Why I won't ever move to NYC (New York, Victor: middle-class, appointed)
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After much research and initially being very "gung-ho" about the idea I've decided NYC isn't for me. I live close enough by(Boston) to have been to the City a lot and more or less know what is about. so for all you Mid-Westerns wanting to come to NYC don't! Here's why:
1. Unless you are rich and I mean like lawyer/doctor/stock brocker or better you aren't going to have the quality of life you could expect in nearly any other major US city, including my hometown.
2. NYC is a city for the super rich and for new immigrates who want to live around similar. If you are a working or middle-class third,fourth, whatever generation American you don't really have a place you could fit in besides fringe areas of Brooklyn and Queens.
3. What is the draw of living in NYC that you can't get elsewhere? for most kids it seems it more about being able to show off there address be it: the Village, Park Slope, UES, Williamsburg, where-ever back home. Sure there is great entertainment and museums but do most normal people really go to the museum so much that living close by the best is a necessity? You can get a very similar urban lifestyle with a much better overall quality of life in other cities, notably SF and Boston.
4. There are few upper-middle class jobs in NYC outside of the few core industries like finance and creative professions. Besides that most jobs seem to be low-pay service sector positions to feed the rich's greedy desires for quirky shops and boutiques.
5.Outside of Manhattan and Brownstone Brooklyn NYC, especially the vast sprawl of Queen and Southern Brooklyn, have some of the ugliest architecture I've ever seen.
6. NYC is pretty dirty compared to Boston. Not sure how it compares to other major cities in that regard.
This stuff is basically a distillation of my person experience along with what I've learned from researching it. I tried to find a neighborhood where I thought I could fit in the city but it doesn't seem to exist. Normal people don't belong in NYC anymore its all about the rich and there throngs of servants. Even a city that is claimed to just as if not more expensive as NYC as SF still has room for normal people. It really seems like this is a dark time for your City but in a much different way than in the 70s and 80s.
I think I'll be more than happy to visit the Urban Disneyland a few times a year and stay up here in a city, while not perfect, still has room for middle class people.
It's a shame because there are few other true urban cities left in this country and those of us who like the idea of walking lots of places and not having to own a car are nearly running out of luck. So much for being green when you can't even live in the country without having to own an expensive and wasteful car.
What you are forgetting is the biggest draw for NYC which does not occur just about anywhere else: OPPORTUNITY. So while you poopoo NYC as not what it's cracked up to be (where is?), you forget that all those midwesterners are faced with absolutely NOTHING in their current small/medium/large towns other than old people, foreclosures, and wal-mart for employment/entertainment. NYC in comparison IS a huge draw as a result...it certainly isn't perfect (where is?) but you have the OPPORTUNITY to do/be whatever you want....I don't see that happening in Poho, Iowa. Dark times for NYC? We are still enjoying record low crime rates, our economy has done far better than most large cities, we are adding employment, and have limited foreclosures. Yeah a dark time indeed!
As for Boston, so long as you are home and in bed by 11 I am sure you'll do fine..seeing as public transportation is a joke and closes at ..hmmm midnight? Bars and restaurants shut by..hmm..10? And oh yeah...a huge bulk of the population are transient students coming and going, without a care for anything, including Boston. Nevermind that Boston has very few opportunities for much of anything...songs were not sung, and the Global population does not flock to Boston for a reason. OK to visit once for a weekend though.
As for Boston, so long as you are home and in bed by 11 I am sure you'll do fine..seeing as public transportation is a joke and closes at ..hmmm midnight? Bars and restaurants shut by..hmm..10? And oh yeah...a huge bulk of the population are transient students coming and going, without a care for anything, including Boston. Nevermind that Boston has very few opportunities for much of anything...songs were not sung, and the Global population does not flock to Boston for a reason. OK to visit once for a weekend though.
Boston has plenty of opportunities if you're not trying to be an actress, model or other "star." It's got one of the most educated populations in the world. "Songs being sung" has nothing to do with people's ability to make a good living or, heaven forbid, have a good life.
New York is so juvenile with the whole "you can stay out all night" thing. At some point many people don't want to stay out all night, or can't because they have to get up and work. I also had more fun as young person in Boston with bars closing at 1 or 2 (not 10) than in NYC, where you'd stay out all night overspending for drinks. When the bars closed, if you didn't want to go to sleep people would go to each other's places and hang out there.
It's kind of silly for someone from NYC to talk about transients in Boston. The transient population is far smaller and more confined to a couple of neighborhoods than in NYC, where most of Manhattan and half of Brooklyn have been taken over by transients. If you go beyond the tourist core, there's an entire area full of locals who've got deep roots in the area, just as you'd find in the outer-outer boros and NYC suburbs, except more so.
There are tons of opportunities in Boston in lots of sectors that pay well and are achievable for regular middle-class people, especially in technology and biomedical sciences. I don't really see those sorts of jobs in NYC, not to mention the big industry jobs in NYC produce no actual common good for the rest of the country. Finance industry? Robbing regular people to get rich. Marketing and Advertising? Create more rampant consumerism and consumer debt? Thanks NYC!
For a normal middle-class kid coming from anywhere America NYC is probably the absolute WORST place they could go at this point. A lot of New Yorkers back into this whole misty eyed view of "NYC is the greatest city in the world, lets sing a song about it" BS that frankly has not basis in the current reality.
When my Irish and Eastern-European ancestors came to NYC 100 years ago maybe you had a case because those people actually achieved the American dream and made a better life because of NYC. But the City isn't that place anymore.
Don't get me wrong I love NYC in a lot of way- Why else would I have looked into living there?- and am glad to be able to visit so often. I guess I'm just mostly disappointed that it is no longer a viable place for someone like me to live.
Last edited by starfox68; 08-04-2010 at 01:33 PM..
Boston has lots of opportunities. So does NYC, in a wide variety of fields, not just wall street and the performing arts. There are jobs in corp HQ, in broadcasting, publishing, architecture, etc, etc. Each persons job search is pretty individual, and its pretty silly to try to generalize about it.
SF and Boston are hardly cheap, esp SF.
There are many attractive neighborhoods in NYC outside Manhattan and brownstone Brooklyn. Prospect Park South and nearby areas of Victorian Flatbush, Forest Hills, etc.
Holden how long have you lived in NYC? You think the only difference in opportunities between NYC and Boston is being an actor or star? Really?
You and starfox are welcome to compare Boston and Brooklyn.....there you may have an argument. But please, don't waste everyone's time trying to compare Boston and NYC. I mean really...so silly. NYC is the papa, the breadwinner, the goal, while Boston is the redheaded step-child always trying to keep up....I know you wanna be NYC when you grow up...but you can't. Be happy being Boston and don't try to compare yourself to something you can never be.
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