City Life

I was raised in a small town in Idaho (which accounts for my trusting nature and wholesome, "small-town" values) but I've spent most of my life in large cities. After living my first 20 years in Idaho, including 2 years of college at University of Idaho in Moscow, ID (1966-1968), I lived in Seattle for 5 years (including a battle with the draft in 1969), then in 1973 I went back to college in Boston and it has been my home ever since. I met Patti in 1977 and we got married in 1979, and we've owned 3 suburban homes in Metro-Boston. Our two sons were both born in Boston, raised in Hingham (a Boston suburb) where we live, and both graduated from college (Alex went to The New School in Greenwich Village NYC and Ben went to George Washington U. (GW) in Washington, DC). Alex lives in Brooklyn, NY, where he is a college teacher, and Ben llives in Taipei, Taiwan (before that East Village Manhattan and formerly San Francisco for 4 years), so they both grew up to love cities. Both have traveled the world several times and lived in foreign cities. I find cities stimulating, challenging, rewarding, and a never-ending source of things I love including knowledge, culture, and rich social opportunities. I strive for a sense of urban self-sufficiency and I am what you would call a real city aficionado. I spent the first 25 years of my life on the West Coast, but I have been an "Easterner" since 1973. Living in Boston was my first experience with living in a large Eastern city with subways and all, but that seems perfectly normal now. I spent the last 35 years of my working life commuting to my jobs in Boston by commuter boat but now that I am retired I don't do that anymore. Since I retired I spend most of my time in Hingham, the small town suburb I live in, and don't go into the city every day like I used to for work, but I will always be a city lover! This page started out as a section on my Favorites page, which is why it consists mostly of links. Most of these sites have photos of city life, including buildings and other structures. See Google maps and Panoramas under Favorite cities below for some spectacular views, and I highly recommend using Street View on Google Maps to see what a city really looks like.

Here are some of the cities I have lived in or just spent time in that I really enjoy. You can see aerial photos of some of these cities at Aerial photos . I have a description and photos of a trip we made to London, Paris, and Amsterdam on another page on my website.

I have lived in Metro-Boston since 1973. It is a great city with lots of American history. I love to walk around and see things I have heard about since I was a child. Plus, I love living in a blue state, and I have worked in Boston since 1983 (I'm retired now).

My Boston page

NYC, the "Big Apple," offers pretty much everything and never sleeps. Because Manhattan is laid out on a grid it is very easy to navigate. My son, Alex, lives in Brooklyn and teaches ESP in greater New York City.

My NYC section

I lived in the U-District, Wallingford, Cascade, and Eastlake neighborhoods in Seattle from 1968-1973. It is very hilly and beautiful, with many bodies of water.

My Seattle section

Washington is one of my favorite places to visit, with all the Smithsonian museums, the grand government buildings, and the Mall. We generally stayed in the Dupont Circle or Foggy Bottom areas when we were there because our son, Ben, went to George Washington University, which was located in the Foggy Bottom neighborhood a few blocks from the White House.

My Washington, DC, section

Amsterdam is so charming, with all the canals and the thousands of bicyles (more bikes than cars). I can remember walking in bike paths thinking they were sidewalks. It is fairly compact and the trams are easy to get around on. Our son, Ben, went to a semester of college there around 2010. (See more here.)

Amsterdam.nl

Google Maps

Amsterdam photos

Dan Heller Photography

Pictures of Amsterdam

Amsterdam pics

Anne Frank House

Van Gogh Museum

Rembrandt House

panoramsterdam.com

WhyGo Amsterdam

A trip I took

It would be difficult to exaggerate the good things you can say about Paris. (Read more and see photos of a visit here.)

Mairie de Paris

Google Maps

Dan Heller Photography

Paris photos

Eiffel Tower

Arc de Triomphe

Louvre Museum

Versailles

Panoramiques des Monuments de Paris

The Louvre 360°

[Notre-Dame de Paris] Panoramic views 360°

The Lifts of the Eiffel Tower

A trip I took

London contains many fantastic sites including the Tower of London, Kensington Palace, and The London Eye. The tube is a really good subway system, and you will be warned to "Mind the gap!" (See more here.)

City of London

Google Maps

Dan Heller Photography

London Pictures

London Photos

Tower of London

The London Eye

Kensington Palace

A trip I took

SF is one of the great American cities, and besides many visits I lived there in the summer of 1967 (the "Summer of Love"). My son, Ben, lived there after college for 4 years and worked for Twitter.

City of San Francisco

Google Maps

A View on Cities - San Francisco

Dan Heller Photography

S.F.Heart

Scenic San Francisco

San Francisco Victorian Home Walk

Ken Adelman's coastal aerial views

Some S.F. photos from a 2005 trip

I have only visited but I love Toronto.

