Azelma wrote:
And you know what makes New York matter? Money, plain and simple. The financial markets there are what matter. The size and diversity doesn't hurt...but there are plenty of diverse cities around the world, and even in America. And as for Chicago, LOL if you think it "doesn't matter"
Give me a break. If the United States went Communist tomorrow and all the financial markets closed forever, New York would still be a city of importance far greater than its size and population, just as it was before those financial markets existed. New York was hotly contested even during the Revolutionary War because it had a prestige exceeding its size and population.
Why is San Francisco more important than Sacramento? Why is Los Angeles more important than Houston? Why is New York more important than Philadelphia or Dallas? Because great cities have international visibility.
The fact you can order Chinese or Arab food in Chicago or any number of other cities doesn't mean you can meet dozens of different kinds of people within a block as you can in New York. People and ideas from faraway lands aren't interested in Chicago or what happens there. No one is fascinated by the people and ideas that have come through Chicago. Immigrants never dream of finding their way in Chicago. You don't see Japanese tourists laying on their backs taking pictures of buildings in Chicago.
The buildings in New York (mostly financial centers) are taller? Well, the Eiffel Tower, or the Kremlin, or the Brandenburg Gate, or Westminster Abbey, aren't very tall, and most of them aren't even that old, and they attract millions a year, because people are fascinated by the cultures that produced them. The fact you can see taller buildings in Kuala Lumpur or Beijing or Seoul doesn't put those cities on the level of New York or any other city with international prestige.
Your problem is you take the casino mentality to life. You're obsessed with "hitting it big", proximity to money and success. It's the mark of a totally classless person - someone who has no real identity, affiliation or value system. Money does not make the world go round; people do. And what motivates people is affiliation, ideas, culture. You don't think there have been shallow and self-interested people looking to make a buck at any point in history? Those people have always been around, always with a deluded notion of their own importance, but the big winners in history aren't those most successful at making a buck, it's those who are successful at creating new ideas and ways of life. Things that unite people and motivate them to great purpose. And of course those who are utterly motivated by self-interest no matter what are invariably carried along by the undertow.
And that is why cities where different kinds of people meet to percolate new ideas - Alexandria, Byzantium, Paris, Vienna, Odessa, New York - are recognized as great. Not because they happen to have accumulations of material wealth. Because they are trendsetters, movers of human affairs, centers of culture.
