Archive for the ‘Society’ Category

Great cities across the globe are noted for some general characteristics. Some of these cities are recognized for their historic importance, and corresponding landmarks that frequently go along with it. Other cities are honored for various aspects of their culture and contributions to the world. Cities like Paris have a few iconic associations, art, food and romance. While most of the world’s great cities have a specific twist on the standard characteristics, they all have one or more of them and are iconic for them. One thing that stands out as a major aspect of New York is its architecture. Next day blinds is a standard feature of popular buildings, homes and architecture, and New York City is full of designs that stand out above among others. In addition, the very mention of New York, brings other obvious aspects to mind. Among them, and at the top of the list, is likely to be the theatre scene. Another is the great shopping, art museums and international cuisine. Of course the list might go on, but the aspects that were just mentioned supports the comment that most of the world’s great cities have similar iconic aspects, though each has their own particular spin.

By Jim Trodel

Meanwhile, the architecture of New York represents not only some of the most beautiful in the world, but also the diversity that the city itself stands for and symbolizes. Every great city has an incredible sky line, and New York’s is one of the most famous and easily recognized throughout the world. Among some of the more well known buildings found in the city are the Chrysler Building, the Empire State Building and the Lincoln Center. These are just three of the great buildings that are easily recognized in the city’s skyline and all are popular with tourists. The Chrysler Building is one of the most famous icons in the city. Interestingly, it is also the one that people will most likely not know it’s name, but recognize it by site. It has an Art Deco design and was actually the tallest building in the world, for eleven months, before The Empire State Building was constructed in 1931. The Empire State Building is a 102-story icon located at the corner of 5th Avenue and West 34th Street. It also happens to be one of the most famous landmarks in the world, and one of the city’s most popular tourist attractions. The Lincoln Center is home to the Metropolitan Opera House as well as Avery Fisher Hall. You can visit all of these and many more famous buildings while you’re in New York, and a simple tour on one of the buses will guide you past them and include an interesting story about their history and significance to the city. Designing any one of these buildings is the feat of a lifetime. Next Day Blind coupons allows similar accomplishments for your own home.

Every city has its legends.  Baltimore is one of the most historically rich cities in the United States, and therefore, is filled with myths and legends, some of recent origins, and some of times very long past.  In the summer of 1951, one such legend created the catalyst for an episode of what could be called mass hysteria in the city.  People who lived in the neighborhood of O’Donnell Heights were locking the doors of their houses, and staying in their Baltimore luxury hotels the minute the sun went down.

There were many newsworthy stories at this time in history, the Cold War and the Korean War had been in the headlines for months.  But during the summer of ’51, news of a mysterious stalker bumped everything else off of the first page.  The two newspapers, The Evening Sun and The Sun, may have been in part to blame, as the two competing papers fanned the flames of the community’s panic.  Ask anyone today who is familiar with this time, and no one has been able to understand the furor that was caused, how it got just so big.  By the time police investigators began looking into the reported sightings, the entire town was in a panic, and the mysterious stalker was blamed for everything from minor break-ins to stealing children from their beds in the middle of the night.

On any given night police would receive more than 200 phone calls of alleged sightings, but no one was ever actually attacked.  Some teenagers were arrested that summer, for petty pranks, but no phantom.  People who have looked into the case years later, speculate that there never was a phantom, that the mass hysteria was fueled by the dueling newspapers, and that peoples’ imaginations took over and ran a muck.  It’s like the old boogey man story, no one has ever seen the boogey man, but small children will behave when the boogey man is mentioned.  It’s the power of the imagination, and what a strong power that is.

Baltimore is one of the American cities that has rebuilt itself time and again.  This has not only created a visually beautiful and eclectic city, but it stands as testament to the spirit and the tenacity of the people of Baltimore.  Plumbing companies, and electrical companies, construction workers and civil servants, farmers and fisherman, Baltimore is a city that was built by the working class for the the working class.  In the years following the Civil War the city grew at a phenomenal rate.

Trade and commerce flourished, especially in the flour industry, and the construction of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad and the completion of the Erie Canal served to cement Baltimore as one of the major manufacturing and shipping centers in the country.  Architecture flourished, expanding on the Baltimore skyline and attaining the nickname for Baltimore, “Monument City”.  The city had been booming following the rebuilding after the war, but in 1904, catastrophe struck once again.

A fire broke out in the downtown district and took with it more than fifteen hundred buildings in thirty short hours.  But, just as the people of Chicago responded to the fire of 1871, the people of Baltimore saw it as a way to build a city that was better than before.  In just two short years, the papers were saying that one of the most disastrous events in their modern time had actually been a blessing.  The city rebuilt, but not soon after, the Great Depression led to mass exodus from the city.  This dramatic decrease in population led to years of economic strife.

True to the characteristics of those who remained however, a massive urban renewal took place beginning in the late 1970′s.  And now again, the Urban Village renewal project is underway.  This will bring more than three hundred new apartments to the area of the Inner Harbor, and will involve a massive renovation of the country’s longest running farmers market, The Lexington Market.  It is no wonder that so many people visit this city each year, and upon visiting, that so many people decide to make this wonderful city their hometown.