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Moving there shortly, my wife and I are wrestling with this unfortunate fact. It's sad enough that so many people living there don't enjoy the major attractions, but that's somewhat excusable because of how touristy and expensive a lot of things are. But there's so much of the city itself that can be enjoyed free of cost, so many inexpensive places to eat that wouldn't be available elsewhere for any price, so many different groups to participate with, so many unique vendors that aren't in strip malls, etc.
Vacationing somewhere is always inherently more comfortable and enjoyable than living there, but that's no reason to neglect what makes your own city so great - whether you live in boondogle Ohio or NYC (but especially if you live in NYC!) That greatness is, after-all, why most people pay so much in both COL and stress level to live there I presume?
Many of the cities tourist attractions I have visited due to school field trips when I was kid attending local public school. I have no desire to visit any tourist spots unless if is a sports venue, civic or official business and last historical purposes. Some tourist spots and points of interest have alot of lackluster on native New Yorkers unless if its your business or if its a sports venue like MSG or Yankee Stadium. Tourist, Transplants as well as Immigrants see NYC in a different light.
Yeah, I figured being exhausted at the end of the work day/week is why people don't enjoy things as much as us out of towners sometimes assume they should be able to. But honestly, you constantly walk past amazing architecture - all it takes to appreciate it is looking like a tourist for a short bit. You constantly have interesting food available, try a new place - maybe even go somewhere out of the way for dinner. Whether people like it or not you cross paths with street/subway performers constantly. Where I come from, most any of them would have been top visiting performers of the year No joke. THAT is a fine example (amongst many) of why so many transplants are willing to uproot from an otherwise fine lifestyle and try desperately to just-barely-make-it in a shared shoebox with a crazy neighbor (which IS part of the draw somehow, regardless how stupid that is.) NYC offers so many things that just absolutely aren't accessible elsewhere no matter how successful or otherwise fulfilled you may feel your life is. I was the sh-t back home as far as being successful, relative to my local peers. I'll be lucky to be in position to be sh-t ON in nyc - but at least til I have kids it's an OK sacrifice, challenge, and I feel my overall life experience during that week/month/year/however-long I'm able to make it there will be worth it. Perhaps just as much as transplants need to go experience NYC, I think a lot of New Yorkers would benefit so much by leaving for a year or two to experience small-ish town life. Most would probably come back with a whole new appreciation for their city, and probably even an appreciation for their struggles lol
I get what you are saying, but you are assuming that all New Yorkers take the city for granted. That's far from the truth. Everything that the city has to offer is why people make tremendous sacrifices to stay here. It's just that everything that you describe above comes with a huge price..financially, emotionally and physically. As an observer on vacation, it's hard to understand just how tough living and working here can be. It's amazing, but it's also incredibly expensive, competitive, at times cold, impersonal and cutthroat. I agree with you that the attraction/repulsion factor is part of the city's character but just saying that actually living here really is as tough and expensive as people say it is. Coming from another place, sharing a shoebox with a roommate and a crazy neighbor might seem like a small price to pay when you have so many things at your doortstep. Then after 2 years of working 10 hours a day just to barely pay for your shoebox that you share with a roommate who is really starting to get on your nerves and not sleeping because your neighbors are inconsiderate douchebags, it wears on you.
That said though I agree with you that living here is a good experience for someone who doesn't have kids. I just think that unless you are rich you need to be really thick-skinned. I'm pretty thick-skinned, and sometimes I still feel like my head's going to explode. Besides the expense, there are a whole lot of inconsiderate idiots squeezed into this city, and trying to co-exist with them is very tiring after a while.
