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I moved to NYC after living in Hong Kong for 9 years. NYC is much less crowded, much slower moving and a lot less hectic. Altogether, it's more relaxing. New York people get annoyed when you tell them that.
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Feb 2, 2015 04:23
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You know, I've lived in NYC for 15 years(not anymore though!) and I don't think it's all that different from anywhere else. I've lived in Boston and Portland OR, and by and large, it is just like the other big american cities in all of the ways that matter. But maybe I am too close to the subject to be impartial  . NYC feels more like home to me than anywhere else.Pyramid Scheme posted:I moved to NYC after living in Hong Kong for 9 years. NYC is much less crowded, much slower moving and a lot less hectic. Altogether, it's more relaxing. New York people get annoyed when you tell them that. This is spot-on actually. Once you know how things work it isn't crazy or hectic at all. And there's plenty of room for relaxed, slow life. As a kid I spent a lot of time in Staten Island, and that place is basically a suburb. Even like, LES or Chinatown are peaceful most of the time. I remember being 16, walking out of school in Chinatown, grabbing a coffee, and sitting down in a park bench to watch pickup soccer games after school. Especially in the winter, when there was just a little bit of snow and ice on the ground, and the birds were about... tranquillity. For about 3 years I lived in Bensonhurst and ran 5 miles in the morning most days, I'd get out about half an hour before dawn and go run on this path by the ocean, Usually there wouldn't be more than two or three other people there, in a city of twelve million. Of course if you want hectic it's there too. I remember one time a co-worker invited me to play table tennis, he led me into an American Eagle somewhere in SoHo, we went to the back of the building and got into a freight elevator, went down a floor and I was in this massive hall with like 20 tables set up, a bar, and all of these really intense looking chinese dudes playing ping pong. Keldoclock fucked around with this message at 05:06 on Feb 2, 2015 |
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Feb 2, 2015 04:59
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I lived in the Bronx and one thing that always struck me was how segregated NYC is. You've got the Dominicans here and the Puerto Ricans there. The Dominicans that came over when Trujillo fell out of power are on this block the Dominicans that moved after Juan Bosch was deposed live on that block. The good Fujianese families live here the bad ones live there. While America is still a very segregated place, New York feels especially segregated. Despite that, the segregation in New York feels less forced and more friendly. If marketed correctly, the racial segregation can become a selling point, especially in new New York, where gentrifiers looking for authenticity can move right on in. Either as renters (which can greatly profit your family because of rent control) or as buyers (which can ruin your neighborhood because your [redacted] apartment owners will kick everyone out for new money). It reminds me a lot of Berlin (in a good way). People are busy and self-important because there is a real need to show everyone how busy and important you are. That leads to an "energy overload" where people are moving even when they are staying still. This is sometimes mistaken as rudeness. It isn't. Ask anyone for directions outside of a subway stop and they will give you directions. Just don't speak in the Subway. That is a private space, kinda like a bathroom stall. Sure, you can speak quietly with your friends but really, just don't.
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Feb 2, 2015 07:56
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Katz's is really hyped up and an extremely touristy spot, but drat if their sandwiches aren't amazing I went during passover last year so I could avoid the lines
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Feb 2, 2015 15:30
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I just wish the LIRR didn't cost a small fortune.
