Commentary for and about the inner city dwellers, past and present - Page 2 - Historum

PedroCat · December 11th, 2011, 11:14 AM

@Beetle

Ditto regarding smaller cities. I’m about to relocate to Madrid, which has a population about half that of London, so it’ll be interesting to see the vibe.

Heh. You did create the distinct impression that St. Louis is/was something of a hell-hole.

How do you learn those signals regarding the availability of drugs? How do you pick up on those?

Heh. I understand that prostitution is thriving in Madrid. I can’t speak for conditions, but I get the impression it is all but considered legitimate, which might mean people get treated better. Then again, perhaps not.

The thing regarding your neighbour doesn’t surprise me. Is not it common sense that getting involved is going to cause you trouble?

@MrKap

Regarding the manslaughter thing, it strikes me as plain strange that you’d invite someone into your home! Surely you knew it was gonna be bad, and that the risks for you were high.

Learning not to show fear or even unease etc. strikes me as just as important when you’re negotiating in business, or making a sales call, let alone walking down certain streets.

Nice stories, anywho.

CT9 · December 11th, 2011, 11:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by larkin

My thanks to Patito who inspired this thread.

Have you ever lived in an inner city like London, Paris, Berlin, Singapore, Rio de Janero or in my case, New York? Did you travel by train or underground to work each day? This thread is for you to tell us about it.

Today with the upscale trend many big cities have out priced the incredible variety of people that made up the vitality and cultural soup that is the real city life.

Times Square, for better or worse, has been Disneyfied and has become safe, sterile and as empty as the amusement park it has strived to imitate. Knowing the value of an epicenter, corporate entities have moved in and squeezed out human life.

Artists, writers and talented young people that have no money is where the new ideas come from and they have been banished from the old city centers.

I believe that everyone should live in a big city at least once in your life. Not for your whole life but just for awhile, long enough for it to become part of you... Especially when you are young.

When I left home, I moved with a friend to Manhattan, more specifically, the East Village.

My first apartment was a 5 floor walk-up on 9th Street between Avenue B and C and built at the turn of the century. It was what they called a "dumbell building". It was an innovation because each room had a window to allow the circulation of air even if it was only a 6 foot wide shaft way between the next building.

When I moved there in 1970, my rent was $65. per month. The same apartment today would be at least $1800. and possibly still a rathole. There was an entry room/kitchen that included a stove, sink and a bath tub, a 12' by 12' front room that looked over the street and an 8'x 8' dark back bedroom that looked over the shaftway. There were two shared toilets in the hall for the four apartments on each floor.

In spite of the hazards and dangers surrounding my daily journeys back and forth from the East Village to Greenwich Village where I worked, This was the most interesting and exciting part of my life.

Curiously, upon recent visits, I have noticed that whatever it was, is long gone. People still slum, dress down, eat in quirky restaurants and go to bars and clubs, but when Monday comes around, they all put on suites and go up town to work at Citibank.

May I suggest the only thing that has left is your youth? and perhaps sanity?

For better or for worse, they cleaned times square up... Um, that is pretty much undoubtedly better... NYC is much better today than it was in the 70's, atleast from everyone I have heard from.

Then again you were up in the East Village, not Harlem, or Bedsty, or Marcy... You were there with hippies, so yea, they lost the hippies too.

And they got rid of the loiters... no they are still all over the place, and they are still stupid. In this day in age with the internet, more people with great ideas are being discovered on their not in front of the now out of business Virgin megastore. Nor would I agree though that most of the great ideas start on the street, they start in classrooms, boardrooms, and in houses. I would go on about the type of person who thinks good ideas originate in the streets or put it that way, but I'm afraid I'll prolly be banned for it. I just had to let yall know, NY now is way better than NY in the 70's or 80's. It's almost unanimous...

**Louise C** · December 12th, 2011, 12:06 AM

Never actually lived in inner London, only in the suburbs. But I spent quite long periods staying at my late brother's flat in Bloomsbury last year and it was heaven. A really lovely part of London. I would have adored to live there permanently.

Petyo · December 12th, 2011, 12:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PedroCat

The other obvious thing, I guess, is that having so many people in close proximity means we tend to devalue each other. Even on a train leaving London to the surrounding towns, people apologise when they bump into you etc., but not in the tube. We're just meat.

Very well said!

I moved from a town of 4500 to a town with 450 000 population when I was 7. The first day I went ouside to play and find new friends I was met with extreme rudeness. How it was even possible for anyone to be that mean without any reason was incomprehensable to me. And the worse part is that this never changed - I grew up, got accustomed to city life but still find people here or at the capital are mean.

I still think that living in a city for a while is good - just to taste the excitement, to broaden your horizon. But for a prolonged period (or if you're raising kids) its effects are negative, in my opinion.

Hopefully, the future in my country, is not in big metropolises, but reversing the industrialization-driven migration and I wish it's the same in most parts of the world.