5/30 Mono-culture and unique cities

[darkemeralds]

As ravurian pointed out when I sent it to him in the UK this afternoon, this picture might have been taken almost anywhere in the world.





I think mono-culture like this is problematic, but I've also been thinking a lot about how cities are like individual species within the genus Urbs (or Metropolis? Or Civitas?). Maybe a sameness is setting in around the edges, but I don't see it penetrating to the core or stripping cities of their unique characters anytime soon.

The uniqueness of a city isn't just in its iconic skyline or monument or bridge, either. Paris isn't Parisian because of the Eiffel Tower. It's more like, Paris is the only city in the world that could have extruded the Eiffel Tower in its midst.

Geography and climate are certainly a big part of the story: the city on the skinny island that needed skyscrapers and elevators to keep thriving expresses that same dense, humming Manhattan-ness in everything--and according to histories I've read, has done so almost since its inception. It is what it is, all the way down.

I know this is also true of my hometown. From the outside, Portland may look ridiculously self-parodying, but if it weren't basically like that, Fred and Carrie would lack material for "Portlandia." The little city built on mud and tree-stumps under gray skies, by people who couldn't be bothered with the Gold Rush...I mean, that's us. Working, but not all that hard-working, you know? Why get fancy when you're just going to track the mud in?

I've watched Portland remake itself completely since my childhood, and it always seems to make itself into Portland. No matter how much it changes, it never becomes San Francisco or Seattle or Vancouver--IKEA notwithstanding.

We don't have an Eiffel Tower, but as long as there's a guy downtown dressed as Darth Vader riding a unicycle while playing flaming bagpipes, I'm not too worried about the big box stores.

Comments

[greghatcher]

I dunno. I feel like Seattle has slowly transformed itself into the Portland I was trying to get away from in the 1980s, and now Portland is the thriving artsy bohemian place Seattle used to be. There's a surly vibe up here these days, too many people and too much traffic, whereas Portland seemed to loosen up quite a bit.

Me, personally, though, I measure a city largely by its bookstores and Portland has the best. As long as Cameron's is there-- I know, everyone loves Powell's, but Cameron's has my heart-- we'll be visiting every so often.

[darkemeralds]

Interesting perspective. I've never spent very much time in Seattle, but I'd have thought that a surly vibe was a basic prerequisite for Grunge.

The bookstore thing is odd, isn't it? Was the survival of Powell's and Cameron's (long enough to become the groovy new thing) just the luck of the draw? Or is there some amazing Portlandy juxtaposition of things that demanded their continued existence? How much does cool-shit-that-becomes-cliche (bikes, food cart pods, microbreweries) happen because we've started to believe our own legend so we rubberstamp more cool-shit-likely-to-be-tomorrow's-cliches?

It's hard to say. But I do think Portland and Seattle are first cousins and share a lot of DNA.

[tehomet]

I have sent that exact same view outside Dublin and outside Prague, so yeah. Have to agree with ravurian!

Everything's the same but nothing's quite the same, from place to place. Most settlements are built on riverbanks, but in Varanasi, there are funeral pyres on the bank, in Dublin there's a boardwalk full of junkies, in London the pretty parliament buildings that overlook the water resemble a cathedral but are actually full of politicians... Personally I prefer the junkies and the pyres. :)

I think it's quite clear in some places how the settlement grew. In York, the core of the city is Viking, Roman, and Medieval, but the next ring of buildings outside the walls is Victorian and the next outside that is Edwardian, and so on as though drawn in concentric circles by an over-sugared child with a new compass, until the modern suburbs with their shopping areas with their identikit stores, that are the same as every major town in England. But the core is unique.

I've watched Portland remake itself completely since my childhood, and it always seems to make itself into Portland.

I love that. :)

[darkemeralds]

That's it exactly. The innermost core of any city is more likely to reflect its actual origins than are subsequent rings. I suppose every generation witnessing a new ring decries the newness or tone-deafness or blandness of it compared to the heart of their town, and yet those Georgian, Victorian, Edwardian rings (which we actually have analogs for in older US cities) today do seem to become part of the city fabric as they age.

Hard to imagine big-box malls ever taking on that patina, though, isn't it?

And yes, on the whole, I think I prefer funeral pyres and junkies to politicians, though I'd be lying if I said I didn't find London's great riverfront beautiful. Or Portland's, for that matter.