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Feb 2, 2015 17:06
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Not a Children posted:Katz's is really hyped up and an extremely touristy spot, but drat if their sandwiches aren't amazing Katz is a tourist trap and it's worse than most any deli you can find in NYC. edit; Honestly the worst part for me is the weather. It's freezing and dry in the winter, blistering hot and humid in the summer. During winter it's massive snow and cold. In summer, the entire city stinks more than it usually does and the urban heat island effect comes out a billion fold. I've never been to a city that smelled as bad as NYC. JIZZ DENOUEMENT fucked around with this message at 08:35 on Feb 3, 2015 |
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Feb 3, 2015 08:30
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Serious post. I went to college and grad school in the Big Apple. My undergrad experience is a drunken haze. I think most people who went to college in NYC could say the same. My family now lives in Brooklyn and I live far upstate. I used to love the city for its interesting population and I hardly noticed the smell. Now when I visit I'm almost disgusted by the odor and I find the crowd a lot less endearing than I used to. The cost of living is crazy, crazy, crazy, crazy. It always was in my memory but it's just gotten worse and worse. I thought that the bubble would eventually burst but perhaps not. What do I miss the most? Being able to get anything you want to eat pretty much 24/7. You could get sushi at 3am and there are at least a dozen Ethiopian restaurants in Manhattan alone. Wintir fucked around with this message at 15:20 on Feb 3, 2015 |
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Feb 3, 2015 15:13
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Another serious post from someone who lived in New York (Washington Heights) for several years and not just visited. First off, that sandwich is from Carnegie deli, not Katz's. I love the food in New York, it has the best of just about everything that is available in the United States. But the variety is what is so special. You can find Thai, Indian or Vietnamese anywhere, but its hard these days to find Burmese, Lhaotian, Georgian, Hungarian, guinea pig etc. If you want to have your own fancy dinner party there are many places you can go to buy fresh handmade pasta, white alba truffles, AOC grade cheese and rare wines. That may be the norm in a European city but it is not easy in other places I have lived. There is indeed a great deal of segregation. If you look at a racial map you can see distinct lines where the upper west side (white) suddenly becomes black (Harlem) and then Hispanic (heights). Different sections of the Bronx are split as the above poster said... Puerto Rican this side, Dominican that side. The boundaries and demographics are always shifting. It may be interesting for her to read about the history of the lower east side and "Kleindeutschland." And I don't care what anyone thinks, I miss the smell. Except for the old live poultry markets and Chinatown at night.
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Feb 4, 2015 01:39
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Wow, I'm a dolt. You're right. I think I got the two confused because when I was researching the best delis, those two came up the most frequently.
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Feb 4, 2015 04:36
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JIZZ DENOUEMENT posted:Katz is a tourist trap and it's worse than most any deli you can find in NYC. That is a drat dirty lie and you know it. Most delis serve boarshead and call it a day. Katz is a kitschy as gently caress tourist trap and getting served is a loving mess but the actual food is pretty solid. It confuses me that despite their volume, their bread tastes stale, but I like to drink my carbs anyway so that was never a huge concern.
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Feb 4, 2015 07:51
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New York feels super awesome when you're just visiting but the cool factor goes down very fast if you settle anywhere else than the hip parts of Manhattan, Brooklyn or Queens. I lived in Inwood, Manhattan and worked in the Bronx for a while and it was just like living anywhere else. It's pretty good to be 30-60 minutes far from nice restaurants and other venues but eventually you just stop caring and stay local. Uptown Manhattan and the Bronx have none of the glamour usually associated with New York and are actually rather bleak. Working class neighborhoods with a majority latino population. Rent keeps going up every year even in the less desirable neighborhood and so does the Metrocard price. The contrast between the rich yuppies and minimum-wage workers is insane. It was cool to live and work in New York for a while but living there permanently would drive me crazy. Also, the stereotype that New Yorkers are rude is bullshit.
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Feb 4, 2015 19:21
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Wintir posted:
And you still can't get bike parts at 3AM on a weekday! What has the world come to  quote:old live poultry markets Other sketchy shop stuff I loved- Chinatown hardware stores. Cash only, handwritten receipts, and they would sell a 15 year old boy all the parts I needed, no questions asked. The lawless bodegas...
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Feb 5, 2015 11:44
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What kinda salary are we talking if someone wanted to live in Manhatten, alone, in a not shithole building? I've always been fascinated with New York and have visited there multiple times. I get along perfectly with the shop every day/every other day thing and the whole fast paced mentality. Hell I'm in the Midwest right now and I absolutely hate hate hate how "friendly" people are because like dude why are you even taking to me? Also I like being able to walk everywhere and like the idea of public transport to work.
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Feb 5, 2015 12:45
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Captain Jesus posted:Also, the stereotype that New Yorkers are rude is bullshit. Yeah, New Yorkers are generally friendly and welcoming. However there are many situations where they'll get brusque or frustrated if you're impeding the pace of things, like not knowing what you want when you get to a deli counter or blocking a walkway. I've also found that lifelong New Yorkers love to talk about New York. Like it's it's own country and the rest of the nation is this foreign land. Which is sort of understandable in a city of that size, it has a population greater than Sweden.
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Feb 5, 2015 13:51
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Who owns the buildings? Not like the huge skyscrappers and poo poo like that but apartments and just all the random buildings? Is it mostly companies? Families? Individuals? If its mostly individuals, what race do they tend to be? Like in San Francisco, a ton of the buildings and apartments are owned by Chinese people. What race are the landlords in NYC?
