Is New York City overrated? (New York City Sucks)
I am a New Yorker at heart, and proud of it; I won’t deny it. I was raised in Brooklyn, and went to NYC every other weekend or so. After I moved to Florida at age 13, I saw how Broward County, Florida is: laid back, slow, cheap unemployment checks, a lack of unions, weak gangs, slow trends, generic newspapers with no pun headlines, and MUCH less…but I digress.
New York City, as portrayed in movies, TV, novels, and sports- in addition to foreign MEDIA, is the capital of the world, and the best city in the world. Nothing else counts. New Yorkers believe this, too. That’s where their arrogance and sense of ENTITLEMENT comes from.
Although NYC has tons of positive things about it, allow me to knock this myth of NYC = The Best around a bit, no offense to New Yorkers, and I’m sorry to attack NY, but I had an urge to thanks to the MEDIA bias there. (This post in inspired by the Heroes of Hudson, and Tony Vahl’s excellent post today; if the plane landed safely in water in Michigan it would have been a blurb, not a national “historical” moment.)
1) Economy: There’s no question that power players of various industries are based in NYC- it’s the home of the stock market, major banks, and Fortune 500 companies, not to mention the center of American MEDIA. However, the cost of living is INSANE, even with high-paying jobs, the taxes are mind-boggling, and the homeless are still on the street corners. Believe me, the poor always outnumber the bigwigs. Things are so bad- (after all, NYC is the epicenter of companies that need the bailouts) that billionaire Mayor Bloomberg rigged the system for another term to get the city out of dire straights. Even before the financial CRISIS, Hong Kong and London’s stock exchanges and economies were more stable. $9.50 for a burrito in New York- EAT IT AND WEEP.
2) Technology: Silicon Valley. MIT in Boston. Tokyo. Seoul, where everyone is in The Matrix thanks to broadband. Then you have NY. ’nuff said.
3) Who wants to live there? NYC is never ranked in places to live lists, which are based on housing, scenery, quality of life, pollution, population, financials, job growth, and crime rates.
4) Tallest building- this used to be a (useless) claim to fame, not anymore.
5) Sports: Yankee Stadium (Bronx) and Madison Square Garden may have been historical important and the closest thing to the Roman Coliseum in modern times, but they haven’t been the “best” for decades. Newer and better sports venues had emerged. New Yankee Stadium (2009) was a response to that. Meanwhile, boxing has moved to Las Vegas, and Mixed Martial Arts isn’t even legal in NYC. Professional wrestling runs PPVs in much bigger and newer arenas now. On the subject of sports fans- they have love/hate relationships with their teams, as in love them when they win a championship, and hate them when they lose.
6) MEDIA: OLD MEDIA is based in NYC. And let me tell you something about OLD MEDIA: it stinks. New York newspapers are overrated tabloids, and even the New York Times has had corruption and bias charges. There’s nothing prestigious about NY journalism, or their magazines, especially the far left New Yorker. Oh, and CNN Center is in Atlanta, folks. NY was way behind in the cable TV revolution.
7) Olympics: You’d think the Olympics would have been held in the capital of the world ny now, right? Do the 1932 Lake Placid Winter Olympics count? Ouch.
Politics. So much for liberal enlightenment. NY political scandals are legendary, and happen all the time. Speaking of politics, no president was ever born in New York. It’s also very lame that NY will vote Democratic, and the state is never up for grabs. At least in Florida, we can turn an election. New York Republicans are not as conservative as their counterparts in other states, making election outcomes predictable in NY. New York Republicans are much more liberal than the rest of the country, making for a close minded- not balanced- political perspective. Not to mention that anyone with a Southern or Midwestern accent is looked down upon as being dumb.
9) The UN: Home base of the UNITED NATIONS. ’nuff said.
10) 9/11: Quick facts: The Pentagon was also hit. Also, back in 1995 according to history books, there was something called an “Oklahoma City Bombing”, and the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building was blown up by a terrorist named Timothy McVeigh. Oh, and Indians, Iraqis, and Israelis deal with terrorism in their faces every day.
11) Rap/Hip hop: West Coast rap is just as, if not more popular than East Cost rap. Dirty South is closing in, too!
