"The city different" Santa Fe by bhemak

Santa Fe is of course not like much else in the world, nevermind the US. I visited as a child and mostly remember tacky tourist shops around the plaza. Either things have changed or my memories were inacurate.

Santa Fe is now the most cosmopolitan small city I have seen. In addition to the obvious Hispanic and American Indian influences, there are now Russian art galleries, New Guniea gift shops, and Asian Indian cusine.

My first day in town I thought I should move here. I loved it. The second and third day I came to my senses. This is one of those 'nice place to visit, but wouldn't want to live here'.

The people (tourists and locals) are often grand philosophers of life who have no idea how the world functions. The world needs art, and Santa Fe can provide. But the world needs food, and housing, and banking, and transportation and number of other unsexy things. In these areas Santa Fe is lost more than any other city I have seen.

• Pros:Art, culture, food, charming
• Cons:detatched from reality, pretentious
• In a nutshell:Artistry run amok