge is certainly the type of place you could expect to strike up a conversation about some arcane technical or cultural topic with people you don't already know. This happens on a fairly regular basis. Another thing worth mentioning though is that the Boston/Cambridge area is a lot smaller than people who have not lived here would expect. It is socially small in that you run into people you know all the time, and it doesn't have the anonymity that New York does for that reason as well. Geographically it is also very small. As pg says, MIT and Harvard are adjacent, this is true (literally a short 5-10 minute walk along the Charles River), but consider also that my typical bike ride from Jamaica Plain to Cambridge is only 15-20 minutes. And Jamaica Plain is a southern/western suburb (actually officially part of the city proper), almost as far south as you can go before hitting the shore (Dorchester is further south), while Cambridge is directly North of the heart of Boston. Similarly my western-leaning home of Jamaica Plain is 30 minute ride to the far eastern community of Charlestown. The point of bringing this is up is to note that cultural millieau of Cambridge is present in the whole area, even if strongest in Cambridge. The same kinds of events that happen in Cambridge occur all around the area, which is not surprising considering that everything is so close geographically.
Re: Cities and Ambition
#260Paul... I am so thankful to you for writing this. Thank you! I cannot pluck myself away from this place and now you have clarified what I just recently started suspecting. I moved to the US from Brazil 17 years ago due to family challenges. I went straight to Framingham MA, like many other Brazilian immigrants. On my second week here, a group of newly formed friends took me to Boston. I felt in love. I swore I would move there in 2 years time. I was living there in 6 months. Unlike many Brazilians, I was in awe with the new culture, and couldn't get enough of it. I didn't want to immerse myself in the Brazilian community. Soap operas, the national past time of a country up to that time pretty completely closed up to foreign influence (read: low level of choices) had always been boring to me. I wanted to learn English as fast as I could so I could read the newspapers and get in the know of what was going on in such an exciting place! After learning English, I went to college (something of a dream, it was not a prospect in my life back when I lived in Brazil), had a really hard time choosing one career (I wanted to do everything) and found my love in building software.
In two years time I had pretty much shed the longing for the familiar things I grew up with, so the struggle between that and the thirst to experience the new subsided. After a while, I started thinking I need a new "fix": a move to a new (cool) place could do me good. I could never find a place I could justify moving to, but the need for the "fix" kept nagging at me. Until... I worked onsite on and off in Mexico City for 6 months and, despite falling in love with that and other places in Mexico, it was branded in me that no place other than the US would ever feel like home to me.
I kept looking to other cities, however. I naturally like to continuously reassess my choices anyway. It was very recently that I finally figured it all out.
I grew up in complete starvation of intellectual stimulus. I needed it, and didn't get it. Since landing in the Boston area, I have been completely consumed with nurturing this deficiency. I feel like I am behind and must catch up (to what, I haven't found out yet). Although I lived in Cambridge for 7 years up to a few years ago, I feel the same for the entire Boston area: there is not a time when I step somewhere that I don't meet somebody mind bogglingly interesting.
This is so good to my soul. There is no place with the level of intellect found here. You are so right.
-=-Carlisia