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Nyc is too massive to pigeonhole it as a city for the rich. Its more accurate to think of new york as a city of everything. Not all 8 million are super rich in this city.
And being middle class definently does not mean waking up in a tenement in an undesirable neighborhood swatting the roaches of the radiator. Theres plenty of normal people living in normal areas. How could their not be
It's only 4 hours away by car and a 30 minute flight, who cares?! Why is there always so much bad blood between Boston and NY? I actually really like Boston, and would definitely consider living there if I had a job and network there despite how much I love NYC. I could easily come to NYC every weekend - a return bus ticket from Chinatown is like $20, it's like going to LI or something. If I could find a really nice spot in Boston or Philly for cheap and knew enough people in either city, I would definitely move there and just come to NY every weekend, I don't think I'd miss out on much not living here on the week days. However, 4-5 hours is my limit, past that I probably wouldn't consider moving because I would definitely have NY withdrawals, but that's just me.
Okay, well I pay $700 a month to live with three other people. Our apartment is infested with cockroaches... and now bedbugs! And it isn't like I'm surrounded by white middle class people. Try monkeys and lowlife illegal immigrants who live on section 8, SSI, EBT, etc. All while slanging dope on the side. That is the REAL normal in NYC. Poor, rich, and hustlers who game the system. Show me an honest hardworking Caucasian middle class person who hasn't fled here and I will show you the minority.
Sweetheart, moving to Harlem via Podunk, Michigan and living here for a whopping four months does not make you any sort of authority of New York City.
Now enlighten us.. What neighborhoods in New York City have you been to?
This post (like all your others) is downright ridiculous.
Okay, well I pay $700 a month to live with three other people. Our apartment is infested with cockroaches... and now bedbugs! And it isn't like I'm surrounded by white middle class people. Try monkeys and lowlife illegal immigrants who live on section 8, SSI, EBT, etc. All while slanging dope on the side. That is the REAL normal in NYC. Poor, rich, and hustlers who game the system. Show me an honest hardworking Caucasian middle class person who hasn't fled here and I will show you the minority.
I lived in NYC in the early 90's in a so called bad area of Brooklyn and I'm white. My only problem was the pest infestation, I still get flashbacks of mice running along the walls. I never had a problem with the people in the neighborhood. Many of the older ones often say hello on a regular basis. I rarely saw drug activity and never heard any violence beyond a rare fight outside, usually amongst the kids. I've been the victim of violence a few times and they have been in white towns on Long Island. Mugged in Wantagh and jumped by a group of drunk white men who were staying in a "shared" house in Hampton Bays. Never had any of those bad expieriences in the "ghettos" of NYC. If you have an open mind and leave your narrow views back in "Mayberry," being part of NYC ethnic makeup can be a wonderful thing.
Honestly, don't you have to love threads like this? Some person deliberately chooses the New York City forum to announce a complete disinterest in moving here. The first thought I had when I found this was, "That's great--we're better off without you!"
Okay, well I pay $700 a month to live with three other people. Our apartment is infested with cockroaches... and now bedbugs! And it isn't like I'm surrounded by white middle class people. Try monkeys and lowlife illegal immigrants who live on section 8, SSI, EBT, etc. All while slanging dope on the side. That is the REAL normal in NYC. Poor, rich, and hustlers who game the system. Show me an honest hardworking Caucasian middle class person who hasn't fled here and I will show you the minority.
If you move out of Harlem, you'll be fine. I have plenty of friends in Queens and Brooklyn in nice middle class areas paying the same or less than you and they live in safe, quiet neighborhoods and don't have massive pest problems. It takes takes them half an hour or less to get to Manhattan and they are fine. Most of them work in retail or food services while trying to make it in the theater world and they live just fine. They live in Bay Ridge, Windsor Terrace, Sunnyside, Astoria, Woodside. . . places like that.
You moved into the hood and are surprised that it's not sunshine and daisies. If you're not making six figures, it's silly to try to live in Manhattan and think you'll have a great life. It sucks, but that's the way it is. It's very easy to live a good life on a lot less if you live in an outer boro.
