Tell us about "Your City"...

[Ulyaoth]

That's a bunch of buildings along one road, how is that a city?

 

[holy king]

due to the lack of any urban center in the respective federal state.

 

[Winner]

You could probably write books on this question - urban nomenclature is notoriously fuzz, as is the definition of urban centres. The short answer is it varies by country. The distinction is administrative, but in common language "city" is bigger than "town" and implies greater diversity, cosmopolitan-ness, centrality, etcetera.

Just to add to the confusion, city is also a local government term. Sydney is administratively composed of about 40 local governments. Their names include the City of Botany Bay, Hornsby Shire, Ku-Ring-Gai Council, and Municipality of Ashfield. All of these are just sections of suburban Sydney, and there is no legal distinction between their statuses.

Some local governments outside of major urban centres are called "City" even though they're a town and a vast swathe of wilderness, whilst technically speaking, the City of Sydney is just the inner city and only has 170 000 people instead of 4.5 million.

In Australia, a city is legally anything larger than 30 000 people. The UK also uses the term "village" which denotes something smaller than a town, but we never use that (partially because we lack village-sized localities of a few hundred people - no pre-modern settlement history). We're big enough that towns exist well away from cities, cities dont need subordinate towns here. I grew up 1.5 hours from the nearest city, in a town of 25 000 people.

In my mind, if foreigners have ever heard of a place, then it's a city. Brno is a city.

Thanks for the explanation. About the bolded part - this is another thing that's causing some confusion over here - some American towns are smaller than some of our villages, yet they're still called towns. Is it simply that for an American (or Canadian, Australian, New Zealanders...) "a village" means older, more traditional settlement? You know, like those in Europe where most villages are older than anything you can find in the US.

 

[Camikaze]

Mosque on every corner.

tell us why you enjoy living in your city,

Sydney, for the record.

The public transport it pretty good (or at least, trains are good from where I live; it sucks from elsewhere). The weather is generally pretty good in autumn and spring.

...wish to leave...

The state government sucks. The opposition is worse. There are no historical attractions (of note). The weather is too hot in summer, and can be slightly too cold in winter. There are too many idiots, also, peddling their demagogic bigotry to an accepting and sensationalist media.

 

[Arwon]

Thanks for the explanation. About the bolded part - this is another thing that's causing some confusion over here - some American towns are smaller than some of our villages, yet they're still called towns. Is it simply that for an American (or Canadian, Australian, New Zealanders...) "a village" means older, more traditional settlement? You know, like those in Europe where most villages are older than anything you can find in the US.

Yeah, to me "village" sounds both tiny and traditional.

Australia's pattern of colonisation originated in the capitalist era. And because it started in a few central cities and radiated outwards, this kind of precluded the development of small basically subsistence agricultural villages from existing. As a result we have fewer, larger localities than Europe, and this is where the statistic of Australia being one of the most urbanised countries in the world comes from - even our smaller towns sort of count as urbanised.

I don't know how much the eastern United States retains the "tiny little village clustered around a church" model from its pre-modern days, but I'd assume the newer parts of the new world like NZ and California have similar nomenclature to Australia.

 

[Harvin87]

vienna, austria.

Was Vienna bombed during WWII ?

 

[holy king]

Was Vienna bombed during WWII ?

yes, it was.

that's why these little aa-gun towers:

are still here. virtually impossible to destroy.

 

[Winner]

OK, so here's Brünn A little big city, stuck between being really cosmopolitan and its traditions and unique culture. It's the most important university town in the country with the biggest share of students, seat of two of Czech Republic's highest courts (Lisbon treaty's fate was being decided here) and the city with the 2nd highest living standard in the country. Used to be pretty German/Jewish in the past and took a lot from Vienna in terms of architecture. On of the two mosques in the Czech Rep. is located in Brno.

After 40 years of communist devastation, it is now rapidly developing and modernizing. New university campus is being built and the city attracts hi-tech businesses due to abundance of students.

One thing I love is the nature around the city - many places you can go to and relax.

Spoiler :

St. Peter's Cathedral:

Špilberk Castle:

Exhibition grounds:

Aerial views:

Commie housing is now getting some color:

I live here:

 

[Elta]

Las Vegas is the most visited city in the world (In terms of people who come compared to it's own population)


It is a great place to live if you are well off.

And a great place to come if you are poor.

Pretty blah in between though.




It is by far the worse planned city in the world, you can't do anything without a car unless you live downtown or in naked city and you take the bus.





It's an okay place to live, but I am hoping to live in a *nearly car-less city in the future. Maybe Copenhagen or Curitiba.


*Or one that is working towards being a low automobile traffic city.

 

[Winner]

Isn't Vegas doomed in the long term due to future water shortages?

 

[Elta]

Isn't Vegas doomed in the long term due to future water shortages?

No, we get very little water compared to California and Arizona from the river.

(Something like 4% acre foot compared to the 96% Arizona and California)

There will be some sort of forced compromise (Likely by the Federal Government) in 10 to 15 years.

In all likely hood California will be given federal money to develop more resources in Desalination and Nevada will be given more acre foot.


Though I should note that people in Southern Nevada are some of the heaviest consumers of water in the country. We waste water like crazy, it's hot so we all love our pools.



