Quintessential urban pleasure

What do do you most look forward to in your city, or any city?

One thing I enjoy is dawdling undisturbed over a great newspaper in a place where the food and drink are also well-above average.

How about you?

1) Fine arts like the symphony and good museums.
2) Getting out of the city for a spell.

I like to see growth. I am delighted to see renovations and new constructions. I see these as positive signs.

Jeanette Isabelle

Nothing much really. I remember my last visit to the centre of the Megacity of London as was struck by the way that no one talked to each other (except for the for the friendly Australians as real English folks were really quiet hard to find) and the Borg like business men taking into their lapels at the railway stations. There really wasn't anything special with the same global food and retail outlet chains repeated street after street Megacity after Megacity (although the British Museum - an Aladdins cave of thievery - was quite good but OMG the Millennium Dome) and being ripped off by the local taxi drivers. Went to see a West end musical called Notra Dame, where everyone at the end of the show stood up and applauded and whistled leaving me the only one sitting down thinking what all the fuss was about. (I was wanting the leave early about half way through the show)

I was expecting to off course see lots of sophisticated attractive super models wandering the streets of London beside the street cafes and pubs in Sloan square. I was pretty much disappointed as I could have just went to St Andrews 15 miles away for that.

I went to Egypt a few days later. A lot more interesting.

The 2012 Olympics in London holds no interest either.

A few days is OK but best to leave before being really disappointed. I wouldn't mind visiting LA in the USA though but I don't want to be sexually assaulted by the security folks at the airport.

Generally stay away from cities.

Been there, done that, saw stuff, left. Will go in for what I call kamikaze vacations. Take 2 or 3 days and go, see the sights, and leave.

Food. A nearby large city has a larger variety of restaurant types than we have here. Greek, Ethiopian, Cambodian, and other types that we don't have near us.

Museums, plays, and musicals are my wife's interest in the city. I like some of the specialty stores where I can see outdoor gear myself instead of looking at them through the computer screen.

Finding the closest wilderness/natural area. Sometimes the museums are worthwhile.

A goodly amount of woods, as natural as possible, and open to the public; libraries; good hardware stores. At least one backpacking supplier. A diverse community. Some education. Limited religious control and domination. A community that isn't dominated by one group, race, or clan.

Home, and employment

The weather here in L.A. is Hard to beat!I've lived/worked & visited the USA in Many places & Have alway's enjoyed coming back for the weather!

I have to say that I really enjoy the fact the most of my acquaintances out here in the big city mind their own business. ;-)

That and the fact that I can walk less than half a block in any direction and eat almost any cuisine known to humankind, AND find it at a special sale price depending on what night of the week it is.

That sounds like East Sunset Blvd

When I visit other cities, food and green spaces are tops on my list! In my own city, it's getting out and exploring the wild places. (There are still many around here!)

I like cities. They help me to appreciate the outdoors more. But I particularly like the diversity of food, availability of craft beer and blues/jazz clubs.

It's also nice to be able to get a big mess of poutine at 2am.

An irony is that if you love wilderness you have to at least like cities. Cities are not the enemy of wilderness for it is not expanding cities, for the most part, that are eating the woods. It is suburbs and tract housing that consume farms and forests by the square mile.

What do I look forward to when in a big city?

Leaving and getting back home.

It's not all bad. There are five green spaces within five miles of here, two of which are wooded. There are three more, which are closed off to the public (but still named as parks/woods/etc.) so I don't count those. It's not like I can't touch nature if I really wanted to. Of course, I would like access to more and better wooded areas, but they're much farther away -- at least the ones without paid access.

I'd have to say that my favorite things about living in the city are access to cultural and human resources. It's rare to encounter such a rich and varied people very far at all from a city. It's reflected in local restaurants, museums, celebrations, and more than I could ever list.

I'm also lucky enough to live in a city which is just under an hour away from some fairly secluded trails -- and much better wilderness less than three hours' drive.

The thing I enjoy most about our closest major city, Chicago, is seeing it in my rear view mirror, or better yet, not at all.

About San Francisco, I love...
-People watching
-The variety of people
-The fast pace
-Talking to random strangers who I'll never see again
-Discovering a new restaurant
-Variety of things to do
-The transient atmosphere
-Ability to act relatively wild without anybody caring

...I don't always love those things, but when I've been away from a big city for awhile, those are things I miss.

This is easy, house fires. I don't want anyone to have one, but when they do, I want to be first though the door .