Based solely on the descriptions in "Gardenland" and "In Praise of Chain Stores," where would you rather live -- the colorful but poor part of Sacramento where Michael Nava grew up or Chandler, Arizona, the town at the center of Virginia Postrel's story? Cite something from the stories to help you explain why.
I'm going with Nava because of his description of his meals: "beans, lettuce and tomato salad, stewed or fried meat, tortillas, salsa." I got a quesadilla machine for Christmas and love it.
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I would want to live in Gardenland because of the block after block brick buildings and small businesses. I personally like to be around stuff a little but smaller than whats in a large city.
ReplyDeleteI have to say I would want to live in Gardenland,because I like the small cities.I liked the passage at the beginning "Gardenland was a series of streets carved out of farmland backed up against the slough." As I read it about two times I can shut my eyes and just picture it from the discriptions he gave.
ReplyDeleteI would rather live in Sacramento because I think it is a better place even though it is a poor part of the city. I think working and living on a bare minimum makes a person. Even though, "a weary big-town urbanites have turned it into a boomtown rapidly becoming unlivable." This did make me think twice whether I would want to live here, but I think I would still live here.
ReplyDeleteI’m going to choose Chandler because I love to shop, and in the story In Praise of Chain Stores Virginia talks about having Bed Bath & Beyond and Pottery Barn and most of all the Cheesecake Factory all in the same town. She describes it as having all the advantages of a small town, in terms of being friendly, but it’s got all the things of a big town. It sounds like I could have my cake and eat it too.
ReplyDeleteI would have to take Chandler, Arizona the place down there is SO beautiful. I have been down there and I can not describe HOW beautiful the palce is down there. When she says Say it looks like every where else it some what true. But as soon as you leave the city limets it is a whole new world.
ReplyDeleteMay I add I love the Cheesecake Factory :)
I think I'll have to choose "Gardenland" because I feel as if Chandler when described with "Drive along Chandler's straight, flat boulevards, and you'll see Bed Bath & Beyond and Linens-n-Things;Barnes & Nobles and Borders; PetSmart and Petco; Circuit City and Best Buy; Lowe's and Home Depot..." this sounds like the description of Burlington or Williston which is over run with people as well as over priced. While Gardenland Sacramento with "...the wide residential neighborhoods were lined with oaks shading turreted, run-down Victorian mansions...all of them exuding a shadowy small-town melancholy." Sounds like most of the towns I've lived in my entire life. The fact that it is a "Mexican" town only makes my stomach grumble with happiness.
ReplyDeleteI would rather live in "Gardenland". Just the name itself sounds beautiful and like a place where i would like to live. Its a small city and that is what i like. I like living in the city but if it gets too big and overwhelming i wouldn't. But the way this place sound i would live living there.
ReplyDeleteI think that after comparing "Gardenland" and Chandler, Arizona, I would much rather live in Arizona. Gardenland just sounds like another small city to me. Chandler seems much more like the type of area I am from, a smaller community. And besides, it is in Arizona, which means that more then likely the weather will be hot and sunny! Tanning! Whoooo
ReplyDeleteI would much rather live in "Gardenland". It reminds me of my home town, very small. I am the type of girl the likes to live in the small cities or towns, nothing to big.
ReplyDeleteI would have to choose "Grdenland". When i was looking at colleges last year I wanted to go somewhere small because I would hate being in a large place. I like to have the comfort of knowing who and what is around me, like I have at home. I don't think I could ever be happy living in a large place.
ReplyDelete"Downtown the wide residential neighborhoods were lined with oaks shading turreted, run-down victorian mansions..." I've always enjoyed places like this and envisioned myself living in an area like this. Also, I wouldn't be able to handle the heat of Arizona, I'd burn up.
ReplyDeleteI would choose Chandler because having so many stores around makes everything so convenient. Sounds like a place that if you had a engine problem a flat tire or any other needs that were needed to be met right away, it could be taken care of in this location. I think the convenience of the town is the reason why i would live here.
ReplyDelete