NY Times: 52 places to travel
 

The NY Times' annual list of 52 places to travel was released today. The list this year is a little light on urban locations, but here are the ones that made the cut:

Queens, NY (#3)
Cleveland (#12)
The Great Highway, San Francisco (#18)
Kyoto (#19)
Gouda, Netherlands (#26)
Little Calumet River, Chicago (#29)
Naples (#34)
Marrakesh (#38)
Monaco (#48)
Bronzeville, Milwaukee (#49)

Full list: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/...avel-2022.html

Stunning photographs!

What is this list all about?

Queens at #3 with all the other places in the world?
"The world a la carte and available at the price of a subway ride"


Cleveland? In the ranks with Naples and Kyoto?
"A restaurant with a mission of social justice turns dinner into a means of uplift"

NY Times: Here's list of places to visit, that you shouldn't visit because Covid.

People shouldn't get bothered by this list. They're not listing the most touristy places or the places that deserve to be. Much of it's places that are newly hot, or have special selling points this year, or don't get enough attention.

To get the full meaning/nuance of the list, you have to read the article and captions.

The title is actually "52 Places for a Changed World," with the subtitle "The 2022 list highlights places around the globe where travelers can be part of the solution."

For Cleveland, the text with the photo says "Dinner isn’t usually part of the prisoner re-entry system, but at EDWINS Leadership and Restaurant Institute in Cleveland’s Buckeye-Shaker neighborhood, the mission is larger than braised artichokes and Burgundy snails: The aim is to teach former prisoners a new trade. Founded by Brandon Chrostowski, a classically trained chef, EDWINS includes a fine-dining French restaurant, bakery, butcher and event space, all open to the public. The campus has a test kitchen, apartments and basketball courts, and EDWINS continues to buy and refurbish buildings in the underserved neighborhood (a culinary class is available on closed-circuit tablets in prisons throughout the country). The institute helps former inmates get a place to live rent-free (relocation fees are paid in part by the Cleveland Browns football team), a driver’s license, legal counseling and health care. “'t’s not just about a wonderful restaurant, it’s not just about re-entry,' said Councilman Blaine Griffin of Cleveland. 'This is social entrepreneurship at its best.'

— Danielle Pergament"

Yeah no New Yorker or anyone is going to make a special trip to Cleveland so they dine at a ex-con run restaurant.

These "Best of" travel lists are all the same - how many counterintuitive, hipster "hidden gems" can the listicle author come up with to make it seem like they're avant-garde and in-the-know?

I think it's cool. There's really some amazing photography here which are really giving me the travel bug. As a city nerd, I like the write up about San Francisco and would have liked more entries from that kind of thing, i.e. taking back space dedicated for cars and giving it to the people.

Sure. I mean, you telling yourself that doesn't make it true but if it helps you man.

Actually that's a pretty accurate way to describe many of these lists.

Plenty of New Yorkers have walked in and out of eating places in NYC that were run by ex-cons and reveled in the experience. You could also mention Naples in that category… just saying.

But yeah, listicles rhyme with…

Nice to see Santa Cruz County get a shout out. It often gets overshadowed by some of the other premier destinations in California (Yosemite, Tahoe, Big Sur, Muir Woods/Point Reyes, Mendocino, Death Valley, Joshua Tree, Sequoia, etc).

The list is obviously not a ranking, but a list of interesting places that have appeared in the news this year or perhaps overlooked.

The Little Calumet River definitely doesn’t appear on the list because it’s a place of great beauty or for being appealing to tourists, but it is a story of environmental restoration in an unusual setting.

I love that river, but it’s not meant to be a National destination. There’s just been a lot of news coverage of it lately.

https://www.bbc.com/travel/bespoke/u...go/?ocid=twtvl

https://www.npr.org/local/309/2020/0...-calumet-river


• Video Link
https://youtu.be/atV6ty1muaY

Are you the author? Sorry I hurt your feelings

Umm, yeah but who's going to visit a city like Cleveland based on one restaurant review and how is that indicative of the city as a whole? And Naples is a wonderful place to visit. Sure it's rough around the edges but it's visceral and full of history. Plus a jumping off point to the gorgeous Amalfi Coast, Pompei, Capri

Cleveland was one of Anthony Bourdain's favorite American cities.

Listicles are dumb, but I'd expect on an urbanist forum that urbanists would be more excited that random non-tourist locations get a mention from time to time. Forest Hills is one of the best neighborhoods in NYC, but because it's in Queens most people don't even know it exists.

Anyone remember when the Museum of Modern Art (no, not PS1 - the whole main museum) moved to a warehouse in Queens for a year? I think it was around 2002-03. I went to it and it was fine, but it was hilarious how all of the elites reveled in their exotic trip on the 7, as if they had made an art sojourn to...Cleveland.

https://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/19/t...files-but.html

They always have some domestic locations because they don’t want to be accused of being elitist by only including exotic, expensive travel destinations. Although I guess if you’re from small town USA, Queens is plenty exotic.

Not shouldn’t visit, but maybe can’t visit.

I’m still hoping to get to Kyoto this spring. My sister and her husband have lived in Tokyo since mid-2019 but plan to return to Europe this summer. We had two weeks in Japan booked for April 2020, once they settled in, but obviously I haven’t been able to visit them because of the bullshit travel restrictions.

^ irl that means you are still hoping your mom will take you to peoria's gamestop to buy you battletoads. :rolleyes:


ha yeah at times, but to be fair this one is not a best of list.

you might want to look at it and read it to find out what it actually is. :haha: