Life on lockdown in NYC (Hope: cheap apartments, homes, neighborhood)
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I semi/retired about 3 years ago to take care of my mother who was battling Azheimers. She recently passed, not due to covid, so my plans moving forward have changed for sure. I'm 47 and I have a modest pension from my company that I spent 25 years with to go along with a job in the gig economy that I love doing (driving but not Uber or anything like that). My plan was to go back to the office grind once she had passed but I'm making $2K a week now with the gig job so just banking every $ I can while it lasts. I had also planned to take a bunch of 3 day weekend type trips this Summer (LA, Vegas, Florida and a few others) to scope out my next city to live in...which leads me to this:
Like others, probably due to my age, I've out grown modern day NYC. It's definitely a young person's town these days. The gap between rich and poor grows leaps n bounds every year. The middle class of the 70s/80s/90s is long gone. Corona, Queens being exhibit A (I'll get to that shortly) My brothers and I are likely to sell our family home in NE Queens, although that's probably on hold now as well since the market is crashing where we are. It's clear to me now that there really isn't much left in this city for me, which is hard for any native born NYer to say. But facts are facts. Time to move on.
MOD CUT
Last edited by Airborneguy; 04-18-2020 at 06:35 AM..
I work from home, which is what I've always enjoyed, so nothing has been lost there. What do I miss? My daily routine of the gym, following up on errands as I pleased, services on Sunday morning and the occasional meet up with friends. Doctors' appointments were cancelled since mid March.
The moment I heard of the closures, I got home exercise equipment then broke out an old exercise mat and some free weights. Errands? Shopping for necessities only, and at most twice per week. And things take longer now because only limited people are permitted at any one time in the places I tend to go. Sunday services? On line services for me.
I'm fairly introverted, so I don't miss the major things that made New York what it was, even though i am a native New Yorker. That is a plus, I think. I've always been content to stay at home taking to family, listening to music, watching videos, reading, cooking, and baking. I like staying in touch with friends over the phone and on social media.
But this was a major wake up call to the boosters pushing high density. High density is tragic in the midst of a pandemic.
As for moving away? I was gone for a long time. I lived in less dense and less populated communities, but came back for family reasons. I'd have no problem with leaving again in the future.
There's an increase in police activity by me. See & hear police sirens go by just as much as the ambulances. And they're not all police cars, they're police trucks with sirens blaring. Throw in the fire trucks as well. Lots of ...sirens.
Anyone’s cooking getting better or more adventurous? We made a chicken pot pie completely from scratch and a batch of gyoza style dumplings.
I’ve also made several variations of breakfast sandwiches.
I kind of wonder how people who don’t much know how to cook are doing. Is it just frozen food and delivery?
I don't cook, and am not a New Yorker, but hope am still qualified to comment. In my fully working years, I would not have had any time to cook even if I wanted to, but I gradually retired, turned 60 earlier this year, am not temporarily needed for work (as my usual services are on hold due to reassignment of all elective healthcare to coronavirus resources), I gave my profession and got from it all I ever wanted, have sufficient finances, so have decided to fully retire about a month ago. The full retirement was meant to be an opportunity to constantly move between my little crashpads in interesting places.... however, for the same reasons that prompted the retirement decision, I now can't get to my crashpad in NYC (or, for that matter, anywhere else) ... It is alright because my place in Boston is tremendously well stocked with books and audiovisuals, so the freedom of movement is the only thing lacking.
Anyway, that's the background, now to your question. When I get hungry during lockdown in my Boston condo, these are the choices:
(a) have the same wheat pasta and shredded tuna from a can, in olive oil with, say, rosemary and raisins, which I have had every day for the past 30 days
(b) go over to Trader Joe's to get something different
(c) order something, to be delivered by a youngster who has personally interacted with half of the city in the past week
(d) skip eating
My choice tends to be mostly (d), but then eventually (a), and then eventually (b) (when I get depleted even of choice (a)). This month so far, my credit card charges total $44 (from Trader Joe's)... though in fact my credit card bill for this month will be a negative number due to travel ticket cancellations/refunds. At least the life in lockdown has some financial advantages :-).
Anyone’s cooking getting better or more adventurous? We made a chicken pot pie completely from scratch and a batch of gyoza style dumplings.
I’ve also made several variations of breakfast sandwiches.
I kind of wonder how people who don’t much know how to cook are doing. Is it just frozen food and delivery?
In my case, since way before this, I always cooked for myself. Not a fan of restaurants (I used to hate going to the new trendy crowded restaurants anyway) so even during this shutdown my life has not changed even in the food habits. One thing that does help me, however, is having lived in Europe for many years when I was a very young man I absolutely would not ever ever consider cooking for myself...until over the years I started observing cooks all over the world, got inspired and eventually became attracted to cooking. In fact, now I have hundreds of recipes I know (medieval too) and I bake bread often. During this pandemic, it has been a bit harder to find flour depending on where you go and YEAST (but I still tend to buy fresh yeast from the baker). For people who do not know how/don´t like to cook, delivery is still happening. My roommate still gets delivery on an almost daily basis. He started cooking and then said F it and went back to his old ways...especially because I am in the kitchen a lot more than he is and he can´t be bothered with all the cleaning cooking involves. I've even made omelette from chickpea flour and potatotes instead of eggs! Now I am in the process of learning to make homemade red wine, which is something I had wanted to learn since a while back.
I tend to make everything from scratch and enjoy meat pies, vegetarian and vegan dishes too, porridges, soups, you name it! All of this washed down with either wine or ale depending on the mood, and I'm good.
Going back to what I mentioned in my first comment on this thread -- I still think life has become a major major inconvenience here in NYC. Let's face it: living in NYC was never "comfortable" to begin with when it came to things like food shopping, etc...but now? Even less so. Luckily I do have a laundry where I live, inside the building...so I have not noticed a change in that either but going grocery shopping has gone from bad to a dreadful experience, with the chaos of single aisle lining up and shortages (NYC supermarkets were notoriously bad anyway in many places, but now it is worse).
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... It is alright because my place in Boston is tremendously well stocked with books and audiovisuals, so the freedom of movement is the only thing lacking.
