[UA] America by Prime Time (was Greetings)

[Timothy Toner]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Liam Routt" <liam at routt.net>
To: <ua at lists.uchicago.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, May 16, 2001 9:42 PM
Subject: Re: [UA] America by Prime Time (was Greetings)


> I think we can. We see it in films so often. On TV. Its crammed with
> people. It has tall buildings that go on for miles. You can see an
> Australian skyline, but we see New York as a background for films, TV
> shows, and computer games, much less the news, all the time. And all the
> views of it we get give us an increasingly enormous picture of it. Sure
> going there would add a dimension, but we *do* have an existing
> impression.

I thought I could.  I mean, I really thought I knew New York.  It's a hell
of a town, right?  Then I went to visit there for a week, and was pretty
much allowed to wander at will.  The first thing that struck me was that I
never really got those Spider-Man comics and cartoons.  Here's Spider-Man
chasing Doc Ock across the rooftops of manhattan, hopping over the gaps, and
pretty easily clearing the distance between blocks.  "Ah, artistic license,"
I thought.  In Chicago, where I grew up, he'd have to clear 20-30 m, which
is an impressive distance, even if you've been bitten by a radioactive
spider.  Within five minutes, I understood why--no alleys.  Tight streets.
Not Medieval European tight, but tight enough to make the saplings planted
along the street fairly anemic in the perpetual shade.  In Chicago, we get
eight blocks to the mile.  In NYC, they get 16.  There's maybe three places
in Chicago that create the illusion of 'urban canyons,' by in New York, that
goes pretty much from Tribeca to Harlem.  Central Park was no accident--they
knew that people who lived under those conditions would need wide open
spaces.

>
> I don't think that Australians neccessarily fully apprehend the
> frightening size of the US population centers; but I do think they can
> discern it as much as you can without being there. Which is a lot.

The driving distance between the farthest northwest branch of the Chicago
Public Library and the farthest southeast branch is 1 hour, 19 minutes,
non-rush hour.  Pick any point in any city in Australia, and start driving
in a given direction.  Will you find yourself in a densely populated
neighborhood (not suburb, mind you--neighborhood) of that city one hour and
nineteen minutes later, barring traffic problems?  I didn't appreciate how
frickin' big this city was until I started looking for a new job, and
realized that if I stayed living where I was, I'd be looking at an hour
drive one way, without ever leaving the city limits.  That's screwed up.


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