Cities with the "Je ne sais quoi" factor. - Page 3

kool maudit · #41 Posted **Mar 18, 2021, 3:52 PM**

Wasn't Philadelphia Quaker, and Boston the Puritan city?

I would have thought the Pennsylvania countryside was that bit less rocky and more lush than Massachusetts.

kool maudit · #42 Posted **Mar 18, 2021, 3:54 PM**

San Francisco is beautiful, particularly when it lets you kind of rise above it.

It's like a smaller American Istanbul.

pj3000 · #43 Posted **Mar 18, 2021, 4:01 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by kool maudit

Wasn't Philadelphia Quaker, and Boston the Puritan city?

I would have thought the Pennsylvania countryside was that bit less rocky and more lush than Mas.

Yes. But it’s basically the same shit at the core. Simple, non-ostentatious lifestyle, piety... all that boring crap doesn’t really equate with “exciting urban life”. The type of crap that makes people not want to build anything taller than a statue on the top of the seat of civic govt... for fear of “showing off”.

Not sure what you’re getting at with the PA - MA countryside part.

Centropolis · #44 Posted **Mar 18, 2021, 4:01 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by kool maudit

San Francisco is beautiful, particularly when it lets you kind of rise above it.

It's like a smaller American Istanbul.

i guess new yorkers might beg to differ regarding the quality of panoptic expanse but it feels to me like the natural and built landscape is all a rising chorus when looking upon it in a way - all sparkling in the pacific air like a glass of champagne - that just a huge skyline alone doesn’t replicate for me.

kool maudit · #45 Posted **Mar 18, 2021, 4:02 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by pj3000

Not sure what you’re getting at with the PA - MA countryside part.

I have just never been to Philly, and I guess I had always pictured the physical settings of the Eastern Seaboard getting better as you moved from Boston to DC.

pj3000 · #46 Posted **Mar 18, 2021, 4:08 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by kool maudit

I have just never been to Philly, and I guess I had always pictured the physical settings of the Eastern Seaboard getting better as you moved from Boston to DC.

I just meant that Philly’s location is just where the Delaware gets really wide and the terrain is very flat. Not quite a river, not quite a bay. Just kind of blah to me. The terrain up the Schuylkill valley in the greater area is much prettier to me.

Boston, NYC, Baltimore, and DC all have more attractive natural settings... ocean harbors, topography... connection to the water in a way that Philadelphia doesn’t really seem to possess in the same manner.

Centropolis · #47 Posted **Mar 18, 2021, 4:16 PM**

photo mine

pj3000 · #48 Posted **Mar 18, 2021, 4:20 PM**

^ I think I can describe the certain something that San Francisco has...

iheartthed · #49 Posted **Mar 18, 2021, 4:21 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by kool maudit

San Francisco is beautiful, particularly when it lets you kind of rise above it.

It's like a smaller American Istanbul.

I can see some physical resemblances between SF and Istanbul, but the on the ground feel in Istanbul seems nothing like SF to me. Istanbul is very much a 24 hour city, which San Francisco very much is not. SF has no analogy to the crush of pedestrians stampeding down Istiklal Cadedesi on a daily basis, which is equivalent to the feeling of being in Times Square or Shibuya Crossing. Istanbul has the megacity feel which is more similar to New York and Tokyo.

The two European cities that most reminded me of San Francisco are Lisbon and Vienna.

Centropolis · #50 Posted **Mar 18, 2021, 4:22 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by pj3000

^ I think I can describe the certain something that San Francisco has...

difficult stunningly hot girl energy that causes despair

Centropolis · #51 Posted **Mar 18, 2021, 4:25 PM**

covid fucked things up

but i was planning on going to lisbon this year and coastal/urban portugal gave me norcal vibes in photos

pj3000 · #52 Posted **Mar 18, 2021, 4:26 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Centropolis

difficult stunningly hot girl energy that causes despair

Ugh... I’ve been to that town

Crawford · #53 Posted **Mar 18, 2021, 4:35 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by kool maudit

I have just never been to Philly, and I guess I had always pictured the physical settings of the Eastern Seaboard getting better as you moved from Boston to DC.

