Paris is shitty for tourists who follow the main path. It certainly has many cool places and things if you care to look. You just won’t see any camera wielding Japanese tourists there. And of course it has all the crime and poverty problems you expect from a city that attracts anything and anyone of note from the whole country.
Now Lille, that felt off. Or any place on the Mediterranean in winter.
Theres a lot of toxicity there. Been punched in the head, throat, kicked in the back (lol), spat on, had slurs screamed my way, and hit by cars (yes, plural).
But hpx, what’d you do to provoke all this?
Nothing, friend. I’m quiet, polite in interactions, keep my yap shut and mind my own business. Every single one of these happened out the blue with little to no input my end. Each left me more flabbergasted than the last.
Some I actually get - unhoused or mentally compromised folk lashing out at unlucky targets. But others had more malice - the pack of skinheads looking for a fight or drivers who felt inconvenienced because they had to stop at crosswalks.
But hey, least it ain’t Calgary. Fuuuuck that place.
As a lifelong NYer now living in Toronto I beg to differ. Sure it’s smaller than NYC by almost every metric except land size, but it has hidden pockets of community and life if you look for them. Compared to NYC, Toronto is greener, friendlier, and better for artists.
Unfortunately you are correct in your assessment that gentrification and shitty developers are trying to strip it for parts, even Sneaky Dee’s is at risk right now, but the same exact thing can be said about nearly every city in the US and Canada. In NYC just last year we all banded together to narrowly defeat a proposal that threatened to demolish Coney Island and replace it with a dystopian mega casino - and that was just one of six casino proposals that year. I don’t see it as a failure of each respective city but rather as the result of festering capitalism and an antagonistic government beyond city borders, especially since it’s often done against the will of the people who actually live there. Ford’s stupid spa is another example
For what it’s worth, I do miss NYC and all my friends and loved ones out there. As they say, you can take the NYer out of NY but you can’t take NY out of the NYer. I look forward to the day I can visit again and help bridge the artist communities between them, I truly do love both cities.
…Toronto? Ahem? Wtf is wrong with Toronto
OP must be québécois.
I don’t get Paris either. It’s a big city, what do you expect? I love it. I’m currently in Prague and I reaaaalllly prefer Paris.
Paris is shitty for tourists who follow the main path. It certainly has many cool places and things if you care to look. You just won’t see any camera wielding Japanese tourists there. And of course it has all the crime and poverty problems you expect from a city that attracts anything and anyone of note from the whole country.
Now Lille, that felt off. Or any place on the Mediterranean in winter.
I’d be curious to know what felt off in Lille?
Spent 30 odd years in TO.
Theres a lot of toxicity there. Been punched in the head, throat, kicked in the back (lol), spat on, had slurs screamed my way, and hit by cars (yes, plural).
But hpx, what’d you do to provoke all this?
Nothing, friend. I’m quiet, polite in interactions, keep my yap shut and mind my own business. Every single one of these happened out the blue with little to no input my end. Each left me more flabbergasted than the last.
Some I actually get - unhoused or mentally compromised folk lashing out at unlucky targets. But others had more malice - the pack of skinheads looking for a fight or drivers who felt inconvenienced because they had to stop at crosswalks.
But hey, least it ain’t Calgary. Fuuuuck that place.
There’s a strong organized crime presence
Hey Doug Ford is a provincial problem
It’s just NYC without any sort of character. Concrete buildings and dystopian. I just don’t like being there.
As a lifelong NYer now living in Toronto I beg to differ. Sure it’s smaller than NYC by almost every metric except land size, but it has hidden pockets of community and life if you look for them. Compared to NYC, Toronto is greener, friendlier, and better for artists.
Unfortunately you are correct in your assessment that gentrification and shitty developers are trying to strip it for parts, even Sneaky Dee’s is at risk right now, but the same exact thing can be said about nearly every city in the US and Canada. In NYC just last year we all banded together to narrowly defeat a proposal that threatened to demolish Coney Island and replace it with a dystopian mega casino - and that was just one of six casino proposals that year. I don’t see it as a failure of each respective city but rather as the result of festering capitalism and an antagonistic government beyond city borders, especially since it’s often done against the will of the people who actually live there. Ford’s stupid spa is another example
For what it’s worth, I do miss NYC and all my friends and loved ones out there. As they say, you can take the NYer out of NY but you can’t take NY out of the NYer. I look forward to the day I can visit again and help bridge the artist communities between them, I truly do love both cities.