As Scott drove me back to the house yesterday evening, the question of Australians’ pride in Sydney came up.  His theory was that Australians aren’t confident of Sydney’s place amongst the world’s great cities.  Australians’ will, he noted, ask visitors what they make of Sydney.  They’ll invite us to compare it to other great world cities.  I have already noted how often they try to compare it to New York, a comparison I just don’t think works.  New Yorkers don’t need affirmation of New York’s place in the list of great cities.  Londoners may knock their home in a very English self deprecatory way but they inherently understand that London is a great city, as do Parisians and Romans of their homes.  In the US, many believe their home cities to be great, even when, however fine they are, they don’t make the list.  I’m sorry, citizens of Cincinnatti, nice town, not great.

But the people of Sydney don’t have that confidence in their home.  As I walked into the city this morning I passed the ANZAC Memorial, which is being worked on, with banners proclaiming that the NSW government was “Building  a City you can be Proud of”.  That sign struck a chord, after the conversation the evening before.  The work being done may improve Sydney, just a little.  But the city’s inhabitants should know that they already have a city they should be proud of.  It may not be London, New York or Paris but that does not mean that it does not belong in that list of great cities.  On the basis of what I have seen so far, it very much does.

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