This Backwater Burgh: Why Living in a City Smaller than New York Might Not Actually Suck

Boy, living in Pittsburgh sucks. Right? New York has all that fashion stuff and those pretty people. And what do we have? A crappy old arena that can't attract concerts anymore.

OK. So that last one was always a load of rubbish and continues to be. But you get my point. Big cities just have more "excitement" and "buzz."

Which is undoubtedly true. But does it really matter? A guy named Mark Oppenheimer has been generating some chatter with a pretty sharp article entitled Medium Town: On living in a city smaller than New York. Oppenheimer grew up in Springfield, Mass. He currently lives in New Haven. He argues that smaller cities of that ilk are good for people. Especially writers.

Cool.

So the next time you hear someone complaining that he can't get anyone to read his masterpiece because he's stuck here in this artistic backwater... Tell him to go pack sand. (Unless it's me complaining in that fashion.)

I would only add that I knew Oppenheimer very tangentially in my university days. He was in my residential college and a year behind me. He seemed quite an intelligent fellow.

Comments

[Jason]

Hey man - thanks for pointing this essay out - I came back to pittsburgh via Ann Arbor, London, Chicago and Washington DC it really hits home on why my wife and I love our street and our neighborhood. Pittsburgh is a great place.

[Mark Rauterkus]

The Boss is going to play in the Civic Arena.

And, the Pens are going to play a game of hockey outdoors this Jan 1. Go figure. We could play more games under the stars / outdoors in Pgh if the Civic Arena's roof worked again.

You know, there are very few cities in the world that are big and full of buzz that have THREE RIVERS. That's our downfall. Seems that the buzz flows downstream and departs. So, we should do all we can to re-name the Mon to "OHIO" and then we'll be better positioned to be a big-time, two-river town. We'll can turn the corner then.

[djh]

The roof works. It's the damn center ice scoreboard/"jumbotron" and the rigging for it that needs to come down before the roof can open.

[Richard Layman]

see www.geturban.com

[Richard Layman]

see www.geturban.com

[robin]

sweet article and may I add ; It is much easier for single parents to live in the backwaters than metro; parents will always know where there kids are, cause the next house is 1/2 a mile away, and a parent can self sustain by growing their own food, and the kids can help or will go hungry.

See more @ http://SingleParentsNetwork.com