Sorry, your city STILL isn't unique
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- Опубликовано: 6 июн 2024
- Cities just ain't that special. Part 3 in a series. This video was sponsored by Nebula. Get Nebula for just $2.50 a month: go.nebula.tv/jjmccullough
The previous two videos:
1️⃣ • Your city isn't unique
2️⃣ • Your city STILL isn't ...
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OMG Toronto is so unique!
Real
We have a McDonalds, several sports teams, a long and proud history, a strong working class mindset and rampant drug use. I think you'll find us to be quite exceptionally. Truly the essence of unique.
Hey neighbor! Don’t say too much. We don’t want people to copy us do you?
What's the traffic like?
Sounds like my city
Jokes on you, my city has all that and it’s on a river with a strong cardinal divide between the two sides!
Philly is that you?
People from my town? Yea, were super polite.. until you get on our 𝘣𝘢𝘥 side 😏
That's such a good example 😅
Whoa! Please, relax!
I saw that guy’s video!!! It’s so funny. 😂
Well, the weather is always changing in my town!
Oh wow the weather is always changing in my small town too!
COSMIC
Every tourism ad for a mid-sized city (or college in a mid-sized city): “We’re a UNIQUE mix of BIG city vibes, and SMALL town friendliness” ✨
What is big city vibes? Does that mean lots of traffic or something? Lmao
In Boston, people are renowned for their positive attitude, friendliness and manners. Also for being fantastic drivers who know how to safely merge across all the other lanes at a moments notice.
Oh, I noticed that immediately upon visiting.
Big time.
can confirm
no way to know, never been to boston, i hate pizza anyways
The fact that during rush hour people can drive and speed in the breakdown lanes was a weird culture shock for me when I moved back to Boston. Like that shit was unnerving trying to figure out when to get into an exit lane with people just speeding through them.
Chicago is basically the same, minus the manners.
You know what's really crazy about (MY CITY) is that the downtown and the area around the college is really liberal, but once you get out to the suburbs it gets super conservative. Don't even try going to (NEARBY SMALL TOWN). It's like the 1950s out there!
This is exactly what we say in austin
[MY CITY] isnt even in the us
Liberal college? What a novel concept😮
this is just san diego lmfaoo
Does that mean that the small town has a 90% income tax rate on the highest income bracket?
I said it before I'll say it again, if you think something about your city is unique, thats not the thing thats unique. the unique things are the things you never think about/assume everyone has and then you talk to someone else on the internet about it and they're like "what in the world are you talking about"
It’s true. One of the weirdest, unique quirks of Vancouver is that we do fireworks at Halloween, which I only learned was considered something weird last year, because nobody ever talks about it as being special.
Indeed. I found out well after the fact that one of the local TV stations in my native state had the last local kids show host playing cartoons in the afternoon. It lasted until the mid-1990s. Seeing Krusty the Clown also made me think it was much more common. He was also a weatherman [not a meteorologist, but a weatherman] and the local TV station kept the show going until he retired.
In Utah I have at least one thing I know is unique, the Mormons are the majority.
Tonga would like a word.
I used to think every city was as crazy about sports as Philadelphia until I learned that Philly sports fans have a bad rep in the rest of the country
Also, just saying, it’s okay to love your city’s thing without it being globally unique
yeah each city is a unique combination of multiple things that make it unique. 1 thing wont make it unique from every other city globally, but two places having X unique feature will not both have unique feature Y, while another city might have Y, but not X.
Like yeah seattle, vancouver, and portland might be quite similar, they're gonna be near pines, colder, more precipitation, all have hipsters, but they all have different immigrant populations, different people, 1 is in canada, different access to forests and mountains and coast. Different unique foods.
New york and chicago might have great hot dogs and pizza, but they are different hot dogs and pizza. ones near the other and another a lake. one has an east coast mentality and home to different kinds of arts and the other has a midwest mentality and lots of historic industry and jazz/blues history.
Like yeah, New Orleans and Chicago have some musical history overlaps, but everything else are leagues different.
J.J., a really interesting follow-up to this series of videos would be "aspects of North American cities that actually are somewhat unique." Or, potentially, you could compare and contrast how rural areas differ: are they also all much more similar than they realize? Or are they more heterogeneous than the cities?
Only Hastings, NE has a Kool-Aid Museum. Austin MN has Spam, Waco TX has Dr Pepper. Bethlehem, PA has Peeps, etc
unrelated but the helicoprion pfp is badass
I find the "my city is super is super unfriendly" one super interesting, because here in England, there 100% are some really friendly cities and some really unfriendly cities. In Sheffield you would be never be surprised for a stranger to strike up a conversation or call you 'my love' or 'darling', which you would never ever expect in Birmingham or London
A London cockney would certainly call you darling, but it seems weird and creepy to some people, understandably
After living in the corn states of America and then moving to the Pacific Northwest where it rains all the time, the expectation of behavior is noticeably different with how people interact.
exactly. I moved around a bunch in my life and lived in different countries. Some cities are way friendlier than others. JJ's hometown Vancouver is probably the most unfriendly city I've lived in.
And London is literally the lonliness capital of Europe.
@@tomifost cities absolutely do have character of their own. I don't know why JJ kinda laughted at that. A city is a collection of people sure but the physical environment does affect people a lot and different cities have different environments. Also the culture is different in different places.
Every college campus also claims to have specific special squirrels that are just so zany and weird. They might even claim they are a specific color you don’t see often. Literally every college tour I went on mentioned the squirrels.
I feel like this is a New England thing, I’ve never heard this in the Midwest.
Some universities in Texas have albino squirrels that are supposedly lucky
As a European living in London (a city that really did have a GREAT fire in 1666) I can say that from this side of the pond American cities do all seem very similar compared to the differences between European cities (and specifically capitals). I'd love to see JJ do a video about things we Europeans think are unique about our cities that actually are quite common between most of them.
Spitballing here but…
“Our city was burned down multiple times” (they all were)
“Our university dates back to the middle ages” (most of them do)
“Our city was founded by the romans/the vikings” (one or the other is true for most cities)
Many “unique” traits are probably specific to a region (more miraculous apparitions of Mary in the south, more uniquely aspirational standards of living in the north) and many more European cities being the capital of a whole-ass country probably means truly unique things are more common, but I’m sure we can put together a list.