12) Universities: Columbia and Cornell are ranked high, but not the best, and certainly not if you include world rankings.
13) Hollywood: The East Coasters never could have envisioned how westward expansion would make the focus of movies and entertainment in California!
15) Transportation: Traffic- Baghdad seems safer. Subways: HAHAHAHAHAHA! An underground world where craiglist people are left unsupervised. Trust me, the Chinese have it right in Hong Kong- no littering, no arguments, no muggings, no sex on the subways or buses: with no posted penalty. The people just know.
16) New York Pride and Community: Yeah, a bunch of loudmouth primates. Ya tawken ta ME?
17) Airports: Unimpressive when one sees how clean and organized some of Japan’s airports are- and they don’t even speak English there.
18) Modern urban city: The Jetsons it is not. Although NY embraced WiFi, it is the epitome of an urban jungle: strips clubs are open Sunday at 8:30AM, you spend hours getting to and from work, there is always NOISE regardless of hour, and neighborhoods are degrading and falling apart.
19) Multiculturalism: It’s true- every race, religion, and country is represented, but NY is still predominantly Euro-centric and black American.
20) Weather: The truth is, winter = blizzards and you’ll be forced to wear winter clothes you’ve never even knew existed; summer = hot, humid, dry, sweaty days and nights where the garbage in the streets and dumpsters fries…mmmmmmmmmm.
On a related note, as a kid I believed NYC was the center of the universe. I couldn;t help it: every superhero was based in New York. It was where WrestleMania started. NY had the most sports championships (thanks to the Yankees). All the TV shows (ESPECIALLY cop shows) were based in New York (although probably filmed in L.A.-ha!) Monsters attacked NY, not Tamarac, Florida.
So…to answer my question: Is New York overrated? Answer: Yes. But it’s still cool, and LA is generally in 2nd place. Meanwhile, South Florida is a poor man’s NY, and can’t even be compared to it without laughing. NY’s dominance is over though. It is now spread in this new global marketplace of ideas, technology, and economy.
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Funny. I was listening to U2’s New York as I came to your page and started reading about…New York.
It’s all part of the plan.
You were listening to a store-bought CD, right DT?
Because nothing is anonymous.
My parents were from Brooklyn and I was raised down here in Florida.
The mythology surrounding New York always made me ask my parents if its so great there then why are we here?
My father especially had what I consider to be a very strange relationship and attitude twords food and restaurants that to this day I still do not completely understand.
It seems especially true with older people like my father.
whenever 2 people of this generation meet they swap stories of restaurants and seem to whip up some kind of nostalgia for that corned beef sandwich they ate thirty years ago at some restaurant that was on the corner of wherever and wherever that they used to go to as a kid, etc.
This always made me wonder what kind of an empty life my father must have lived if the high point of his life that he looks back on still fresh in his mind was that sandwich he ate 35 years ago.
whereas I dont remember what I ate yesterday.
My father was like typical Jew from Brooklyn but on matters of food, he was like on expert level or something.
If he liked something and I didnt he would sometimes accuse me of being too goyish.
Im reminded of this every time I listen to the Neil Rodgers Show on A.M. radio.
My father was also a big fan of Neil but now Neils show has become ponderous as he takes calls and emails about restaurants that closed 30 to 40 years ago.
This is the kind of radio show my father would do if he had one.
My mom was also like this and she told me that the water was better in New York too, and thats why all the food tastes better there.
As I got older I realized that my father and mother were crazy, but then as the years wore on I came to realize that all former New Yorkers of that generation are that way.
Because I would listen to Neil Rogers or Michael Savage on the radio and they would also take calls from listeners after mentioning any anecdote that involved where they were from callers would call the show and say “did you ever go to Schnitzer’s on the corner of a hundred and seventh and thirty first? … best in the city”
Some address, some unknown deli or restaurant,
and both these guys act like they are remembering something really important when to me it sounds like theyre talking about a sandwich that they ate 30 years ago.
I would always think – whats the big deal?
These people must be crazy.
There is a real big culture/generation gap that never made any sense to me.
I guess you just had to be there or something.
I still dont get it.
My father also introduced me to egg creams.
