Just before I left for Sydney, I got invited to afternoon tea with someone who has worked in this city for many years. When I asked why she didn't stay, she said that Sydney lacked an edginess that she missed - and expected to find - in urban life.
Funnily, that was the same phrase I had been using in talking about my own preconceptions, that Sydney was relatively bland - without an edge - compared to many of the world's great cities. But what do I mean by edge? Interestingly chaotic, even dangerous? An intense density of people, buildings, activities? Some unspecifiable form of urbanity? Does Sydney really lack it? Have I just been reading the surface or only seeing the tourist version? And why should I want edginess at all- maybe that is my problem, not Sydney's.
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