Looking back to the first post, I can't help but comment. I live in NYC, Brooklyn to be specific and I've been here for all of my twenty four years, As a middle class student - yes I can agree, it does SUCK! If you're not extremely well off, or recieve low enough income to be government assisted, there is no way to make a "decent" life here. New York is over. It's become too expensive, I've noticed within the last five years. 1300/month for a TINY, studio, dingy apartment here in Williamsburg.. are you kidding?
I can't hardly afford my economical Honda CR-V without having to share a small space with eight other people.. no thanks. I'm out. of. here.
Okay, well I pay $700 a month to live with three other people. Our apartment is infested with cockroaches... and now bedbugs! And it isn't like I'm surrounded by white middle class people. Try monkeys and lowlife illegal immigrants who live on section 8, SSI, EBT, etc. All while slanging dope on the side. That is the REAL normal in NYC. Poor, rich, and hustlers who game the system. Show me an honest hardworking Caucasian middle class person who hasn't fled here and I will show you the minority.
Harlemnewbie, this is NOT the real normal in NYC!!! You choose to move to the hood. I have to wonder why you would even consider doing something like that? Was it for a Manhattan address? I'm truly curious as to your reasoning.
NYC is a massive sprawling metropolis, there will always be concessions and inconveniences, it's the nature of the beast, it's NYC. You claim you pay $700 a month with two other roommates - do you realize how well the three of you could be living for $2100 in places like Bay Ridge or Pelham Parkway in the Bronx? Before moving here, had you actually done your homework and thought outside of the (Manhattan) box, your (only) four month experience here could have been incredibly different.
Your statement, "And it isn't like I'm surrounded by white middle class people" just makes me shake my head!! Come on, it's Harlem. I know, I know, it's becoming gentrified and truly is much better that days gone by but Harlem is still a Black enclave with hot blocks and nice blocks. It's hit or miss. I'm sorry, nothing personal, but that statement is just "wrong" and honestly, comes across as very irresponsible among other things.
Sorry this is kinda long but my husband and I are definitately hardworking, honest, church-going, middle class people born and raised in NY. I don't know what it's like to be surrounded by Caucasian middle class people since we're Black and we live in southeast Queens in the neighborhood we grew up in that's about 98% Black. But this is what it's like for us and most of the middle class people (of all races) we know.
We're 40, both have degrees. I'm a paralegal, he has a city job. It's 1 hour 10 mins. door to door to my job in midtown. For a mortgage of $1830 we live in a 4 bedroom, 2 1/2 bath brick english tudor single family house with a professionally landscaped front yard, large back yard with covered patio and outdoor kitchen, gut renovated interior with restored hardwoods, granite and stainless kitchen, travertine baths, finished basement (his man cave) with pool table, theater system, bar, on a quiet, clean, tree-lined street. I have never seen a roach, rat or bedbug in my house. We spent yesterday evening on the patio in the hammock drinking wine watching the rain fall and discussing a business venture we hope to start.
My all Black neighbors on my street are doctors, nurses, teachers, accountants, bus drivers, police officers, business owners, military, office workers, government workers, young families, retired elderly couples, and new immigrants. Yes, there's crime here, there's crime everywhere, but I never feel unsafe here, I never hear gunshots and I don't know anyone who's been robbed around here.
I drive an X5 and hubby has a sports car and a motorcycle in our garage - all paid for. Paid to send the kids to a good private school and currently paying out of pocket college tuition. We take one big vacation a year and a few weekend trips, family visits, etc. I have a designer shoe fetish and hubby is a clothes man-*****. We see Broadway shows, go to Yankees and Giants games sometimes, and go out for drinks, dinner with friends when we want to.
We are not rich but we don't have a lot of debt (finally!) and we work hard and budget very carefully to maintain the lifestyle we have.
Anyplace SUCKS if you choose to pay a fortune to live in the hood because it's on the fringes of someplace "trendy" while you only make pennies. With our household income, if we leave Queens and move to Manhattan we'd probably be your new neighbors. Your life sucks because of your own choices. You should have asked the local middle class (of any race) where they live because we are NOT in Manhattan.
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