Lewis Perin wrote:
> "Dominic T." > writes:
>
> > Lewis Perin wrote:
> > > "Dominic T." > writes:
> > >
> > > > [...joys and sorrows of New York...]
> > > >
> > > > Not even being biased, but I would believe you could find just about
> > > > everything in NYC in PGH more condensed and easily accessible.
> > >
> > > That's a pretty strong conclusion to derive from spending a few days
> > > in New York.
> >
> > [...what Pittsburgh has...]
> >
> > NYC has the same, but more of them. For the most part though they are
> > one after another all selling the same items. So you have 6 blocks of
> > stores that are exactly the same, we have 4 stores in 3 blocks all with
> > different stuff. We have a whole Jewish area of town, Korean, etc. A
> > cultural district, Market Square, small boutique shops, etc.
>
> But it's not all the same. New York has three Chinatowns these days,
> and by your account you seem to have walked around less than half of
> one of them. Even within the Chinatown you walked around, there's a
> lot of variation, e.g. a Fujianese part, an area dominated by ethnic
> Chinese from Indochina, ...
>
> I'm not trying to run Pittsburgh down, but Chinese New York these days
> is a big and varied place.
>
> /Lew
> ---
> Lew Perin /
> http://www.panix.com/~perin/babelcarp.html

Dom, glad to hear you had fun in New York. Chinese New York is indeed
stunningly large and diverse, as Lew said. Walking into certain
restaurants in Midtown on a Friday night is like being out on the town
in the nice part of Shenzhen - Chinese yuppies sitting ten to a table,
everyone speaking Mandarin. On the other hand, to get to Flushing
(Chinatown #2) from my place in Brooklyn using public transportation
takes upwards of an hour, much more on weekends. So, I would
definitely take issue with the "everything" in Dom's original post, but
certainly not the "more condensed and easily accesible." It sounds
like you can get to the Korean part of Pittsburgh without taking the G
train or driving at ten miles an hour on the BQE, and that to me is the
appeal of all other cities, as opposed to New York.

Also, Lew, which area is dominated by ethnic Chinese from Indochina? I
am really only familiar with Flushing and Sunset Park, the latter being
mostly (I believe) people from around Fuzhou.