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Feb 5, 2015 21:12
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Boris Galerkin posted:What kinda salary are we talking if someone wanted to live in Manhatten, alone, in a not shithole building? Well like people have said there's a difference between Manhattan and say the outskirts of Brooklyn or Queens. Manhattan probably $100k minimum, for Brooklyn/Queens maybe half that. But then you've defeated the entire point of living in NYC
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Feb 8, 2015 01:35
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Low Carb Bread posted:I love the food in New York, it has the best of just about everything that is available in the United States. But the variety is what is so special. You can find Thai, Indian or Vietnamese anywhere, but its hard these days to find Burmese, Lhaotian, Georgian, Hungarian, guinea pig etc. If you want to have your own fancy dinner party there are many places you can go to buy fresh handmade pasta, white alba truffles, AOC grade cheese and rare wines. That may be the norm in a European city but it is not easy in other places I have lived. Which is why it's so amazing that there's nothing resembling good Mexican food in New York. Every time I've been there I've been dragged to a least one lovely Tex-Mex garbage food place by friends trying to prove me wrong. Like Chevy's-quality poo poo.
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Feb 8, 2015 16:10
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The lack of good Mexican is indeed unfortunate. With regard to apartments and cost of living, the general rule is that your salary should be 30 to 40x your rent. Typically a small studio in a nice building will run you $2000/month though this can vary a great deal. I had friends who managed to afford living in nice places in the flatiron, upper east side and east village by means of either work subsidized housing, or by sharing. If you are willing to live uptown as I did, you will find rent to be (marginally) more affordable with one bedrooms at about $1800/mo last I checked. There are also a number of neighborhoods with a very NYC vibe outside Manhattan that are more affordable. Most of the good parts of Brooklyn have now become just as expensive as Manhattan, same for Long Island City (Queens). But there are still gems to be found. For instance, the Bronx is gradually becoming gentrified - one of my friends just moved into a new luxury high rise in Riverdale. Prices are comparable to the heights, its less hood but considerably more distant from anything resembling NYC (have to either take the bus, walk to the Kingsbride 1 train or take Metro North to Grand Central which is not 24hr) So I'd say at least $50k to be comfortable. Certainly $100k+ will open a lot more doors, and that's not even close to what you'd need to raise a family (but when you live in NYC, who needs kids) Low Carb Bread fucked around with this message at 03:16 on Feb 9, 2015 |
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Feb 9, 2015 03:13
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poolside toaster posted:Which is why it's so amazing that there's nothing resembling good Mexican food in New York. Every time I've been there I've been dragged to a least one lovely Tex-Mex garbage food place by friends trying to prove me wrong. Like Chevy's-quality poo poo. Been out to Sunset Park? Never found a good one in manhattan, but found a good one out here in bayridge and a few in sunset park.
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Feb 9, 2015 22:11
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Check out the New York City thread for a really authentic glimpse of life here. It's a lot of people slap-fighting about who makes the best burritos, complaining about the MTA, and patting each other on the back for having good winter gear. As a bonus, you'll get to see a lot of yelling at EB Nulshit for being a lovely poster/obvious troll, depending on who you ask.
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Feb 11, 2015 17:33
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visuvius posted:Who owns the buildings? Not like the huge skyscrappers and poo poo like that but apartments and just all the random buildings? Is it mostly companies? Families? Individuals? If its mostly individuals, what race do they tend to be? Like in San Francisco, a ton of the buildings and apartments are owned by Chinese people. What race are the landlords in NYC? In the Bronx, the answer was always: "the Jews." In my anecdotal experience, buildings tend to be owned by the group that settled in that area post-depression. Poles and Ukrainians own greenpoint buildings, Chinese folks own the places in Chinatown, black people own the buildings in Harlem, etc. Gentrification will change the ownership demographics due to speculation but it is a surpringly slow process. That's just from apartment hunting, I'm sure a lifelong New Yorker would have a firmer grasp of the racial politics and neighborhood ownership.
