All made out of ticky-tacky

Chicago is very repetitive. Everywhere I go, every corner looks the same. All the store-fronts, the 1800s brick façade, the narrow streets overhung by drooping edifices. Most big cities that I’ve seen have an element of repetition. An era of big expansion when everyone took their cue from some popular district or another, everyone following the popular trend.

Even to this day, with the prevalence of the internet, the web that connects all people at all times, I see pre-fab housing blocks and dittoed suburbs popping up all over. Not even a hint of original design or planning. Is it purely a consumerist facet? A relic of the efficiency of mass-production and minimal diversity? Or are people really that afraid to stand out? Cars seem to follow the same trend. Very occasionally, someone will design an entirely new style of car, and try to sell it as the new trend, but inevitably the brand has to be reshaped to match the trending styles. I find it incredibly depressing that people are so rooted both in their aesthetic norm and in their comfort zone of cloned familiarity.

Maybe one day, the trend will turn to trying new things just for fun. Traveling to nowhere in particular to see what’s there. Eating new foods every week. Never watching the same TV show two months in a row.

Maybe then, the cities would be interesting.