What's the biggest city you've been in, and what was it like?

I spent more than 30 years living in Manhattan, and my greatest desire is to go back. I hope to retire there, as I believe there is no better place to grow old than a great city with it’s culture, its shopping, its multi-ethnic cuisine, its easily navigable public transportation system, and the richness of its social life.

In terms of population that would be London.I would hate to live there though, way too noisy & crowded for my liking.Barcelona was nice, but my fave place has to be Paris.First time I went I was a kid maybe 12 or 13, awesome city.

@dpworkin Dude really? I don’t know if Manhattan is exactly like they show in movies, but regardless I totally gotta see it some day.

@ucme Paris is great. I never lived there but I went plenty of times with my parents when I was little. I don’t actually remember a hell of a lot but it still ruled lol.

Mexico City. It was unbelievably crowded, teeming with humanity.

I’ve visited both London and New York. I have no idea which of the two is the biggest but I love them both.

@Symbeline Yeah kind of a you had to be there sort of vibe.

I’m not sure of the populations, so I’m going with my gut feeling.

Mumbai India had to be the most crowded by far. Fascinating city, but incredibly hot and air conditioning was non-existent except for western-style hotels like the Oberoi.

2nd most crowded, New York. So much to do and so easy to get around.

3rd most crowded, London. A lot to do, easy to get around, and rich culture and history as well.

4th most crowded, Rome. So much beauty there, but not as easy to get around because the subway only has a few lines.

London pops up quite a bit. I’ve been there too, for about two hours, so I can’t really say. :/

I worked in San Francisco for 7 years, and miss it dearly. All the reasons dpworkin gives for Manhattan works for me for SF.
I have often visited Los Angeles, and I worked there for a few weeks. I hate it. I hate the crumby neighborhoods, the water, the air. The weather is nice, but the people mostly suck. Mostly.
I have been in New York City twice. The first time, I found myself apologizing to people for my not being rude. The second time, which was after 9/11, i found NYC to be most welcoming. I don’t think I could live there, though.
The biggest city I have been to is probably Shanghai. It is a beautiful and exotic place, with great cultural heritage, but no diversity, so I don’t think I could live out my years there.

I currently live in Los Angeles. I don’t care for it here. If I had it my way, I’d live in a smaller, peaceful town, but unfortunately I have to be here for my career.
The downside: the air quality sucks. The traffic is a nightmare. A lot of the people are pretentious and vain. I’m in the entertainment industry so a lot of people have a Schadenfreude based mindset. There’s some gang activity, but fortunately most of it happens in cities like Inglewood or Compton which is about 40 minutes away from me. I live in a much safer city which is nice, but I’ve seen plenty of young kids carrying guns and I’ve had plenty of people approach me to try and sale me drugs – that mostly happens when I’m filling my car up with gas. The hellz? Lulz.
The advantages: I doubt you’ll run out of things you can do. We have Disneyland, Six Flags and Universal Studios. You can take a tour of NBC and easily get tickets to Leno or Degeneres. There’s plenty of shopping and bars/clubs. The beaches are everywhere and we have some great restaurants. We’re also not too far from Vegas or Phoenix and luckily for me, I’m only 5 hours away from my parents by car.

About 9 years ago I traveled the coast of Australia and the last city we visited was Sydney. Oh my, it was absolutely gorgeous.
I was only there for a few days so I’m trying to remember what it was like. It was crowded, but I was in love with how beautiful it was. I would love to have a home there someday. :)

I know you don’t like your city, but it sounds awesome and interesting to me. And w00t Six Flags! Wanna trade? My town is all small, boring and peaceful. XD

I grew up in Los Angeles. I don’t think I’ve been to a bigger city. I love my home town. There are few other places I would ever live.

There’s only one city
It has everything.

It doesn’t have that pair of buildings in the photo any more.

So I guess it doesn’t have those.

@dpworkin
@tinyfaery
It will always have them. They are part of the Collective Unconscious forever.

NYC…it is a cool place to visit, but too many yellow cars!

New York is “the city.”

It truly is and we all simply call it that.

New York, Houston, Dallas, Frankfurt (Germany)
These are the ones I’ve been in which appear on the list of the 100 largest cities in the world. I’ve driven through some of the others, but that’s all.
http://www.worldatlas.com/citypops.htm

I’m not too far from Detroit.
Detroit blows.

I’ve been to London, Sydney, Detroit, Montréal, Chicago, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Toronto, and I live in NYC.

Each city has a different feel; I’m not sure how to explain it, but it’s as if each place has its own personality. I prefer London to all the big cities I’ve been to, and I look forward to seeing Rio, Tokyo, Paris, Rome and Berlin (and a bunch of others) in the future.

NYC, Los Angeles and Chicago. My favorite of the three is Chicago. I live just two hours from there.

I’m really not a city girl though. I don’t like crowds.

@jonsblond
Except the pizza..meh..

@SeventhSense agreed, thin crust all the way.

NYC and LA, both of which are way too big for me. i like trees around my house and plentiful parks and grass and i know both have parks but everything is a bit too crowded and fast and hustly bustly for my liking. im more of a “large town” type. i like the culture but i cant do traffic, cabs, and being in a rush or feeling like i’m being rushed all the time. on the up side though i did really like NYC…it was way friendlier and enjoyable than i had imagined it to be.

SF is perfect to me.

@deni
SF is very nice and equally as expensive. I live far enough out on north shore Long Island to enjoy the fresh air but it’s nice to know I can hit the city in 30 minutes.
Here’s a view from my town
Kate Hudson just filmed here last week.

I love San Francisco, and lived there when I was younger (in 1967 and 1968) but although it is a beautiful city, it is not a cosmopolitan city in the sense that Paris and New York are.

Does Miami count as a big city? Because it felt really small and provincial. The Miami the world recognizes only spans for about a mile or so along the beach, and the rest of the city is sprawly and flat. I didn’t like the pebbly beach at all, and I was surprised at how dull the place seemed during the day. Great Cuban food was all over the place, though.

Miami doesn’t count for much if you’re talking “big city” but it does have a thriving Cuban community, it used to have a thriving Jewish community and it has great nightlife if that’s your thing (‘taint mine.) There are two separate entitites; Miami Beach and Miami.

@aprilsimnel Hooray for Montréal! I totally love it there.

Mexico City. The place is huge, like, huge, HUGE. You can see anything you can imagine, from the most abject, dangerous, hopeless, back-breaking, gut-wrenching poverty, to the most extreme of luxuries.

A million points to the person who identifies the (partial) TV quote! XD

I’m guessing it wasn’t Desperado. Sounds awesome though. :)

@Symbeline It’s not XD It’s pretty easy to find out if you Google it. But don’t, ‘cause I’ll know you did, and you’ll owe me a sandwich.

New York and it was a great time :)