City of Toronto

Google Maps

CN Tower

Toronto Attractions

Toronto photos

Torontowide.com

Worldisround.com - A weekend in Toronto

One of the interesting things about Chicago is that like all the cities on the Great Lakes you think you are at the ocean when you are there.

City of Chicago

Google Maps

A View on Cities - Chicago

You know you're from Chicago when

I have visited several times and lived there briefly in the summer of 1967.

City of Atlanta

Google Maps

Atlanta Magazine

Atlanta Photos by Consultwebs

One of the great and famous cities in the U.S. that I've been to many times.

City of Los Angeles

Google Maps

Architectural Photo Galleries

Los Angeles Photos and Pictures

Downtown Los Angeles Walking Tour

Building BIG

The World's Best Skylines

How Skyscrapers Work

Skyscraper Picture Collection

galinsky

Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat

Great Buildings Online

Great Structures of the World

How Skyscrapers Work

Hong Kong - The City of Nights (Lights)

The Skyscraper Web Ring

Great Buildings and Structures

The Skyscraper Museum

SkyscraperPage.com

List of tallest buildings in the world

List of tallest buildings in the United States

Skyscrapers.com

The High-Rise Pages

structurae: International Database and Gallery of Structures

Skyscrapers Collection

World's Tallest Buildings

Federation of High-Rise Websites

Looking down 5th Avenue

NYC map

I have always been a fan of The Big Apple, the ultimate American urban experience. I grew up on the West Coast and we made a family trip to NYC when I was 8 but most of my NYC experiences happened after I was an adult and living on the East Coast. I went to college in Boston and made many weekend trips to Manhattan to visit friends who lived there. We currently live in Boston and have two grown sons who live in NYC which gives us reasons for New York trips. When my kids were in Hebrew School in New England, in the 90s, they went on field trips to NYC and I went as a chaperone. We toured around the city and saw many famous Jewish historical sites like the Eldridge Street synagogue, and one of the enjoyable things we did was go to the Statue of Liberty, where we climbed to the top in the crown. (This was closed for awhile after 9/11.) When I came to Boston for college in 1973 I presumed I would be moving to New York City after college, but I grew roots and stayed in Boston. I used to work for a company in Boston that had an office in Manhattan located at the intersection of Broadway, 5th Avenue, and 23rd St. (Madison Square), which is also the location of the visually delightful Flatiron Building (see Google Maps Street View ¹). When I went to New York on business I would stay in a company-owned, mid-town condo, and I always found it exhilarating to get up in the morning and walk down 5th Avenue past the Empire State Building to the office.

NYC.gov

Google Maps

NYCvisit.com

The Port Authority of New York & New Jersey

World Financial Center

Grand Central Terminal

Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA)

New York City Graffiti @149st

New York City Subway Resources

City Lore

NYC Street Smarts

NYCRoads.com

Gothamist: New York City news, events, food, and fun

Worm Your Way Through the Big Apple

New York City - Wikipedia

City of Neighborhoods
List of Manhattan neighborhoods
Manhattan neighborhood Map
Big Think - Manhattan neighbourhoods
Times Square
NYC Subway Map
Queens for a Day – a great Washington Post article on Queens
If It's Noon, It Must Be Bed-Stuy – a tour of all 5 boroughs in a single day
Must See New York - Maps
The Lower East Side Tenement Museum
     Guss' Pickles – a landmark
CityRealty's Neighborhood Guide
Google Maps Street View – looking south in Times Square

City photos, architecture, and more

Manhattan Photos on Google
New York City Skyscrapers
     Downtown Manhattan from the air – identify downtown buildings with mouse
     Midtown from the Empire State Building – identify downtown buildings with mouse
A View on Cities - New York – many photos and descriptions of the city and its buildings
     New York City Buildings – photos & stats of individual buildings
A magnified satellite view of lower Manhattan (pre-9/11)
Wired New York – a great picture site
     Manhattan aerial views
Virtual New York: NYC Panoramas Map
Free Large Photos: New York City
New York City Skyscrapers – from Skyscraper Picture Collection
New York City, October 2001 – great photos and travel journal by Keith Stanley
Aerials Only Photo Gallery of New York and New Jersey
Dan Heller Photography
SMurphy's NYC Skyscraper Photos – individual buildings by address and name
Manhattan Neighborhoods Photo Gallery by Hubert Steed
©New York – many photos and panoramas
New Yorkled - NYC's Informational/Pictorial Magazine
Architecture of New York City
New York City Skyscrapers
NYC's Tallest Buildings
New York Architecture Images – includes other cities
Aerial Photography New York City Photographers
New York City Aerial and Panoramic photography by artist Rafael Rivera
Lower Manhattan Aerials – photos by Jake Wyman
Fly'in Phils's Photos – some nice aerials
New York Offices – this is a commercial site with some great photos and maps
Aerial Virtual Tour on NYC
NYC Historical Photos
List of tallest buildings in New York City

