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It's funny that people can get so worked up over what they perceive a yuppie to be and what they perceive a yuppie to value. Just because a person has more money than you, does not mean they are more materialistic than you. I see plenty of people that fall into the middle- lower income level carrying their LV and Coach bags. Perhaps they are fake bags. But that makes it even more sad! They are trying desperately to look like they could afford something they can't. And it's the yuppies who are shallow and materialistic?
Sure yuppies and hipsters are annoying and I'll be the first to admit I chuckle at them. BUT at least I can walk through their neighborhoods and feel safe. People talk about yuppies being rude. Know what I find rude? Car jacking, mugging, spraying graffiti on buildings, stealing hubcabs, etc. That's what I find rude. Yuppies, not so much. Sure they are in their own little world, but no more than any other person out there.
Thanks - I was thinking of writing something negative about yupsters - how they are phony, materialistic, etc., but you make some good points. Maybe yuppies aren't really so bad
How could you NET >$300k per year and not afford "the finer things?" Do you have a family of 20 to feed? Even then, I can't see how you can't "afford" things. We're talking "finer" things, not $30 million mansion or a fleet of Rolls Royces.
I will have children soon! But do you know what $1,000,000 holds on Long Island? A 2,300 square foot tiny house. $1 million for garbage compared to a beautiful 10,000 square foot mansionin Southlake, Texas with less taxes, a more favorable business climate, an inground pool with a jacuzzi, a home theater, a big backyard, and a 3 car garage. That is why we are considering a move there when kid is born. I am torn between my attachment to NYC and the quality of life in Dallas.
I interpret finer things as a Rolls Royce, as a mansion, a vacation mansion. Hopefully someday as the business grows they will become reality but in NYC $300k would be equal to probably $90k in a place like Dallas. I am living the same lifestyle as someone making $90k per year in Dallas and I am stupid for that.
I will have children soon! But do you know what $1,000,000 holds on Long Island? A 2,300 square foot tiny house. $1 million for garbage compared to a beautiful 10,000 square foot mansionin Southlake, Texas with less taxes, a more favorable business climate, an inground pool with a jacuzzi, a home theater, a big backyard, and a 3 car garage. That is why we are considering a move there when kid is born. I am torn between my attachment to NYC and the quality of life in Dallas.
I interpret finer things as a Rolls Royce, as a mansion, a vacation mansion. Hopefully someday as the business grows they will become reality but in NYC $300k would be equal to probably $90k in a place like Dallas. I am living the same lifestyle as someone making $90k per year in Dallas and I am stupid for that.
Ahh yes, Texas. I would be over there in a heartbeat if I wasn't bound here. I mean, I do love NY, but the negatives far outweigh the positives, esp for a family with young children. I spent a few years of my childhood in Texas and have family there now. The difference is so drastic I'm really bummed to be stuck here.
I will have children soon! But do you know what $1,000,000 holds on Long Island? A 2,300 square foot tiny house. $1 million for garbage compared to a beautiful 10,000 square foot mansionin Southlake, Texas with less taxes, a more favorable business climate, an inground pool with a jacuzzi, a home theater, a big backyard, and a 3 car garage. That is why we are considering a move there when kid is born. I am torn between my attachment to NYC and the quality of life in Dallas.
I interpret finer things as a Rolls Royce, as a mansion, a vacation mansion. Hopefully someday as the business grows they will become reality but in NYC $300k would be equal to probably $90k in a place like Dallas. I am living the same lifestyle as someone making $90k per year in Dallas and I am stupid for that.
Go ahead and move...why do you think you are making 300k? Ah yes, its because you live in NYC. Move to Texas and watch as your income is slashed in half or if you even have any left.
I will have children soon! But do you know what $1,000,000 holds on Long Island? A 2,300 square foot tiny house. $1 million for garbage compared to a beautiful 10,000 square foot mansionin Southlake, Texas with less taxes, a more favorable business climate, an inground pool with a jacuzzi, a home theater, a big backyard, and a 3 car garage. That is why we are considering a move there when kid is born. I am torn between my attachment to NYC and the quality of life in Dallas.
I interpret finer things as a Rolls Royce, as a mansion, a vacation mansion. Hopefully someday as the business grows they will become reality but in NYC $300k would be equal to probably $90k in a place like Dallas. I am living the same lifestyle as someone making $90k per year in Dallas and I am stupid for that.
You are certainly not "living the same lifestyle" in NYC as in the plastic suburb Dallas. I don't frankly understand what anyone is talking about when they say "quality of life in Dallas" unless that is a code word for "10,000 square foot mansion with...a 3 car garage." If you think that makes life worth living go for it, but to me there's a reason Dallas is so cheap. You get what you pay for.
And I've got to say that 2,300 square feet is not a "tiny" house.
