City Pride

[tealin]

I've been doing a fair amount of soul-searching and critical analysis of my life and have realized I must come out of the closet, face the music, and come to peace with a troubling aspect of my identity:

I AM A CITY PERSON.

This is a hard thing to acknowledge, and I think I've been in denial about it for some time. I mean, yes, I have spent my entire life living in relatively large cities*, but I was simultaneously raised with the belief that city people were useless, sentimental, materialistic sophisticates who couldn't find their bum with both hands unless involved in some godless sexual deviation. Country people knew how to get things done, had the common sense god gave geese, could see through the veil of crap and lies that were the stock and trade of the urban shyster, and through diligence, honesty, and clean livin' could accomplish anything.
*Well, okay, most of it was technically in the suburbs, but it was not rural

Well you know what? City people are good at getting along with people from different backgrounds with different beliefs and opinions. City people are adept with social politics because that's how large numbers of people live together without killing each other. City people have interesting jobs in science, technology, and the arts. City people are accommodating. City people understand and employ irony, metaphor, and abstract thinking. I like living in an apartment, even if I can't grow my own vegetables. I suck at growing vegetables anyway. I like fancy cheeses. I like public transit, being able to walk to the library, talking about nerdy things with a bunch of other nerds, foreign films, PBS, science museums, shawarma and sushi (on the same day, even!), talking to people who come from other countries, exotic fabric stores, restaurants with cloth tablecloths, esoteric concerts, shop signs in other alphabets, not wearing jeans, and access to an international airport. Yes, I do love getting out into the beauty of the countryside, but that's been part of the urbanite's identity as long as you've had to travel any distance to get out of a city. I AM A CITY PERSON! HEAR ME ROAR! (But not too loudly as it may upset the neighbours.)

Comments

[kittyjimjams.livejournal.com]

Ohh, man, me too.

Unfortunately I realised it for definite shortly after we moved out here... to the countryside. A mortgage and a baby later, the plan to move back home to London has been pretty much scrapped, but I miss all the things you've talked about up there so much. SO MUCH.

[duskblue.livejournal.com]

Hell, I've been a city person my whole life. There's no other way to be!

[(Anonymous)]

Good for you, I'm an acknowledged city person too. It just took a few years in the country to figure this out :} Viva la persona de ciudad!

[vividamphigory.livejournal.com]

Wow yea, I HEAR YA!!! I would also consider myself a city person as well and agree with everything you proclaimed.

[fani.livejournal.com]

Heh :)

Hear! Hear!

I keep on hearing the same thing from people too. (except mine usually is followed by an immediate bashing of Toronto) Also, we don't have irrational fears. I met a girl who said she'd never take public transit because when she was 10 she caught a cold after riding the Toronto Subway. -_-

I love crossing the street into another neighborhood and suddenly it's Chinatown! Greektown! Little Italy! Turn around the corner, hey, there's a public library! Secondhand book shops! Tiny stores that sells weird stuff! People on the subway that I could draw (without trying to comment to "improve" my drawings)! Fancy ass coffee that has names no one can remember or pronounce! Asian groceries! Indian buffets! Comic books! And most importantly, HIGH SPEED INTERNET! :DD

[sp34k.livejournal.com]

Pssh, I've lived in New York City my whole life, apart from a year spent at school in London, and I totally have irrational fears! For instance, I am afraid of getting pushed into the subway tracks, and often think of where I would have to roll in order to not be crushed.

[fani.livejournal.com]

OK fair enough :) depends on the person I suppose

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

That's not an irrational fear, that's a survival strategy! Always good to be prepared. And in response to Fani, I never went to school dances partly because the first one I went to (I was duped into it), aside from being just generally miserable, gave me a nasty case of strep throat. Public transit is a great place to pick up interesting new diseases, but you can get those anywhere, and really the benefits far outweigh the costs.

[veronikamg.livejournal.com]

I came to the oposite conclution last year. I've always thought that I had to be a "town person" at least, because I nearly went mental during every single one of those trips to the mountains I was dragged along on when I was younger. I never understood the coolness of mountains. You go up there to see "nature at it's most beautiful" and all you see is stone, stone and more stone, and if you're lucky, a bit of heather and dry grass. But I've come to realise it's the mountains I don't like, I love the lowland countryside. It's where I was born and raised, and the only place I feel free.

Maybe I'd have been a city person if I'd had better experiences with cities when I was younger, but alas. The only larger city I've spent enough time in to get a feeling of "city life" is our incredibly nasty capital, Oslo. Bwwwrrr! I was never happier to sit in a car or on a bus for five hours than when we went home from Oslo.

