The City

Note to readers: For most of the past (almost) five (a long time!) years, I have written on this blog at least twice per month. I really appreciate you reading it! This month, however, was very busy (this whole summer has been good, but has gone by quickly and has had a lot of adjustments: new job, new daily schedule, new place to live, etc.) and writing this two blog posts was unfortunately not possible this month, and perhaps won't be happening in the fall. I still love writing, and I want to keep this blog. I am just unsure right now whether I will be writing once or twice per month from now on. I will at least be writing once per month.

Now, moving on to my topic this week - "the City." I have wanted to write about this for a long time. I remember once when I was a young teenager (13 or 14) I was outside of Toronto in some small town in Ontario on a school trip and I said to a friend "I just want to go back to the city." I have always been a city girl, but the older I got the more I realized that the meaning of 'the city' is relative. I imagine that to the surrounding areas/suburbs/further out more rural towns of bigger metropolitan areas or cities, that main city is "the city."

I guess it was probably the show Sex and the City which first made me realize that just because I referred to Toronto as "the city" it wasn't the only "the city" around. Even though I am from Toronto and prefer it to New York, I still have to say that New York (Manhattan) seems like the quintessential and ultimate "the city". The skyline, the density, its fame around the world, its distinctiveness from Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx - for all these reasons  I just feel like the term "the city" really matches New York.

The boundaries of "the city" can also be hard to tell. A few weeks ago I was speaking with a client who told me he had a lawyer from "the city". Given that we were speaking in a courthouse approximately 2 hours 15 minutes northwest of Toronto, I wasn't positive Toronto was the city he meant. So I said "you have a lawyer from...?" and he said "Toronto" in the tone of voice that slightly implied I was an idiot for not knowing that "the city" = Toronto. I always thought it was only people who actually lived in Toronto or in the close suburbs (close is not 2 - 2.5 hours away) who referred it as "the city" but I guess I stand corrected, at least in the case of this one man.

In June 2006, my last month in Berkeley, S., K. and maybe L. had all read or were about to read John Steinbeck's Travels with Charley about his road trip across and around the United States with his dog Charley. I thought it sounded good then but I always have a long long list of books (and literal piles of books) to read and that one hasn't yet made it to the top of my list. S. told us that John Steinbeck wrote something about how when people say "the city" they really mean San Francisco. It's true that most people in the Bay Area think of and refer to San Francisco as "the city."(Although what about Oakland? It's on the Bay too and it's also a city!) But I never liked calling it that, mostly because I think that in each person's vocabulary there should only be one "the city" and for me it was Toronto. I also don't think there is just one "the city" in the world, despite what I wrote above about Manhattan. I do think that was probably the original but I think it's great our world has so many amazing cities that are all worthy of being known only as "the city."

I love full (or almost full) moon shots

The phrase "the city" conjures up excitement, tall buildings, lots of people, many different neighbourhoods - all things I don't find (and consequently miss a lot) in small towns. I have now lived in a small town for 2 months and it's pleasant and nice in a lot of ways but do I miss "the city".