Where do we live? -- part 1

[Deleted]

How big is your community? Yes, I live in Paris so my reply is pretty obvious.

But what about your origins? I grew up in a town of about 5,000 in an area that 'boasted' a population of more than 50,000. My family moved to a city of about 50,000 when I was in high school, but that and the surrounding towns came to a total of less than 100,000 -- so I was pretty bored after hoping for more excitement. Then I went to university in Los Angeles, a real big city. I loved it.

I need to live in a big city. What about you?

[imec]

I need to be in or very near a city of reasonable to large size - and I love visiting large to very large cities - would probably love to live in a very large city.

[Jazz]

I grew up in the country, on twenty acres of land in northern Ontario. The closest village of 3,000 people was five miles away. While I loved the country, I fantasized about romantic 'big cities'...Paris, Rome, London...and would watch movies on television whenever I could...we only had one television station. I needed to go. At 16, my parents moved 2,000 miles away to another country and I was on my own. Off I went to the nearest city, Toronto and attended the University of Toronto. It was a stunning cultural change. The only person I knew was my brother and we were not on good terms.

I need to live in a city and I do, Toronto. With my travels, the richer the culture, history and ethnic diversity, the more I love it. Paris is my most loved city that I have yet been to. Cities are not 'all the same', each has a unique character. I would never think of moving back to the country or a small village...but I enjoy short visits. Perhaps it is my imagination, but I find that people that have been brought up in the city have odd fantasies about country life and most want to live there. Cottage life, with the frenetic 'drive up Friday, return Sunday' is a part of the Ontario lifestyle. Most of these cottage areas have become like suburbs of Toronto, with every convenience known to mankind.

Country life can be lonely, limiting and everyone knows every one else's business. I like my privacy. In a city I can have both, access to so much but can choose those times when I wish to be fully in the country.

[bjd]

The smallest place I have ever lived had 120,000 people (Besançon, France) and the 7 years I spent there were too long. I was born in a big city, lived in a bigger one (Toronto, Canada), and now live in a medium sized city (600,000). I think the best size for a city is a million and a half people. No fantasies about the countryside for me. The countryside is okay for a couple of days, but I would never want to live there.

[Deleted]

I've ticked area of more than 1000. I live about 7k from the actual village, but if you include the village and all the surrounding area, the population may be nearly 2000 or so. It's the least populated area that I have ever lived in, but I like it. The city is only a 40 min drive from here, so it's not as isolated as it seems. The US is only around 40 min from here too.

I've lived in nearly every province in Canada and in a lot of the major cities and quite a few towns as well, at one time or another. This is my base if you like, but in a couple of years time I'll only be here part of the year, the rest of the time I'll be traveling/abroad.

[rikita]

ah so the poll meant the place we are wrong? then i clicked wrongly, i went by where i live. which is berlin, so a big city. grew up in a village of about 5000 people, but that was in the outskirts of berlin, and was basically connected with the neighbouring villages, so that makes the question difficult to answer...

[tillystar]

I live on the edge of london. Its perfect for me, its very green around here and 15 minutes in the car and we are far from the city. But 20 minutes on the tube the other way and we are in the heart of London with all its treasures.

I couldn't live in the centre of the city, I need a few trees around but I couldn't be too far away either. Greedy really.

[happytraveller]

I live in a village of a population of about 4000 people. I live at the edge of it, close to fields and forests. The village is about 15km away from Bern. I love the combination of living in the countryside but being in the city very quick. Not that Bern is really big though but it has everything you need.

[Deleted]

It's good that we all seem to enjoy where we are living.

[lagatta]

I live in Montréal. Have always lived in big cities; the smallest where I've lived was when I was studying in Perugia, but that smallish city (perhaps 150,000 now?) has an exceptional situation as it is half way between Florence and Rome, and it is a short trip by rail or coach to those larger cities. Perugia, with its "Università per Stranieri" (yep, that is a fascist-era name) and normal university attended by many of the foreign students, is unusually cosmopolitan for a smallish Italian city, as many students have stayed on, founded families (often with an Italian husband or wife), opened restaurants, little shops and other small businesses.

I couldn't stand to live in the countryside or a small town; for one thing I don't drive. Could tolerate a smaller city if: a) it is in a more clement climate (south of France, central Italy etc), b) well-served by train to a larger city, c) has some kind of arts or cultural project I could be involved in. But there we are dreaming a bit.

Do I like Montréal? Well, yes very much except for one major factor: I hate the bitter winters and am sad not to be able to ride my bicycle all year long. I do live within a short distance of our largest market (marché Jean-Talon), métro stations, have friends nearby etc.