And the similarities are even more striking when you consider that it includes both US and Canadian cities. Makes me wonder if you could do this sort of thing with Austria and Germany.
@@CanonessEllinor no one in Europe thinks their city is unique for these things, there is a common awareness that it is characteristic of cities across Europe
@@KtT-sn8cyit’s not so much they think it’s unique but rather how they answer “what attracts visitors to your city?” The answer usually is medieval city center/ town square, art gallery/museum, riverfront walk, beautiful bridges (maybe one where lovers put locks on), carhedrals/churches, high street/Main Street, restaurants, etc.
@@CanonessEllinorMy city was given city rights by Napoleon's brother when he invaded the Netherlands, and people have lived here continuously since the prehistoric :-)
Well JJ, I can now say my hometown of Bakersfield, California is unique in a way no other town can claim to be: our representative was the only house speaker to ever get fired
Haha, from Bakersfield too. Don't forget bakersfield sound.
Godspeed you Bakersfield citizens
@@halifaxx55 lol nice. Small world. 😅
@@azore1184 McCarthy always wins his seat by over 60% of the vote, because although the far right of the party hates him, they still vote for him anyway. Although I would love to run for Congress one day to dismantle the two party system. Maybe this could be my motivation, except I’m broke lol.
@@Will0398 I bet you couldn't even explain what the two-party system is.
I just thought of an example of this, the overrated ice cream stands that you have to line up in front of outside. A lot of people insist their local one is the best but they’re all about the same quality wise.
Ooh yes
They all have bubblegum/rainbow ice cream that's called something wacky even though it tastes exactly the same
What if I live in Wisconsin, and it's not even ice cream; it's Custard?
The way my local one got hyped for years, friends even eloped there, and then you go and it’s just soft serve with a magic shell coating.
As someone living in St. Louis I guess I should feel attacked, but must accept reality. Ted Drewes is a local institution, but 90% of its draw is nostalgia. The frozen custard is enjoyable. Even better than good. But it never quite lived up to the hype for me.
You have to do a video about the un-unique stories told on college campus tours. When I was still choosing which school to go to (almost a decade ago now), my dad and I had a game where we would keep tabs on the dumb stories and facts about each school we heard. There were several tour guides at different schools who told us that their friend met their girlfriends as drivers in the campus pickup carts and many tour guides who told us that the school observatory is the best date spot. Almost every school has something they rub for good luck before finals and if you can't find a club on campus, it only takes 5 (or 4 or even 3 at some schools) friends to make your own club. My favorites are the "we have the largest/tallest [insert some interesting thing, i.e. bell tower, library, gym], west/east of the Mississippi" and schools bragging about the biggest artists they've gotten for their big annual concert.
My college's mascot is a big cat, and we also got that story about rubbing the big cat statue's nose for good luck (generic good luck, not before a test or anything in particular). The nose is way more polished than the rest of the statue, so it can't just be from when they do it during tours.
I will say, as someone who has lived in the NW, SW, and SE of the United States and has visited 38 of the 50 states, I would put an asterix on some of these.
1. Giant dealership flags in the southeast (Texas and Arkansas especially) are way bigger than giant dealership flags in other parts of the country.
2. Unfriendliness is absolutely a regional thing. Of course larger cities will generally be less friendly than smaller ones, but it's not the full picture. I've lived extended periods in Seattle, San Diego, and Dallas, and as someone who is religious, I do tend to have an easier time making friends by simply connecting myself to the nearest place of worship of my persuasion. After living 7 years in Seattle, there is no one there who I would call a friend. Meanwhile, in San Diego and Dallas (which are each much larger cities) making friends was easy and even if I don't keep in touch with all of them, when we do run into each other, we can pick up where we left off.
I do have a theory why this is the case. Very few people in Seattle were born there, most moved there for work and so most people are isolated from their family circle and so have their defenses up. Meanwhile, in both San Diego and Dallas, a much larger percentage of the population was born there and have their extended family nearby, thus in addition to friends and co-workers, they tend to have a family circle as well, and in my experience, people who have more social support are more open to adding new people into their circles and are less guarded.
This is actually a reason many people hold on to religion - it's a ready made social club. No effort required.
I have lived in Seattle my whole life. Imagine what it’s like realizing that every place you go is friendlier than you thought it was possible to be. People will *talk* to you in other cities. People you don’t even know.
I can’t speak to people who move here, but as for me, I have made many friends as an adult, but they are all from somewhere else (they were working to extend friendship towards me). I do have many friends that are also from Seattle, but I became their friend in childhood and we stayed friends. I do not have a single friend who is from the area that I met as an adult.
I will say the first time I saw one of those huge flags was back in the 80s somewhere between Fort Worth and Dallas.
In regard to Seattle, I think that another reason could be, and this isn't a statement against your faith, but from my experience people in Seattle tend to be a lot less religious than people in Texas, so even amongst people who go to church, it isn't seen as a really important third/social place to people, so people are less likely to really seek out community and friendships there. Also people in Seattle tend to be more reserved too, meaning it takes longer for them to warm up to new people.
It should be the opposite! People with nearby family don’t have as much of a need to make friends, but people who moved somewhere for work are desperate for friends. But yeah, that difference in baseline comfort level makes it so the ones who need friends more can’t make any because they’re too guarded.
I feel like all the cities I've lived in have also all complained about the quality of drivers and how "so and so" city is the worst place they've ever driven!
That’s only because they haven’t seen the drivers in *my* city. 😜
Most big cities have lots of angry psychopathic type drivers, but the only place where I've seen just plain "bad" driving be so common was in Florida.
I think it's a fair assumption that populations that skew older than average may easily have objectively worse drivers. Though whether a typical driver can actually tell the difference between that and average drivers overall is up for debate
Anytime I want to clear out a room, I like to remark that my LargeAmericanCity has “actually pretty good traffic and total jams are rare”
As someone who lives in Las Vegas we complain constantly about California drivers. What's hilarious is most people who live here are Californians. So really they are complaining about themselves. I'm one of the few people here who was actually born here, so I have good reason to complain about California drivers. And often when you see someone driving over 100mph it frequently is a California plate.
i’m from chicago and the only one of these i’ve heard about my city is the “great fire” but for chicago it was actually important because it led to the invention of the skyscraper, which led to the modern city.
