City Life Submission Guidelines

A new Medium publication all about life in great urban places

The image that anchors this article is of an all-day cafe in Rome’s Trastevere neighborhood called Bar San Calisto.

This specific place, the immediate neighborhood, and the larger city define what it means to be not merely urban, but vibrant and urban. It epitomizes what Jane Jacobs called the “organized complexity” of cities.

A whole host of planned and unplanned elements coming together to create an organic whole. The merging of spontaneity and structure at its best. A dance you only find in seemingly chaotic, but somehow nervous system-settling cities.

If you love cities, you likely have your own Bar San Calisto.

In the City Life publication on Medium, we want to hear about your Bar San Calisto.

Stories about your experience living in and visiting the world’s great cities, urban places and spaces.

To get a better feel for what this publication could be, here’s a bit about me followed by specifics on what we’re looking for in City Life.

UPDATE: Please read the “What we’re looking for” section below carefully and adhere it. I was too loose on accepting submissions that do not meet these parameters.

So, going forward no more travel guides. We want first hand accounts of what’s it like to LIVE or BE in cities that you can’t find on cookie cutter travel review sites. And any and all content related to urban planning and studies. And, also going forward, no poetry.

My name is Rocco Pendola. I have been writing on Medium since 2020. While I write mostly about money — specifically personal finance strategies for those of us who will Never Retire — I interject my passion for city life into much of my writing.

I grew up in Niagara Falls, New York. A stone’s throw away from Buffalo and Toronto. Two cities — one underrated, the other a bonafied and rightfully glorified world city — where I spent a lot of time as a teenager.

However, when I moved from home at age 19, I settled in what amounts to suburban South Florida. Because, as much as I was enamored by Buffalo and Toronto, I always thought the city was where other people lived. Either the poor or ultra rich.

Working in radio, I traveled around North America a lot between 19 and 24 years of age, visiting places such as Montreal and Chicago and living in South Florida, Pittsburgh, Dallas, and Las Vegas. It wasn’t until early 1999 — when I was 23 — that I decided I not only could, but absolutely should be a city dweller myself.

I spent a week in Boston for work. I pretty much blew off work and walked around that city endlessly each day.

By Labor Day weekend 1999, I was living in San Francisco, the closest resemblance to Boston on the West Coast. And the closest traditional city to where I was living and working (in radio) at the time — the antithesis of urbanity, Las Vegas.

Twenty-three years later and I have yet to leave California. With the exception of two years in suburban Orange County, I have only lived in cities — San Francisco to Los Angeles to Santa Monica and back to LA.

I spent that time in Orange County as a Phd student in urban planning at the University of California, Irvine. This came after four-and-a-half years at San Francisco State University where I obtained a degree in urban studies.

I love cities.

Living in them. Visiting them. Wandering around in them. Reading about them. Writing about them. Taking and looking at photographs of them. (These last few sentences amount to a concise version of our submission guidelines!).

Come January 2025, it gets even more exciting, as me and partner have plans to move to Spain — permanently.

Thus, my decision to start this publication — City Life.

What we’re looking for

• First-hand accounts of your experience living in and visiting cities.
• This doesn’t mean travel guides or how to spend X number of hours in a place.
• It means tying your experience to something bigger and unique directly linked to what makes the place(s) you choose to highlight great. This could be as simple as how the place makes you feel, past or present development issues, or disucssions about real estate and cost of living.
• The possibilities are endless — just don’t try to be Rick Steves, Phil Rosenthal, Anthony Bourdain, Fodor’s or the New York Times. Love them all. But they do what they do well. We want you to be you and for you to do what you do well.
• We no longer accept previously-published pieces.

Two good examples —

This story by Charlie Brown —

And this one by me —

• Speaking of development, features on how a city is changing or interesting neighborhood comparisons. The key — don’t write like a reporter. Make it personal.

For example —

• Urban photography. Thoughtfully considered images from your neighborhood, your city, or your travels. Just try to tie it to something personal or that otherwise resonates with the reader.
• Reviews and riffs on classic urban planning and studies books and theories.

Solid examples include —

Jane Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great American Cities

Mitchell Duneier, Sidewalk

Philippe Bourgois, In Search of Respect: Selling Crack in El Barrio

Kevin Lynch, The Image of the City

James Howard Kunstler, The Geography of Nowhere

Ebenezer Howard: Garden Cities of To-Morrow

William Whyte: The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces

Mike Davis: City of Quartz

These books provide a general idea of the tone I aim to set in City Life. Plus, they form an amazing — and comprehensive — urban planning and studies education.

If you’re not sure, submit it anyway, because I’d hate to miss out on great writing about cities just becuase I didn’t think of it when writing these guidelines.

On Style

I don’t believe in editors dictating style so I’m loose in this regard.

This doesn’t mean City Life will accept sub-par contributions.

Please focus on these points when crafting and proofreading your story —

• Keep your pargraphs short — one to four sentences max.
• Vary the length of your sentences.
• Write in the first person (I).
• Address the reader one-on-one (you). When referring to the whole — author and audience — use “us” and “we.”
• Cite sources for infomation and images.
• Write like you speak. Conversationally. I’d rather have grammar errors that are natural over “perfect” writing that is forced.

If you would like to submit a story to City Life, follow these easy steps

1. Leave a comment below, and we can add you as a writer.
2. Once we have added you as a writer, go to “Edit” on any story you wish to submit, click “Add to Publication,” and select “City Life.”
3. We will either accept the story, make some edits to the story, or let you know if the story does not fit with this publication.

If you have questions, don’t hesitate to contact me at notascomposedasyouappear — at — gmail — dot — com.