Best Of 2009—Cities: By Shannon Wheeler

Image from Smaddy

1. New York

The city gets better with every visit. Art, food, parks, architecture. . . the city is amazing. The subways are a wonder; that I can go out and drink beer until 4 a.m. and take a subway home insures this city the number one spot in my book. The best and brightest people gravitate to New York to test their merit and make their mark and my nightly excursions give me some of the best conversations I’ve had. And the more I visit the city the more people I befriend. It’s a plus to travel to places where you know people—it’s an event when you arrive and party while you’re there.

2. Portland

My hometown bears the weight of familiarity. I’m bored with my various neighborhoods, coffee shops, roads, stores, etc. But even though I’m exhausting the novelty of the place I still appreciate the bookstores, the comic shops, the coffee places, and the light rail. Riding the MAX is like hanging out in a living room that’s taking me somewhere. The bridges make for grand views every time I head downtown. I still love the city.

3. San Francisco

It holds its place as one of the best cities in the world. The city and sunsets are perennial monuments that grow the soul just by seeing their beauty. The transitory art, music, and food are still top notch. Local politicians who are too incompetent to fix a bridge add a shameful, embarrassing shit-smudge to an otherwise great place.

4. Berkeley

This sleepy town moved up a notch in my book this year because I found a bar I like. It’s a pub with good beer, a fireplace, no TV, quiet music, and interesting people. It became one of my favorite places on my last visit when the bartender gave me a free beer after he found out I was a New Yorker cartoonist.

5. Austin

I can only rate the place by proxy. I haven’t been back to see the recent changes. In the ’90s, the dot com boom hurt the city as rents grew outrageous. Everyone I knew had to work their ass off just to afford a crappy place at the edge of town. Then finances collapsed and cheap houses are once again available. Artists are moving back to their part time jobs with energy left to work on their projects. We’ll never have the Slacker town of the ’80s back again but maybe it was never really there to begin with.

6. Paris

I’m flirting with a girl there and she sends me pictures of the city. It’s a beautiful place. It helps that I am not trying to rent an apartment.

7. Los Angeles

The city suffers from a bad reputation. My friends from Berkeley hate it because L.A. represents California Culture at its worst; shopping, driving, entertainment, consumption, superficial living. L.A., to me, is a nice place to visit. I see a few friends and have a few overpriced drinks at a crazy tiki bar and get out of there. Could be worse.

8. Weed

I drive Portland-Berkeley a couple times a year. Weed is at about the halfway point in between and it’s one of my stop points for gas. I usually take a breather to walk around and look at various shops. It will always be a Podunk town in my book until they take advantage of their name and make some cool T-shirts.

9. San Diego

My only reason to go to San Diego is for the annual Comic Book Convention. Even though their world class zoo tips them in my favor, their $8 mediocre burritos, hostile police force, nasty architecture, eight blocks of wretched tourist drunkenness, and the worst rich/poor discrepancy I’ve ever seen, makes the city my least favorite.

10. Portland Suburbs

The nasty ring around a beautiful place looks, sounds, and smells like every other set of suburbs in this country. I hate the one here and I hate them everywhere.

Shannon Wheeler was featured in Popshifter Issue 013.