cities

stitchingirl

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I don't know how to word the title..

Is there somewhere here that I could look up information for a story set in other cities?
 

Stanmiller

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Basic internet research. Google the city. Look at the cultural sites, recreation sites. That'll tell you a lot about the diversity of the place.

That will keep you busy for a while.
 

stitchingirl

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But what if you wanted information from a resident's experience? I have and do look up information on the 'Net. But sometimes there's nitty-gritty information that any of the tourist sites don't mention or know about, you know?

Say I wanted to look up parks for my city. Google and Yahoo both mentions three city parks. But, I know of two others that I don't even think have names. But they have jungle gyms for the kids to play on. Someone who isn't from here, might not know about those parks.

That's just the nitty-gritty that I'm talking about. Maybe it'd be better to just come up with a fictional town. Then I can create it any way that I want.
 

Sarpedon

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Google earth's streetview is a good resource. Its a bunch of street level photographs. For what's happening there, I'd try finding its local paper. You can get those online, generally.
 

backslashbaby

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Research and Experts, maybe? If you don't need too much info but want insights, you could post there.
 

TheIT

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Check out travel sites for the city in question. Is this a large city? Does it have its own website?

Also, there are members of AW from all over the world. Start a thread here in Story Research asking for details about your city. Do a search here to see if there's already a thread.

If you're concerned about messing up the geography, take a look at the threads in the Novels forum about using real locations. Some people make up a fictional city, others add their own neighborhoods to someplace real.

Good luck!
 

firedrake

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Some cities also have discussion forums. That may be a good place to look. Failing that, set your story somewhere that you're familiar with.
 

stitchingirl

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Miami, Florida.

I'm still playing with the idea of a fictional city, but one close enough to Miami, that I could use some of the information.

I don't know yet. I keep coming here when I should be working on my essay. Dang this place is addictive. Was there a warning label for this site? Maybe there was and I just missed it. :)
 

alleycat

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The City-Data forum is good if you have questions about a certain location. There are separate forums for each state, and for most major cities. There is also a lot of statistical data there for most towns and cities.
 

johnnysannie

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The City-Data forum is good if you have questions about a certain location. There are separate forums for each state, and for most major cities. There is also a lot of statistical data there for most towns and cities.

Yes. This is what I was going to suggest. Most major cities have active threads and you can ask questions as well.
 

StephanieFox

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Name a city. If one of us lives there, we'll probably talk it up for you, and give you links that might help as well.

I saw something on television last night on the history of Miami....
 

underthecity

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Your best bet is to post on the Research forum with a question like, "Is anyone from Miami, Florida, looking for advice." Then, people familiar with Miami would be able to help.

Like me, for instance. I worked and lived in Miami for a few months in 1997, so I have some basic knowledge. Like how it was friggin hot there all the time. Like how 80% of the population seemed to be of Cuban descent. And if you live there, you'd better know how to speak Spanish. Like how it thunderstormed every single day in the afternoon for a few minutes. Like how every street was NW this or NE that. Like how they have a lot of public beaches and South Beach was topless. Or how the single-story houses all had the air conditioners on the roofs instead of by an outside wall like everywhere else. Or like all the women there wore skimpier clothes than in the Midwest because of the warmer climate, even in business settings.

I could go on and on.
 

DavidZahir

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If you could find some books about incidents in the city's history--a true crime, a disaster, etc.--then you can get real good "feel" for a place. Ditto if someone who grew up or lived there for a long time wrote a memoir.
 

Shakesbear

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Does the city have local news papers? They will sometimes have nuggets of information that you will not find any where else.
 

stitchingirl

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Thanks!

I always wondered if it was true that you had to be bilingual to live in Miami, or if that was just how one person's impression.

Are there certain parts where you'd have to be bilingual or does that pretty much apply to all of Miami?
 

Chris P

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