NYTimes: 36 Hours

A nice feature of the NYTimes Escapes section is its "36 Hours" feature. I was going to e-mail this link to Arun after mentioning it to him yesterday, but figured I might as well blog it:

36 HOURS

In Downtown Los Angeles

By JANELLE BROWN

Thanks to a massive revitalization project, downtown Los Angeles is quickly becoming a destination for culture hounds and lovers of the avant-garde.

Past "36 Hours" features that have caught my eye include Ithaca and Ann Arbor. (No doubt there's still a clipping of the Ann Arbor one on the wall in Angelo's--right, Simeone?) Oddly those two came in consecutive weeks. Two of "my cities." (Allusion there to a Borges quote that's been with me for a while, which I came across in this Times Book section piece a few years ago (Google truly is amazing). More Borges soon.)

Just came across this one in browsing through the "36 Hours" archives (although unfort the archived columns don't include the nice maps):

ESCAPES | December 26, 2003, Friday
JOURNEYS; 36 Hours| Oakland, Calif.
By BRENDA PAYTON

Plenty more in the archives that I'm tempted to put up. St. Paul and Chicago (couple more of my cities), Berkeley, Boston, San Luis Obispo, Palo Alto, Seattle, Vancouver, Bend (Ore.). I saved the hard copy of the Denver column from a few weeks ago, since Anj is headed there in a couple weeks. Ina e-mailed me the Napa column from a few months ago.

Look through those archives if you've got a trip coming up, if you're looking to plan a trip...or just want to see how they do one of your cities.

Final thought: the entire concept of a column centered on 36 hour trips is indicative of an urban, affluent, and overworked lifestyle. I was struck by this when talking to a friend who's a lawyer in Ann Arbor. He said he hadn't taken a real vacation in at least 2 years--his work makes it difficult to be away for an extended period of time. But he's off on weekend trips almost as often as he stay in town.