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What does "bridge and tunnel" mean? I've seen it before, but can't find a definition.
It depends on where you live.The hipsters who live in Williamsburg now call people from Manhattan bridge and tunnel people because they pour into Williamsburg on the weekends to be cool.It was originally meant the other way around!
Why do people who aren't from NYC want to live here so badly?
I came here to go to college in the early 70's and realized that I could never leave! It was not my original intention to stay so long but here I am 35 years later.And I am "from" Boston... go figure!
i moved from upstate to work in the fashion industry, because except for LA, there's nowhere in this country where i can design clothes and get paid for it (as easily)
PLUS i can eat food from any country, see broadway shows, concerts, go to awesome dance clubs, go to the ocean, go to an art museum, walk by a celebrity and a homeless person on the same block, i can shop in the biggest stores in the world.
PLUS my best friend lives here with me!
American media is the most powerful media in the world, and Manhattan is the power center of American media -- newspapers, mags, books, TV, radio, advertising.
No one in America can go 24 hours without some kind of Manhattan influenced media getting into their brain. And for boring small town folks, who make up a lot of the transplants here, they've bought into our hype.
Speaking as a native, I think some people come to New York because they feel like they have more potential here, potential to be someone different, potential to meet different people, do different things, etc. I think this perception is true in part, but also highly influenced by popular media depictions of New York. Most people wouldn't know there are thriving arts scenes in Philadelphia or other large cities simply because movies like Sex in the City aren't set in Philadelphia.
But what I think people fail to realize is that there are two New York Cities: one for people with money and one for people without and never the twain shall meet. Just as there is the New York of "MeatPa," the Village and the LES, there is also the New York of Brighton Beach, Flushing, Bayside and Flatbush. Most people know of and about the first group, but not the second, yet the true native New Yorkers are of the second group and the transplants are of the first. Sometimes I think for all the hype, NY ain't too different from a place like Atlanta in many respects.
But what I think people fail to realize is that there are two New York Cities: one for people with money and one for people without and never the twain shall meet. Just as there is the New York of "MeatPa," the Village and the LES, there is also the New York of Brighton Beach, Flushing, Bayside and Flatbush. Most people know of and about the first group, but not the second, yet the true native New Yorkers are of the second group and the transplants are of the first.
I think that what you've just identified, apparently without intending to, is the fact that there are actually three New York Cities, not two...
There's wealthy NYC (Upper East Side, Riverdale, Brooklyn Heights, and neighborhoods where hipsters with lots of money move to because they think it's "cool"), blue collar NYC--typified by such areas as Brighton Beach and Flushing, and poor NYC--the neighborhoods dominated by the people without.
In any case, you're right about the transplants--they don't know and/or don't care about the third group.
But what I think people fail to realize is that there are two New York Cities: one for people with money and one for people without and never the twain shall meet. Just as there is the New York of "MeatPa," the Village and the LES, there is also the New York of Brighton Beach, Flushing, Bayside and Flatbush. Most people know of and about the first group, but not the second, yet the true native New Yorkers are of the second group and the transplants are of the first. Sometimes I think for all the hype, NY ain't too different from a place like Atlanta in many respects.
This is a good point, however, it works both ways. I think the second group could be a little less contemptuous of the first.
For a certain group of people, New York is the ultimate. Once you star on Broadway, or are a managing director at Goldman Sachs, or design the Christmas windows at Bergdorf's, or write for the New Yorker, etc., you have reached the pinnacle of career possibilities. Yes, you could win a Nobel Prize, but realistically, it is the ultimate. For people who want a shot at the ultimate, NYC is nothing like Atlanta or Minneapolis (or even Chicago). The only city in the world that can compare with New York in this respect is London.
There are other people who are simply trying to make a life for themselves within the geographical boundaries of New York City. Each life-goal is equally valid and valuable. It's merely a matter of personal choice. However, if you want to understand why people make extraordinary sacrifices to live in or near Manhattan, you have to think of it in the context of ambition.
Sometimes I think for all the hype, NY ain't too different from a place like Atlanta in many respects.
Atlanta is very very very different from NY it lacks the diversity.
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