I remember as a kid he scolded me once when he saw me mix up hersheys chocolate syrup with seltzer and milk, I did this on my own after having been shown what the recipe for an egg cream was,
My father: “what are you doing?”
he scolded me:
“Thats not an egg cream Richard.
If you wannna make an egg cream you have to use U-Bet Chocolate Syrup otherwise its not a real egg-cream.”
I asked him what difference that it made and that it tasted the same to me
he told me to wait until mom went shopping at the grocery store to get U-bet syrup and that unless you use U-Bet Chocolate Syrup to make it, then its not an “egg cream” but its just chocolate milk with seltzer in it. I remember looking down at the glass, not caring and drinking it anyway. and realizing to me it tasted exactly the same.
He would teach me pearls of wisdom such as this that would never come in handy in any future situation.
I also remember once he got very exited when we were somewhere and he saw a Sabrett hot dog stand.
He pulled over and we went to the stand.
“now youre going to find out what a real hot dog tastes like.”
“this is Sabrett Richard. its the best I ate these when I was a kid.” he told me.
We ordered our hot dogs, I ate mine he ate his as we walked away.
it was good enough.
it was a hot dog.
thats pretty much all I can say.
on the way back home in the car he told me that he was disappointed that those were not “the real sabrett hot dogs” like he had in New York and that what I had was just a regular hot dog. not as good as the kind he had the real sabrett hot dogs he had as a kid when he was in New York.
He regretfully informed me that I still didnt know what a real sabrett hot dog was supposed to taste like
I dont remember how old I was, maybe 7 or 8.
I thought even then that he was making too much of a big deal about this.
I had no older siblings to explain to me that both my parents were “From New York” and that this was just part of how those people are.
And once again I was baffled by his strange food fetishes and eccentricities.
And then there was the things he said to me about pizza.
“youve never had a real pizza in your life.”
“you dont know what a real pizza is supposed to taste like.”
I actually heard a few years ago about some company, a pizza place in New York that would make its own special “Authentic New York Style Pizza” and then it would be delivered by air mail or plane straight to Florida to accommodate their bizarre fetishes about food and how a New York Pizza actually has to be from New York otherwise it does not taste the same to them.
So this company would make the pizza in new york, and then fly it down to Florida.
I cant imagine what the expense of this is and I dont know if this company still exists but if this were any other group of people in the world I would not believe it.
But the New York people are different, especially the older ones.
As a kid I thought that my parents were crazy, but now as an adult I realize that pretty much all people from New York of that generation are.
Throughout my life, the world I live in continues to be a place that still doesnt make sense to me, and truth is always stranger than fiction.
South Florida is a poor-mans New York only because people from New York decide to come down here and spend the rest of their life complaining that it is just not New York down here.
Not trying to disrespect anybody, just gotta tell the truth.
Writing all this I feel like the story of my childhood relationship with my father and mother should be narrated by me on NPR’s This American Life with Ira Glass.
Wow, R.A.W.
I’m glad I was able to get you to share those memories- they are funny and they validated a lot of people’s experiences, including my own.
Let me tell you something, man, everything you said was true. Jewish, Italian, Polish, Catholic, Russian, Puerto Rican- it’s all the same up there when it comes to pizza, hotdogs, egg creams, cold cuts, tomato pickles, fish, bagels, baked pretzels, etc.
It’s funny you mentioned the food culture aspect because last night before I went to sleep I realized it was the one topic I didn’t post, but it is a huge part of NY’s mythology. I’ve tasted great pizza in Florida. I’ve even tasted great pizza on a Pacific Island. Dunkin Donuts bagels are just as good as some obscure corner store in Ocean Parkway. Hate to say it, but it’s true.
Regarding the water, I’ve heard that theory, too.
Delicatessens have many passionate fans. It’s huge up there, part of the culture. When I was a kid there were even corner stores that old sold egg creams.
Back to the hot dogs…Yankee Stadium hot dogs reminded me of a 90-year old man’s wiener.
Hot dogs on the street probably would give you cardiac arrest if eaten every day for lunch.
Although you’ve lived down here, the picture your parents painted is true.
The sad fact is growing up in New York or having parents who have all of these ideas leads to having neurotic children. Michael Savage, Woody Allen, Neil Rogers, there’s a reason why they are kinda weird. Me, I’m living proof of being influenced by crazy family members in NY, too.
