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[NewHope]

Context:

Sprawl is a corporative plague that stretches throughout the United States -- every state has to deal with it. "Miracle Mile" it is sometimes called -- where a mile or more of street (usually a main thoroughfare entering or leaving a town) becomes the site for all of the worst in fast-food outlets & malls. Seems to me that it is a terrible way to enter a community and be introduced to its supposed identity. You can hardly tell one Miracle Mile from the next.

1） tell one Miracle Mile from the next =？
2） be introduced to its supposed identity = ？

[twostep]

Context:

Sprawl is a corporative plague that stretches throughout the United States -- every state has to deal with it. "Miracle Mile" it is sometimes called -- where a mile or more of street (usually a main thoroughfare entering or leaving a town) becomes the site for all of the worst in fast-food outlets & malls. Seems to me that it is a terrible way to enter a community and be introduced to its supposed identity. You can hardly tell one Miracle Mile from the next.

1） tell one Miracle Mile from the next =？
2） be introduced to its supposed identity = ？

1) They all look alike. Cheap, fast food, low end stores. There is also GI Alley which is the equivalent to miracle mile but peppered with tatoo parlors, lounges and strip joints.

2) Not a nice way to enter a town, meet it so to say.

[NewHope]

Thanks for replying.

But "from the next" should be "for the next"?
"identity" = miracle mile?

[Francois]

The expression is 'to tell X from Y' eg. Can you tell Pepsi from Coca-Cola?
Identity refers to the community. You don't know much from the community identity by going thru the miracle mile, as they all look alike.

FRC