The rocky, hilly coastal landscapes from Northern NJ northwards are significantly more attractive than the landscapes southwards, which tend to be flat/rolling hills and pastoral. But this is obviously all subjective.

I don't think Philly has terrible natural surroundings, as areas to the north like Bucks County are quietly scenic. And the whole area is rather lush and wooded.

Centropolis · #54 Posted **Mar 18, 2021, 4:40 PM**

philly is coastal in a way not unlike new orleans. sort of squatted down low on a murky river at its end. the air feels thicker in these places

i don’t recall refreshing oceanic breezes in philly exactly. i guess if london were to get hot

kool maudit · #55 Posted **Mar 18, 2021, 4:42 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by iheartthed

I can see some physical resemblances between SF and Istanbul, but the on the ground feel in Istanbul seems nothing like SF to me

It's more the Bosphorus and the Bay, I guess the climate and colouring.

But there is a BIT of an overlap in the buildings. They hint at each other. Mainly Cihangir.

Victorian, meet late-Ottoman:

biguc · #56 Posted **Mar 18, 2021, 4:43 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by kool maudit

I always look forward to your posts and this is why. I have never loved clubs either, but Mira & Chris at Kater Blau on the right night, right face control, beads of sweat, it's its own world.

Thanks, and likewise. Kater Blau is good; I dig Else for a similar but lower-key atmosphere. Hanging out under train tracks, next to the water, with city views... music and drugs are gravy.

Acajack isn't wrong that it's changing. I have a friend who moved here in 2003 and he's told me stories about how hardcore the party scene used to be: techno and electro punk thumping out of random kellars and hinterhofs. That's mostly gone. On the other hand, the city is run by literal communists right now; they handed off that big empty building on Alexanderplatz with the STOP WARS graffiti to some kind of artists' co-op, and they're running things with the kind of shantytown aplomb you'd expect. Still, the police shut down a longstanding squat last year so someone who came by the building god knows how could make money.

And like I said, I'm scared what corona will do. It's bee hard for cultural spaces. That said, a lot of boring third-wave coffee shops and bougie boutiques have closed so it's not like there isn't space to start over.

biguc · #57 Posted **Mar 18, 2021, 4:47 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Centropolis

covid fucked things up

but i was planning on going to lisbon this year and coastal/urban portugal gave me norcal vibes in photos

Portugal as a whole is fantastic, but if you want that je ne sais quoi, it's in Porto. Something about it being stacked up the sides of a river valley, traversing it by zig-zag staircases, not knowing what's a ruin, the Brazilian cultural backwash... I don't know what it is but it's good.

iheartthed · #58 Posted **Mar 18, 2021, 4:48 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Centropolis

covid fucked things up

but i was planning on going to lisbon this year and coastal/urban portugal gave me norcal vibes in photos

The climate is very similar. Lisbon weather feels similar to San Jose in the summer. Lisbon's hilly topography is very San Francisco-esque, and then there's this:

from Britannica

Doesn't it remind you of a certain bridge in San Francisco? No, not that one. This bridge was built by the same company that constructed the Bay Bridge.

pj3000 · #59 Posted **Mar 18, 2021, 4:52 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Crawford

I don't think Philly has terrible natural surroundings, as areas to the north like Bucks County are quietly scenic. And the whole area is rather lush and wooded.

I don't think it's terrible either... just nothing very unique or pretty about the location of the city. The hinterlands definitely more scenic.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Centropolis

philly is coastal in a way not unlike new orleans. sort of squatted down low on a murky river at its end. the air feels thicker in these places

i don’t recall refreshing oceanic breezes in philly exactly. i guess if london were to get hot

I fully agree. Their settings and climate can feel quite similar.

pj3000 · #60 Posted **Mar 18, 2021, 4:56 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by biguc

Portugal as a whole is fantastic, but if you want that je ne sais quoi, it's in Porto. Something about it being stacked up the sides of a river valley, traversing it by zig-zag staircases, not knowing what's a ruin, the Brazilian cultural backwash... I don't know what it is but it's good.

Maybe missing the point here... isn't this thread meaning to highlight cities which have that certain something that you can't quite describe? That attractive quality that can't be named easily?

See, I can totally describe what attracts me to Porto... I know exactly what it is that I like about places like Porto.