Ben Stiller makes fun of it, too.
I wouldn’t trade my childhood away, though. It’s just kinda funny.
You have to understand, most families in NY have members that are openly depressed, neurotic, perverted, and get angry over the weirdest things- like if someone parked on the wrong side of the street on a Sunday, of if I bought the wrong kind of sauerkraut. Also, all families think the worst things happen if your bedroom door or bathroom is closed. Even hands under the blanket leads family members to think something naughty is going on.
I know…every family and every culture has their own idiosyncrasies, but there is something about NY that just concentrates all of those fetishes together.
Many times I long for that caring…South Fla just seems passionless unless you’re a Cuban in Hialeah.
Nostalgia and childhood memories make things better than they really are.
I remember …
the stink which would waft from Van Iderstine’s fat-rendering plant around the Newtown Creek on hot summer evenings. I’m not sure what the fat was rendered into, but until the operation closed down sometime in the late ’60s or early ’70s, residents in my area of Queens – a mile or so north of the Newtown Creek – could, in the dog days of summer, expect to be inundated by what I could best describe as the odor which one gets when following a garbage truck. In fact, I have encountered similar smells in my travels in an industrial area around the English Kills in northern Brooklyn where there are some refuse-transporting facilities. But the odors which emanate from those operations are localized and are far more tolerable than those which I recall from my youth. I have been told that at one time my maternal grandmother worked at Van Iderstine’s – doing what, I’m not sure.
New York does not SUCK.
I still fondly remember the little kiddie amusement park on the north side of Queens Boulevard in Elmhurst, near (or was it at?) the present site of the Queens Center shopping mall. (A correspondent has indicated to me that the place was called Fairyland, and that it was located where Queens Center presently stands.) My memory about this place is very vague, save for its approximate location and the fact that it had a carousel. I do recall going there – presumably with my mom and my very young sister – sometime in the early ’60s, and politely (no tantrums for me, thank you) refusing to taking a ride on that carousel. I think it was the loud calliope which freaked me out. (Still does.) There was also a similar operation with small kiddie rides somewhere in Howard Beach, on the west side of Cross Bay Boulevard from at least the ’60s to the early ’90s. I recently went to that area to verify its existence and found that it was no longer there. There is, however, an establishment called Carosello Arcade on Cross Bay Boulevard at 163rd Avenue – approximately where my admittedly imperfect memory indicated that the amusement park had been – which supposedly has a game room, in addition to a family-oriented restaurant.
I resent everything said about NY written here…anyone recall being served by waitresses at the local White Castle? At least at the one in my neighborhood – which is still at the southeast corner of Queens Boulevard and 43rd Street – there was waitress service. There were several enameled-metal picnic tables – with umbrellas – around the periphery of the restaurant. A waitress would take your order and serve you, just as one would at any restaurant. Supposedly, I have been told, tipping wasn’t allowed. (Let’s see. Ten burgers at five cents each. What’s 15% of that?) Anyway, this practice went on probably until the place was renovated in the late ’60s, which enlarged it considerably and put all its seating inside. (At that time, the building was either leveled or was removed piece by piece. It took maybe the better part of a year for its replacement to be built and to finally open. Quite a hardship for me and other lovers of their tasty burgers to go without them or to have to go elsewhere for them.) Fortunately, it had enough property to make that conversion. A similar operation in Woodside at the northeast corner of Roosevelt Avenue and 69th Street apparently didn’t have that luxury, and shut down – exactly when, I’m not sure. I do remember vividly that there was a sign in that outlet which indicated that its tiled floor could bear only x number of pounds per square foot, and there wasn’t very much floor space to work with. The place was always pretty jammed when I visited it. Maybe its floor reached its breaking point.
You may want to add that playgrounds weren’t exactly the safest places in the world for kids to play. Some – actually, most – of their equipment was conducive to causing injury of one sort or another.
There was the see-saw, or teeter-totter, which consisted of a long wooden plank balanced on a pivot. Two approximately equally-weighted individuals would sit – one on each end of the board – and alternately tilt the plank one way or the other. I recall situations in which the end on which one kid sat would be up off the ground, and the kid on the other end would quickly get off the board to send the first kid crashing down hard.