I agree, the Chicago fire is special because of its global impact.
I also live in Chicago, but I'm from Cleveland. Cleveland probably has some stories of big fires, but the most significant one is the Cuyahoga River catching on fire. Both actually still seem like significant events that other cities don't quite relate to still. But maybe that's just me justifying my own small world my life exists in.
I live in Calgary, we had a Great Fire, our NHL is even named the Flames after it. But it's not named after the Great Calgary Fire...it's named after the Great Atlanta Fire, where the team was from before it moved here.
@@brandonking1737thats hilarious
I lived in Chicago for 10 years, but grew up in NY and live in Boston now, with friends in DC and LA. people in Chicago believe their love of sports is greater than that of people in other cities, in my observation. you ain't got the big finance or hollywood, but you think you really love those Cubs more than those posers in NY love the Yankees.
So I grew up thinking that my city (Sydney, Aus) was basically like most cities, but was totally unprepared for moving to a much smaller city in the UK - it's still technically a city, but the difference between a few hundred thousand people and five million people is pretty spectacular (in hindsight, duh). Here, I can see 'the countryside' out my window, which was a completely foreign idea in Sydney, where you can drive in a straight line for 2+ hours and still be in the suburbs. A lot of the cultural and geographical markers of 'the city' that I was used to and expected to find anywhere are just not here. And I didn't even think Sydney was a 'big' city based on the reference points I had - cities in Asia where a lot of my friends were from have populations that are orders of magnitude bigger than us, and the cities in the US that I was familiar with (NYC, Chicago, LA) were of a similar size.
I'm pretty sure in Aus we'd just call the 'city' I currently live in a 'town', but the difference between a town and a city in local vernacular is itself an interesting cultural artefact.
Surely there are smaller cities close to nature in Aus aswell?
@@KtT-sn8cy I mean, there's 'nature' everywhere in Aus - where I lived in Sydney I was within half an hour's drive from three or four different national parks which were contained inside the bounds of the city, not to mention the beach/harbour/local bush reserves. But I think the thing with Australian cities is that they typically sprawl, so there's no firm line between the end of the suburbs and the beginning of the countryside (i.e. farmland). As you reach the outskirts of Sydney (and smaller regional cities), properties start getting bigger and you see a mix of big, new build mcmansions and hobby farms/houses with small attached paddocks, and then the paddocks attached to the houses get bigger and bigger until you're no longer in the city. There isn't really a clear-cut 'edge' - in fact, the first time I visited a European city and climbed a churchtower to see the view, I was absolutely floored by the fact that there was a wall around the city and then the city just stopped, and beyond the wall there was just no more city, only forest/farmland.
It could also be due to changes in elevation? Etc… for example, when I’ve gone to Sheffield, even though I live in a smaller UK city in a truly rural county (Lincolnshire) I could see the countryside from within the city, simply due to the effect of steep hills etc…
whereas where I live, even though I’m closer to countryside, due to the flat terrain, you can’t really see it unless you’re on the outside of the city.
I'm curious if anyone else has their city do this. My city (Canada) decided to be more inclusive of the native American heritage by writing a greeting in their native language all over the city like a slogan, and also invites tribal elders to any official city events to give a traditional prayer or something of the sort. I feel like this is something that pretty much any city can use as a representation of their local "specialness" that really is generic enough to be used for the same effect everywhere in NA.
Seattle has some areas with Native American languages in the sculptures/plaques. Definitely trying to acknowledge the original residents of the area ❤
Same in Ottawa 😂 the national capital commission even renamed Sir John A MacDonald driveway to an Algonquin name
I would imagine the northern parts of Sweden, Norway, Finland does this with the Sami people.
Yup, this exists in quite a few different cities
@@kateness8I think it’s Lushootseed specifically
This is why I live in the suburbs, so JJ will never be able to shock me my making a video telling me where I live isn't special.
🤣
“Oh yeah, well our home town hero settled this land when no one else took the chance!” - Suburban White lady
He doesn't have to cuz you already know right?
My college had a similar bad-architect legend: that the parking garage was originally designed to be 5 stories tall, but they only built three when they realized they'd forgotten to account for the weight of the cars
Pedant here. Architects have no responsibility for calculating building loadings. As a former engineer I think I should point this out!
@@rogink I know, but I used architect because it's what he used in the video
@@rogink I'll add that accounting for the weight on every floor is such a basic civil engineering concept that even undergrad mechanical engineer students study it.
yeah , that whole story is nonsense. no one starts building before noticing this sort of error on a basic construction job that has been done thousands of times. and you can just put more support columns and stuff like that into the design to hold the weight of the cars to get to your 5 stories. it's a parking garage, they ain't meant to be pretty, put some more metal poles in there.
My city has a 5 floor parking garage that was in use before anyone realized they had completely forgot about storm water drainage. A bunch of vehicles were destroyed in the first flash flood and the building had to have drains and piping instead.
I'm from Portland, OR and as many may or may not know or not, Portland's unofficial official motto is "keep Portland weird" and this series now has me wondering just how weird Portland even is to begin with. I know it was a "stolen" slogan, but in my casually existing as a human in the US, it seems Portland does indeed have some eccentricities that are at the very least not particularly common.
dont you guys have rain? and a japanese pitcher? run with that.
Oregon does have a great used bookstore, Powel's, which seems unique. I also saw a lot of pride in Bigfoot, as if they're they only part of country with that legend.
@@yosefkenner2376 I've never understood the draw to Powel's. It's just a book store, and nearly everything in there is cheaper online. I honestly think you're better off going to the MultiCo Library
Huh … Austin ,Texas has that exact same unofficial/official motto. “keep Austin weird” …you know from all the new people coming in who want to change it. They might as well just say , Hippies live here .
@@ginxxxxxportland doesnt even have a mlb team
I love this series! Keep it up
I think car dealerships are always in weird parts of town because they take up so much space. It wouldnt make much sense to use prime downtown real estate for what is essentially a massive parking lot
The more odd parts of town are often cheaper than downtowns, which is why you rarely find a dealership in a downtown where space is at a premium.