Yeah, I figured being exhausted at the end of the work day/week is why people don't enjoy things as much as us out of towners sometimes assume they should be able to. But honestly, you constantly walk past amazing architecture - all it takes to appreciate it is looking like a tourist for a short bit. You constantly have interesting food available, try a new place - maybe even go somewhere out of the way for dinner. Whether people like it or not you cross paths with street/subway performers constantly. Where I come from, most any of them would have been top visiting performers of the year No joke. THAT is a fine example (amongst many) of why so many transplants are willing to uproot from an otherwise fine lifestyle and try desperately to just-barely-make-it in a shared shoebox with a crazy neighbor (which IS part of the draw somehow, regardless how stupid that is.) NYC offers so many things that just absolutely aren't accessible elsewhere no matter how successful or otherwise fulfilled you may feel your life is. I was the sh-t back home as far as being successful, relative to my local peers. I'll be lucky to be in position to be sh-t ON in nyc - but at least til I have kids it's an OK sacrifice, challenge, and I feel my overall life experience during that week/month/year/however-long I'm able to make it there will be worth it. Perhaps just as much as transplants need to go experience NYC, I think a lot of New Yorkers would benefit so much by leaving for a year or two to experience small-ish town life. Most would probably come back with a whole new appreciation for their city, and probably even an appreciation for their struggles lol
Tell me what amazing architecture one can walk by in Queens? For the most part all I see are tacky McMansions or Fedders crap. I live in Elmhurst now because that's the only safe neighborhood I can afford to live in right now. Let's talk food-When it takes you an hour to get home on public transportation you really don't want to go "out of the way" for dinner. And when you are on that subway after a long days work (I don't know anybody in NYC who only works 40 hour work weeks) you really want to relax a bit not hear a mariachi band or almost get kicked in the face by "breakdancers". Having a crazy neighbor gets old real quick-especially when you are losing what little sleep you can get because of a loud obnoxious "crazy" neighbor. There are some great things about NYC but I think you are romanticizing the city a bit too much.
Tell me what amazing architecture one can walk by in Queens? For the most part all I see are tacky McMansions or Fedders crap. I live in Elmhurst now because that's the only safe neighborhood I can afford to live in right now. Let's talk food-When it takes you an hour to get home on public transportation you really don't want to go "out of the way" for dinner. And when you are on that subway after a long days work (I don't know anybody in NYC who only works 40 hour work weeks) you really want to relax a bit not hear a mariachi band or almost get kicked in the face by "breakdancers". Having a crazy neighbor gets old real quick-especially when you are losing what little sleep you can get because of a loud obnoxious "crazy" neighbor. There are some great things about NYC but I think you are romanticizing the city a bit too much.
Tell me what amazing architecture one can walk by in Queens? For the most part all I see are tacky McMansions or Fedders crap. I live in Elmhurst now because that's the only safe neighborhood I can afford to live in right now. Let's talk food-When it takes you an hour to get home on public transportation you really don't want to go "out of the way" for dinner. And when you are on that subway after a long days work (I don't know anybody in NYC who only works 40 hour work weeks) you really want to relax a bit not hear a mariachi band or almost get kicked in the face by "breakdancers". Having a crazy neighbor gets old real quick-especially when you are losing what little sleep you can get because of a loud obnoxious "crazy" neighbor. There are some great things about NYC but I think you are romanticizing the city a bit too much.
I agree, I probably am romanticizing the city a bit. I don't live there yet, it's inevitable!
I'm not trying to act as if I know so much more than you - just so we have the tone set right :) I am suggesting that for a lot of people it seems that going to live somewhere considerably different for a year or two would be of great benefit one way or the other. That's true no matter where you call home though. For everything you've listed there's an opposite that's so commonly true in many places (Except the crazy neighbor. They're everywhere, and I don't think anyone looks down too much on quiet boring neighbors lol.) All you see are tacky McMansions? Imagine any one of those being an interesting jewel of architecture amongst all the tract homes from the 70s! I'm not making any claims of them being great - I'm just saying you'd probably appreciate even those compared to the places you swear were designed to make your eyes bleed (and that was when they were new, not now that the crappy owners have let them go.) And in moderately smaller towns you can easily exhaust the local restaurant list fairly quickly. The town I grew up in in CA was about 100k people, and yet there were only a handful of local restaurants worth trying, even considering how often they'd go out of business and a new one would give it a go. There were plenty of annoying and mediocre chain places to go(the backbone of the local job market, btw), or some place I already knew was awful, or drive 3 hours to someplace in Sacramento (which doesn't even have that great of food scene.) Fun as spontaneous roadtrips for sushi are, it would have been great to have the option a bit closer lol. I believe I'll appreciate being able to get off the subway at a stop I normally don't get off at in order for a bit of a food adventure, even if it takes an hour to get home. My commute back in CA was only 20-30 minutes though, and I didn't have to deal with mariachi bands unless I forgot my iPod and thought I'd give the radio another chance. And while in most places you may not have to deal with breakdancers kicking you in the face, you do have to deal with idiot soccer moms who you can't imagine ever having passed a driving exam that you swear are set on killing you by smashing your cute fuel efficient little Honda with their massive SUVs. Bonus points if the SUV has one of the idiotic 'baby on board' stickers on it next to adorable stick figures enumerating the members of the family along with their dogs and cats. Super extra bonus points if you get a ticket while recuperating from your near death experience because apparently your back left tail light is out ;)
It's odd to me to hear new yorkers complain about some of the things I commonly hear them complain about. I understand it, superficially at least, but in many cases it just doesn't seem *that* bad for a place that as I've experienced it seems so great - IS so great really, even if only because it's so greatly different than anywhere else. Trying to live there is a way to really understand, and no doubt simultaneously to appreciate 'back home' a little more, while hopefully affording the opportunity to appreciate and experience the city more myself from a different angle (OK, I admit, that last part is the real primary goal I'm sure any transplant hopes to attain. But it's all worthwhile!) Urging new yorkers to appreciate and experience their city more, whether directly or by way of trying somewhere else, is something I feel is inexorably beneficial for all one way or another - is it not?
