Myths & truths: your city/town/village

Here's a short videoclip about Vancouver, B.C. Featured on a Canadian comedy show.

Now the real estate prices they quote are probably pre-late 2008, but Vancouver, BC does have the highest real estate $ in Canada. I'm always shocked when I compare it against Toronto...where I lived previously for 20 years.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XH3IIzpwEhk

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And no, I don't think Vancouver is as diverse as Toronto. It makes me cringe a tad whenever I hear Vancouver as "international". The "visible" diversity in Vancouver is due to more Asian roots (Far East, as well as South Asian/East Indian) and aboriginal/native Indian. An Afro-Canadian person in Vancouver is highly conspicuous...because the % is so tiny compared to huge dynamic communities in Toronto. Hence, Toronto has WAY more roti shops. (I'm thinking both Caribbean as well as East Indian style.) :)

But hey, I wait to be challenged on my impressions. I could learn more about where you live..and where I live (due to mistaken impressions?? :D)

Everybody got your earthquake supplies? :rolleyes:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcbK0qGuOsY

Earthquake warning for our area feels like a myth-truth ....like telling someone to pay attention to the fire alarm.

But I think it's real. It wouldn't be surprising alot of structural engineers in our area would agree that we're not prepared for this big one.

Any more myth-truths about your corner of the world?

the Hayward fault has a MAJOR eruption every 140 years. The last one was ... uhm, er, uh 141 years ago. If you live in the Bay Area make sure you are prepared to be on your own at least 72 hours

http://www.kqed.org/quest/blog/2008/...dictable-peril

http://72hours.org/

The perception of Central IL is that it's a backwater "fly-over" area with nothing to offer culturally. This is a huge misconception, our town is home to a major university, wonderful ethnic restaurants, museums, local coffee shops, a vibrant live music scene, a facility dedicated to the performing arts, and an art museum that is currently showing Warhol and Audubon exhibits.

Where I live has over 85% of the worlds high-level radioactive waste. You'd think with that truth, I could find some great myths, but I haven't been so lucky.
Wikipedia isn't allowed at work because it is considered to be wrong about the science that it describes. But, what I've read of it's write-up about here is pretty good.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanford_Site

Note - the US Gov't named the reactors with random letters (vs. A, B, C,...) to fool potential spies. Yeah, that'll do it.

and here's the gov's site on the local.
http://www.hanford.gov/doe/history/?history=archaeology

People in Arkansas do wear shoes, and don't marry their cousins. ;)

Karen

It doesn't really rain in Seattle. .. well, not very much anyway.

Truth: Texas really is better than everywhere else.

(I have a friend from Arkansas who jokes that while everyone thinks their state is the best, Texas is the only state where the people actually believe it.) :D

Truth-Perth is the second most isolated city in the world.

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(I have a friend from Arkansas who jokes that while everyone thinks their state is the best, Texas is the only state where the people actually believe it.)

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Truer words were never spoken!

Karen

I can't really think of any myths about my town that aren't really true!
But some of the myths about Massachusetts are false. This really isn't "Taxachusetts" anymore. Maybe in the 70s or 80s.
Heck, the sales tax in AZ was higher, covered more things and we had city taxes, too.

Myth: It's perfectly okay for a low-flying airplane to buzz the Statue of Liberty with two F-16s in pursuit. No one will even notice.

Pam

This is a fun thread. I'm always delighted by the love people have for Texas. Though I have one friend who hated living there and I learned years ago to NEVER mention this to her.

And Vancouver? Never been there, but it sounds like heaven on earth.

Pam

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Originally Posted by PamNY

And Vancouver? Never been there, but it sounds like heaven on earth.

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As long as you magically inherit a place to live in.

Real estate here is really expensive.

I never cease to meet people who have never been to my hometown and yet are certain it is a dirty, ugly steel town. MYTH

TRUTH - Pittsburgh PA is a gorgeous city and a wonderful place to live!! I miss it and wish I could move back there. Also wish I had the legs I had then - legs that could run and bike up all those Pittsburgh hills. :)

Must admit, Possegal I still have that stereotypical image of Pittsburgh.

There are other places that draw an absolute blank of any imagery for me -- ie. Oklahoma, Missouri..

When I moved here a friend said "Hayward? There's nothing there but used car lots :eek: :confused: ;)"

This place builds amazing custom motorcycles. They have a showroom/museum in front with their bikes, classic and historical motorbikes and .... antique bikes :cool:

I love Pittsburgh and its yellow bridges. That's a wonderful 7-Up bike, Trek420!