That's also why a lot of bridal shops tend to open in slightly sketchier parts of town. Not necessarily bad parts, just now as nice as the main downtowns usually are. Sure, dresses might cost you $5k, but you can only sell so many and there's a lot of other costs. So they tend to stick to where it's cheapest unless they're really big and have a lot of clout in the wedding scene
Then Carvanha comes along with its "car vending machines"... which it still only builds in the middle of nowhere.
@@TheRealE.B. That's often due to regulations. Also, a lot of dealerships are in the middle of nowhere due to distance related non-compete agreements. Like, you literally cannot have two of the same dealership brands in a given area. Used or new. And often when you see it, it's the same owner. It's why you'll sometimes see a random off highway dealership outside of a city
at least in my city most of the big dealerships are along the giant outerbelt. a southwest cluster, a northwest cluster, a northeast cluster and a few in the southeast
I'd like to make a suggestion for a possible video titled something a long the lines of:
*"Nope! Your small town isn't special either!"*
And one topic you could potentially discuss is how some people might be under the impression that their radio DJ interviewed a famous celebrity on the radio. In reality, the interview is just a celebrity reading off a script, talking to a recording of the celebrity, and then probably recording the finished recording to be played over the radio later. Even back in the day record labels sold radio stations special records with the celebrity's voice on it for that exact purpose.
I know you talked about how radio stations might claim that a reporter is "our man in (insert far away place here)" before cutting to them, but I feel this just distinct enough to be worth a mention.
Having spent the majority of my life in small towns in Alberta, I've found that there's certain common things to every small town on the prairies; the chinese buffet restaurant, the generic family restaurant/diner, the clothing store that's been around for 50-80 years, some local that everybody knows because they're either really weird or just an abnormally dickish individual.
Growing up and traveling the world more has not only made me feel like my city isn't as unique as I thought it was, but also that everywhere else (at least in the US) is too similar. When someone talks about wanting to travel to some other city in the US, especially a medium or small sized one, my first thought is always "Why? What do they have that's worth seeing? It'll just be as boring as here". Somehow traveling has reduced my desire to do it more lmao.
When I was young I went to all the states and across Canada to see weird museums, roadside attractions, national parks, etc. I went to Burning Man several summers in a row. I wouldn't go back to Burning Man man if someone footed all expenses. It's mostly youthful wanderlust but I wish I had spent those years building a career or something meaningful.
Nashville, Austin, Pittsburg, and Minneapolis are the only real worthy small cities to visit. Anywhere else worth visiting is a major city, and the others are kinda average at best. I guess places like St, Louis or Detroit are unique in being among the worst to visit for any sort of recreation as opposed to business.
im from a midsize city in the midwest. doing some traveling honestly a lot of cities are really similar at the end of the day.
Milwaukee is, at least in my experience, said to have friendly residents. This may just be a product of the supposed friendly and outgoing nature of people from the upper mid-west. I'll also point out that climate and physical geography is indeed genuinely unique to cities, or at least cities in a certain region. It can be said that, for example, Milwuakee is a very cold and windy city along with Minneapolis/St Paul and Chicago. Other example included raininess in Vancouver/Seattle/Portland, snowieness in Detroit/Cleveland/Buffalo, and heat in Phoenix/Las Vegas/Touscon. The issue with climate is that people talk about weather too generally to differentiate different cities when the overall climate is often genuinely unique given how large the US and Canada are
The anecdote about the sinking library reminds me about how probably every city has a ghost walking tour of all the haunted places. And I'm pretty sure they use the same ghost stories in all of them:
-the person who comes home from the vacation and develops the film, and there's a photo of them sleeping (taken by the ghost of that haunted hotel)
-the former child morgue turned special needs children's school where the special needs kids are able to talk to the ghosts of the dead kids (autistic children having second sight like dogs is a common ghost story trope)
Sometimes they work in the hanging judge as well
man im autistic and i cant talk to ghosts what am i doing wrong
@@mistymysticsailboat I guess the ghosts didn’t know. You just have to go up to a haunted place and announce that you’re autistic and they’ll be fighting one another over who can speak to you first 😜
I suspect that the ghost in a photo story comes from the early days of cameras where the film needed several minutes to capture the image. If you didn't wait long enough then some objects looked like they were floating and partially transparent (similar to what we think of when we talk about ghosts). Having a ghost in your photo became very popular at times in the 1800s. Most people today probably have no idea how to do such an image without Photoshop or a filter so they could easily believe that it is a ghost.
We have a ghost walk tour in October and it's got neither of those stories. Neat tour of an old bank vault, though. Probably some ghost story thrown in there, but I mostly just found myself fascinated by the architecture.
Austin actually has the opposite issue from the loneliness “hard to talk to people thing”.
People will randomly start conversations with anybody to the point if you’re not ready for it it can be annoying. So at least the city doesn’t consider itself a city that’s hard to make friends.
That's a general southern thing. In fact in my experience Austin has a particular affinity for the high and mighty type that thinks they're too important to glance at you. Cunts.
Same with my hometown of Madison, WI
We’re a notoriously friendly city
Detroit has that too - it's kind of a midwest friendly and "we're not jerks!" thing we do... because people think we're a violent city. Like on the Detroit subreddit, most "I visited Detroit and" posts I see basically boil down to "I had to go to Detroit for work and expected to be mugged 5 times before I left the plane but everyone was so friendly to me! Like random people would just ask me how my day was!" and as a resident it's true. Random people on the other side of the street will just be all "HEY YOU... HOW YA DOIN? YA DOIN' GOOD? EY THATS AWESOME GOOD GOOD"
Hmmm, WHICH Austin? NV or TX? I've been to both and lived in Austin, TX from Aug 1978 to August 1979. Liked it and wanted to retire there. By 1987 when I visited, it felt like I was in LA or NY so I didn't.
@@SchwarbageTruck I passed through detroit bus terminal about 2 months ago and I gotta say it was every ounce as hood as its pop reputation. My taxi got in a car chase. It felt like GTA.
Canberra, the capital of Australia, is so proud of being close to nature that "Canberra - the Bush Capital" used to be on the number plates. It also has the "more like a small town" meme.
this was a good video and really i have nothing negative to say about it. i understand his points and why he made them. look at it from a different point of view that does not take away from the premise of this video, bragging about nature makes more sense if you lived without it. some of the other points can be viewed in this light. On a direct counter point, California is a place with a high population that many consider friendly.
