The melting pot, to some degree, eliminates that diversity, though. After a generation or two, lots of people are unable to speak their parents/grandparents native language. Perhaps that's less true today, with cheap travel, the internet, and people placing more value on diversity and knowing more than one language - it'd be interesting to see some research. Anecdotally, a ton of the older Italian-Americans I've met don't speak Italian much - they wanted to blend in and not be 'foreigners', and only later in life realized that not speaking the language was a loss.

When you look at a random central European city, and see Slovenes, Austrians, Turks, Albanians, Greeks, Serbs, Croats, Romanians, Germans, Russians, Poles, Italians, Macedonians, Bosnians, Ukranians, Moldovans, Estonians, Lithuanians, etc etc etc, do you think to yourself "Wow, there's no diversity at all here, is there? Everyone is white!" Then how about any random western European city, where you'll find the same mix, plus immigrants from their former colonies in Africa and Asia, plus the usual North Africans, does that almost meet your standards?

There are some very diverse countries in the world such as India, the Russian Federation, Indonesia, South Africa and DR Congo, all large (former) colonial empires in the old world. Some might even count the European Union, depending whether you think of it as a confederation or not. There is nothing like that in the Americas.

Given our peculiar history, yes, it means a lot.

[My impression was that in the days after the HK handover, it seemed like half of HK moved to Vancouver (I gather the Canadian government had unusually generous Visa policies), and that apparently really started a ball rolling; the last time I was there, it seemed amazingly diverse.]

When he talks about the traffic lights being placed across the intersection, he should come visit Denmark; that's how we do it here! And it's not that far from Czech Republic, and we also like good beer (unlike the Americans who just drink flavoured water).

Stop by the Stone brewery or Russian River brewery if you want a mind-expanding beer experience. Although I find Europeans don't like as much variety in their beer as Americans.

Or beer that is hopped to up to crazy levels without any consideration for things like flavor balance and finesse.

Try stuff like that and tell me its hopped up to crazy levels. As with everything in the US, location matters. Where I'm at in Minnesota, and being by Wisconsin, there are a metric ton of local breweries that put out lots of beers that you cannot buy more than a few states away. These breweries also pump out some of the best beers you can have.

If you're going to compare like to like, stop using crap like Budweiser and the other commercial stuff.

Having better beer than Eurobeers is no problem then. Good beers, on the other hand, are really good.

After reading some of the items I could not help but think that "spent time in a lot of states" was an exaggeration. That being said the problem with making generalizations about the US is one of my favorite things about the US; remarkable diversity of environment/culture/weather/architecture/etc.

> Everybody talks to everybody, people are very friendly to each other...

Dont get me wrong I like NYC but you cant spend much time in Manhattan and continue to hold this belief.

> It is almost always sunny. You don't need any forecast, it will be sunny and between 20-25 degrees Celsius. Every day. Great!

I live in Syracuse, NY, we compete with Seattle for least amount of sunny days in the continental US. The big difference from Seattle is that instead of rain we usually get 100+ inches of snow in winter. I want to move because of the weather in Syracuse.

> Can somebody explain to me why most of the houses are almost glued together so that I can reach my neighbour's wall?

Never visited the suburbs or any city in the midwest.

> Even local side roads look like our highways. All other roads are in great condition. Traffic is fluent, drivers are more respectful and chilled out.

Road condition: Never drove/rode on a highway in Pennsylvania or West Virginia. Traffic: Never drove in Boston or Manhattan or inside the beltway.

> Dont get me wrong I like NYC but you cant spend much time in Manhattan and continue to hold this belief.

Eh?! I think people in Manhattan are very friendly, probably more so than any other American city I've been to.

They're also often extremely blunt, of course, and won't hesitate to tell you if they think you're full of it, and if they're busy, well, they'll tell you that too, but in general New Yorkers seem quite outgoing and social. I've never talked to so many strangers in so many settings in such a short time as I have when visiting Manhattan. This was true everywhere, on the street, in cafes, in restaurants, on the phone (receptionist offers her opinion), waiting for the subway, on the subway, ...

I found the combination of bluntness and sociability pretty refreshing, especially compared to the constant "plastic smile" one finds in many other cities.

[A favorite incident: walking down the street in Manhattan on a hot summer's night, talking with my GF about a book I read. She reacts strongly (it was a scary scene)... two girls walking the other way jump in out of the blue: "Yo, what's up, what's wrong?!" ... "It's this book I read, she got scared" ... "What happened in it?" ... <describe scene> ... [girl 1:] "is that it?" [girl 2:] "No, no, actually that was kinda scary... what was that author's name? Have you read <other book>??" <etc etc>]

I was eager to get there since "at last, I can talk to someone at normal speed!"... but they still didn't talk fast enough. They could understand me at normal pace though, so that was enough :)

I dunno; the first time I visited NYC was in 1989, the last time a few years ago. Details always vary of course, but the general vibe always seemed pretty much the same to me.

[By reputation, the 1970s were sort of a low point for NYC in general, but I don't know how that was reflected in peoples' behavior...]

Have you ever experienced southern hospitality? Instead of rattling off a bunch of cities lets stick to the "Chars;" Charlotte, NC, Charlottesville, VA, Charleston, SC?

You were "suspicious"? So what, do you think I'm lying?

Anyway, I didn't say "NYC in 1989 was all rainbows and smiles," I said people were outgoing, sociable, and friendly. That certainly doesn't mean there wasn't any crime, or that there weren't social problems, but those things are not the same as an unfriendly populace.

My impression of NYC is probably more influenced by later visits, but I certainly don't recall any particular difference in people's overall demeanor in 1989 (and that would have been surprising; such things don't change quickly).

As a visitor I no doubt avoided the nastiest areas of the city, but spent quite a bit of time walking around in Manhattan (though the farthest north I ever got was just north of Columbia). And yeah, people were friendly. In 1989. In 1991. In 1994. ...etc...

Maybe you have a different opinion, but I very much stand by what I wrote.

That was so blatantly obvious that it is a little weird that you thought you needed to mention it.

I think its mind blowing that someone could think that the general vibe in NYC (let alone friendliest city in US) was the same in 89, 97, 01-02, 06, 09? If you dont like years that is crack epidemic, Giuliani crime cleanup, pre/post 9/11, bull market, and housing crash.

I used to think it rude of baristas or burger clerks to check their phone while prepping my order, but instead now I check my phone at the same time. I think the key to it not being rude is to synchronize, so we all pop in and out of the conversation at the same time.

I guess it's a matter of what we're comparing to. Compared to most southern Brazilian people, Seattleites are very, very friendly.

OT: I find it funny that as soon as a foreigner talks about "how the US is", Americans are all too eager to point out how diverse the US is and how it is hard to paint it in broad strokes. Meanwhile, Americans are all too glad to visit two European countries and relay their experiences by refering to the places they were as "Europe" and the people there as "Europeans". Europe, a continent that is in a whole other league then USA the country when it comes to diversity.