I'm a born country bumpkin. For many years I tried "aspiring to something better", because I was told it would make me feel happy and accomplished... but it didn't really. Not as happy as mindless fun for no other reason than having fun makes me. I still think I'm fairly open minded and that I'm pretty good at getting along with people. It's just that I'm willing to forsake most of the pleasures of city life to have what I personally perceive as freedom.

[tony-cliff.livejournal.com]

Also, a Frenchman.

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

Well, French Canadian, and I don't even know if that counts if I can't speak the language...

[michechan.livejournal.com]

I AGREE SOOO HARD WITH THIS POST! City pride! 8]

I bitch about this all the time irl. That new Rene Zellweger movie has really been bringing it up with me-- in movies/tv/books/etc, big city people always get stuck in the country and eventually love it and realize their city lifestyle is petty or pretentious-- it's such bull shit. Country people never to go the city and realize how much better it is. :/

[aspectabund.livejournal.com]

My entire life I have lived in the countryside. Like, really country-like countryside, surrounded by trees and grape vineyards and deer and cows and what have you and at least half an hour from anything important-looking. Right now, I'm living for the first time in a city and sharing an apartment with a couple friends...

AND IT IS GLORIOUS.

Stores I can see from my window! The ability to walk to school because it is across the street! People with dogs to pet everywhere! People who wear odd hats! Buses! Trains! More than three houses within a kilometre of mine!

I still like the country, mind you. I've just found something better, is all. ;)

[azvolrien.livejournal.com]

Me, I'm one of those rare people who get along just fine in or outside of a city. I manage just as well pottering about in a field as walking down the High Street.

I do find the London Underground both fascinating and horribly claustrophobic, though.

[immelmanturn.livejournal.com]

I'm stuck in just a small town for school, and it's driving me crazy! I want to be back in my gorgeous metropolis, with the bums and the public transit and the concert venues big enough to hold headliners.

[uberklutz.livejournal.com]

I definitely think I'm a city person, although I function okay in either. Ideal Cities? SF or Chicago--what I wouldn't give to win an orchestra job with *them*. och.

I think the smallest city I could live in would be 60,000ish, nothing smaller and well diverse, please.

[missuscarroll.livejournal.com]

doo doo doo doo doo doo dooooooo
doo doo doo doo doo doo doooooooo

Hoho, Mercedes Lullaby, could you tell.

& I will endeavor to comment on the actual content next time and not just your music, super though it may be.

[mellifluous-ink.livejournal.com]

TESTIFY!

Everything you just said. Right there. I feel EXACTLY LIKE THAT (right down to having grown up on the urban side of suburban).

[trash-addict.livejournal.com]

I grew up in a small, beautiful, semi-rural coastal town. I love that I grew up there. I now live in another small coastal town, closer to work (I work in the city). And while I really do get my city dose every day, I am ragingly jealous of people who can, for example, go out at night and...get home. Either because their public transport actually runs that late, or a taxi ride would not be heinously long and expensive. And, you know, the variety of shops, the variety of people - all good things. But I can't stand the density. I've grown up spoiled for space and natural beauty and I really don't know what I'm going to do when I have to move to the city for good for my career, because I don't know if I could breathe in the city.

[ardys-the-ghoul.livejournal.com]

I'm a city person who has spent the majority of her life living in the country. Actually, that might be why I'm a city person, come to think of it.

I finally moved to the city when I started college, and I swear, I will never go back. Never! There's so much more stuff to do here!

[bevinbaka.livejournal.com]

Having never lived in a city, I can't definitively say which I prefer. I don't live in the countryside per se, but it's a small city with both a state college and a major agricultural bent. I used to hate living here, especially in my teens and early twenties since there's not much for people to do outside of going to a movie or one of the many bars here. Since I'm not into the bar scene, I don't go out much, but I've really grown to appreciate this place. I live within walking distance of the college, the crime rate is low, housing is reasonably affordable, and the general pace of life is slower.

Of course, since there's an influx of students from much larger urban areas, there's an interesting culture clash that tends to happen between the old, conservative farm-based locals and the young, comparatively radical city kids. Of course, being a local, but not being from a farming or ranching family, my feathers get ruffled when some 18-year-old who thinks they know everything cracks a joke about hicks or how much they hate it here, or even assume I'm some sort of ignorant yokel who doesn't understand culture or city life despite the fact that I've been to Europe twice, New York, and visit friends and family in big cities all along the West Coast routinely.

