New Orleans
I'm growing up in a tourism city. i'm growing up in a city where I pass groups of homeless people living in tents under the overpass on my way to school. I'm growing up in a city where my parents are scared to let me walk around my neighborhood alone because I might get shot. I'm growing up in a city where people only really give a shit about the notable places, the places tourists go to. Where half the city looks like it still hasn't recovered from Katrina (among other hurricanes). Don't get me wrong either, there's plenty of reasons I love living here. There's a unique punk scene for one. My best memories are all moshing at some show where music was blasting so loud I couldn't hear shit the next day, or sitting in a circle with my older brother and his friends when the shows got lame, while they all got high and cracked jokes. that's sort of part of the unadvertised part of the city though, the part tourists don't fucking go to. The good parts. I think maybe that's why they're the good parts though, they haven't been genercized to the point of being incredibly boring. I almost wish I was in a small town sometimes, one where your not expected to be a jolly local with a thick Cajun(and or southern) accent, who's ready to tell you some ghost story about the french quarter, or tell you to try the fucking beignets.