I love this series, JJ!
Even if they buy a script, there is immense skill in making an actually memorable ad. In the same way that repeating a good joke isn't sure to make someone laugh.
i am about to say the very thing that this video warns against BUT i remember miami had a famous dude who made funny car ads (a person not just a busines). i am sure these "famous" ads are on youtube.
Like how Mitch Hedberg jokes are more reliant on the timing of than punchline rather than the actual punchline
The University of Calgary has the rumour about the library sinking into the ground. Ours was actually given some legitimacy however, as our old library was dark, dingy, and falling apart to the point that the top half of the building had to be closed for safety reasons and a new library was built next door. HOWEVER, the building had a complete renovation involving a complete strip of the sandstone facade down to the concrete structure and replacing it with glass. I learned on a construction tour of it that the building actually experienced the OPPOSITE, where the loss of all that weight from the sandstone caused the soil to rebound, pushing the building back out of the ground. I am unsure if this was accounted for by the engineers, but it's still a funny, unique story regardless.
As for the mini doughnuts, since most fairs are operated by the same company touring the continent, I would argue that those doughnuts are in fact "World Famous"...but not because of the fair specifically, but because the operator makes them everywhere/
University of Waterloo has a number of these types of stories including the sinking library. They are really popular here since the University started as an engineering school so the stories have the added irony of presenting badly engineered buildings meant to teach new generations of engineers. The real reason for the weird construction is that the University was built on hilly land so many buildings are actually built into the sides of hills and there are many underground tunnels between the buildings. In addition, the school fully acknowledges that the biggest Engineering building was badly designed and had structural issues that the University had to correct over the decades. Engineering Professors at the school like to use this for case studies on how not to design a building.
I would say Chicago is a good example of a city that thinks of itself as friendly. It also doesn’t brag about being uniquely close to nature (and it isn’t). I suppose the closest thing to that would be Lake Michigan but I don’t think you’ll find very many Chicagoans thinking of the lakefront as “nature”. It has an 8 lane highway running along it for gods sake
I think there are loads of cities that love talking about how "friendly" they are, in my experience, these cities tend to be the least friendly or at least the least welcoming to outsiders. Places like Columbus, Salt Lake City, and most cities in the South come to mind.
It's definitely a regional thing in the US. South and Midwest tend to be associated with friendliness. Northeast tends to be associated with being busy or brash so people won't stop and say hello. Pacific Northwest I tended to hear about the "Seattle Freeze", where people are surface level friendly while being standoffish.
I'm from Salt Lake City and I agree. I hate you.
I find people in Salt Lake City to be genuinely friendly. I don't live there - just visited a few times.
@@patricklippert8345 Midwest, with the exception of Minnesota. Minneapolis has the same reputation as Seattle.
@@patricklippert8345I grew up in Seattle and have lived here my whole life, and always thought the Seattle Freeze was hogwash. I also rarely spoke to anyone I didn’t know, was weirded out by how friendly everyone was when I traveled to other cities, and thought my friends who were from other cities were nuts when they tried to tell me how cold people were compared to where they were from.
I finally admitted it exists when I was sitting in a bus stop and a guy nearby started chatting with me, just like, regular chatting (I’m a dude and I don’t think he was gay, so he wasn’t hitting on me). I was surprised that someone would talk to someone else at a bus stop, then I realized he had a strong Brazilian accent and was a tourist. Then I realized that almost anyone I’d spoken to on the street, and I commuted every day, was a tourist. I also realized that every friend I’d made as an adult were not from Seattle (I have many friends and family in the area that I’ve known since childhood, but of the friends I’ve made as an adult, they are all from elsewhere and it was them extending friendship towards me).
I realized my friends from other places were right, and there is a Seattle Freeze.
I am from Chicago and I have always known Chicago as a friendly city, i think it even runs a reputation as such. I regularly chat up with strangers in public or make complex gags with stranger that are just like random improv as we pass. Chicago is the third biggest city so its hard to call it small. It usually attributed as a midwest thing and not for being small.
I agree even compared to the twin cities were I'm from. In my extremely limited 3 day experience of chicago I had more positive interactions with strangers on transit than in a whole year of twin cities transit. It's not that people are mean in the twin cities, just indifferent and passive aggressive.
"My kind of town, Chicago is
My kind of people, too
People who smile at you"
@@zacharyabelson8196 yeah I grew up in chicago and phoenix and chicago was always full of nice people. I wanna move to the twin cities and people have warned me of that, but everyone in phoenix is an asshole because its so hot and everyone moved from somewhere else so everyone hates each other because "damn people from X city do Y thing that annoys me" which is actually just a thing that everyone does, they just blame it on people from Iowa/Chicago/california/Minnesota/etc.
I am from the Deep South and have always loved Chicago for the friendliness, along with great things to do.
Once I was at a bus stop and asked the bus driver if this was the right bus for wherever I was headed. He said no, but just get on and we’d figure it out. As we pulled away he called over his shoulder, she’s trying to get to…. (wherever, I don’t remember). The entire bus then engaged in a conversation about the best route. Several blocks later he pulled over with instructions to “walk 2 blocks that way and catch the bus marked….” Everyone wished me good day and the driver wouldn’t let me pay the fare.
I was looking for someone who would comment on this. Chicago is friendly and advertises itself as such. It's easy to make friends and if you live in one of the neighborhoods, you'll have everyone up in your business.
JJ, I have been a follower from Iowa of your channel for several years now. I have found your videos both entertaining and informative. I especially enjoyed your videos on Bill C-11 controversy. My fear is that something like that bill is headed this way some day. What I would be interested in seeing is your take on the history of Canadians who served in the the American Civil War. It is my understanding that over 30,000+ Canadians participated, primarily, on the Union side and that there is a monument to them in Canada. Thanking you in advance, bob smyth
I had this vid on in the background and heard the Zumbrota Ford ad and got spooked because it’s from a dealership in the town next to me. Thanks, JJ
IDK, I’d say New Orleans is pretty unique. ⚜️😉
But yeah, I’ve got friends from like Austin and Portland who are like "We’Re sOoO qUirKy! 🤪" lmao
You know, I heard that Vancouver is the home is this very special canadian youtuber... I dont think I can recall the name, but he talks about canada, countries and culture.
