Digital Slash

Toronto never really comes up in discussion. Ever. Except for when I bring it up with my friends cause it's one of the places I'd like to live and when I say Yeah I wouldn't mind living in Toronto. i'll be met with ..That's in Canada, right? so not much is really known about Toronto. Some people might now ABOUT the CNN tower, but not alot of people really do unfortunatley. It's too bad cauze Toronto's a really great city IMO.

What if a tidal wave hit New York City? would you be against the reconstruction of it? Lots of cities have been distroyed in the past - Chicago, San Fransisco, Atlanta, London, Tokyo... they where all rebuilt.quote> A tidal wave hitting N.Y.C. and destroying Manhattan would be a freak accident. Chicago and London were both destroyed in fires. Once again, freak accidents. But NO is unique, and I don't think it should be rebuilt. Here's why: 1.) Hurricanes will continue to pound this area. I understand that there is only one mouth to the Mississippi, but it's just unwise to build a city here. 2.) Givin the current president and him coming from sprawly Texas, and with the trend today being to build sprawly cities (L.A., Houston, Vegas, Pheonix) I'd be worried that NO would be rebuilt into a major suburb. 3.) It takes forever to get approval to build ANYTHING theses days, it would take forever to rebuild an entire city! And after/during rebuilding the city could be destroyed again.

It's definently either Chicago or Honk Kong. Chicago blows any other North American city out of the water when it comes to finance (save New York). And I read an article recently saying that Chicago's futures and commodities market surpassed the NYSE or some other New York financial institutions. Can't remember the article that well. And someone said that Boeing's HQ was in Seattle, but aren't they HQ'd in Chicago now? As far as L.A. and D.C. go. I can see someone making an argument for D.C. since it is the capitol of the world's most powerful country, but outside of the govt. D.C. doesn't really have a very strong or diversified industry. And L.A., uh, I don't really get why people think L.A. is so important. It's the 2nd largest American city and it has Hollywood. So? I mean I know they have an important port over there but is L.A. really that important? No.

I really like this building and I pray it will get built. Yes, it looks A LOT different from the other skyscrapers in Chicago, but that's a good thing. Someone else mentioned the Marina City Towers. If you've ever seen them you know how weird they look. But something people forget though is that for a long time those towers where the focal point of the city. And I'm sure there was a huge uproar when the John Hancock Center got built. It was grossly tall, was an odd triangle, was a bold black, and it was very far north of the city's center. People probably thought it was really out of place but today it has become one of the most beloved buildings in the Chicago skyline. This building is different but that's what's good about it. Chicago has plenty of boxes, so why not a spiral? It's height is also incredible. Finally a 2,000 footer in the U.S., and even better it's in Chicago. Oh, and why do people say that New York deserves the title of Nation's Tallest Building? Chicago has had it for over 30 years, Chicago has 3 of the world's 15 tallest buildings, the first skyscraper ever was invented and built in Chicago, so I think that Chicago is way more deserving of the title.

hairmetal4ever , you have a point about people not wanting to walk to public transportation, but the situation you described is pretty much a suburban problem. I live just outside of Chicago, in the same county but not w/in the city limits. So the suburb I live in isn't nearly as suburban as others are farther out west. People don't want to walk to a train station, in January (N. Hemisphere of course in this example), when it's windy as hell, below zero degrees, and snowing!! That's why we like cars!! If I need to go downtown I can walk to the train station which is five blocks away. That's very bareable during a typical Chicago winter. Or I could go to the bus stop a block away and take the bus down to the L station, then I'll take the L to Chicago. Not to mention that mass transportation is cheaper. Both mass-transportation situations I described would take under a half-hour during rush hour and for a ride there and back, the cost of taking the train would be just under $6 and the cost for the bus and L train would be $3.75 Driving that same distance could take me an hour or more during rush hour or just usual heavy traffic and while the cost of parking in the loop varies, it's for sure that you'll need a nice stack of $10's or $20's. And that's not even factoring high gas prices. The problem with all this is for people like me who have to have a car for their job. I meet with clients all day long at their convenience and I just can't depend on mass transit on my hectic schedule to get me where I need to be when I need to get there. That's the benefit of living/working in an urban enviornment, mass transporation would meet ur hectic schedule. In Chicago, busses and trains run frequently (every 5-10 min. during weekday rush). If that's not good enough, taxis are readily available. You might say that it's too expensive, but parking in Chicago is pretty expensive (if you can find it) and the cost of keeping your car in a parking garage can cost an upwards of $10,000 yearly. Here's a part nobody has mentioned. Lots of people, Americans especially, don't like being able to stick their arm out the window and touch the neighbors! We like space. That's not an accurate portrayal of city-living at all. My family lived in the city before we moved out to the burbs and if I stuck my hand out of the window, the only thing I'd touch is air. You have your space. Buildings (in Chicago at least) aren't usually built wall-to-wall. Only exception to that are townhouses. I would love it if all suburbs were centered around the person rather than the car. My suburb isn't perfect, but if you go farther out west, L train access is non-existent and bus stops are few and far between. I live in a suburb and yet have access to two L train lines (the blue and green lines), live close to a metra train station, have easy bus access, and can walk to my barber/video-rental store/bank/grocery store/McDonalds or Subway/clothing store/restaurant. That's what smart growth is about. The car is a luxury, not a necessity.

Thanks for tellin us, I had NO idea. Ugh I spent all that money on elevated highways cauze I thought that ground level highways wouldn't allow avenus to have on ramps with them. Oh well, at least I didnt spend all my money buildin the highway system, Ill just make the rest of it ground level. Thanks again for the direct info