[Deleted]

I grew up in a rural farm community that also served as a summer art colony in the 1950's and '60's. Summers were wonderful ,winters, dreary,dull and long.
As soon as I was old enough I began taking regular trips by train into Manhattan and my love affair with cities began.
I have since then lived in 4 medium to large American cities and loved them all for different reasons. I don't know if I could do the winters again after now living in a semi tropical climate for the last 30 years or so.
I do not believe I could live in a rural community again unless it was really close to a major metropolitan area.
I love where I live .

[BigIain]

I clicked on the 50k option but then decided to google for Berkhamsted just to be sure. I am amazed that it only has around 17k for its population!!!! That has really surprised me. I live on the very East enge of the town, literally the last building before leaving the town and had imagined that there was a lot more to it!
So that explains why it is so quiet here then?

[Deleted]

Have our demographics changed since the thread began?

[fumobici]

Jun 13, 2009 10:49:20 GMT lagatta said:

Perugia, with its "Università per Stranieri" (yep, that is a fascist-era name)

It's worth noting that in Italian, as with the French étranger, the word "stranieri" doesn't have the negative connotation that Anglophones will usually hear by their aural similarity to the English "stranger" with its intimation of malevolence or danger. It simply means non-native to Italy. Not that the French and Italians aren't capable of impressive xenophobia, just that those words are essentially neutral in connotation.

[Don Cuevas]

We live in a ranching community in the Mexican countryside. There are maybe 250 inhabitants here, but it's hard to say for sure.

[lola]

We're in an inner ring suburb with a small town feel, a few blocks from the city of St. Louis.

[lagatta]

I disagree with you about "stranieri", fumobici. It can be very negative indeed in Italian, and in our modern era the university would never have been named that. Don't assume I speak English more than French or Italian or that I am looking at things throug an "Anglo" perspective; I most often speak French. In French, "foreigner" and "stranger" are one and the same word.

I have spoken those three languages since childhood.

[fumobici]

What Italian word would you use? Newspaper and magazine writers seem to use stranieri pretty much without any apparent negative connotation whatever- certainly none I could detect. I was taught it simply meant foreigners.

[lagatta]

It does mean foreigner, fumobici. "Foreigner" can also be very negative in English.

My graduate studies were in migration and labour history, so I'm not exactly ignorant about this stuff.

[fumobici]

The only other word I can recall having seen used in written Italian for foreigner is forestiero, which I was taught can have a negative connotation. Maybe there's another word I cannot recall having seen or heard that is more neutral.

[spindrift]

I now live in an area of 40,000 people in southern England. I was born and brought up until the age of ten in a seaside town in S.W. England. I then had to move to Dublin and stayed there ten years. Thereafter I moved to central London. It wasn't until I had children that we decided they should be raised in the country. I was sorry to leave London.

[lagatta]

spindrift, was this because of the very high cost of housing in central London, or some other reason?

I know many people, young and old, who were brought up in very large cities (including London and Paris) who were very glad to have lived in a lively place with people from all over the world, despite all the inevitable urban challenges.

[spindrift]

No. At the time I already owned a flat in central London. My husband decided he'd like to be a part-time farmer and he bought a country estate although he commuted to London 3 days a week.

[rikita]

hehe just looked at my reply up there and saw i made a typo. no idea what i meant...

[bixaorellana]

;D I try to be wrong in as many places as possible!

[traveler63]

Hi you all:

Taking a break from sightseeing and just walking about Paris. So, I thought I would do some catchup on the forums.

Tucson is around 1MM. It has always had a small town attitude because there are several long time residents which have had and still do, a lot of power. They are called the Tucson 25. So, modernization and and growth has been kept to a minimum. The largest employees in the area are US government and State. The largest private employer is Raytheon.

Do we like where we live? Yes, except for the heat. Normally the weather is lovely. We do miss the seasons, but the trade off is ok. We can get out of the heat, but when it is cold, it can be difficult to escape.

[james]

Well i'm in the suburbs of Cape Town. The whole of Cape Town is 3 million plus...although the city itself is small. The suburbs make it bigger.

[rikita]

i can be wrong anywhere i want.

[Deleted]

I was thinking about this thread in terms of how just about all of the small town French think of Paris as a horrifyingly crowded place where everybody is always in a hurry, we're all stuck in offices all day and our cars are burned in the suburbs at night. They don't know how we can stand such a life.

[spindrift]

Most people I meet who don't live in London, think it's an awful place. I think it's rather heavenly.