That's prety unique.
Man, I wish you remembered the name of his channel. That sounds like the kind of channel I would subscribe to!
these videos always ironically make my city (chicago) feel more special: we're too populous for wacky low budget commercials, we're hours from anything resembling nature, and we pride ourselves on being Midwest Nice despite being a big city
“Midwest Nice” Chicago can fuck off with that. Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Des Moines, Kansas City? Sure. Sometimes obviously. But Chicago? I think of Chicago I mistake the people for Philadelphia.
I need more JJ content. I’ve binged the last 8 years in hours a long time ago and 20 a minute break from my reality once a week is not enough
The point of the great fire is actually interesting bc our "great fire" in Cleveland was actually our whole time river catching in flames bc of pollutants. Which I thought surely made us unique when in fact the only unique quality for us was how many times it caught fire there were in fact other cities with similar problems ours was just noteworthy in how often it happened (13 times)
And yes it did catch on fire last year too...despite all the work being out into making it not horrendously nasty
Also: "Our city has it's name in giant letters near City Hall that you can take your picture with!"
Congrats on 500 videos!
I find these videos quite interesting because of just how little of it we get where I live. Most people don't have delusions of our cities "standing out" here, because living in the heart of LA suburban sprawl makes it abundantly clear just how insignificantly different each individual town is.
Regarding how hard it is to make friends: You also live in the Pacific Northwest. The isolation is something that I think it also uniquely regional to our part of the continent. Community institutions like churches, Elks lodges, and other groups that bring wide swaths of people together are things that folks in this region are less likely to be part of and the Seattle Freeze is a thing. I know that I have a lot of friends who have moved here from other places who talk about how different the culture is here in that respect. I’ve also had a lot of friends who have visited other major cities and mentioned how much easier it is to meet people there than in the NW. I haven’t done a science on it, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it is a thing here compared to other places.
Lots of cities have some cute version of a nickname like “Seattle Freeze”
@@JJMcCullough Same with its polar opposite, 'Minnesota nice'.
@@judgesaturn507 Minnesota nice and the Seattle Freeze are close cousins, not opposites. Minnesota nice is all about being hospitable and polite, but also guarded and reserved. The local joke is that a Minnesotan will give you directions to anywhere but their house. Great if you're visiting and can enjoy the hospitality afforded to guests, but it's incredibly hard to break into (mostly long established) social groups if you actually move here.
@@farmboyjad I'm sure that same joke is told everywhere across North America.
@@JJMcCulloughAgreed. Noah Kahn charted with a whole song (Northern Attitude) singing ‘I’m mean because I grew up in New England.’
I'm from a subburb of DC very close to the city andcurrently at college, and I'm constantly shocked just how much less diverse small towns are, which although part of the diversity of where I'm from is due to it being DC, I'm sure part is just due to it being a city, so I'd bet that a common trope is "look at us we're so diverse and special" from people like me who live in 1 other place and just see how different it is, then come back and tell everyone how this city is so special.
Edit: people are saying how diversity doesn't matter, one word: restaurants. My college town has 1 thai restaurant, 1 vietnamese restaurant, and 1 restaurant of another country I'm forgetting. They're all the same place. Where I'm from we have an entire shopping mall sized area dedicated solely to vietnamese restaurants and they are some of the best places I have eaten in my entire life. You don't get that without a lot of diversity.
Diversity isn’t a good thing
@c1ifactation the number of vietnamese restaurants near me disagrees
I live in rural Indiana and yeah most small towns only have about 1 or 2 “races” with very small minorities of the others. My town for example is mostly white and Hispanic, while the only evidence of any Asian presence are a few businesses owned by them, and I can count the number of times I’ve seen an African American here on one hand.
Who gives a hoot about diversity? Never once in human history have people cared
Green Bay also has a lot of Vietnamese, Chinese and Thai restaurants because we have a large Hmong community here from the refugees that moved here after the Vietnam War. We also have a lot of Native American bars and a lot of politically conservative people
I think that the cities being unfriendly/hard to make friends is more a consequence of not running into the same people. On the rare occasion that I ran into the same person for a third or so (and remembered it) that is usually enough to strike up a friendly conversation.
Not so much cities, but regions. When it comes to construction projects (especially road projects), the Midwest tends to get them done a LOT faster than the Southern states. That's because in the Midwest, you really only have two seasons: Winter and Construction. Everything has to be done in 3 months or you'll have a half-finished project irritating everyone in the entire community for the next 9 months until the next construction season. In the South, there is no winter and so construction projects that would be done in 3 months in the Midwest take 3 years to complete in the South.
Another fun one! I loved the cutout people walking on the college campus. Fear the Walking Living! LOL. I prefer the silly air-filled giant tube waving around to all those corny local ads, too! Thanks, J. J. 😄✌
I’m not sure if you’ve mentioned this in a previous video but everyone likes to comment on how their city has the worst drivers and that nobody knows how to zipper merge. I’ve noticed that every city oriented social media has the same zipper merge qualm
Here in Britain, with the exception of London every city apparently has a “friendly and warm” atmosphere.
In Sweden some elder cities has a medieval event, day, days or week. I have attended a few of them and the most known is on the island Gotland. I noticed that it was the same people at the various medieval festivals. I think that it might be the same in many other European cities.
My city’s a bit quirky, we put lots of holiday decorations. Surely nobody else does that
No way! Halloween AND Christmas??
@@JJMcCullough You bet ya. There’s a street called candy cane lane with the most lights
@@michaeltnk1135Oh! I know where you’re talking about exactly. I live in the city with a street called Candy Cane Lane and come the holidays it actually has the most lights of anywhere around!
@@davidroddini1512 Yeah I think most big cities have one. Mine is Los Angeles’s
@@michaeltnk1135 Ohhh, I thought you were talking about Cleveland
Oh! I can actually speak on the donut thing. My grandparents are fair people and run a bunch of stalls.