I'm not sure what people think about my town. Probably that it's still fighting the Civil War, which might be true in some circles. I think alot of people just don't think about it much. Richmond, Virginia. I love it here, though.

We do eat more then cheese, brats and beer here in Milwaukee.

Yes, we do have a bronze statue of "Fonzie" downtown (we do know how to have fun with our image around the country) but we also have a wonderful art museum and other cultural venues and activities.

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Originally Posted by SJCzar

We do eat more then cheese, brats and beer here in Milwaukee.

Yes, we do have a bronze statue of "Fonzie" downtown (we do know how to have fun with our image around the country) but we also have a wonderful art museum and other cultural venues and activities.

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The only preconceived notion about Milwaukee that I have is that it's cold. "Happy Days" could have been in any city; I never associated it with Milwaukee. "Laverne & Shirley," however, did have the brewery thing going on during the song.

I probably shouldn't admit this, but I get Wisconsin and Minnesota mixed up all the time. Sorry, y'all. I gotta get up there to get it straightened out in my head.

Visiting with my FIL's new wife several years ago, she was going on and on about how much she hated Baltimore the whole time she was there. "There were muggers everywhere! You couldn't walk down the street without running into muggers!" Seriously, she kept talking about muggers and DH and I were looking at her blankly, having only known one person in all our time here who had been mugged. We finally figured out that this nice rural North Carolina bred woman was using the word "mugger" as code for "black people." Ugh. We knew there was a reason we took an instant disliking to that woman when we met her.

But, FWIW, in spite of what you may have seen in Homicide, if you come to Baltimore you're not likely to be killed or attacked by drug dealers.

Truths: the crabs really are that good and the people really are down to earth and unpretentious.

Well, one myth about my town is that it's full of socially progressive, environmentally conscious people (like the ones who say stuff to my DH when he drives his SUV).
The truth? If an African American or other dark skinned person is seen walking down the street, like out for a walk, someone calls the police. Really. Been in the police log a couple of times and the "recipient" of one of the calls wrote a hysterically funny letter to the editor of the local paper, thanking people for being so concerned that he was seen out walking with his daughter "on a school day." Turns out, she goes to one of the fancy private schools in town and had a vacation day that day :eek:.

I live in an area that was named for barges that used to ship products thru the village many many years ago. Called appriopriately, Arkport. Today, there is no river so to speak. There is the river bed, that is used by the farmers and is called muck land. This soil is very rich, grows produce nicely and is very black in color. Its like really nutrient peat. Rumor has it that under that muck land, there is still presence of water and the ground can get kinda jiggly at times..depending on how much the ground is worked. ..
that's the best I could do on our little country town.
as andy rooney says, now you know...:D

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Originally Posted by shellyj

as andy rooney says, now you know...:D

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Do you mean (the late) Paul Harvey?

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Originally Posted by Crankin

The truth? If an African American or other dark skinned person is seen walking down the street, like out for a walk, someone calls the police. Really. Been in the police log a couple of times and the "recipient" of one of the calls wrote a hysterically funny letter to the editor of the local paper, thanking people for being so concerned that he was seen out walking with his daughter "on a school day." Turns out, she goes to one of the fancy private schools in town and had a vacation day that day :eek:.

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Same here in the bluest of blue areas of a blue state :( a cyclist I know calls it CWB (cycling while black).

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Originally Posted by tulip

That's a wonderful 7-Up bike, Trek420!

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Here's another one. C'mon down and see them all at www.ronsimms.com

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Originally Posted by Possegal

I never cease to meet people who have never been to my hometown and yet are certain it is a dirty, ugly steel town. MYTH

TRUTH - Pittsburgh PA is a gorgeous city and a wonderful place to live!! I miss it and wish I could move back there. Also wish I had the legs I had then - legs that could run and bike up all those Pittsburgh hills. :)

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Seriously the mills were all either shut down or had scrubbers installed around the time when my parents were kids. I lived there until I went to college and by the time I left everything was getting to be very nice - we even had problems in the summer with algae bloom in the drinking water because the rivers were finally clean enough for algae to bloom....... (it wasn't harmful, it just tasted a bit nasty until they figured out how to filter it out) As far as I can ever remember the air was always clean in my lifetime. By the time I moved away there was only one working mill left - I think it was a wireworks, if I'm remembering properly. I've heard that most of the sites have been built over with high tech?

