Looking back over this thread, and seeing people calling 50,000 ‘not small’, I should clarify.
My city (Rochester, NY) is a small city compared to the big cities I love. At 210,000 (not including surrounding counties that would bring it to over a million) it is probably moreso considered a midsize city.
If and when you move to NYC send me a PM and let me know. I live in in your favoritest place (Harlem) and would love to take you to Sylvia’s or Patsy’s or something to welcome you to our fair city.
Personally, I have that reaction to Hoboken.
I have every intention of pming you when I make that move. I live vicariously through you as it is.
I love Sylvia’s. Best red velvet cake ever.
Next thing you’ll be telling me is Lake Titicaca isn’t a joke.
It’s the production site of a brand of maize-based margarine, although test markets in the US didn’t respond well to “Corn Oleo”.
You’re clearly wrong about Sacramento.
Sacramento has art, concerts, a vibrant local music scene, and while I haven’t lived there in a while, there was a growing number of clubs that were very nice for the whole “night life” thing.
Granted, Sac’s art scene is probably pretty bland compared to Portland, but then I find most artists pretentious assholes, so that’s not a big minus to me.
I grew up in Great Falls Montana, then Sacramento, and now live an hour from Pittsburgh, PA, in a dinky little town.
All in all, I think I prefer Sac. Plenty to do, but still small enough that I don’t have to feel like I’m living in a concrete jungle.
Google Saskatoon sushi - about 83,400 results.
Google Hoboken sushi - about 96,100 results.
Therefore, Hoboken must be more real than Saskatoon!
/ot, but I’ve always like the place names you have up near Milwaukee. Waukeesha! Wauwatosa! Mukwonago! And my favorite Oconomowoc!
Let me guess, your ride was powered by an infernal combustion engine?
Gah, I’m away from the Dope overnight and thread explodes!
In regards to people saying 300,000 people is big: I actually grew up on an acreage by a city with 30,000 people. We had video classes with people from Regina, they looked down on us. 
I chose sushi because it’s one of those foods that people complain about being crappy if it isn’t made by someone from the country it originated in. I could have chosen tapas or fusion or a bunch of other things.
Every time I think about this I come back to Sex and the City - of course it’s hyperbole, but there are a lot of people out there that think if you aren’t living in New York or [insert large city here] you’re missing out on everything. Except I can go on vacation for a week or two and do all the same things NY is renowned for. Unless you go to a Broadway show or MoMA every week your life isn’t that different from mine.
It has been indirectly alluded to, but it’ll be hard for Saskatoonites to garner much respect in the outside world for their city’s cosmopolitan qualities, given that the very name suggests Extreme Hicksville*, much as Walla Walla, Washington and Kalamazoo, Michigan do**. Before this thread was started I was vaguely aware that such a place as Saskatoon existed, but I couldn’t have told you where it was or what it might be renowned for, apart from beaver pelts and ice fishing.
Maybe Saskatoon needs a name change. Something French, perhaps. “La Vielle Peau De Castor” has a ring to it.
*You don’t hear people from Hicksville, Long Island complaining about this.
**Hurray for Boston Charlie.
Well, there’s 3 million of us in the Denver metro area stranded in an oasis in that wasteland. Otherwise I completely agree.
I do, actually. In 2010 I saw probably 30 live shows. A couple on Broadway, a couple of dozen off broadway, a few operas, etc. I’m a member of the AMNH and go regularly as well as visiting other museums (except the Guggenheim. It sucks.) I love my life and feel like I want to spontaneously burst into song because I love my city so much. I don’t because I’m not crazy, but the desire is there.
I think the bigger problem you’re having is being insulted by a TV show. Do I think living your life would drive me insane? Probably, yeah. Do I think you need to live my life to not be crazy? Of course not. Do small town people give as good as they get in the “insulting other people’s lives” game? Hell yes. A few months ago there was a thread on the boards about how there was an 85 sq ft apartment for sale for more than $100,000 in Manhattan somewhere and there were lots of, “Aren’t New Yorkers so stupid for paying that much to live there?” comments. Then there were lots of, “Jesus, who’s paying that? I can get a 1,000 sq ft 2 bedroom for the same money if I go 70 blocks north of there!” comments too. Several people there were just itching to look down on New Yorkers for spending like crazy when they’ve never set foot in NYC and learned all they know about how much NYC costs from Sex and the City.
That’s what I was going to say. These people who think any city with at least 100k people is small ought to have to live where I grew up, a town of 752 people. We had two gas stations and a barber shop. Try that for a few months and then tell me a city like Longview (pop. 73,344) is the sticks.
It does really drive me nuts when people come in and are all “OMG I live in a bathroom with three other crackheads and I don’t think I’ll be able to come up with the extra three grand for rent this month!” and people say “You know, you don’t HAVE to live in NYC. My mortgage on a real house is six times cheaper than your crackhead bathroom!” and they say “Oh, yeah, RIGHT. What am I going to do there, go to the mall on a Friday night?”
I’m sorry your brain doesn’t work.
I grew up outside of a village of 200. I currently live in a village of 1200. I’m moving to LA.
I’ll report back.
There are people who do stupid shit in every environment, city or small town.
The other side of that is seeing people post threads about, “I can’t find a job within 150 miles of my home and my car broke down and is going to cost more than $1,000 to fix and my garage flooded but my homeowner’s insurance won’t pay for it” when they could rent an apartment in a city with more than 6 places to work and proper public transportation so they don’t have to worry about cars and insurance. They don’t want to do that though because they can’t walk around nekkid in their yard without being seen by their neighbors in a city environment. These people aren’t stupid for wanting to live in a small town any more than someone is stupid for wanting to live in a city. Anyone can play the “your choices are bad” game and point out the negatives in someone else’s life.
Well, the thing is that they think all there is to do anywhere but New York is go to the mall. In other words, they’re actively wrong (and sort of bigoted against any city the Rat Pack didn’t sing about.)
Bolding mine.
Maybe it’s a really nice bathroom. With gold-plated crackpipes and diamond encrusted needles.
(The crakhead part made me giggle.)