The reason they feel unique is because vendors can sign agreements to be the only person selling a particular product. I'd probably work 5-10 fairs a year growing up. And it wasn't uncommon for a customer to angrily report someone at blank fair sells blank novelty cake or apple or food. Or the alternative, accusations from people suggesting they know for a fact so and so at blank fair invented that food and we stole it and how dare our booth have an identical marquee.
Oh really, that makes sense
Most of the ones I've seen had food trucks, which of course claim to be unique, but it wouldn't surprise me if other areas have "modern taco bar" trucks, Jamaican food trucks, and Hungarian chimney cakes, as many cities are multicultural to some extent. Just in Canada, poutine is a staple of such events.
Some of this stuff can even be applied to international cities as well. The mini donuts thing is very specific to a memory/experience I had with a mini donut kiosk that used to exist in this one mall I went to a long time ago.
We have the rug store and the giant flag thing where I live, but the craziest one that was on this list was the wedding stores. Near me there's a plaza with 12 Pakistani wedding boutiques (I know because I spent an entire day going to all of them with my friends) which I was baffled by because we were the only customers in most of them.
My college library had a less fun fact. It was a big cube shape with the stacks on the edge and a big atrium in the middle. They had to put up higher and higher walls on the staircase because students kept jumping off the ones on the higher stories.
There is a flag museum about an hour from me (has the second largest flag collection in the country) that I often visit (because I’m also a huge flag nerd) that does literally have the biggest Canadian flag in the world. I’ve seen it! Well, pictures of it and the box it’s stored in anyways.
If you ever come to Winnipeg I’ll gladly take you there as a fellow flag nut
Love that you included my local wacky ad guy (Dodd, from Vancouver Island).
I'm wondering if small towns have less illusions about being special because we regularly interact with similarly-sized neighbors.
After growing up in one, I think they are more delusional.
So many people stay in the same one for their whole life thinking it’s so unique without really traveling much and seeing what the area outside of their county is like.
And when something is slightly different, they get very judgy and are ready to return to their boring s-hole.
1:42 Me, watching this in Milwaukee 😒
But I agree whenever there's something weird in a city people say "Only in..."
I live in Milwaukee too, it’s the best! Just ignore the rain the last few days…
Okay but does YOUR city have that one area that you wouldn’t KNOW is sketchy by looking at it, but that the locals instinctually know to avoid? (The trick is, it either is actually visibly run down or the people saying it are bigoted in some way)
Of course not! That’s just unique to our city. 😉
It’s pretty bigoted of you to assume they’re only saying it because they’re bigots, what if their own lived experience shows that that’s not a good area?
I got told when I was in San Francisco to avoid a couple of places because they were "Dangerous".
I wandered over to those areas incidentally and found that it was simply predominantly Asian but nothing sketchy.
No, you'll know it's sketchy by the collapsing buildings and liquor stores with bars on the windows.
When I lived in Atlanta in the ‘90s, I did notice that it was an uncommonly friendly place. I’d just be sitting in a mall eating lunch or whatever, and people would come over and ask me what I was reading and strike up a conversation. People I only vaguely knew from work would invite me to go on pub crawls or RPG game nights (which were a big deal at the time) people made eye contact. I mean I narrowly escaped being mugged there once, so that only goes so far, but it was easily the friendliest big city I’d ever lived in.
Some of that, I think, is due to the fact that I lived *in* the city. When I’d go visit friends in the suburbs, that area was just as isolated and standoffish as anywhere else.
i LOVE this series
As someone who lives in the middle of Houston but is from rural Oregon, yes I wish I was closer to nature 😭😭
To make the move from Oregon to Houston is known as “The Drexler Migration”
ill never forget the time i bought a rug on sale from a rug store that actually closed a month later
As an Idahoan, i think we might have a few genuinely unique foods at our West Idaho state fair!
First, with Boise being the home to the largest Basque diaspora in North America, we have a Basque food stall, something I think you’d be hard pressed to find anywhere else.
We also have Ice Cream Potatoes, which are potato-shaped balls of ice cream tossed in cocoa powder, making the creation resemble a potato. In my whole life living in Idaho, I still haven’t tried one.
Don't you also have the largest replica of a potato? I remember seeing it one time when visiting the USA, and it was just a giant potato looking thing on a massive truck trailer. In Canada, I've seen the largest statues/replicas of an apple, blueberry, and milk carton. Although only the milk carton one was in a city, that was in Quebec. And of course there's no one who actually measured these things to compare with other regions.
and hey you also have built to spill, which not many other cities can attest to having ig lol
When you mentioned the whacky town centre act, it reminded me of the poor fellow in My city of Liverpool. RIP Pete (Aug 2023), though you were strange, you were always there.
Bro I freaking love ur vids
I love this series! Is there a good video about what makes cities of North America unique?
This whole series is about what makes North American cities “unique”. 🤷♂️
Shoot, we actually made the local wacky car commercial guy our mayor.
That is also common.
I think my city has actually had 2 wacky car commercial guys go on to become mayor.
@@JJMcCullough I'd be surprised if that wasn't a Simpsons storyline by now.
You should make one of these videos about US and Canadian Colleges. I have a feeling all the big state schools tell their kids the exact same things
Love the Milwaukee shoutout!
For Europe: that one historic street that is just a pretty recent reconstruction vaguely inspired by how it was before the war.
This actually is a good idea. Unfortunately, huge amounts of great architecture were or still are destroyed by horrible wars. So to save the historic and cultural heritage, it's much better to reconstruct the place as accurately as possible. Otherwise, only places not touched by wars will be able to enjoy "historic" buildings.
@@gamermapper I don't have a problem with reconstructions, in general, but too many of the end up looking like Disney Land rather than a real city.
I’ve lived in about 5 cities and I’ll say Washington DC is a bit unique in the friend department from where else I’ve been. Socializing and networking blend in weird ways and the fact that people are constantly moving in and moving away more than the average absolutely discourages depth.
