The Fantasy of a "Cool City"

OfficePants

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Cross posting from another thread.

You know this "cool city" stuff is bullshit when Forbes publishes a list of America's coolest 20 cities. Washington DC, #1? Cool?

No. 1: Washington, D.C. - In Photos: America's Coolest Cities 2014

This crap is invented by marketing campaigns and real estate agents that want to up prices. Nothing about any of those cities makes it more interesting than any other similar sized city. They all have malls, a few parks, skyline, a place to get an iPhone, some unique history, and chain restaurants. Its all homogenized by corporations, and corporations aren't cool, no matter how much you lick Apple's balls.

It it cool when likeminds can huddle together and get piercings/tattoos? Or the artsy fartsy crowd starts to buy cheap space in bad neighborhoods? They seem to think so. Seems like pretend to me. Also popular is this notion that "cool jobs" exist in a faraway land, but I have yet to see a "cool job". And I don't consider being an NBA player a job.

Cool cities seem to be a revolving door. Seattle had that mantle at one point, then Portland. I recall San Francisco being the cool place way back when the gay mafia took over. And remember when Miami had it's day before everyone became bored with Salsa and Miami Vice? Or back when Albuquerque/Santa Fe had it going on? My personal favorite is the great Las Vegas... never been there, never want to go, and would never refer to it as "Vegas" as party-goers are want to do.

I also remember when suddenly everyone at one point realized Chicago was "awesome". And then the obsession with needing to be in crowded, annoying, expensive New York.

This is PR for impressionable idiots. Reminds me of people that go to a certain college because of their football/basketball team.
 
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Yea I've lived in DC my whole life... ain't so great. Turns out I will most likely be moving to Shanghai in a few months!
 
Just going to open a shop in Shanghai instead... kind of annoying that I had to change my business plans... but the wife just really hates it here... and I'm not that attached to DC despite living in the area my whole life... so I'm just doing the crazy thing and bouncing from this joint.
 
Just going to open a shop in Shanghai instead... kind of annoying that I had to change my business plans... but the wife just really hates it here... and I'm not that attached to DC despite living in the area my whole life... so I'm just doing the crazy thing and bouncing from this joint.

good luck!
 
Just going to open a shop in Shanghai instead... kind of annoying that I had to change my business plans... but the wife just really hates it here... and I'm not that attached to DC despite living in the area my whole life... so I'm just doing the crazy thing and bouncing from this joint.

...and you will have no problem living in Shanghai?
 
Yea... Shanghai is awesome. The suits they make there aren't great... but the food is just on another level compared to DC. And it is kind of exciting to me... not knowing just how things are going to play out... with the business and the rest of my life and everything.
 
Change is good. If you have the ability to go wherever you want and make a life more power to you.
 
Cool city = drugs, sex, laid back young people. At least, that's how to get the label.

I never liked Austin (ok, in high school and first couple years of college).

Now I can't stand the place. Not because of any changes though.
 
Office pants, what are you trying to say with this rant? Is it just against the stupid click bait article, or are you ranting against the concept of a city being cool?
 
Just going to open a shop in Shanghai instead... kind of annoying that I had to change my business plans... but the wife just really hates it here... and I'm not that attached to DC despite living in the area my whole life... so I'm just doing the crazy thing and bouncing from this joint.
This sounds awesome. You definitely going to open in Shanghai?
 
There are business boom areas, cultural hot spots du jour, but
1. Like your favorite band, once everyone else finds out, your interest fades.
2. Attempts to quantify and rank are usually silly and based on some meaningless scoring system. See college rankings (ooh, their professor publishes a lot instead of teaching!) or car magazine comparos.
3. This is indeed advertorial content. I know that my mayor claims someone or other listed us as "most liveable" or something. It's almost a Who's Who scam where anyone listed wants to buy a copy.
 
Haha yea most likely Shanghai now. It should be easier because labor is much cheaper... as well as rent. Hopefully the free trade zone makes things easier too... but I don't fully understand what that means in China.

I never really wrote out a real business plan (though I sort of did for the bank in Hong Kong... was reminiscent of a middle school project)... but I had an idea of the market I was going for here at least. In Shanghai I think the initial market will probably just be people I know and those that I can get through me blogging on Weibo.
 
Haha yea most likely Shanghai now. It should be easier because labor is much cheaper... as well as rent. Hopefully the free trade zone makes things easier too... but I don't fully understand what that means in China.

I never really wrote out a real business plan (though I sort of did for the bank in Hong Kong... was reminiscent of a middle school project)... but I had an idea of the market I was going for here at least. In Shanghai I think the initial market will probably just be people I know and those that I can get through me blogging on Weibo.


Good luck with your bottomless money pit!

Will you give us special deals for your closing down sale when it happens?
 
Moscow is cool
Super cool, maybe.
news_15086_n.jpg
 
Cool city = drugs, sex, laid back young people.

I see no error here.

The latter.

There are definitely cool cities. They don't last in perpetuity, it's when a time and a place intersect. Nothing is cool forever. And it certainly has shit all to do with a Forbes ranking, which might be the least cool thing ever. But there are certainly times when certain areas are hot spots of culture and change.
 
There are definitely cool cities. They don't last in perpetuity, it's when a time and a place intersect. Nothing is cool forever. And it certainly has shit all to do with a Forbes ranking, which might be the least cool thing ever. But there are certainly times when certain areas are hot spots of culture and change.

