Does anyone really LOVE New York? (Phoenix, Stuyvesant: rent, low crime, mortgage)

[PhxGal07]

I live in Phoenix, Arizona now (Paradise Valley) and I could tell you that I miss New York terribly. I lived in Brooklyn my whole life and will never forget about my hometown. I live here in Phoenix since 2002 and because of family reasons can't go back home (at least for now). I could never afford to live in the City (single parent) but could afford to live in Brooklyn. I love Brooklyn and would move back there in a minute if circumstances permitted me. There is nothing like New York. I miss the good food. They just cannot duplicate it here in Phoenix no matter how hard they tried. I really didn't realize what I had until I lost it. I was from those Saturday Night Fever days and life was really like that back in the 80s. I had the best childhood. Playing in the streets, tick-tack-toe, hopskotch, double-dutch, etc. Oh, don't let me get started Boo Hoo. YES I LOVE NEW YORK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[vitalove]

BklynGal, you really spoke the truth! Kudos to you!

And yes, there are people or families that own 3-4 cars in one household and park on the street. I see it in Manhattan all the time. It's crazy. No one wants to pay 200-400 dollars a month for a garage. Parking has become a nightmare literally overnight in my area. It's just awful.

[arel]

Originally Posted by PhxGal07

I live in Phoenix, Arizona now (Paradise Valley) and I could tell you that I miss New York terribly. I lived in Brooklyn my whole life and will never forget about my hometown. I live here in Phoenix since 2002 and because of family reasons can't go back home (at least for now). I could never afford to live in the City (single parent) but could afford to live in Brooklyn. I love Brooklyn and would move back there in a minute if circumstances permitted me. There is nothing like New York. I miss the good food. They just cannot duplicate it here in Phoenix no matter how hard they tried. I really didn't realize what I had until I lost it. I was from those Saturday Night Fever days and life was really like that back in the 80s. I had the best childhood. Playing in the streets, tick-tack-toe, hopskotch, double-dutch, etc. Oh, don't let me get started Boo Hoo. YES I LOVE NEW YORK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is my biggest fear about moving to Vermont. Now, I'd much rather live in Vermont than in Arizona (although I have never been to Arizona), and it relatively easy to travel from Vermont to NYC for a visit (5 hours from Brattleboro to Brooklyn, a 45 minute plane ride from Burlington to JFK Airport). I have listed, more times than I can count, my reasons for wanting to leave Brooklyn, my reasons to move to Vermont, and even reasons to stay here in Brooklyn. I have been on the Vermont forum for almost a a year. I have visited my target town close to 10 times and have talked to lots of people there. I have asked questions on the town's citizen journalism site. I have been informed of the negative aspects of the town and the state. But even after tons of research you are never fully prepared. My target town, Brattleboro, has many of the amenities I would lose if I moved to a smaller and/or more remote town, but still it is a small town and the ambience is different from that of NYC. I live in a quiet neighborhood in southern Brooklyn, so it's not as different as it would be if I lived in Manhattan or in Brooklyn Heights or Park Slope, but it is still different. The local economy in Vermont is very different from NYC and quite problematic. The winters are not too different from those in NYC, but maybe a little colder, grayer and longer. The people are different in demeanor from what I am used to.

I can complain and complain about NYC - the dirt, pollution, rudeness, congestion, materialism, dishonesty and worries about crime, terrorism and potential hurricanes are my main complaints - but NYC is still a very special place, even if you don't always use the things NYC is known for. And NYC is home.

So for me, leaving NYC is not just about leaving NYC. It is about leaving home. It is about leaving what is familiar. The diversity, the familiar sights and sounds, the stimulation, the familiar foods. Vermont's food is actually better in quality than the food here - locally grown, organic, artesanal - but you can't get a lot of the ethnic foods there that you get here. And the bagels don't taste right. They do not taste right anywhere out of NYC, for some reason (althuugh I once made good bagels outside of Philadelphia, using water in which potatoes had been cooked). I have been warned that you can't get good pizza in Brattleboro. I haven't had Vermont pizza, but I have had Rhode Island pizza and it is not like New York pizza, even though Rhode Island has a big Italian population.

But what I fear are feelings of dislocation, of not fitting in, of not being comfortable with the ambience, of financial disappointment, of feeling suffocated or bored in a small town, of losing the vast array of professional resources I have in NYC, of feeling out of place, of feelings that I have lost my grounding and am drifting. I don't think all of this will happen, and if they do I can leave if I want to. Also, I know that change involves risk, and also loss. But I am still cautious, possibly overly risk-averse, and that is what is holding me back. I still have to discover how much of my resistance is that fear of change and loss and how much is a gut feeling that I belong in NYC. That's what I need to work on now.

After my last trip, I felt I didn't want to come home. After the trip before, I felt a strong homing instinct towards NYC. Go figure.

