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Location: East Central Pennsylvania/ Chicago for 6yrs.
2,535 posts, read 3,280,624 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by louie0406
Given its one of the biggest/richest major cities in the world, its quite embarrassing given the condition its in.
Streets are filthy and smelly. Homeless people laying around everywhere you look. Subway system is filthy and smelly. Etc..
I travel to Montreal frequently and there's a night and day difference between the cleanliness and quality of life in Montreal compared to NYC.
YES, All I can say is NYC now one of the RICHES cities on the Planet..... Certainly can and should do better in cleaner streets and sidewalks.
Manhattan in the Movies has that Disneyesque look. A perfect Urban Environment. But on visits that can get tarnished quick. It's not expected to all be Times Square and Broadway. But you Walk Chicago's Downtown and off Manhattan main streets.... there is night and day in cleanliness. A bit of debris is one thing grime is another...
Its MANHATTAN ....Your City has a BUDGET SURPLUS TO BOAST OF. Chicago has Debt, is seen as politically corrupt. But it manicures its Downtown.... not to say sterile. It is taking on a Disneyesque look. Its Great neighborhoods are spotless and good neighborhoods very good in cleanliness. A full alleyway system surely helps.
One thing I also highly dislike is Manhattan... is having steel gated and roll down gates on its retail stores..... I took a cheap bus trip for a day in Manhattan. It left off in the Jeweler's District... EVERY STORE HAD UGLY GATED FRONTS. Parts of 5th Ave we walked did.
I'm thinking.... this is MANHATTAN, NYC BOAST LESS CRIME THEN CHICAGO. But walking Manhattan had it look like HIGHEST CRIME WAS THERE??? BAN.... these gates in Manhattan.
Living in Chicago a few years. It's like these gates on storefronts are banned downtown there? Not sure.... But you see NONE. So much more a safe feeling too that way. Its good neighborhoods too you virtually see none. Bad neighborhoods(high crime) yes.
Don't get me wrong.... I respect and appreciate NYC and its Global Iconic American (WORLD'S) city status. Its Museums and Architecture and history, Broadway and portrayed in film....
But a thread was on C-D a while back on NYC's Budget Surplus. Asking what it should do with it?
I say CLEAN UP MANHATTAN STREETS TO A WORLD-CLASS STANDARD MOST EXPECT.... AND GET RID OF MOST OF THEM GATED STORES.... . IT'S ..... MANHATTAN AFTER ALL... THE WORLD WANTS TO SEE.
My opinion for a bit of improvement others as Visitors would appreciate and respect it even more...
After my co-worker kept telling me how clean it was in Germany, my expectations were set pretty high.
I found Munich to be pretty dirty (definitely worse than NYC) and Berlin to be pretty clean---I mean, I saw people raking the cobblestones to get out cigarette butts and sidewalk cleaners that were mini-versions of the street cleaners. They do have plenty of graffiti. Plenty of homeless everywhere in the major German cities, in Brussels as well if you throw Belgium into the mix, and they're more likely to have dogs as pets too than the homeless here. (Though my sister said that this was pretty common in Rome too.)
UWS has always been sketchy IMHO. Was just over there Thursday and it really is the same thing; you can go only one block and things change like *that*. In general the further away you get from CPW or Columbus the worse things get. Things get nicer again when you reach West End Avenue.
UWS is sketchy? Then the LES must be a warzone... *rolls eyes*
NYC has been dirty for years, you should have seen it during the crack epidemic, back during the days of CBGB's and what was known as Skid Row, New York is like Disneyland in todays world.
our sanitation dept sucks, we have too many pigs living among us. too many third world people with disgusting habits. shall i go on?
thats the one thing bloomberg never went crazy over, cleanliness.
NYC was dirty long before third world people moved to NYC in large numbers. The European immigrants who moved here in the 1800s and 1900s were trashy and low class.
What are you doing in either UWS or UES? You should be magically uplifting the terribly oppressed Blacks in the housing projects in Brownsville and telling them wondrous tales of London (while wearing a bulletproof vest).
Leave me be NY
I am not telling you where to go..
Anyway, other cities with large populations like Tokyo are much cleaner, so population is no excuse. Re the UES, it has European levels of cleanliness in parts, so it can be done..
Location: East Central Pennsylvania/ Chicago for 6yrs.
2,535 posts, read 3,280,624 times
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Like I said... NYC especially can do better in cleaning Manhattan especially.
Just in comparisons....CHICAGO'S downtown is kept surprisingly clean. Almost manicured. You rarely even see debris blowing down the street even on a windy day, but certainly not sterile. When Tourist/Visitors see how well kept it is. THEY RESPECT IT with keeping it that way and Workers/Locals too. Flowers hanging and in Planters and medians of streets with greens.
I totally realize Downtown Chicago is smaller then Manhattan...and some New Yorkers view Chicago as FLY-OVER in favor of LA and SF. But Chicago certainly has a Respectable caliber Downtown today even Disneyesque.... in a good way.
So after moving to Chicago before my first visit to Manhattan and then other times since. Though now living back East again. It TOOK AWAY FROM MY EXPECTATIONS of MANHATTAN.... to see things could and should be much cleaner...... I already saw plenty of Skyscrapers. So other aspects caught my eye over just looking up.
I found it hard to overlook. Even bags of garbage off Times Square where restaurants even were. Chicago having alleys through the whole city, and with the City providing Big Trash Bins for every Home to keep trash in the Alleys in the bins helps the whole city's cleaner look.
But to me.... you still as a Tourist expect a Disneyesque look to Manhattans from the Movies. At least in and between the Top Spots they all head to see.
So my opinion is..... hearing, NYC is so wealthy today it has a SURPLUS of funds in its budget. Why not use some extra funds.... for Sprucing up Manhattan streets and sidewalks better. AFTERALL, TO INTERNATIONAL TOURIST... IT IS MOSTLY THE AMERICA THEY MAY SEE.
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. IT'S ..... MANHATTAN AFTER ALL... THE WORLD WANTS TO SEE. 
You rarely even see debris blowing down the street even on a windy day, but certainly not sterile. When Tourist/Visitors see how well kept it is. THEY RESPECT IT with keeping it that way and Workers/Locals too. Flowers hanging and in Planters and medians of streets with greens. 
But Chicago certainly has a Respectable caliber Downtown today even Disneyesque.... in a good way. 