I really respect how JJ put the sponsorship shoutout at end of this video instead of at the beginning
Hi JJ! I met you at Bouldin Creek Cafe in Austin, Tx last weekend. You were taking a photo of a mural of a recording engineer named Spot painted by Tim Kerr who are both local legends here in Austin. I had to do a double take because I couldn't believe I was seeing you at my neighborhood Cafe but there you were. Thanks for letting me say hi 👋
I think with the increasing interest in pop-vexillology and the replacement of city flags (especially with ones that follow all the "rules of good flag making"), a lot of cities are proud of a chic new flag that's actually already become quite run-of-the-mill
Yea! Very true. “Our new flag is a design masterpiece!” (Three triangles representing mountains)
@@JJMcCulloughliterally Pocatello
I'll take "3 blue triangles vs 1 red star" over "circle seal surrounded by blue vs circle seal surrounded by blue"
@@hbeehives5977For a state flag? Sure. For a local flag? It doesn't matter, man.
I deeply hate the "rules of good flag design". The whole idea of having an easily recognizable at a glance flag is such a state-corporate thing. I like weird flags that require my looking at them and have me stumble upon unexpected details. Like the flag of my Province, Andalucia: it has three stripes and a seal in the middle, but the seal has a small internal stripe that alignes with the outher lower stripe. And it has Hercules and a lion and columns and wording, and it's so much, it's like decoding a complex cocktail ❤
the library at UMass Amherst in Massachusetts infamously was designed with improper loads for some of the exterior. it was comically tall and would sway in the wind which caused the massive windows to occasionally fall off back in the late 80s. the building had to have temporary scaffolding for people to walk under near the building to avoid someone being crushed. I've heard it attributed to the weight of the books but that always seemed dumb to me
My city also has multiple historical buildings that have been moved to other places with the use of trucks and all that, which im sure is common for any city that has "historical town down" thats known for having that charm that the rest of the city lost
You should do a video on the same topic but about countries. For example: Here in country X we drink alot of alcohol
I think naturally now there needs to be a video about actually unique cities in Canada
Quebec City comes to mind
I am going to go with the opposite reaction to what is expected... I had no idea about the existence of "destination" shopping districts, in any city. I figured everyone just bought Wedding Dresses from the David's Bridal that is in every shopping mall in the burbs.
You are always welcome to visit us in the very unique Milwaukee (or Madison) WI after your MKE shoutout!
Especially to speak with attorney David Gruber, or to visit Rosen Automotive, possibly try Sil's donuts, see a show at summerfest/the state fair, could learn about the Peshtigo fire (bigger than the Chicago), shop in the Third ward, hangout at veteran's park on lake michigan, and even travel to see the cages in the UW Madison College library! 😂
....people are incredibly friendly here, cannot relate...especially if you're at a bar.
I remember hearing about a guy known as a Hanging Judge in Victoria BC's history. He wasn't known for being particularly brutal or anything. He just threatened to hang the jurors if they came back with a hung jury.
I lived in Houston for two years after college and I was shocked by how friendly and chatty everyone in that city was.
When I moved back to Dallas it took me a while to break the habit of making smalltalk with strangers in every line I found myself in.
True
University library thing: I was definitely told in orientation, and was personally convinced, that Milner Library at Illinois State University (early 2000’s era Milner) was not sinking, but poorly designed for rain run off and that’s why the place was alllllllways leaking. Garbage cans and random pipes directing away seeping water everywhere, always musty and damp. This was a problem considering, you know, all the books. I was told they installed the “upside down circus tents” outside to redirect rain away from the building.
This is my favorite JJ series :)
I’ll throw in another one this time: similar to the bridal or luxury car district, there’s the district that has gone to commercial hell and back. It’s not “the real [city name here]” and “only tourists go there.” Times Square was the prototype for this and you’ll even see “ticker tape” marquees (e.g. Gallery Place in Washington DC). Bonus points if there is some large sports/concert venue there that was built after a fight over how to finance it.
Also, sometimes this takes the form of a bar district with a set of smaller venues (e.g. Sixth Street in Austin)
yes thats very accurate for my city. however its a convention center and a freeway that cut it off from downtown nearby instead of a stadium
hearing you say "only in milwaukee" legimately scared me because where i live was the last place i expected you to bring up
Great video! I've never even seen mini donuts, so I must need to get out more to these county fairs.
We did remove the distinctive top half of our biggest university building because it was built on a fault line and not safe. That building in its original form is very sentimental to students despite not being all that interesting looking, and you can get keychains, t-shirts, stickers, and stuff sold by enterprising students on campus and on Etsy. Even new students coming in are lured into a fondness for a structure that didn't exist anymore by the time they enrolled. It's a bit of a mythical place, helped along by the assorted fun and shenanigans students got into in the empty upper stories during the year or so while it was being demolished.
What University? I kinda want to see the building now.
I live in a European capital with a story (myth) that a famous church staircase was twisted the wrong way around the tower and the architect subsequently jumped of the tower.
I’ll bet other cities in europe have similar stories about builders jumping of their life creations.
Don't they say that about the Leaning Tower of Pisa?
There's a "right" way to curve a staircase in a church?
@@stevethepocket There is a right way to curve a staircase in a defensive tower (clockwise so a right handed defender has space to strike down with the curve while a right handed attacker has no space to strike up against the curve)
I suppose a church might either adopt this idea or distance itself from it.
Here in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, there's a half-built building in the seaside George Washington Avenue, there's all sorts of legends circulating about why the building was never finished, but almost all of them include the architect or the engineer commiting suicide by jumping off the building.
@@f_f_f_8142 that’s the explanation I’ve heard also.
My dad was just telling me about the sinking library at UMass Amherst a few days ago. Certainly didn't expect that to show up here.
There is a stretch in Bucks county PA where there are a handful of different dealerships all on the same road, and 3-4 of them have the giant flags so it’s this drive past all these huge flags right next to each other
I used to live in a pretty low income part of town in Florida and I thought it was the weirdest thing that there were a couple of luxury car dealerships right by my apartment. Now it makes sense. I thought it was just the town I was in
People from Memphis really need to get over their Bass Pro Shop. Basically every city has a giant metal pyramid that sells outdoors gear
On the friendliness bit, here in Orlando I’ve heard the sentiment from quite a few people that the locals are especially friendly to each other, due to a common bond we have with each other in contrast to all of the tourists that blow through town without seeing the “city proper.” It’s almost like Orlando’s entertainment industry and the people it brings in create a sort of in-group/out-group sense of community with the locals.
Hi JJ, what's your hair routine? Looks really cool!