[BklynGal2476]

I know in Brooklyn many people had 2-3 cars per household, sometimes even more.

I remember a while back someone spent millions of dollars on a study that reached the conclusion that there were too many cars on the road in Brooklyn.

DUH!!!!!

[yhwhshalomjr]

Since you asked boo!!!
Sorry you got so many bad replies, A New Yorker always a New Yorker, nothing like it I've been moved away for some time now But.....my heart still longs for the musty subways and the real Chinatown Chinese fried rice and egg-rolls, and then to Brooklyn and Queens where I shop til I drop!!! then run and get me a couple of slices of No where like it PIZZA ITALIANO, it out-runs the fake stuff in the Southeast, and then the dirty hot dogs with the Umbrella
in Manhattan right on the corner you need for a quick delicious crunchy mouth watering bite...The Best !!!!!!!! then when I'm broke and tired of walking all over the place browsing/shopping I can get on the MTA and stare back at a bunch of stone-faced folks looking mean enough to kill , but most of them are taught to look like that to scare people off. Anyways I hope I made you laugh, but this is what's real. It is what you make it, don't get caught up and you'll have a good stay or visit, There are plenty nice things to do whether you have money or not, People are the same every where you go... At least people at home are for the most part straight-up with you. Now depending on your finances, it can be pretty expensive in most decent places to live
Other than that, Go for it!!! With an open mind and not a lot to lose, you may like it ,Post a thread and let me know how it worked out..
Die hard New Yorker in the house (OLD SCHOOL ONE AT THAT)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[amy_cate]

aren't tourists the one who sport the I LOVE NY shirts anyway?

maybe ask this question again when we haven't had yet another transit disaster and i haven't been travelling to and from work for a total of 5 1/2 hrs. maybe then i will feel slightly less hostility.

right now, no. i don't love ny. it will always be here - i think that i'll enjoy it more when i come back to visit, when i'm not bogged down working my butt off so i can afford to live here, etc. maybe then i'll have the time and money to go do things that as a resident, i don't have the luxury to enjoy. there are things i'll miss most definitely, but i can always come back. nyc, like paris and l.a., are cities where i don't desire to reside - but i will always visit fondly.

[HOME$$$RIPOFF]

Originally Posted by yhwhshalomjr

it can be pretty expensive in most decent places to live

I was following allong with you until I read the above. are you suggesting that NY is decent place to live???

Most people are afraid of change or simply they are so poor that they can't afford change. so they don't. they live with the crap. give me a break.

[amy_cate]

Originally Posted by BklynGal2476

I know in Brooklyn many people had 2-3 cars per household, sometimes even more.

I remember a while back someone spent millions of dollars on a study that reached the conclusion that there were too many cars on the road in Brooklyn.

DUH!!!!!

hmmm... yet insurance is a major ripoff. most everyone (myself included) has his/her car registered in another state to have cheaper insurance. the most i was quote was $6000 a year. ridiculous. it's very expensive to insure your honda in bklyn bc they are very easy to steal. nice.

too many cars in bklyn? get out! BQE or Belt anyone? even at like 2am. wtf?

[amy_cate]

Originally Posted by HOME$$$RIPOFF

I was following allong with you until I read the above. are you suggesting that NY is decent place to live???

Most people are afraid of change or simply they are so poor that they can't afford change. so they don't. they live with the crap. give me a break.

there is no middle class in ny - they're all leaving (myself included).

ny isn't just expensive in the so-called decent places to live, it's a ripoff no matter where you are. for what you get for your $$ it's a total ripoff. look most anywhere else and see what you get in terms of space as well as quality of life...for real. there's a reason people are moving out and the neighborhoods are changing. but you're right, some ppl will just stay. you can't save here - makes getting out that much harder, but it is possible...

[PhxGal07]

NY is not a rip-off. I am in Phoenix now and when I first moved to Scottsdale a few years ago everyone wanted my money and deposits for everything. The apartments in Scottsdale, AZ are similar to apartments that I can find in Brooklyn. Of course you get more for your money but if you really look in one of the Boroughs other than Manhattan you can find a decent rent. You just have to really search. Brooklyn still has affordable rents pending on what type of job you do. You can find a 2 bedroom for $1200 which is the same as some apartments here in Phoenix. THE PAY SCALE IS WAY BETTER IN MANHATTAN. I took a $20,000 a year pay reduction moving here and the rents are slightly lower. Things are still high here. Grocery shopping is expensive. SO DON'T TRASH NY because you don't know what you have until you loose it!!! And as far as the man who is moving to Vermont, my dad lives in Burlington and loves it. He's been living there for years. He hates NY but comes down to get food and go to certain doctors (see he's still attached somehow). I Love and Hate NY but again, you never forget home. Believe it or not when I first came to Phoenix people were rudder here than in New York. Go figure!