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If you ever come here again, try Queens or Brooklyn. It's easier for a nice area, and job market is picking up slowly too.
Thanks. I completely agree on that and would love to live in an area like Forest Hills or Rego Park or something like that. I'm working on my Master's right now and would move back after graduation given that I actually secure a good job first. Let's all pray the job market keeps gathering steam. I honestly believe there are better days ahead!
i can respond as someone who actually lived in harlem. And yes, to answer your question. I do regret it. It was a mistake and poor planning on my part. Last year i finished school and decided that, even though i didn't have much money, i was going to live my dream of moving to nyc. I don't know what was going through my mind at that point. I think mainly that i was bored out of my mind in the small town i had spent my entire life in, this feeling like i had to escape it and find better opportunities elsewhere. So i packed up my sheepskin and three suitcases and hopped on an amtrak. I found a rental there in west harlem (one bedroom in a four bedroom apartment) for $150 per week through delta room rentals, which included everything (cable, internet) and had no lease. I figured i had nothing to lose. If it didn't work out, i wasn't beholden to my lease and could jump up and leave. I listened to all of the same crap about harlem's gentrification and figured it couldn't be that bad. Gotta start somewhere, right? I should have just trusted my instincts and gone back home then. But i had to 'experience' nyc and start my life there, and wasn't going to admit failure, especially right upon arrival. I had no idea how awful the living conditions would be, or the neighborhood. Keep in mind i grew up in a sheltered, rather affluent environment surrounded by people who were cookie-cutter clones of one another. The first week there i knew immediately i had to rearrange my entire appearance just so i would fit in. Pepper spray became another appendage of my body, on me 24/7. I wore sunglasses like armor, afraid of making eye contact with the wrong people. Afraid of my white skin. Afraid of being a target. I felt like prey. My personality changed. Usually friendly and outgoing, i turned inward and distrustful of everything and everyone around me. I moved in last april. By june, the heat was sweltering, unbearable. I could not afford a portable a/c unit (none in the building of course) so i suffered with two little miserable electric fans spewing air each way in my miserable little bedroom. One of my roommates overdosed on cocaine three days after moving in, bringing what i assume was her pimp with her even though visitors were not permitted by the landlord. Dominicans ruled the block, and played music blaringly loud all day and all night. So loud that it reverberated through the walls and rattled the floor. There was no escape from it. Their mutts would crap on the sidewalk and it would just sit there and fester with the trash. Fire hydrants would be left spouting off at all hours and spray with so much pressure there was a flood on the curb you could not simply jump over. It would soak my shoes and pants many days because there was no way of avoiding it. I knew i was changing because the old me would have complained and cared. The new me knew the cops weren't going to do anything, no one was going to fix these problems. I started to see the corruption and realized just how much dope and cash were trading hands. You can only watch so many 200k bentleys and mercedes roll down your destitute little block without losing your sense of self-protective denial. Burned down buildings, serious rat infestations, graffiti everywhere. Cockroaches measuring 4 inches in length creeping in no matter how many times i bleached the floor down and cleaned my filthy roommates' messes up. Guys catcalling and calling me degrading names everywhere i went. No good restaurants or nightlife. Feeling like a circus freak because i was dressed like a working professional going to interviews. I stuck out like a sore thumb and knew it but was trapped by the poverty. The best part of my day was hopping downtown on the 1 train. Once i got to 116th street and broadway i felt a sigh of relief wash over me every time. The worst part was going back uptown and hitting the 125th stop. It was like, okay, now you are back to reality. I wasn't about to ask mommy and daddy for help like those dorky hipster kids. I stayed 6 months and finally snapped. I was developing a nasty drinking habit and on the verge of a nervous breakdown. And the salaries i was offerred sucked considering the cost of living. I don't harbor bad feelings about nyc in general, i'm just telling you what my experience was. My advice is keep your eyes wide open and listen to the people on these threads that have earned their reputations. They are warning you, telling you often what i should have listened to. They aren't just saying the things they are out of thin air. Go through their posts, and you'll be able to sort out who is true new yorker and who isn't pretty quickly. Listen to the natives. Don't be a fool. the only people who really hype up harlem as hip usually have vested interests. there are much nicer areas you can live outside of manhattan. I've started to feel like parts of that borough are a trap for people like me. And if you think about it quite clearly, that is exactly what they are. Like p.t. Barnum said, there is a sucker born every minute. And nyc is where they flock to, like ferrets to a shiny coin. Little do they know that there is a hand behind that shiny coin, there to snap their necks and feed them to their unborn children.
@EastBoundandDownChick, You remind me the Harlemnewbie story.
Well, she is no where as negative as Harlemnewbie, I wonder what happened to her. I have a friend who just moved to 110th and 5th ave next to Central Park which really feels more like the UWS and she loves it so far. She said she never feels uncomfortable taking the 2 train home at 2am being White. Man, I felt a little uneasy taking the 2/3 at 11pm up there and i'm Black, haha.
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