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Feb 11, 2015 18:13
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Armagnac posted:Been out to Sunset Park? Never found a good one in manhattan, but found a good one out here in bayridge and a few in sunset park. I work in Sunset Park and will confirm that there are many, many very good Mexican joints out there. Not much else though. I suppose I'll also chime in. I'm going on year 3 of living in Brooklyn. I've been in the same place in Bed Stuy the entire time, and have watched the few blocks I walk daily go from myself being the only white dude I would see to having gourmet coffee shops and a vegan bakery on my street. Also, my rent went up almost 50% this year. In spite of all of that, and even when I was the only white dude, everyone was always super nice. So, going to nth the whole "New Yorkers aren't rude" thing. Additionally, it feels way more like a community than anywhere else I've ever lived. I know the people who own the hardware store around the corner, I can put things on a tab at more than one bodega, and I am on a first name basis with many of my neighbors. I think there is always this argument in favor of everything being smaller in the burbs, but everything always feels smaller out here for me. At least in the sense of things being more tightly knit. This may break down if you are living in midtown or something, but I sort of suspect that it doesn't. The March Hare fucked around with this message at 06:43 on Feb 12, 2015 |
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Feb 12, 2015 06:36
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The March Hare posted:I work in Sunset Park and will confirm that there are many, many very good Mexican joints out there. Not much else though. This is why I'd love to leave Nassau and move into some cozy brooklyn neighborhood. Now I just need to make an extra 2k a month and I can make it reality!
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Feb 12, 2015 17:48
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Low Carb Bread posted:the general rule is that your salary should be 30 to 40x your rent. Typically a small studio in a nice building will run you $2000/month Great so if you make 80 thousand a month you'll be set!
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Feb 14, 2015 20:06
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Old Man Pants posted:Great so if you make 80 thousand a month you'll be set! Annual salary...
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Feb 16, 2015 02:07
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Low Carb Bread posted:Typically a small studio in a nice building will run you $2000/month though this can vary a great deal. Yeah, if you want to live 30 minutes from anywhere you'd actually want to be. Though, to be fair, Bushwick has some good bars. If you want to live in a lovely studio in a decent part of Manhattan (i.e., within about 10 blocks north or south of 14th street along the L), you're going to pay like $2500/mo. And it might be decent (though lacking central A/C, so not actually decent) in the East Village, but $2500 is below market for a studio in the other decent parts of Manhattan, so you're not even going to be in a nice pre-war building in those parts. E: And the general rule I've heard is that your annual income should be 40-50x your monthly rent. I've never heard of 30x. I think you're making the city out to be more affordable than it actually is.
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Feb 16, 2015 02:31
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EB Nulshit posted:Yeah, if you want to live 30 minutes from anywhere you'd actually want to be. Though, to be fair, Bushwick has some good bars. Glad we got a local to chime in!
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Feb 16, 2015 05:21
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So far all this sounds almost identical to SF rent. However, I imagine the cost of utilities is significantly higher due to the god-awful summers you guys have. Is this accurate?
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Feb 16, 2015 06:24
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ProperGanderPusher posted:So far all this sounds almost identical to SF rent. However, I imagine the cost of utilities is significantly higher due to the god-awful summers you guys have. Is this accurate? Don't forget the god awful winters! The building stock of NYC has many old buildings with dreadful insulation. Relative to SF, NYC has colder winters and hotter summers, so more energy is being spent on climate control. Bip Roberts posted:Glad we got a local to chime in! He/she is not wrong though.