Conversely, I hate being out doing some shopping somewhere and overhearing some old farmers make racist/sexist comments, or hear about how so-and-so got out of a punishment they deserved because politics here does still run on the good ol' boy system. And yeah, I hate that our shopping is limited, and that our local economy is small enough that one Hollywood Video opening is enough to shut down every other small video store in the entire city within a year. We don't have much in the way of public transportation, and we don't get any independent or foreign films unless they become popular in the mainstream like "Juno" or "Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon".

I could go on, but really, I guess the gist is I'm not that enthralled by the elitism and condescension of both sides toward the other, and there are definitely pros and cons to either ways of life.

[ubiquitouspitt.livejournal.com]

I have manifested myself from the academic ether to bring you a bemused smile. I shall share this with Marc. Perhaps he'd love the city if he knew there were no fancy cheese or libraries in the country.

[sydpad.livejournal.com]

You.. you... you ROOTLESS COSMOPOLITAN!!


http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=UgqVCJpRqWQ

[sydpad.livejournal.com]

Lunchtime spamming... this is such a great song:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=wDnEoHgC8IA

I spent the first part of my life in what I believe at the time was the biggest city in the world.. then lived on a farm for a while. Then moved to LA. Then London. On the whole the only thing I can't bear is a suburb, but definitely I'm a Town Mouse. Me and Sherlock:

"Do you know, Watson," said he, "that it is one of the curses of a mind with a turn like mine that I must look at everything with reference to my own special subject. You look at these scattered houses, and you are impressed by their beauty. I look at them, and the only thought which comes to me is a feeling of their isolation and of the impunity with which crime may be committed there."

"Good heavens!" I cried. "Who would associate crime with these dear old homesteads?"

"They always fill me with a certain horror. It is my belief, Watson, founded upon my experience, that the lowest and vilest alleys in London do not present a more dreadful record of sin than does the smiling and beautiful countryside."

"You horrify me!"

"But the reason is very obvious. The pressure of public opinion can do in the town what the law cannot accomplish. There is no lane so vile that the scream of a tortured child, or the thud of a drunkard's blow, does not beget sympathy and indignation among the neighbours, and then the whole machinery of justice is ever so close that a word of complaint can set it going, and there is but a step between the crime and the dock. But look at these lonely houses, each in its own fields, filled for the most part with poor ignorant folk who know little of the law. Think of the deeds of hellish cruelty, the hidden wickedness which may go on, year in, year out, in such places, and none the wiser. Had this lady who appeals to us for help gone to live in Winchester, I should never have had a fear for her. It is the five miles of country which makes the danger. "

[lilac-elf.livejournal.com]

I fully understand how you feel. I live in what I lovingly call the Boondocks of Michigan and while I love and adore country music I still prefer the city. There's something comforting about the fact that in the city an ambulance might actually get to your house before you croak. And paved roads are much niced on the shocks of your car than dirt roads.

[mablue.livejournal.com]

From one city person to another, I can say only: Thank you.

I like me the fine, fresh air every now and again. But when you get right down to it, I'd rather be in the city anyway.

[driveby411.livejournal.com]

If it helps, I've lived in both very rural areas and in cities...and on the whole I prefer the cities. There are perks and cons to both, but actually, my preferences seem to reflect your reasons. So someone from somewhere in the country who moved to a city feels the same way.

[tweakfox.livejournal.com]

I once thought of myself as a country-type-gal with nature, peace and quiet and all of that sort of thing... Nope. Not for me. Even my dog agrees with me. City, all the way! ^_^ Cheers!

[anathelen.livejournal.com]

I grew up in a hamlet of a half-dozen houses at a crossroads in West Virginia with one TV channel and no cellphone reception with parents and close relatives who didn't like cities and purposefully avoided them, so I didn't spend any time in a real city (New York) until I was in college. I LOVED visiting, but I don't know if I could ever live in a 'real' city (DC, Boston, New York) due to the persistant siren song of the country. However, I do know I hate the suburbs and will try my damnedest not to live in a subdivision.

Right now I live in provincial Annapolis, which has a historic district big enough to have almost everything I need within reasonable walking distance, a bearable bus system, and a great local art and theatre scene. It's small enough to have that small-town feel which comes when you walk down the street and all the shopkeepers know you and you always stop to talk to people you know on the street, but big enough to support several theatres, galleries, and concert halls. And DC is a 40-minute bus ride away. Win-win situation for me.