New York City buildings... Empire Štate Building Chrysler Building American International Building 40 Wall Street Citigroup (was Citicorp) Center Conde Nast Building AT&T Building RCA (GE) Building Woolworth Building Flatiron Building

World Trade Center

I have to admit I am privileged to have visited the World Trade Center while it existed, including taking photos of New York City from the observation area at the top of the North Tower. Like all locals and visitors I assumed the WTC would always be around, and like everybody I was totally shocked at what happened on 9/11. I was at work in my office in Boston when I received a phone call from my mother in Idaho, who had been watching a news program on TV and saw what happened. Like all Americans I tried to get to news websites on the Internet and found them almost inaccessible from the volume of web traffic. My company closed and Boston was evacuated, probably because we were a large U.S. city but also because the 2 planes that hit the towers had left Boston's Logan Airport. Earlier I had been on my commuter boat into Boston which passes by the airport at about the time the planes took off, and I might have even seen them pass overhead.

New World Trade Center
MY_WTC – a wonderful collection of photos assembled by a couple in Berlin—I posted here
NOVA | Building on Ground Zero | PBS – includes NIST study results, the towers' design, and a fascinating survivor's story
List of World Trade Centers – the World Trade Centers Association (WTCA) has complexes in other cities around the world, not just NYC
CNN streaming videos
     1st plane hits North Tower, firemen video
     2nd plane hits South Tower
9/11 FAQs
Ground Zero
America Remembers
September 11 · A Memorial
Special Report: Day of Terror
3-D Inter-Active Map of Damage
The September 11 Digital Archive – Saving the Histories of September 11, 2001
Twin-Towers.net – memorial with photos videos & news archive of the 9/11 attack
9112001.net – Videos, Photographs, Petitions, Polls, Audios
GIS Community: Response to Terrorist Attack – includes some great aerial views of Manhattan
World Trade Center Damage Summary
Historic Buildings in the WTC Vicinity – with information about their current status
Twin Towers Tenants
Why Did the World Trade Center Collapse? – Science, Engineering, and Speculation
Images of the World Trade Center, by Yamasaki
Great Buildings Online - WTC
A letter to President Bush – I received this chain letter after 9/11
 

Webcams and Videos

Traffic Web Cams - NYC DOT
EarthCam - New York City
     Times Square Cam – also live streaming video
     Stock Exchange Cam
     Ground Zero Cam
     USS Intrepid Cam
Google video: Wide shot aerial over Manhattan
Google video: Manhattan + Brooklyn Bridges with NYC in background – more under Related videos
 

History

The New-York Historical Society
The Gotham Center for New York City History
The Museum of the City of New York
New York City & Its History – from Columbia University
 

Google Maps slideshow

	We have enjoyed seeing some of the wonderful Washington sites like Ford's Theatre (map) – Abraham Lincoln was assassinated there Newseum (map) – I saw part of the Berlin Wall at this museum of news and journalism on Pennsylvania Avenue National Museum of American History (map) – I saw the Ruby-Red slippers (Wizard of Oz) and Archie Bunker's chair here Vietnam Veterans Memorial (map) – I've pencil-rubbed a couple of Vietnam casualty classmate's names on this wall FDR Memorial (map) – an outdoor exhibit of the era of Roosevelt's presidency International Spy Museum (map) – go on a mission with a cover identity We have also gone to other non-historical places, including eating at some great restaurants like Das Ethiopian Cuisine in Georgetown, and Mike's American Grill in Springfield. DC photos - shown in a slideshow with a location perspective or description In my many trips to Washington I've seen these sites many times.
		Lincoln Memorial Circle (showing locations)	Lincoln Memorial	National Mall	Pennsylvania Avenue	Washington Monument	The White House Southern view	The White House Northern view	National Museum of American History
		Jefferson Memorial	Supreme Court	Vietnam Veterans Memorial	WWII Memorial	Newseum	National Geographic	Mount Vernon	Watergate complex

City of Washington, DC

Google Maps

Neighborhoods

A View on Cities - Washington

Washington DC photos

Washington, DC--Stock Photos

George Washington University (GW)

Virtual Tour

Sightseeing map

National Register of Historic Places Travel Itinerary

Free Large Photos: Washington, DC

TrafficLand.com

The White House

My photos

U.S. Cities

Carfree Cities

Cities.com

Worldwide Directory of Cities and Towns

State of the Cities Data System

Historic Cities: Maps & Documents

A View on Cities

Cities of Today, Cities of Tomorrow

City-Data.com

cityscapes photos at PBase.com

CityPass

UrbanRail.net