Then there were the swings – not the plastic bucket or rubber sling types, but metal ones. Many a youngster got conked in the back of the head when not paying attention to an errant swing.
There was the sandbox, a collection pit for all manner of refuse, and a breeding ground for who-knows-what. At least on a beach the tide washes away such stuff if it’s close enough to the water’s edge.
Lastly, there were the monkey bars, a set of metal pipes connected into a cubical lattice to a height of some ten or twelve feet, upon which a child could climb and dangle. Some territorial youths, however, were wont to declare themselves “king” of the monkey bars by climbing to the top and standing without the benefit of a hand-hold. A few of them paid the price for that stupidity by losing their balance and falling through the structure.
* And as if all that wasn’t enough, until sometime in the late ’60s – when, presumably, lawsuits eventually got the better of the Parks Department – the playing surface underneath the aforementioned equipment was just gravel. It’s a wonder so many youngsters up to that time reached adolescence unscathed. I look back at it as a kind of survival of the physically and mentally fittest, which was not necessarily a bad thing for the urban variety of our species.
I gotta say Damion and Raw have been pretty tough criticizing New York.
I was born in 1948 and grew up on 84 street and 57 ave in Elmhurst, literally in the shadow of the Queens Gas Tanks. My cousin, Pete, lives now in the house on 83 street that our grandfather bought in 1914 (when 83 street was Carter Street). Gramps was born in 1892 on the Dieckmann family farm which was on what is now 57 Ave and 82 street.
Anyway, yes, Murray- The White Castle is still there though now rebuilt a number of times – My brother and I were the last ones to get 10 cent hamburgers – they changed the sign as we paid and the next guy had to pay twelve cents – he was pretty pissed.
My father used to work Saturday nights at the Mobile station right across from the Elmwood Movie. The station is still there and, as of two years ago, the guy my father worked for, Rocky, still owned the place. Anyhow, Dad would come home on Saturday night around eleven with fresh Danish from a bakery on Broadway and the family would watch old Universal Studio horror films on Channel 9 hosted by (who else?) ZACHERLY.
I even still have my ticket stub to the first game ever played at Shea Stadium (April 17, 1964 Pirates 4, Mets 3).
I am a 37 year old married mother of 2 boys ages 17 & 15. I remember my mother taking 4 buses a day (2 down, and 2 back) to get me to channel 13 in Albany, NY to be on the TV show ROMPER ROOM. To this day, I doubt the Southern or Western states saw it, but it was part of NY culture.
I remember while I was waiting to go on air, I'd be in the waiting area watching Gilligan's Island (new shows). I used to go home, and watch myself on t.v., and do all of the exercises, while my mother would take pictures of me (she was so proud). I had such a great time. When I graduated, they gave me a Noah's Ark to take home. I loved that. Through the years of consistent moving, my mom lost all of our belongings, including my Noah's Ark, and all of my pictures
fuck all of you new york haters…it’s the best city in the world. just goto Barney Greengrass to see why. “The Sturgeon King” has the best fish anyware. Upper West Side…check it out, ya freaks!
Dumb dumb dumb
D&F Italian Deli in Astoria, acrost from the Quinn Funeral Home. best heros in thw world
Leo: I agree…I’ve never experienced such horrible smells as I did in New York.
Anonymous: Yes, NY has a bunch of kiddie amusements parks. I loved them too. I bet they look sooo CHEESY now.
Murray: I remember White Castle. Square hamburgers with loads of onions. And stools. Yeah, there’s nothing like a little kid like me trying to climb a tall red stool to eat at a counter.
Cindy: Great point. Playgrounds were a great place to get broken bones and scars. Concrete jungle.
Gary: May I ask where you live now? I have a feeling you don’t live in NY anyone. How come?
Colleen: Romper Room was also a fav. show of mine. I held it in high esteem along with Mr. Rogers, Electric Company, and Sesame Street.
Anonymous2: Must you curse and hurl insults? Must you fit the stereotype?
Seth: “Heros”! Ha! Haven’t heard that word in decades. For those of you who don’t know a hero is a submarine sandwich (Subway). Pretty funny that a deli is across the street from a funeral home, and that is somehow supposed to make it more appetizing to me.
