NYT Greatest City on Earth?

I really liked living in N. Virginia with easy access to Washington DC, wouldn't want to live in DC but truly loved the downtown atmosphere!
 
What a weird conversation.

New York is without a doubt one of the world's Great Cities, and belongs on anybody's "Greatest City on Earth" short-list. And it would be (IMO) pretty much impossible to agree on any reasonably objective criteria to select among such cities to determine a single "Greatest".

But if the local newspaper (which is also a "world newspaper") wants to engage in a little civic pride and boosterism, then so what? If there's a touch of parochialism about that then I'd submit that it's of the least problematic kind, and hardly unique to New York.

As to whether New York is a "great city" to live in (regardless of it's "Great City" status), I imagine that's a matter of personal circumstances and taste. And if some New Yorkers want to "look down" on those from elsewhere, I'd be wondering what they're so insecure about.

I've lived in Sydney, on and off, for a while now, having lived lots of other places (unfortunately, never New York). I find Sydney a great city to live in, for me personally. Sydney may be be somewhat influential but it isn't a "Great City" in the sense of New York or Bejing or London - and so be it. I look neither up to nor down on anyone from anywhere else based on where they're from or where they live - whether here in Oz or anywhere else. I make only a slight exception in the case of Melbourne - not because there's anything wrong with Melbourne (a very nice city indeed, as I found when I lived there) but simply because some Melbournians will react in amusing ways given even the slightest provocation about Australia's "old rivalry". Perhaps that's small-minded and parochial of me, but sometimes I take my amusement where I can get it.

Could it be that some New Yorkers do the same thing some times? It wouldn't surprise me.

...Mike
 
When it comes to education, crime, infrastructure, health and cleanliness, I think Vienna is the "greatest" city.

Then again, "greatest" is one of those U.S. qualifiers that gets thrown around so frequently it's really lost its meaning.

I'd say Vienna is the bestestestest. Then there's Paris. And I love Paris.
 
Calling your own city the "Greatest" is like entering a humility contest, if you enter, you are disqualified. ;-)

As to the car thing, with flying so cheap and so much fun, and with visiting some of the other "Greatest" cities on the same trip, a car is transportation in and out, did not do much driving within the city, just from one side of the street to the other ahead of the tow truck.

Another great thing about NYC, Air Travel Hub--you can be quickly and cheaply get almost anywhere else, very many non stop.

Reminds me of the summers in Paris when I would walk into a travel agency on the corner and basically go where ever they had a good flight that week.

Got me to Morocco, Cyprus, Greece, Turkey and Prague.

Paris has a further advantage of good train service.

NY may become as in the words of Yogi Berra -- "No one goes there anymore because it is so crowded".

Regards, John
 
Last edited:
mmmm....traffic
also, no one from texas is offended by something other than texas being the greatest?
(all sarcasm, all the time)
 
Last edited:
Yes, my post was (somewhat) sarcastic, and meant to point out that "greatest" is non-sensical in evaluating almost anything. Boosterism? Bah. Except for Leaf Nation, of course! :D

Gumby: Feel free to breathe as much as you want. We like having you around. :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom