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NYC is fabulous for some - i.e. urbanist, yuppie, high income, and the rich and probably not great for others - typical American (re: suburban) household.
With NYC, they might admire it from the tube while watching glamorous shows like Sex and the City reruns or every other film that comes out in the cinema these days. Most Americans like their big SUVs, McDonalds (65%+ of Americans are overweight), and places like NYC or San Francisco are so different from the typical American big-box, SUV lifestyle.
But it's interesting how NYC is so strongly defined by their city proper unlike every other city. When one says "Seattle", "Los Angeles" or "Dallas", they also include the suburban areas of the metro area outside of the city limits. Even on City Data, New York (and D.C.) are the only city-proper forums. OP's problems with NYC don't exist in Greater NYC's suburban areas like Westchester and Fairfield County.
Agreed.
NYC is amazing to some and disgusting to others. So I don't see the point of this thread.
People of color being targeted? Welcome to America. Homeless people? Clearly the OP hasn't visited other expensive large cities. He should go to SF, maybe he'll take back his statement.
I mean, that's good for them. Still have yet to see what the big deal is with NYC -- other than it's the largest city in the US and HQ for many large businesses (and I grew up going to the city quite often living in NJ!)
When people insult LA, it's like alright, whatever, you clearly don't get it. Whenever anybody insults NY, expect an uproar of insults to ensue.
You say most American's don't get NYC because of being overweight and liking McDonald's. I can tell you how many people living in suburban NJ don't like NYC either. They only like being "close" to the city in theory.
They hate NYC? But they come in raids like roaches to work here? Lmao.
You have to figure in that if you live in NYC you aren't taking advantage of that great "culture" on a regular basis. Most people don't have the money to be eating out every single night, have the time to go to museums, get plastered at bars, etc.
I've lived and worked there, and NYC has another side to it that isn't romanticized on these forums. It's positively filthy and the people are a miserable breed with too many from NJ and Long Island. In addition, it's got a sickening corporate work culture compared to California, and the public transit system is straight up annoying (crap frequencies on the weekends and an overall dirty experience.) Oh, and once you live out that NYC summer dream (if you want to call it that) you have to deal with s*** weather for about 5 months.
So yes -- IMHO, the NYC experience is overly romanticized on these forums.
No you just made an account to hate on NYC. NYC is still better than wherever you are. Lmao
I don't think you get it. That so-called NYC dream you mentioned is beyond pathetic by most standards. Brunching all day? I'd rather chew broken glass.
LA and bad jobs? Get real, son. Also people in LA have something that most young people in NYC don't -- a savings account.
And filled to the brim with illegals? I can just smell the douchey liberal NYC elitism from here.
Lmao yea ok which is why there are so many forums on the LA board with people crying about expense, going homeless and leaving for the southwest/northwest lol.
You're pretty much doing what the OP is talking about only with LA.
Enjoy your 4 hour traffic jams in polluted air with your lovely site of forest fires. Lol
I've had several friends who got dream jobs in New York City, and spent years bitching about it until they finally moved back to Houston (separate people, not all together). New York is a hard city to live in - expensive, crappy weather, transportation, super competitive in the workforce. These people all were so excited to get jobs there, but all complained mostly about the weather and expenses.
They all said how hard it is to make friends there, or rather do anything with the friends you make because everyone lives so far away from each other. One person could live in New Jersey, while the other lives in Staten Island, requiring long commutes that just aren't worth it most of the time. I'd say it's probably easier on the natives because they'll have friends from school days and probably concentrated in certain areas.
One person told me he went several months without seeing a sunny day. It was either a particularly rainy year or that's typical for several months out of the year. He didn't stay much longer than that anyway because he got a job in LA (which he loved by the way). LA just may be easier for a Houstonian to adjust to because they're both car-centric, sprawling cities, and the weather's so much more pleasant in LA.
Several months without seeing a sunny day? That's a lie. NYC is very sunny.
Going to have to say it again, Manhattan is not New York City.
MANHATTAN IS NOT NEW YORK CITY
I know what I just did was obnoxious, maybe even cliche, but it has to be said. For the people who are trafficking this post, even if they just glance at it, you have to know MANHATTAN IS NOT NEW YORK CITY.
I can't believe we are 10 pages in, and the only gentleman or lady who really took the time to point this out was emathias.
These arguments about how you have to be a millionaire CEO to live in New York City makes zero sense. If no one could afford to live in NYC other than the rich, than NYC wouldn't be the most popular city by a significant amount. You think 20 million people who live in NYC (and yes, 20 million, 8 million is just city proper, which is a silly way to look at things, but the point would still stand even if we used proper population) are all rich? You think the vast majority of them would not be described as middle class?
Again, Manhattan is not New York City. Manhattan is a part of New York City. Most people who live in New York City proper live in QUEENS, not Manhattan. The second most popular borough in New York City is Man...nope, it's BROOKLYN.
Queens is suburban even though it is in NYC, so yes, you can have a house, a lawn and 2 cars there (which is a silly standard for middle class, because in NYC there are people who do not use cars even if they can afford it due to a high level of public transportation).
Brooklyn is urban, but you can certainly have apartments like the one in Seinfield without it costing "millions" of dollars (also, Seinfeld debut'd over 20 years ago, aside from it being fictional, New York City real estate has changed a lot since then).
Then there is Staten Island, which isn't as cool as the others, but certainly very affordable. The Bronx has a lot of bad areas, but you certainly don't need to be a millionaire to live there (though it has very high class neighborhoods).
Then of course there are the outskirts, which is where I live (on the border of Queens). I hop on the train and I get all the benefits of Manhattan when I go out during the weekend, I don't have to be a "millionaire" to do that, all I need is a few dollars and 18 minutes of my time to get into Manhattan.
And Manhattan isn't even really the "hip spot" anymore. I mean don't get me wrong, majority of people still go there for entertainment, but Brooklyn is starting to become more of the cool area since Manhattan has kinda gotten sterilized or perhaps too mainstream.
Again, Manhattan is not New York City. Stop thinking New York City is just Wallstreet and Timesquare. It is a gigantic city, Manhattan is just 1/5th of New York City. It's not like New Yorkers need Manhattan to have fun either, because Brooklyn is a very fun area (it would be one of the best cities if it were to go independent again), and Queens is an awesome place to live and there is a lot to do there too (compared to most cities in America, obviously not compared to Brooklyn or Manhattan).
As for the argument that people cannot afford to take advantage of all the culture NYC has to have. I don't understand that one at all. Yes, if you go to a museum, go see a rockband, go to an opera, go to a basketball game, go to Broadway, go bar hopping, go to a poetry club, go to a nice restaurant - if you do that every day, for the rest of your life, yes you will go broke - how is that any different from any other place in the world? The average family can indeed enjoy themselves on the weekend if they so chose, at the very least do something once a month if they want too.
Most people who do not take advantage of NYC's culture is either due to laziness, disinterest or just ignorance of what there is to do - money probably is not the key problem.
People still won't understand after this post smh.
This whole idea of being a millionaire in NYC and living in a closet is a giant myth.
DC is the nation's capital which will always make it important. However, capital cities in America are never the most important cities culturally even in their respective states. Annapolis is the capital of Maryland, for instance. Annapolis is really not too different from Glen Burnie in many respects. Sacramento is the capital of California. Sacramento is a red-headed stepchild city in California. Culturally, Sac town doesn't know if it wants to be L.A. or the Bay Area in terms of culture. Black dudes in Sacramento bang Blood and Crip like L.A. but use Bay Area slang and follow certain urban Bay Area cultural trends (i.e. growing dreads). Similarly, DC is the red-headed stepchild city of the East Coast in being different from Baltimore, Philly, NYC and Boston which all have certain similarities.
And it depends on what measure a city is "important". San Francisco often ranks as the number one international tourist destination in North America even ranking above NYC as well as DC. Culturally, Silicon Valley in the Bay Area is pioneering all the advances in technology and the internet with Apple, Facebook, Craigslist, Google etc. all being based in Bay or even in San Francisco, proper. Los Angeles is home of Hollywood which rakes in hundreds of millions annually. The seedier yet media glamorized facets of L.A. street culture have gone global as everyone is wishing they were from the city of Angels with misguided Latino youth from El Salvador to Maryland wearing blue L.A. Dodgers caps claiming 18th Street and kids in New York City to Baltimore claiming Piru and listening to Schoolboy Q and Y.G. A ubiquitous rapper from Compton, California called himself the "King of New York" and no one respectable from the Big Apple has yet to put him in his place in a Hip Hop platform.
But the question is what does DC really produce other than red tape? DC's main industry is the government and the government doesn't produce anything. America has become more like a third world country by making government workers so much wealthier in the past 10+ years. In many third world countries, the capital city and its immediate suburbs is the only bastion of wealth and prosperity amongst a vast land of poverty and destitution. And today, DC has magically become the richest metro area in the country. Let's not forget that a short 20 some years ago, DC was the murder capital of America with a mid-sized city of 400-500K people notching around 500 murders a year. NYC, which is over 8 million people, counted only around 2,000 murders in its late 80's/early 90's crime heyday.
Why does YG sound like he's from the bay? That's all I get when I listen to him.
People love stereotyping NYC when its distinguishing characteristic is that it really doesn't have a dominant culture. The surprising thing about traveling the country is that each city really does have a local identity except for NYC.
Politically: You rarely ever meet a radical or a reactionary in NYC. In SF there are many radicals. In Central Florida there are many reactionaries. In NYC everyone is center-left or just plain center.
Intellectually: Girls who are 10s but never graduated high-school stand in line at Starbucks next to Columbia grads.
Culturally: We have many different cultures. No one group can ever dominate. Take the N train and then tell me NYC is all Italian or all African-American or all Eastern European.
I think it gets romanticized on city data because people want to believe that it really is like Friends, but the odds of six white people not having any minority friends in NYC is about the same as spotting a unicorn- it's not that type of city.
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