I never understood the hate for Yuppies. I lived in the DC area most of my life. I was born in 1990 at the height of the crack era in DC. I lived in some very bad neighborhoods in DC because my parents were struggling college grads. I lived in NW, SE, NE region of DC. DC in the 1980s-1990s was very dangerous I lived in one of the most dangerous in the country the area between Howard University/Galludett University station, drug dealers, prostitutes on the corner. I remember hearing gun shots every where as a child, I went to a K-12 charter school for a year and I remember our principle dying over a heroin overdose, kids beating up teachers, crackhead parents, people selling drugs, and lots of kids having sex in school/pregnant girls.
Thank god my parents moved to out to a safer area in the city; we moved to a nice 4 story townhouse in Adams Morgan/Mt. Pleasant and later I moved to Alexandria,VA and graduated from high school there. I go to college in NoVA(Northern Virginia for those who aren't from DC). DC has made a total 360. People used to be afraid to come to DC and DC had so many horrible nicknames like Don't Come, Dirty City, Dumb City, Drug City, D****ty. DC is one of the wealthiest cities in America and it will be soon rival NYC's wealth. All of DC's suburbs and surrounding counties are in the top 10 and top 20 list for the wealthiest counties in the US. I'm very happy for DC, we were once a city that fell right on it's face now we are back up and stronger than ever.
I'm glad that I can actually walk down the street without being harassed, robbed or sexual assaulted. There are many Yuppies and some Hipsters here and they have brought many business, restaurants, bars, retail stores and local businesses back to this area. Everyone is much happier in the city and there is so much more life here. There are dozens of multicultural festivals, restaurants and lots of racial harmony in this area. Most of the yuppies and hipsters have no problems with the local and they blend right into he community. This is just my opinion and DC has had much different circumstances than NYC. You can't blame the yuppies and hipsters for "ruining neighborhoods" if people don't want their neighborhoods ruined they should get ride of the trashy drug dealers, thugs and criminals. I wish people would stop supporting dumb things like the "Stop Snitching Campaign" which supports witness intimidation. The Yuppies and hipsters seem to be the ones persevering parks, theaters, multicultural centers, ethnic neighborhoods.
I lived on both sides of the track and I would never want to go back to the days when cities were scary and crime ridden. Things are much better for cities like DC and NYC. Yes there is still crime and ghettos in both cities. But things have improved for the better.
New York without yuppies = third world s---hole. Simple as that. And yes, the city and the state do everything to make the middle class leave for lower taxes, lower prices and cleaner everything just about anywhere else in the country. A net of several hundred thousand Americans abandoned greater NY between 2000-2009.
With all due respect, (here’s the main thrust of why many folks don’t like “yuppies”) in your last paragraph you make it sound as if anyone not “yuppie” brings down property values, cause crime, and raise their children poorly. Your unwritten point seems to be that no other breed of urban American can accomplish those things successfully. I beg to differ.
The heart of the issue as I see it, comes from the perceived idea that investing in property (condos, converted properties, prime locations), brings with it the extended right to engineer the ‘quality of life’ in the surrounding environment. (‘I pay a lot to live here. I don’t need that sh.it outside my window.’) It’s essentially a ‘bulldozer’ attitude about what is best, what is right, or what is most pleasing, the rest be damned.
I also think many of the so-called yuppies believe that higher education automatically translates into superior understanding of social principles for living in a community. Nothing could be further from the truth.
I remember NYC in the ‘bad old days’ of the seventies and eighties. To hear many people tell it, some not even born then, you would think every man got mugged and every woman got raped all of the time, and every building in the city burned down. New York was poor: true. New York was dangerous: true. New York was dirty: true, but not entirely, and certainly not mostly. Yet this is much of the belief among those we call yuppie. As a result, there is this notion among them that anything or anyone not fitting certain socially acceptable parameters must be made to change or made to leave. So-called “quality of life” issues and laws have become the tool by which almost anyone can make almost any other individual change or pay a penalty. It is based, in part, on the idea that anything or anyone distasteful (socially or even aesthetically) to the community at large must be dealt with. The problem is the ‘conservatism’ of taste and perception that yuppies tend to have that make some issues and attitudes (personal or 'cultural' proclivities) look worse than they are, if they are at all.
I could go on opining for paragraphs and paragraphs, but let this be the opening of a hopefully respectful two (or more) way conversation. And yes…I don’t like “yuppies.” (read above)
Last edited by Tony Of New York; 07-06-2010 at 10:03 PM..
I don't have too much of an issue with yuppies but I must say that when I decide to dine at one of their vegetarian eateries they act as if I don't belong or can't afford it. Plus, they do make neighborhoods pretty boring, cookie cutter and generic but hey, they have the right to live where they want.
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