Going back re-reading this thread, it's sweet.  And nostalgic...some familiar names who no longer post here.

 

What really sealed the deal was and internship in D.C. that i did in 2004.

 

The District is pretty amazing...its like crack cocaine  for "city junkies".  Easy to get around without a car, too, as you note.

 

 

 

 

Going to NYC when I was about 10 yrs old and just fascinated with the scale of it.  Also learned how to draw buildings in 3D, which prompted me in 3rd grade to draw a skyscraper out of 3 sheets of note book paper taped together.  From there for the next several years I would add paper to the right and eventually drew an entire city!  My urban planning skills left a lot to be desired at such a young age as can be expected.  As like W28th, a semester in Florence, Italy and traveling Europe only intensified the interest in cities.

I always wanted to be an architect growing up.....  I drew nothing but houses and floorplans from the time I was like 5 years old.  I don't know how I ended up in science instead....  Oh, wait.....  I never got around to taking art classes cause I was too busy with other stuff!

For me, it was probably the resurgence of Cleveland from 91 to 98.  We were always hearing and reading up beat news about Cleveland, and it just started leading me to comparing my town to others.

Going to Tower City throughout the 90s every December 31st, when the mall was really something special. It was always an event with the family, as we took the Rapid downtown (something I didn't all that much outside of Indians games), the shopping scene was great, the mall was completely packed, I got to eat fast food (my family was never big on that), and we really could spend hours there without getting bored. It was my first real non-sports exposure to downtown Cleveland and sparked my interest in cities in general.

 

That, and stories from my family about Hough Bakery.