I don't know if I'll ever be content with living in Seattle. I've got a "roaming eye" (so to speak) when it comes to cities. I always see something a little better and when the city jitters strike, I'm ready to move. Let me explain.
Minneapolis showed me a beautiful time this weekend as did my cousin and two dear friends. When leaving the Cities, it often feels bittersweet and filled with nostalgia - the times I've had in that place will go unmatched forever. This evening, I flew into Philadelphia and took a detour before checking into my hotel in Cherry Hill. I decided to get a Philly cheesesteak sandwich from Jim's Steaks and my GPS (yes, I'm using one now) took me to this adorable little neighborhood called Society Hill where I found Jim's (and no parking). While ordering my "provolone cheesesteak with onions," it struck me: Seattle has no ethnic diversity, no historical heritage, no tiny streets and row houses and bad neighborhoods and weird accents. Don't get me wrong. Seattle is a vibrant, healthy, gorgeous, lively city. But what if that's not what I want? What if I want a grimy, used, well-worn, brash beauty of a city instead? What if I want to try that for a while? I mean, Philly ain't no piece of heaven, but it's a city with roots. And history. And maybe it would benefit me to live in a place where I'm exposed to those cultural differences.
2 comments:
You must not have lived in Seattle very long, because you're completely wrong when you say that it has no ethnic diversity, cultural heritage, bad neighborhoods etc. You might want to take some time to get to know the city you live in before trashing it.
I'll second the fact that there are interesting bits of Seattle just like any other major city (check out the central district and Columbia city neighboorhoods), but I undersand what you mean. A city like Philly has been established for almost 300 years now so it's got architecture and culture that a baby city like Seattle can't compare to. Of course, compared to even older cities in Europe Philly is a babe too. It's all amazing and individual by city, and perhaps the best way to get a bit of all of it is to just keep trying new places.
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