The Character of a city

[Maister]

HOG Butcher for the World,
Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat,
Player with Railroads and the Nation’s Freight Handler;
Stormy, husky, brawling,
City of the Big Shoulders:

(whole poem):
http://www.bartleby.com/165/1.html

Sandburg encapsulated the character of the City of Chicago as it was 93 years ago with that paeon to the old industrial heartland. While certain changes in economic activities have occurred during the last century, I contend there is still a kernel of truth behind those words. True, many Chicagoans now have service sector jobs but the underlying attitudes you see present in many of its residents still echo 'husky brawling Big Shoulders'. The Windy City may have its share of bold corruption but at the same time it also exudes an aura of power not felt in comparable sized urban centers.

I wonder how many other cities' essence could be summed up in a few words? I know better than to ask fellow Cyburbians to actually compose poems (well except maybe Bear) about cities but wonder if it's possible to at least identify salient characteristics (or poetic qualities if one is so inclined) that in some way 'define' a city's character. For instance, could Buffalo be described:
bypassed by time;
echoes of mediocre grandeur.
pray to Bathtub Mary
you've got zubaz
To wear to the Slayer concert
after the fish fry

If I had to come up with the best/fewest words to sum up New York I'd venture:
Diversity incarnate; crossroads of the world. The zenith and nadir of wealth.

Salt Lake City:
where the west begins....to pall.

Can you come up with words to encapsulate the essence of a city you've lived in or spent time around?

[TexanOkie]

Oklahoma City - the Dusty Midwest who is often confused and thinks she's alternately the South or the West.

Dallas - Corporate haven and big-money heaven.

Fort Worth - A smaller, dustier Dallas with more of a western view, with denim, buckles, boots and hats, and loads of high culture - albeit with a skew.

Austin - the spunky eclectic "small college town" that never was, despite it's occupants' best attempts.

[Bear Up North]

Ahhh, a challenge.

Here's a look at some of the character of Toledo.....back in the early 1970s. Toledo officials wanted to build what was called "The Downtown Distributor". It was going to be a freeway that connected I-75 (at that time, under construction in the downtown area) and I-280. That connector was to follow the Maumee River, effectively cutting-off the river from the downtown area. The primary southbound exit off I-75 (for the CBD) was even built with extra lanes for "The Distributor".

A local group very vocally fought the plan, arguing that the Maumee River should not be cut-off from the CBD. This group pushed for the city to build a park along the river. In the end, the small and vocal group won the day. The freeway plan was scrapped and the riverfront is now a park.

My poem takes an approach that the freeway-backers won.
_____

Glass Streets

bewildered
i stared down the brick street
my dirty heels covering the name
engraved into each brick:
a company long gone
a name long forgotten

where is the steam plant?
water street is dying
not a slow death:
rather quickly
devoured by the earth diggers
of progress

they are bulldozing the remains of
the burnt department store:
long-term memory kick
fresh cheese wheels
sausage hanging above the counters
stairwell mirrors that made me look thin

nearly vertical
that last block of jefferson:
a cold snap challenge
to anybody who longed for
a shoreline view via
sidewalks covered with great lakes ice

there will be a freeway here soon
blasting fords and chevys
up the hill:
feeding the glass city
with more of the same
while the lights flicker out
_____

Bear

[otterpop]

Helena: the unpretentious Queen City of the Rockies - soccer fields and hiking trails abound; a government town where your kids are safe, but perhaps a little bored. Unassuming, yet solid and industrious. Home.

[Maister]

Anyone (who actually knows something about the places) care to take a crack at San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston, or New Orleans?

[otterpop]

New Orleans: Formerly the City That Care Forgot, cannot forget care now and is languishing largely forgotten; the old girl was promised prettily she would be restored to her former luster, but alas, a liar's tongue spoke sweet and hollow words to quiet her outrage at being cruelly abandoned. Rise again she shall, though perhaps never to her former self of both elegance and bawdiness.

[Masswich]

Anyone (who actually knows something about the places) care to take a crack at San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston, or New Orleans?

Boston- a gilded lady whose best days appear to be past, although her nieces and nephews keep coming to town and bringing money and inventive energy to keep her young. One of the last European cities south of Canada, squished and quirky and somewhat dirty. Doesn't like change much but exports it. Classical and folk, not blues and jazz.

[jmello]

Boston- a gilded lady whose best days appear to be past, although her nieces and nephews keep coming to town and bringing money and inventive energy to keep her young. One of the last European cities south of Canada, squished and quirky and somewhat dirty. Doesn't like change much but exports it. Classical and folk, not blues and jazz.

She's fluent in Chinese, French, Gaelic, Haitian Creole, Hebrew, Hindi, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Vietnamese, and, of course, Yankee Blue-Blood English. She's one well-rounded chick, if she could just get over the racial thing