There are opinions. There are favorites. But they don't intersect to equal a cool city because it's a relative concept. It may be cool to you, but it's just a fucking place to live for everyone else.
 
There are opinions. There are favorites. But they don't intersect to equal a cool city because it's a relative concept. It may be cool to you, but it's just a fucking place to live for everyone else.

Well everything about cool is an opinion. The point is that a critical mass of people there are of the opinion that it's cool. It's undeniable that old Hong Kong, swinging London, Paris in the 20's were cool to a great many people in ways that your prototypical AnyCity, USA (or whatever country) were not. Maybe not to you, but the scenes in those places had a joie de vivre that recognized across the ages.
 
Well everything about cool is an opinion. The point is that a critical mass of people there are of the opinion that it's cool. It's undeniable that old Hong Kong, swinging London, Paris in the 20's were cool to a great many people in ways that your prototypical AnyCity, USA (or whatever country) were not. Maybe not to you, but the scenes in those places had a joie de vivre that recognized across the ages.

A few hipsters opening coffee shops and getting tattoos somehow feel they've stumbled upon something. And wait, it can be juxtaposed against a seemingly barren cultural backdrop... suddenly we have cool. Fucking Lincoln Nebraska man. Fucking Des Moines.

As if a group of people think they've stumbled on something novel. I'm sure ancient Carthage was like those chumps in Sparta are like so riding Egyptian coattails. Man fuck those bitches, this is where it's happening.

This wank-a-thon is predicated on a group of deluded people that feel they're evolving the culture. Almost all of it has been done before. Evolution of culture is more nuanced and less PC, often involving tragedy. Sadly, the Nazis did more to evolve human culture than any edgy American city ever will.
 
A few hipsters opening coffee shops and getting tattoos somehow feel they've stumbled upon something. And wait, it can be juxtaposed against a seemingly barren cultural backdrop... suddenly we have cool. Fucking Lincoln Nebraska man. Fucking Des Moines.

As if a group of people think they've stumbled on something novel. I'm sure ancient Carthage was like those chumps in Sparta are like so riding Egyptian coattails. Man fuck those bitches, this is where it's happening.

This wank-a-thon is predicated on a group of deluded people that feel they're evolving the culture. Almost all of it has been done before. Evolution of culture is more nuanced and less PC, often involving tragedy. Sadly, the Nazis did more to evolve human culture than any edgy American city ever will.

I hope you realize nothing you've written here pertains whatsoever to my preceeding post.
 
It definitely does.

Old Paris thought it stumbled upon something. Old Hong Kong... fucking opium dude. Historically bee there, done that.
 
I feel like there should be a reading comprehension joke here, but I can't be bothered.
 
you are ghey friendly

Gay is the hallmark of a cool city. When you have gays it means you have places to eat, arts (especially the theater), and ever increasing flamboyant displays of sexually oriented pride late at night when bars are closing. Again, such cool, novel stuff.
 
It definitely does.

Old Paris thought it stumbled upon something. Old Hong Kong... fucking opium dude. Historically bee there, done that.

Somehow it strikes me you've never been anywhere or done anything. Wouldn't surprise me if you're living in some backwater part of the U.S.
 
Somehow it strikes me you've never been anywhere or done anything.

I've been to Paris 5 times, and have a cousin that lives there (hes a flaming gay that hangs onto his mommy like nobody's business). It's a pretty city disserved by it's inhabitants.

No dear boy, my latest rant is based quite firmly on personal travels. In fact, I am on a business trip in a city that is listed in that top 10 list right now. I can confirm there is nothing special about it. The hotel room I am sitting in right now? Looks like every other piece of American generica. And I sleep like shit in all of them. And my pizza last night? Same shit I get at home. I can confirm, without reservation, this place is no cooler than any other I've been to.
 
I've been to Paris 5 times, and have a cousin that lives there (hes a flaming gay that hangs onto his mommy like nobody's business). It's a pretty city disserved by it's inhabitants.

No dear boy, my latest rant is based quite firmly on personal travels. In fact, I am on a business trip in a city that is listed in that top 10 list right now. I can confirm there is nothing special about it. The hotel room I am sitting in right now? Looks like every other piece of American generica. And I sleep like shit in all of them. And my pizza last night? Same shit I get at home. I can confirm, without reservation, this place is no cooler than any other I've been to.

Of course it's all the same, it's all in the same country! You can't very well expect all cities within the same country to be wildly different.

Besides, the whole point of business hotels is that they're similar, so that business travellers know what they can expect. There are plenty of smaller hotels with more charachter, even in the generic cities of the U.S.
 
Gay is the hallmark of a cool city. When you have gays it means you have places to eat, arts (especially the theater), and ever increasing flamboyant displays of sexually oriented pride late at night when bars are closing. Again, such cool, novel stuff.

cool cities have police that imprison gays
 
Of course it's all the same, it's all in the same country! You can't very well expect all cities within the same country to be wildly different.

Besides, the whole point of business hotels is that they're similar, so that business travellers know what they can expect. There are plenty of smaller hotels with more charachter, even in the generic cities of the U.S.

You know what's the same with all cities everywhere in the world? They're full of stupids.
 

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