Thank you Cory
Cory Doctorow recently posted an entry in Boing Boing where he was bemoaning the fact that real estate costs in “superstar cities” was now so high that they preclude the emergence of alternative (and riskier) endeavors. As I was reading his entry I kept telling myself that, “at least my hometown is not like that”. You can imagine the smile on my face when I got to this paragraph:
I think of Europe’s B-list cities, like Florence, as having the best of all worlds: relatively cheap housing, lots of weird, experimental activity, cosmopolitanism, beauty and culture. Go to a superstar city like NYC or London and check out how similar all the restaurants, stores, and galleries are. When you need to make $[RIDICULOUS] per square foot every month, there’s not a lot of room for a crazy, experimental bookstore or a funky, marginal cafe. Compare that to cities like Melbourne, Montreal, Austin and many other “second cities” and you find a flourishing alternative culture.
I totally agree. Here in Montreal, I feel like I’m finally having the creative, bohemian life I spent years trying to find in NY.
it’s a complex thing, tho. i made a quick reference to your post on midnight poutine’s weekly roundup of local blog stuff. this week’s post is all about the good & bad of lo-fi arts and culture with big city problems. you can see the post here:
http://www.midnightpoutine.ca/media/2007/02/this_week_in_blogs_for_feb_22/
feel free to leave a comment if you wish.
thanks and take care.
~scott.