All of us are here because cities captured our imagination more than most. But there are a lot of cities, separated by time and space. There are a lot of different visual shorthands for the idea of the metropolis.
For some, it is the skyscrapers, for others, the wide avenues or crowded hillsides. Some will picture something like London, others Rio de Janeiro, others Beijing.
Growing up in Canada at the time that I did, the border didn't matter: NYC was the city. It was the biggest, baddest place, the one where the most fantastical things could happen.
New York is still there, of course, but a lot of the particular gestures and visual quirks that I still associate with my idea of "the city" are fading and becoming anachronistic. Building footprints are becoming larger, there is a trend towards fewer independent shops, there have been a lot of changes.
For people just forming their idea of "the city", my visual footholds will be old-fashioned, but it is also different for everyone.
For me, these were the kinds of blocks I pictured when I imagined living in "the city" (old heads will recognise):
Decades later, I find that I still kind of gravitate to places that look like this, even if they are very far away from Ludlow and Rivington...
Karakoy in Istanbul, for instance, or
Oranienstrasse in Berlin.
But what about you?
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