Multicultural Cities

Not About Food
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I believe I contributed to thread drift by sharing thoughts and feelings in response to a comment on another thread, which I thought might be better done here.

While I contributed to thread drift, I think it was actually the title of the thread that made me look, so It wasn’t entirely my fault.

My response was something to the effect of how it feels to me when someone seems to refer to the USA as one monolithic culture, and me not thinking about it that way.

It seemed to ruffle feathers, and I think I must be missing more than I thought.

It made me think about all the places I have not lived.

I have lived in Brooklyn, Bronx, Queens, Washington DC, Los Angeles, and the San Francisco Bay area. Those are all in their own way, but not in the same way, extremely multicultural cities. It is when I visit some other areas I realize just how different life in the USA, outside of those areas can be.

That discussion left me wondering what are the most multicultural places in the world.

Brooklyn, Toronto, and Paris are mind-blowing to me, among the places I’ve been.

I found this, but I want to see if there is a more International Perspective.

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https://worldpopulationreview.com/world-city-rankings/most-diverse-city-in-the-world

Toronto, I guess.

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Houston surely. Chicago’s historic neighborhoods stood out - Ukranian, German, Swedish, etc. in addition to many usual suspects.

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Chicago regularly competes w/ Boston as among the most SEGREGATED cities in the country. A lot of that was very much by design. When interstates and train lines were going in, they made sure none white neighborhoods were bothered. Housing projects were deliberately sited using these as physical barriers to keep the ‘wrong’ people from easily getting to places they weren’t wanted. It’s less bad than it was 30 or 50 years ago, but it’s not great.

I’d also put Vancouver, BC on that ‘Diversity’ list. The city itself + the surrounding suburbs have huge communities of recent immigrants, and, accordingly, a FANTASTIC variety of food, most of which can be easily accessed via an affordable and generally well run public transportation system.

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Thank you!

Food is of course, a great example.

I’m trying to make it cultural and not racial, which can be different (“if you say so”, another frequent comment on “The Great British Menu”, and that lot :face_with_hand_over_mouth:).

I love Vancouver, but didn’t think of it that way! Interesting to me how in the USA, cultural diversity on the East Coast and West Coast is different. I wonder if Toronto and Vancouver cultural diversity is different the same way. Toronto felt different, although it’s been a very long time since I’ve been to either.

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having never been to Toronto, I couldn’t say. But living in Van. for 2+ years, I was absolutely spoiled rotten with easily accessible cuisine from around the world, and I never DIDN’T see people of obviously different cultural backgrounds any place I went. Any given bus, train, street, theater or restaurant was likely to have one person in a hijab, someone else in a yamulke, and another in a turban, all generally doing their thing and paying one another no mind at all. Sometimes all in one group! I really enjoyed that aspect of it. That also included my office (back in the before times).

The serious homeless/opioid crisis going on there, much less so.

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Nice reference! Exactly what I was wondering about. Thanks!

Miami, Florida? Wow! My son hated Orlando.

But this…

" Sometimes, a city draws a very large percentage of its foreign-born residents from a specific geographical area. For example, over 95% of Miami’s foreign-born residents come from [Central America]… Thus, Miami does not have the total global diversity that its relevance on the above lists would suggest."

“With regards to languages, New York City is the most linguistically diverse city in the world. Over 800 languages are spoken within the city’s five boroughs including many that face the risk of extinction…Queens, the city’s second most populous borough, is often considered the most ethnically diverse urban area in the world. Here, more than half of the population speaks a language other than English as a mother tongue.”

That was my feeling in Brooklyn.

Again, I’m drawing mostly on USA perspectives. London was amazing this way, but when I watch “Vera”, the scenery at least, London seems pretty different in North East England.

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Houston is increasingly intriguing. never would have believed that 30+ years ago.Right now I’m thinking of Vietnamese his there.

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Florida is screwy that way (well, a lot of ways).

There is zero comparison between Miami and Orlando other than lots of people in Florida.

I would agree on the diversity in Miami, especially with the note about the prevalence of Latinx inhabitants.

Orlando would still be a farm town if it werent for Disney.

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Berlin is likely the most diverse city in Germany, having drawn in many people from all over Europe and the rest of the world (well, Williamsburg, mostly :roll_eyes:) with its rich cultural life.

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http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/854.html

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That’s a lot of information! My sister used to live in Chicago, and we used to go to a lot of Greek restaurants.

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Tampa has a fairly rich cultural mix that lots of people dont know about. The Ybor City district still has families descended from the Cuban, Italian (mostly Sicilian) and Spanish folks who came here to build the cigar trade, and theres a small German community as well.

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So true.

Miami vis-a-vis the rest of Florida is like a country (not state) all unto itsself.

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Thanks! Have you lived in Germany?

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Born and raised.

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It’s on our short list of possibilities for places to visit next. We tend to keep going back to places nearest the Mediterranean, but finally broke free and got to the UK last year.

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Theoretically we’ll be there early June through late August, so do feel free to be in touch if your plans solidify :slight_smile:

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Thank you! It won’t be this year ( back to Italy next month!), but I will keep your endorsement in mind.

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