I’m amazed you could hear the cowbells over the Banjoes… 
I am a born and bred Aucklander, we are a rare breed (Ice Wolf is one). Auckland is hated by one and all.
Tourists hates Auckland because it is “not really New Zealand”. South Islanders hate Auckland because they are paying for our traffic woes. The rest of the North Island hates Auckland BECAUSE it is Auckland.
Suck it up! Auckland has the largest population because people LIKE it!
Obviously it rains like there is no tomorrow, Westies suck ( 
), there is quite a lot of rain, the sky tower looks like a gigantic hypodermic needle and it rains a fair bit BUT it’s a bloody good place
A wet Aucklander 
How about “Where the bloody hell are you?”
It seems to have scared off the poms…ok only the advertisment obedient poms!
Oh, that’s easy! Just roll down the windows, pick up your car, turn it on its side and shake it.
Zamboniracer and Panache45, as a fellow Clevelander, I feel your pain. At least we can mock Toledo: “Like Cleveland, without the glitz.”
Ah, yes, the Ala Wai Canal. Funny thing is that it surrounds Waikiki (the non-beach sides). I get nervous walking by the Ala Wai, even before all the sewage run-off from the flooding.
it’s an actual slogan. There are still plenty of park benches and bus stop seats in Baltimore that say “The Greatest City in America.”
“The City that Reads” also has an interesting history, because about 5 or 6 years ago, when that slogan was everywhere, the city started cutting funds to its public library system and closing or restricting the hours of branch libraries. Many locals noted the irony.
In all honesty and seriousness, I’d say Auckland is one of the most dull, boring, and uninteresting cities on the planet- certainly, I’d say it’s the most dull city I’ve ever visited, followed very closely by Invercargill.
Even Brisbane manages to have some decent things to see and do in the surrounding area, as well as some rather nice parks.
IMHO, There’s very little of interest in Auckland besides the War Memorial Museum and Sky City Casino, it rains a lot, and the rest of the country has to subsidise Auckland’s traffic problems and put up with Auckland basically ignoring everything south of the Bombay Hills.
I still maintain that the only reason it’s become a major city is that the weather’s alright and the harbour is excellent, and in a geographically useful place (unlike Lyttelton or Port Chalmers, which are on the east coast of the South Island and miles from the major shipping lanes).
Nothing against the people who live there, of course…
But, but…Keef’s there now recuperating from his nasty accident with a coconut palm/jetski. That’s got to add some popularity to the place, yes?
4 words says it all.
The aroma of Tacoma.
It’s really not as bad as it use to be since the paper mill closed about 10 years ago.
Yeah. They painted on the benches. It’s right on the home page. You’d need to spend some time in Baltimore to appreciate the civic chutzpah here that makes it possible to get that slogan
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Dreamed up in the first place.
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Selected from what must have been some list of candidates.
Stop Snitchin’ might be our newest slogan.
I lived in Baltimore till I was 46, hon, and my recollection is that we made fun of ourselves to save outsiders the trouble. Trunk, “The City That Reads” reached its height of ridiculousness for me when they started closing branches of the Enoch Pratt Library, including Branch 26 on Belair Road where I learned to love books.
Now I live in Chillicothe, OH, and E. Thorpe, the way we respond to comments about the paper mill aroma is “What smell?” Oh, and by the way, have I mentioned that Chillicothe was the first capital of Ohio?
This town is way too proud of that brief period of glory.
Where I live now, Arlington, VA, is derided by downstate mouthbreathers as The Peoples Republic of Arlington, stemming from that time Arlington ::gasp:: let black kids go to school.
That would be a good way to start thinking about how “The Greatest City In America” could be dreamed up.
Actually making it the slogan of the city. . .that goes to show how ingrained that attitude is.
Another one for Baltimore: in the opening credits of “The Wire” they show graffiti that says, “Bodymore, Murdaland”.
You compare Auckland to Brisbane? Brisbane copes by having “world/land”-Land down the road. Is there any reason AT ALL to visit Brisbane if one was not about to go to the gold coast?
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You are right, there is very little of interest to tourists in Auckland. Your other reasons are correct in why it is an excellent place to live. We let the tourists in and then shove them off to the pretty places where no one wants to live!
Auckand is the most populas place for many reasons…tourists flinging themselves off shit is not the reason (sky tower flinging is STUPID).
JAFFAs never pay a single bit of attention to the anti Auckland shit. We KNOW tourists and South-ish NZers hate us…we know we live here for a reason.
We always have a good laugh at “Everything’s up-to-date in Kansas City…” I have the distinct impression that most people here think it is/want it to be still @ the 1950’s.
I grew up in Dodge City, which is definitely ripe for mocking. Feedyards (“smell the money!”), Boot Hill, general hickishness - what’s not to mock!?
Oh, and I don’t know how I forgot this: I went to college at K-State in Manhattan, KS. Manhattan takes great pride in calling itself “The Little Apple.” :rolleyes:
Our former Minnesota Governor (yes, the wrasslin’ one) once derided the street system of St. Paul by saying that the streets appeared to have been designed by a drunk Irishman.
He took a lot of sh*t for that!
But he made a good point: Whoever laid out the street grids in St. Paul must have been crazy, drunk, stupid, lazy or malicious … probably a little bit of each!
Another Bostonian here.
Seriously, we’re more of an irritation than an embarassment. I am in the unfortunate situation of living between BU and BC. Taking the subway/bus is one of the most annoying experiences ever.
And I work just outside of Cambridge. Honestly, I have never met more obnoxious, arrogant self-indulgent idiots-who-think-they’re-geniuses anywhere else. I’ve lived here my whole life and I still find myself amazed at how irritating we are. I couldn’t imagine coming from another city to this one and having to deal with us all.
How easy is it to make fun of your home city? I can do it in three words - check my location. 
This is basically correct. I’ll give the Sydney point of view, but it won’t differ a great deal (except that I’ll slag off Melbourne a bit more as is my duty as a Sydneysider).
Sydney is the New York City of Australia. I don’t mean that in a good way either (we aren’t nearly as big or important), but I mean it in that there’s the USA and NYC, and then there’s Australia and Sydney. We aren’t part of Australia, we’re a little city state stuck on the side. The rest of Australia doesn’t consider us part of it, and the people in Sydney are too busy to notice or care.
Melbourne is a grand old lady. Well, she thinks she is. In reality, she’s youre pretentious old aunty with a plum in her mouth, and although she lives in a suburban house in Lower Buttfuck, the house has a neatly manicured garden, and she insists she lives in Lower Buttfuck Heights. She’s full of shit, and never lets you forget she has a gold credit card, but she doesn’t tell you the card’s close to the limit, and that she’s paid too much for the mediocre artwork on her walls. Nonetheless, she’s a nice old stick that the rest of the family is fond of, and we humour her.
Sydney is a brassy sixty year-old barmaid with big tits, and a loud, crass voice. She doesn’t really care if some people don’t like her, but she does have a good heart.
The Sydney papers call Melbourne the “Bleak City” and maintain it’s an indoorsy type of town because there’s bugger all to do outside, so you’d best stay in. The Melbourne papers call Sydney “Tinsel Town”, all trinkets but no substance.
The strange irony, IMHO, is that both cities were traditionally good at what they do, yet they’ve spent the last decade trying to be like one another. Melbourne is building ugly, flashy, neon buildings everywhere, and Sydney is sticking street cafes and public art everywhere. In both cases, it isn’t working.