So, last night I was listening to a radio show on my way home, and the host asked callers how they felt about the cities (Minneapolis and St. Paul): did they feel comfortable and safe being downtown? Did they even go downtown? Is there a perception of danger, or is there actual danger in the Big City?
The first caller was a man who lives in a small Wisconsin town, not far from the Minnesota border. He said that he works in Eagan (a suburb... not exactly a city, folks), and that he's friends with people in the city (i.e., the suburbs)... but that they NEVER go downtown, because they're afraid.
The host asked if anything had ever happened to him that made him fear for his safety. He said "Uh, no." Then the host asked if any of his friends had had anything happen to them downtown, and he said "Uh, no... but they WERE uncomfortable. There were people there that just made them feel... well, uncomfortable." (Is that code for people of color?).
He added that "there's nothing that attracts me to the city, anyway."
Apparently he has no idea what the city has to offer - art galleries, top museums, fantastic restaurants, the best theater in the Midwest, if not in the nation, book and poetry readings, etc.
My parents have lived in the heart of downtown for 24 years, and they don't feel "uncomfortable." They walk everywhere, go to the theater, to movies, to museums and galleries, to restaurants... and they're in their early 70s now!
How do YOU feel about the city?
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Comments: 90
St. Paul rolls up the sidewalks at 6pm so what's there to fear there? ;)
I've never really felt threatened in DT Minneapolis, but I don't go there that often.
Ponce (starry eyed): I'm gonna make in this here big city… I know that most people fail, like that fella in that Welcome to the Jungle music vidya, but I'm different…. I've got a dream, I won't quit…
Z (to self): Gawd, what a hayseed!
Z (to Ponce): Hey buddy, howzitgoin? Look here, if you can spare some change, I could really use some help. My car broke down a few blocks away and I gotta get it towed, and my boyfriend has all my credit cards and he's outta town...
*Ponce starts digging in his overall pockets for money
Ev'rythin's up to date in Kansas City
They've gone about as fur as they c'n go!
They went and built a skyscraper seven stories high,
About as high as a buildin' orta grow.
Ev'rythin's like a dream in Kansas City,
It's better than a magic lantern show!
Y' c'n turn the radiator on whenever you want some heat.
With ev'ry kind o' comfort ev'ry house is all complete.
You c'n walk to privies in the rain and never wet your feet!
They've gone about as fur as they c'n go,
(Yes sir!)
They've gone about as fur as they c'n go!
Ev'rythin's up to date in Kansas City
They've gone about as fur as they c'n go!
They got a big theayter they call a burlesque.
Fer fifty cents you c'n see a dandy show.
One of the gals was fat and pink and pretty,
As round above as she was round below.
I could swear that she was padded from her shoulder to her heel,
But latter in the second act when she began to peel
She proved that ev'rythin' she had was absolutely real!
She went about as fur as she could go,
(Yes sir!)
She went about as fur as she could go!
Ponce: "Got a dance!"
Am I overreacting? Is it wrong to make that assumption?
A friend of my sister's once admitted that she was afraid to go to the city (even the city neighborhoods, not just downtown), because of the "black bikers."
Whaaa?
Upon getting divorced, I decided to move to the "city"...upon hearing this news, my X-wife actually said that she was afraid that our kids would get shot and that the "city" is a bad place to raise children.
I thought, "Hmmm...maybe I should tell that to all the kids in my new neighborhood".
I am in a great part of the city...I seem to be pretty close to everything I need and within walking distance to: A post Office, A Liberry, supermarket, gas stations, hardware store, bowling alley, several resaurants, and most importantly, a liquor store...
The X-relations I left behind in the 'Burbs just don't "get" it...they seem truly afraid of the "city"...
The only down side I have run into is that I have to go downtown to drop things off at City Hall oor the Police...rather inconvenient.
"Black Bikers"?? What the hell are those??
I didn't know they roamed the city's streets...
Yeah, that was their "thing."
I DO think I saw them on First Avenue...
(Not IN First Avenue, just ON it)...
We're talking about Hot Dogs, right??
*Z retreats to her McMansion in Bumf**k, MN.
No doubt a "Gated" community....
