[UA] America by Prime Time (was Greetings)

[Patrick O'Duffy]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Timothy Toner" <thanatos at interaccess.com>

> 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?

Brisbane, where I live, is one of the largest cities in the world (in terms
of area), rivalling Mexico City - 110 km long by 60 km wide. You start in
Ipswich and head for Caboolture, damn stright it'll take you more than 1
hour and 20 minutes.

(If anything, Brisbane will be _bigger_ soon, since it's probably going to
merge with the nearby city of the Gold Coast within the next 20 years.)

By and large, Australian cities are _bigger_ than most American ones. They
aren't as full of buildings and people - on that aforementioned
Ipswich-Caboolture drive, you'll pass through areas that you would swear are
just bushland - but we have a lot of land here, and we prefer to build out
rather than up. The other major cities aren't as big as Brissie - but you'll
find the same sort of geography in Sydney and Melbourne, without a doubt.

(Incidentally, we may use 'suburb' in a different way than Americans. To
use, a suburb is just a division of the city; I live less than 20 minutes
walk from the city centre, but we still call this area 'the suburbs'.)

--
Patrick O'Duffy, Brisbane, Australia

Brothers and sisters, I have a dream. Journalism is a ticket to ride, to
travel deep into the dark heart of the pictures you see on your TV and
feeds. And I'm going to take you on a ride with me. A short weird ride into
the heart of darkness.

 - Spider Jerusalem, TRANSMETROPOLITAN #35


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