Damian and R.A.W. — agreed.
I heard Francessa say yesterday on the radio something like, “This cold weather makes you want to live in TAMPA….” as if living in Tampa is terrible.
Florida seemed like a foreign country when I lived in New York … and when I first arrived, I didn’t understand the lizards, lack of sidewalks, huge roadways that seemed to lead to nowhere….
I noticed right away that the dirt that used to always be under my fingernails in NYC suddenly disappeared. Talk about a filthy city.
The portrayal of Boca del Vista on the Seinfeld show seems to capture the retiree community who long for delicatessan and pizzas from 30 years ago.
I have to admit, I enjoy hearing those Savage stories about how some burly guy with a cigarette hanging from his mouth mixed tuna and mayo with his hands, or how grim and callous the garbage truck drivers appeared to a child … because it was TRUE! I laugh and I laugh … I can’t believe anyone survived that childhood, filled with unsafe playgrounds, playing stickball in the street (if a car didn’t run you over. I’m surprised a car owner didn’t kill us for dingin’ their car with that heavy sponge baseball or football!), taking buses and trains as a kid while surrounded by pre-CL pervs and homeless lunatics, hot dogs and knishes (from a “sanitary” street vendor, I’m sure) … unbelievable.
I mean, I don’t recoil when I smell fumes from a bus, okay? Sometimes I flash back to Jamaica Ave, waiting for the Q7 bus with my mother.
And yet, NEWSFLASH: we did survive. Now I live on the Ponderosa (quarter acre looks pretty big after you’ve lived in Broward County for awhile) … talk about irony. A city boy living in a smaller town.
You remember Antonio’s Pizzeria on Ave X? Man, they had the best pizza in the city.
Steve, it was on 4th.
4th? Are you senile? It was on Ave X. Right under the train.
Are you guys talking about Antonio’s? Cause that was on Rockaway Blvd, in another BOROUGH. You guys are lost! I went there all the time in the 80s.
Look, Calvin, Antonio’s was on Ave X, okay? And that was 1975. I left New York after all the murders and fires.
Man, there was nothing better than me and my parents getting 12 White Castles cheeseburgers and two fries on a Sunday afternoon, either at Queens Blvd or Rockaway. It was mint. I used to love playing with those boxes that held the burgers!
Is that why I like to play with my Happy Meal, Daddy?
And why do they call egg creams, EGG creams? Where’s the EGG?
And why do they HAVE to be made with U-Bet?
And why do you need BOTTLED seltzer?
Who even MAKES BOTTLED seltzer anymore?
And why do you have to pronounce seltzer as “seltzah”?
“This cold weather makes you want to live in TAMPA….”
TAIM-PA.
TAIM-PA.
I can hear him now.
My best friend got mugged right in front of Tony’s Pizzeria on Flatbush. All yo guys are lost.
There are a lot of great things about NY, of course: the food; entertainment; the (idea of the) people; the (idea of the) subways…and actually, compared to most cities, I believe NY to be pretty affordable, since public transportation is way cheaper than owning a car (insurance, gas, loan payments, repairs…) When I first moved here 4 years ago, I thought this place was amazing too, but I can no longer ignore certain obvious faults. Those include the people, the crime, the subways, and the lack of clean air and scenery.
I have been sexually assaulted on the subway; I have witnessed some of the most disgusting human behavior imaginable, and because it is rampant, it is impossible not to let it change the way you think about people: a man shitting in public, men pushing old women and children out of the way for a seat on the subway, a stabbing…and while I know this happens everywhere, I can say that I grew up in a state for 18 years where I never saw a single one of those things happen, nor was I sexually assaulted. Then there are the upper class people who are so out of touch with reality that it hurts to look at them or listen to them talk. And yes, they truly do believe they are entitled, and that all of their problems are catastrophic. It’s a little disheartening.
Then there is the fact that I never feel alone, or have privacy–even in my apartment–because I can hear my neighbors–and even people in other buildings–talking, screaming, doing whatever. There is no such thing as peace and quiet here, and I think it is as essential to have that psychologically as it is to have social opportunities. Perhaps that is why people treat each other so horribly.