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Feb 16, 2015 06:42
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I moved to NYC when I was 18, having never been there before. Was supposed to stay two weeks, stayed two years, living entirely in Manhattan (Upper East Side, Gramercy Park-adjacent, West Village. My poor rear end seriously lucked out on roommate situations.) It was the late 90s and a lot has changed, but for what it's worth, here are some stray memories/observations from being a teenager alone in New York. (I've been back a bunch since so I'll try to limit this to stuff I still know to be true. Also, I'm not so conversant with the outer boroughs so this is going to be concrete canyons-centric.) It's hard to overstate how insanely goddamn expensive it is. I've lived in San Francisco and currently live in LA, both really expensive cities, and neither have the uncanny and magical ability to hoover cash out of one's bank account that New York does. It's not only rent, though rent is eye-popping; just walking around makes twenties disappear into the ether. Groceries are expensive and transportation is expensive and the wardrobe you need to cope with the drastic weather changes is expensive. You burn through shoes. You need to get your outerwear cleaned a lot because street level can be a miasma of airborne filth and it adheres to you, and this costs money. Going out -- whooboy. Since everybody not fantastically wealthy lives in tiny places, many people rent storage. I found this unusual coming from southern California, Land of the Two-Car Garage. Kitchens are microscopic. Hotel rooms are roughly the size of shoeboxes unless you're balling. Bathrooms are frequently ... atypical. You get used to negotiating very small living spaces. For awhile I shared a studio with three other people and this did not seem odd -- it was a really nice studio in a prewar building, and rent-controlled. Hurrah! You walk a lot -- like a whole lot -- and distances that would be absurd in any other American city start to seem kinda manageable. I once walked from Morningside Heights to my then-boyfriend's place on 8th St, which Google informs me is about six and a half miles, drunk off my rear end in the middle of the night, and it didn't feel too excessive. All this walking is probably why New Yorkers tend to be pretty svelte by American standards. They walk a lot, they walk very fast and they know how to properly use sidewalks, stairways and escalators. It isn't until you leave that you realize how lovely non-New Yorkers are at these things. New Yorkers are not mean or rude. They just don't have time for this poo poo. It's only a matter of time before you see a rat the size of a raccoon. New York has very interesting smells. Especially in the summertime. Also, it's LOUD. Cities in general are loud, obvs, but NYC takes it to another level. People wander around at all hours of the night, just going about their business. For a suburban kid, this was fascinating. North of 14th is soothingly easy to figure out. South of 14th gets real wiggy. New York is pretty great, but it will kick your rear end. I recommend moving there when you're very young and resilient, or older with Scrooge McDuck cash.
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Feb 16, 2015 06:49
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Born & raised in the Bronx. Finally moved away when kids became school age and I refused to put them in gladiator school (public school system) or pay a ransom to the Catholic school system, we left for upstate NY. Living in NYC is really for the young or the really old rich people. It's a 24hr city that is wonderful if your a night owl or need a slice of pizza at 2:30 in the morning. We have this reputation as being tough or uncaring and that's just out of necessity really. There is so much going on around you that if you don't shut yourself away from it, it could overwhelm you. I've walked over a homeless/drunk guys lying on the sidewalk while on the way to school. This is not an out of the ordinary thing to do. Men, women, kids everybody steps either over or around the drunks because we got places to be & no drat wino is gonna stop me from getting where I'm gonna go. Walking fast has been mentioned before. Well, yeah you gotta keep up with the flow & yeah, big skyscrapers , well whoopdee poo poo the things are everywhere, so step to the side you tourists. Also, traffic lights are notoriously fast so get your rear end to the other side or get risked being taken out by a taxi. Also, know crosswalks in NYC are considered optional & quaint. We don't hate tourists, really. But you do really stick out. We just want you to keep up or have the wherewithal to step aside or hug the buildings. When New Yorkers say, "the city" we are in fact referring to Manhattan. More importantly, we don't really consider Staten Island part of NYC. They ain't known for a drat thing.
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Feb 16, 2015 21:49
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GORILLA BASTARD posted:When New Yorkers say, "the city" we are in fact referring to Manhattan. More importantly, we don't really consider Staten Island part of NYC. They ain't known for a drat thing. Decent beaches.
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Feb 16, 2015 22:03
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silencekit posted:Decent beaches. hahahaha
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Feb 16, 2015 22:05
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To be fair, Staten Island is known for one thing. That thing may be a giant garbage dump, but it's still a thing.
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Feb 16, 2015 22:45
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I work in NYC a bunch and love almost every second I am up there. The seconds I don't love are when I am trying to get a truck parked and when showering in a tiny rear end hotel shower were the head is at like neck height. One of my favorite NYC experiences happened a bunch of years ago. I was up there for work and met this chick at the gig. She was awesome, we really hit it off, and we went out after the show. Dinner, drinks, making out in the street. Eventually, it was like 5am and I am like, drat, is she going to invite me back to her place or what? I was staying in a hotel with a coworker so that was out. Eventually she asks if we can go back to my room. I explain and asked about her place. She said that she "shared a bed (not just a room mind you) with this other girl so she needed to schedule her romances in advance". I was like drat, I am not good enough friends with anyone to live like that and she replied that they were not friends, she just found the place online and it was all she could afford. Sleeping in a bed with a more or less stanger, just so she could live in the city. gently caress that.
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Feb 17, 2015 01:41
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This is my favorite absurd New York rental story. When I read it the first time I thought "My God, that's a loving steal."
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Feb 17, 2015 04:14
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