How often do city folks go to the suburbs? Rarely. Probably only to visit friends and family, not to eat at the restaurants. The traffic is crazy (and how do they manage to navigate all those streets named the same?! Duck Pond Drive turns into Duck Pond Court which is not to be confused with Duck Pond Court Drive?!) and the parking lots are crowded. And don't get me started on the people!
[Julia pulls the mask off the devil's advocate costume to take a deep breath]
And what about the crime! Granted, its behind closed doors, but!!!!
The country (NOT the suburbs) has a lot to offer, but I'll admit, I can't take it for more than a few days. I actually get a little nervous, because it's so isolated. I feel safer in the city! Abductions seem more likely on a lonely country road than on a busy city sidewalk.
ZELDA THE AXE, maybe I know whatcho talkin' about. Open country is so beautiful but disconcertingly ...open, isn't it? All that big sky?
And what's your point again..........
During Hoops season, about every other day...(Kids play HS hoops in a "lily white" ex-urb).
I have come to despise chain restaurants and am trying to initiate my kids into the vast riches of "the city"...
And it always amuses me when people think that Minneapolis is a "BIG" city...hell, I have walked from one end of "downtown" to the other...try that in Chicago or New York...
And people whine about "traffic jams" here??
Try going North on I-5 into LA on a Friday afternoon...
6 lanes going North at about 2 mph...fun stuff...
I read once that, per capita, the Twin Cities have more theater offerings than NYC.
BTW, I LURVE Manhattan. Absolutely.
Oh gawd, I love that movie!
(SW - Onie, your kids' school is in the suburbs, not the exurbs - those are much farther out. I'd say St. Michael is an exurb, for example.)
I've never been to NYC...
I love Manhattans, though...
Plymouth, MN is either a 3rd or 4th ring suburb...depending on where you start...
xSuburb??
Actually, I don't mind travelling so long, but Z was doing the "Are we there yet?"...but she was a trooper and I appreciated that she even went to my daughter's event.
Another thing my parents did that was rather cool -- they took us kids to cities for our family vacations. No camping, only one "big" road trip (to Wyoming - very fun!). Instead, we went on a family trip every other year to a city - Boston, San Fran, Washington D.C. Maybe that's one of the reasons I'm so happy and comfortable in cities, as opposed to the wilderness.
Traffic congestion and 85 mph...
Just check your odometer...it's only 150 miles to Duluth, MN from Minneapolis...
It's like 25 miles or so from Minneapolis to Farmington...it's further than your think...
All places I'd give my left nut to visit...
It can't just be traffic. There must be some radio waves or something at work!
Onie, didn't you leave that in San Francisco? Or was that your............
It's a geographical oddity...you're 20 minutes from everywhere.
I've sent cards for YEARS, since college, and it's such an onerous task that I've begun to dread it. I don't think the holidays and dread should be combined. Gawd, I even write to my German friends in German, and my French friends in French, and it takes FOREVER.
A friend told me last year that she decided not to send out cards, and she felt SO FREE!
Of course, it's awfully nice to send them. Sigh. I don't know what to do. I've obviously missed out on deadlines for airmail.
it's magnetic forces trying to keep you out Julia. They don't want a repeat of the "Big Shoe" incident in their cities.
My brother-in-law once told The Mrs. "You say the word "suburbs" like some people say the word > "Nazi"
I used to live in the Bay area when I went to school and I remember my first trip into San Francisco. I had never been to a city that large before and I began to have panic attacks. My girlfriend at the time had to buy me a Mrs. Fields' cookie to calm me down. Eventually, I loved going to "The City" and spent a lot of time in Golden Gate Park, and hanging out in Berserkeley.
Oakland is a bit scarier though.
(earworm)
I had a Eurorail pass, too, and had one faboo night on a train between Paris and Vienna. (No details, sorry.)
I'm a DAPPER DAN man!
(I love that movie, too!)
Uhhh...Let's not bring that up...
/jealous
Onan, that's my favorite movie!
One of mine, too.
"We thought they turned you into a horny toad."
sorry.
No need for jealousy.
Yeah!!
Merry F***ing Christmas! (sung in Mr. Garrison voice)