And then, I just feel there is something fundamentally wrong with people living in these residential buildings, all cramped together, like rats. Recently I have been looking up at buildings and just cringing at the thought of how many people have shoved themselves together up there. Yuck. It makes my skin crawl.
So many other things, but hard to express in words. I still love it here, but that love is starting to fade slightly. Definitely won’t live here for the rest of my life if I can’t have a garden, a yard, a grill, somewhere to entertain friends, SPACE, and peace and quiet. I think I’ll get over not having the restaurants.
Although New York may be overrated in a lot of aspects, if has avoided a lot of mistakes
and what “The Daily Skew says is half true- well its more art”
The Daily Skew is right, new york is overrated to a high degree but it can also be underrated to an extent.
A place is a place, no place can be perfect, your not going to find tropical forests , and mountains in new york city, .
First , there are good and bad parts to new york city, you could be talking about lower manhattan or the south end of staten island when you mention nyc.
Nyc has 8 million people and more in the metro. The sports teams and public educational systems suck, well they are good but not anywhere like other state univerities where university of california,virginia, north carolina, wisconsin,etc etc. Suny is bottom tier, okay and most of their campuses are not located in nyc anyway. Cuny is okay used to be bad , still sucks but has improved its standing significatly, still bottom tier though.
Not everyone can afford new york, just like not everybody can afford bevery hills, miami beach, or wherever – thats capitalism.
Let me not only debuke, but reconstrue and point in the right direction what dailywker is saying.
The New York economy is a powerhouse , however, they lose a lot of money to the feds and it is not as diversified as other states.
2. As for the $9.50 burrito, well maybe in certain areas of manhattan but new york city is more than manhattan by far, try going to a poor ethic area.
3. Nyc has been ranked “Safest Large City”, , Lowest traffic fatalities of any major metro city large”, a few times it was ranked as best place for young professionals although the ranking has gone down a few places in the top 10 or so.
Now of course , the public k-12 and university system is not close to the top tier, I agree. Some people who have the money send their folks to private school- capitalism again to an extent, so dailyskew is right on that one. Although its k-12 is much better than floridas, detroit, memphis although not word-class or world tier, varies via neighboorhood though wealthy, vs, poor neighboorhoods.
As for technology New York is Growing, but its Salaries have not kept up with the valley , its 50% less in some cases.
The Nytimes pointed out that Its Not who you know but where you live (Palo alto) that determines your fate, ie only in the valley is where firms may be willing to reimburse or subsidized your first 50k of attorney fees of venture capitlists.
Still, it has the capacity to do well. Also nyc does have the highest internet capacity in the us but yes its not a techno-haven yet , has to catch up.
5. New York is the Media capital, just because CNN is headquarted in atlanta does NOT MEAN the shows are broadcast from there at all, they may be broacast from the studios.
By the way Fox news is headquartered in nyc, and every newspaper has its issues. The atlanta argument is fruitless.
Olympics? Hmm, How many great cities in the world HAVE Never hosted the olympics, thats irrelevant to a large degree.
Sports, as above agree with daily kos
Politics, Dailyskew gets it Wrong 4 New Yorkers have gone to the Presidency, one from nyc, – atlast its no political powerhouse, and ny doesn’t have the most political cloat at all, so he is right on target, have to give dailykews credit to a degree, but still correct the facts. For every dollar nyc sends to the feds they only get back .80c so yes, political wise not the most powerful compared to virginia,maryland, california,etc – also states like ohio , illionis ,etc are know for political power and history.
However, a careful analysis will indicate that new york despite some conservative politicions is actually the most liberal state , you may think other new england states or cali is more liberal but I can get that topic lately, as to why thats false.
Hip/Hop – cant judge that , but east coast rap has helds its own, still thats not a good judger of a city, anyone judge Rome,paris,etc for its hip-hop, we seem to do very well in the arts and music though, orchesteras,etc.
9/11 well it did hit the pentagon, but the twin towers are remembered, dailyskew proves point though, ny was lucky to get even a little bit of aid , (back to political clout) .
