Bird's Eye View

Lower Manhattan easily has fifty parking garages. The difference between Manhattan and Baltimore is that an aerial view of the city does not even hint at this fact. The secret to their success is underground parking and not putting parking on the upper levels of prominent structures. Not many people are going to be flying close enough to the city to appreciate this fact, but imagine if the New York skyline was cluttered with cars. Then who would want to use it as the opening scene of their movie? A fly through of rooftops covered in cars is not quite as appealing as architectural detailing. It plays into the romanticized image that most Americans have of New York. Image is everything for a city. The image is what brings in the tourists. It should visually communicate everything the city is about. Appearance is critical because it is what people base their opinions on. The first impression is lasting and once a negative one has been made it will take a long time to dig out of the hole. The idea is to get it right the first time. A city depends heavily on the people that live and visit there. There is a clear cut line between those cities that are frequently visited and those that are not. The ones with fewer tourist are farther behind. It is not because they do not have the potential. The revenue that tourists bring into an area allows for maintenance and upgrades that would otherwise not be apart of the budget. Money is always a problem. The budget of a city is always in the news. It is the deciding factor in what a city can and can not do. It either helps it progress or causes it to fall behind the other prominent cities of the time.