But the Median household income in Southern Nevada is about $4,000 a month and our Sewer, Water and Trash(and recycling) bill (bundled and called county utilities and waste management) is from 20 to 60 (in a big house with a pool)

Let the county triple the cost by rasing the price of water, then I think we can save having to negotiate with Arizona and California for a while, though in all fairness we should be getting more.


*Edit*

I found a link, see the chart where it says lower basin.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colorado_River_Compact

 

[Winner]

The river is being depleted and the climate change will only make it worse. Is Vegas - a city in the middle of a desert trying to maintain American-dream living standard even sustainable?

 

[Elta]

The river is not depleting as fast as the hyperbolic media would have us believe.

My Environmental Science teacher was very clear on this. There is nothing grave from the 15 to 20 year outlook.

Conservation and maybe if everything goes pear shape desalinized water piped in like it's a few 100 massive oil pipe lines that makes the cost of water quadruple at worse.

There is to much money in Vegas to kill it, not if corporations that make billions and billions of dollars a year have anything to say about it.

 

[Harvin87]

yes, it was.

that's why these little aa-gun towers:

are still here. virtually impossible to destroy.

And what's inside them? ... are they some kind of "attraction" ? ... because in Berlin around the "Ring" are some towers also... but I think that most of them are just abandoned and rotted

 

[Winner]

The river is not depleting as fast as the hyperbolic media would have us believe.

My Environmental Science teacher was very clear on this. There is nothing grave from the 15 to 20 year outlook.

Conservation and maybe if everything goes pear shape desalinized water piped in like it's a few 100 massive oil pipe lines that makes the cost of water quadruple at worse.

There is to much money in Vegas to kill it, not if corporations that make billions and billions of dollars a year have anything to say about it.

Will the corporations pay people's water bills?

 

[Elta]

Will the corporations pay people's water bills?

For a massive desalination project to keep them in business?

Yes of course they would.


They would probably put up half and get the government to put up the other half.

"Think of all the people out of work!"

They could pull the same thing they did with the car companies.

The end out come will probably be 4X higher water bills and the project getting done.


Putting up half is not uncommon for major sports teams wanting new stadiums either for example.

And it looks like this might be the case with High Speed Rail in America too.




Though I will be out of the country by then, so I don't lose much sleep over it

 

[Mad Man]

I live in Laurel,Maryland and have most of my life. My cities claim to fame is that it's the place where George Wallace was nearly assassinated it was also the site where several of the 9/11 hijackers stayed and prepared for there attack on the pentagon.

 

[Yared]

tell us why you enjoy living in your city, and what makes you proud to be from their,or live their... or why arnt you proud of it, and wish to leave...

please name your city,and a preferably some photos of it...
and things to do in it...

Stockholm.

Capital of Sweden.

Here's some pix of our Old Town (Gamla Stan) which is located on an island in the middle of Stockholm:

Spoiler :

Our Riksdag, the Parliament:

Spoiler :

Stortorget (an old town square and also the place where the Stockholm Bloodbath took place when the Danish king, Christian II, massacred Swedish nobility and clergy men):

Spoiler :

Spoiler :

Stadshuset (the place where they hold the Nobel Prize banquet and also from which our glorious ice hockey team, three crowns, got its name from):

Stockholm Concert Hall (also where the Nobel award ceremony takes place):

Spoiler :

Drottningholm Palace (the royal family live in a part of it, the rest is open for the public):

Spoiler :

Tiger Wood's house (or so they tell me; taken from my friends boat):

Spoiler :

Stockholm Archipelago (one of the Baltic's biggest):

Spoiler :

IKEA, Kungens Kurva (used to be the world's biggest):

Spoiler :

Meh, though I like living here, I can't imagine myself working here when I finish uni.

 

[raketooy]

Helsinki. The capital of Finland, metropolitan population around 1 million. Kinda like Stockholm but less Swedish and not as old. It was founded in 1550 but didn't really start growing until 1812 when it was made the capital of Finland (then an autonomous part of Russia) by the Russian emperor. It's a pleasant and safe city to live in and I like it a lot.

Spoiler :

(above was taken at midnight, btw)

(the above two are my neighborhood)

 

[Love]

Stockholm.

Capital of Sweden.

Here's some pix of our Old Town (Gamla Stan) which is located on an island in the middle of Stockholm:

Spoiler :

Our Riksdag, the Parliament:

Spoiler :

Stortorget (an old town square and also the place where the Stockholm Bloodbath took place when the Danish king, Christian II, massacred Swedish nobility and clergy men):

Spoiler :

Spoiler :

Stadshuset (the place where they hold the Nobel Prize banquet and also from which our glorious ice hockey team, three crowns, got its name from):

Stockholm Concert Hall (also where the Nobel award ceremony takes place):

Spoiler :

Drottningholm Palace (the royal family live in a part of it, the rest is open for the public):

Spoiler :

Tiger Wood's house (or so they tell me; taken from my friends boat):

Spoiler :

Stockholm Archipelago (one of the Baltic's biggest):

Spoiler :

IKEA, Kungens Kurva (used to be the world's biggest):

Spoiler :

^ That.