It was a great place to grow up. I can't speak for now, but then pretty much no crime beyond the petty stuff (stealing the radio out of your car kind of thing). I even remember laughing my head off watching "COPS" Pittsburgh and the big events of the night were some teenagers trespassing at an abandoned funeral home, some guys shooting craps on a corner and a female cop talking a drunk guy she knew down from a bridge (she had a beautiful south side accent too).

I love Seattle - and in many respects it is actually similar to Pittsburgh, but there are some things that I do miss. Even though Seattle is rather neighborhoody, the areas don't quite have the feeling of little towns the way they do back there. People aren't as openly friendly out here either, which I think is a big contributor to that feeling. I also miss the age of things..... sounds strange, but everything is so new here and not much store is put on preserving the older things we have (buildings especially). I miss the uniqueness a lot - things here are a bit too uniform and modern architecture is so bland. I'll take a a bit shabby and interesting over blah any day.

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Originally Posted by Trek420

Same here in the bluest of blue areas of a blue state :( a cyclist I know calls it CWB (cycling while black).

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Sorry, honest please speak English more clearly. :confused::p I'm still trying to decipher your idiomatic expression (jargon). Do you mean you are in a working class area or what??

(from a person who is non-white, grew up poor but dislikes terminology like "ghetto", "inner city". Devalues the cultural richness and hard work of certain lifestyles & socio-economic areas)

Myth: Durham is the ghetto. You will get shot if you walk down the street. You should not go outside at night for fear of your safety (yes, a wedding website for a ceremony we're invited to says not to go outside after dark "for your safety.") Even my co-workers query whether I fear for my safety, and how I get my groceries because "it's so dangerous" and I must not go out alone.

Truth: Durham is a lovely, quirky, progressive little town. Yes, it has bad areas. So do the larger "cleaner" neighbors. If you have common sense, you'll be fine. Believe me, I wouldn't live here if I couldn't go outside after dark:cool::cool:

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Originally Posted by shootingstar

Sorry, honest please speak English more clearly. :confused::p I'm still trying to decipher your idiomatic expression (jargon). Do you mean you are in a working class area or what??

(from a person who is non-white, grew up poor but dislikes terminology like "ghetto", "inner city". Devalues the cultural richness and hard work of certain lifestyles & socio-economic areas)

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What Trek is saying is that she lives in a reputedly highly liberal area of a highly liberal (blue = majority votes democratic in elections) state, yet people still face discrimination based solely on the color of their skin. It shows that many people, while outwardly claiming liberalism and tolerance, don't necessarily practice what they preach.

thx, Eden.

The nickname for our federal Liberal party has been "True Grit", for the federal Conservative party, "Tories". I guess that's a fact or Canadian modern legend. :confused:

Conservatives do tend to be associated with colour of blue, but that is not necessarily official. So it's more reversed for us..politically. However political marketing campagins can change.

To add to the myth I explained, the owner of the LBS, who is Lebanese, was stopped by the police as he was pulling into his driveway. He was asked,"Whose car is this? Where do you live? Who do you live with?", etc. etc., as if he couldn't possibly be the homeowner of a nice house, driving a newer car. This is a guy in his forties, who has lived in town for many years.

The best way to find out what a place is really like, is to look it up in the Urban Dictionary on line. I found out Concord is described "as opposed to" the things in the towns I used to live in (neighbors and school rivals). It's hysterically funny and mostly true.
Here is an excerpt I just cut and pasted:
concord
A small town in MA 20 minutes from boston. There are a lot of punks running around and most kids do drugs because they can afford them. Concord is about average to upper class. Acton cares way too much about sports because that is all they can possibly have against Concord, but the truth is Concord doesn't care all that much about sports, and they are still good at them anyways, just in some cases is not nearly as good as Acton. Most Concordians are rich and can act stand-offish to people they don't like or are not from around here, and it's often confused with being snobby.
Tourists: "Let's take pictures of this historical town!"
Concordians: "Ew stupid tourists."
pronounced: concerd "Acton's jealous; pretty rich on drugs"

ultra slick; high class; quality; speedy and fast
You look so concord in those sneakers

That outfit is so concord

You are such a concord kinda guy, no wonder you can pick up chicks so easily, especially with that concord hairdo.

Check him out bro, he looks so concord

Any faster and you'd be concord

This is what I see out of my dining room window. I'll let you draw your own conclusions...

http://www.hvmag.com/core/includes/p...jpg&w=610&q=85