Tell me what amazing architecture one can walk by in Queens? For the most part all I see are tacky McMansions or Fedders crap. I live in Elmhurst now because that's the only safe neighborhood I can afford to live in right now. Let's talk food-When it takes you an hour to get home on public transportation you really don't want to go "out of the way" for dinner. And when you are on that subway after a long days work (I don't know anybody in NYC who only works 40 hour work weeks) you really want to relax a bit not hear a mariachi band or almost get kicked in the face by "breakdancers". Having a crazy neighbor gets old real quick-especially when you are losing what little sleep you can get because of a loud obnoxious "crazy" neighbor. There are some great things about NYC but I think you are romanticizing the city a bit too much.
Yep, this pretty much sums it up. At most salary levels, you either get to live in a tiny, tiny apartment in a convenient commute neighborhood or you get to spend a lot of time commuting. Then there are things like having a washer/dryer in your home, which others take for granted. Every time I watch House Hunters and hear someone crying about how they don't want a washer/dryer in their kitchen, I want to yell out at the tv, "be glad you have one in your home, ingrate!" Also, if you're not in Manhattan or traveling to/from Manhattan, traveling from one outer borough or surburban area can take an hour or more if you don't have a car.
Moving there shortly, my wife and I are wrestling with this unfortunate fact. It's sad enough that so many people living there don't enjoy the major attractions, but that's somewhat excusable because of how touristy and expensive a lot of things are. But there's so much of the city itself that can be enjoyed free of cost, so many inexpensive places to eat that wouldn't be available elsewhere for any price, so many different groups to participate with, so many unique vendors that aren't in strip malls, etc.
Vacationing somewhere is always inherently more comfortable and enjoyable than living there, but that's no reason to neglect what makes your own city so great - whether you live in boondogle Ohio or NYC (but especially if you live in NYC!) That greatness is, after-all, why most people pay so much in both COL and stress level to live there I presume?
I can't bear to hear this anymore; the part about being able to do so many "free things" and all the other crap.
How long do you think that can be done and still remain a novelty?
In order to really enjoy what NYC has to offer, you need money and plenty of it. Apart from that, NYC is no different than any other place and in some ways may even be worse.
My wife and I just returned home from our 20th anniversary trip to the Big Apple. This was our 2nd year vacationing in NYC. We stayed at the Crowne Plaza in TS and spent 4 days exploring. Especially loved Harlem and walking around Essex St. We stayed away from most of the tourist spots as we did much of that last year. We had no problems except for some of the subway lines being closed for various reasons. Saw Rock of Ages. It was awesome. Please dont take your city for granted. It is a magical place!
Joe,
I'm happy you guys had such a pleasant experience and feel free to come back anytime. In the mean time check out the "Has it ever occurred to anybody that this place sucks?" thread.
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That greatness is, after-all, why most people pay so much in both COL and stress level to live there I presume?
No joke. THAT is a fine example (amongst many) of why so many transplants are willing to uproot from an otherwise fine lifestyle and try desperately to just-barely-make-it in a shared shoebox with a crazy neighbor (which IS part of the draw somehow, regardless how stupid that is.) NYC offers so many things that just absolutely aren't accessible elsewhere no matter how successful or otherwise fulfilled you may feel your life is. I was the sh-t back home as far as being successful, relative to my local peers. I'll be lucky to be in position to be sh-t ON in nyc - but at least til I have kids it's an OK sacrifice, challenge, and I feel my overall life experience during that week/month/year/however-long I'm able to make it there will be worth it. Perhaps just as much as transplants need to go experience NYC, I think a lot of New Yorkers would benefit so much by leaving for a year or two to experience small-ish town life. Most would probably come back with a whole new appreciation for their city, and probably even an appreciation for their struggles lol
