*"Dirty Cities"*

In class the other day, we were asked what we thought of Madrid. One of the students replied that it was dirty. To which some of the more open-minded individuals in the group took issue with.

She didn't mean it in a derogatory manner...I think she just meant that the buildings and the streets here have a little more of a darker tinge than she's used to.

Well...that's what happens when you don't make it a practice to tear down a building after it's been up for only a little while (relatively...I'm talking decades as opposed to centuries here).

Reminded me of when I took a tour of Sun Studio in Memphis. (If you're not in the know, Sun Studio is a landmark where Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, Ike Turner and most importantly (to me, at least) Johnny Cash got there start.) The tour guide, a rock-a-billy dude with pork-chop sideburns and rolled up jeans, remarked about how hard it was to keep the city from tearing down some of the old buildings where all that great music, and all the great music that came before it, took place.

I guess my point is that it seems to me that weathered, worn, and "dirty" buildings seem somehow more livable than brand new, freshly-made, industrial buildings. I imagine I would be in the minority with that opinion, as far as Americans go, and I by no means what to give the impression that all building and construction of anyting should stop. I just wish there was a little more respect for the older things (with the exception of the Metrodome) we have in the United States, or at least a willingness to let some of the things we have created get a little older.

As far as Madrid goes, it doesn't strike me as dirty in the least...lived in, maybe. The smell from the fish market down the street turns my stomach, and there's more graffiti than I'm generally used to, but the idea that this is a dirty city doesn't wash (no pun intended). There is virtually no rubbish in the streets due to street sweepers constantly roving the city, picking up small bits.