Hollywood, Silvercup is opening, a lot of films are filmed in new york, and by the way, a lot of hollywood actresses and actors do reside and have residences here. Its not la by any stretch of imagine but there is a lot of clout right behind and people go back and forth new york to Cali.
Transportation- It may not be the cleaniest, but its one of the only 20 large transit systems that run 24 hours and you get to most places in the 4 boroughs easily with train and short bus rides, (staten island is an exception ).
Airports, well not the best, but people dont really judge a city by its airport, the airport granted is not near manhattan which is another factor, nevertheless cleanliness has nothing to do with speaking english, but I understand its not as clean as well kept as asian countries at a lot of times.
Its still promiment, flying to multiple destations, but yes it is a bit overated its not near downtown so all those ads near the airport and whatever promoting hotels and the like are kinda dumb.
Universities are mentioned again, but keep in mind columbia and cornell (which isn’t in nyc but upstate for its main areas) are ranked among the top universities in the world, also we have a lot of other colleges nyu for example, there are also colleges in new york metropolitan area , in new york but close to new york city.
Speaking of transportation, Are you stuck in the 1970s? Things have improved, crime has gone down so low since the 1990s and renoved police chiefs . Also after 9/11 security was beefed up more. Subways are by no means unsupervised, now of course there may be incidents here and there but thats not that common and when it is its usually in a bad part of town like the inner cities, which every city has.
Maybe dailyskew should try doing a stunt, police always around the subways a lot these days in the major areas. They also have beefed up cameras and can track metrocards.
Ny multiculturism, Ny is multicultural so are other cities.
Once again dailyskew, I think hes an old-time from the 1970s, hes right in a lot of aspects, but hes wrong again.
Ny is mostly black and white? Not so quite anymore, in fact the white population was declining for a while , now its on the rise but still under 50 percent. The black population is decling and has been for several years, Professor Andrew beveridge who is from yale has done researched into demographics. This hispanic population is now 1/4 or so of new yorks population , it has remained a bit flat, the asian population has skyrocketed. This occured from 1980s onward.
Once again, Im not here to pun but to state the facts people love to use eye catching headlines – I may well leave new york for a lot of reasons and despite it because it has a lot to improve on and seems very slow to do so in certain neighboorhoods and areas. But it has a lot of positives and a lot of it is capitalism, gap between rich and poor (high spending on poor but not middle class in housing for example),etc.
Will I raise my children in new york, maybe maybe not if I middle-class may go elsewhere.
Is nyc a modern city, getting there.
For the record, new york city neighboorhoods are improving every day , in 1993 2/3 of the residents say the didn’t like nyc and are willing to move, now with low crime rates and 400k of new jobs created ten years later and 1 million more people things have changed.
However, the middle class does have a bit of a hard time, well see if the senate democrats (WHO HAVE BEEN OUT OF POWER FOR 40 YEARS even then briefly AND HAVE A NARROW MAJORITY can extend it and build on)- talking about the state senate again,
Strip clubs open, maybe but times square is closed down , its not like that, and quality of life issues have improved. Hours to get to work, depends on where you live, a lot of new yorkers do live in the subway , some dont and like suburban areas. Hours is a misnomer, should be more like 1 hour or maybe 40 minutes to 1 1/2 hours not “hours” like 2-3 hours, which by the way
try driving in la or anyother place that doesn’t have great transportation in the united states – assuming of course you don’t live close to downton.
As for weather, its not perfect, but its well within American averages or better, High is 86 low is in the upper 20s, same as national average except national average is a bit colder.
Try living in Boston, minneapolis, chicago, in the winter -the weather is worse. For heat try florida, houston (florida is humind you may not feel it like that all the time) , arizona, california desert, nevada, hmmmm
can’t really complain Dailyskew (of course you are right on a lot of issues but can’t use this argument).
As for the noise issue, hmmmm right now I don’t hear much noise, not every new yorker lives in noisy apartment building or even an apartment, some people live in suburban homes with good yards not far from downtown, even townomes,semi-attached are still great to an extent.
Im done for now , will love a rebuttal to this one. Its not perfect, nor is new york the greatest city, has a long way to improve and go in a lot of areas which seem lacking and they seem to run out of money a lot and not get its act together, but as for most of the dailyskews quality of life arguments its nonsense , maybe true in the 1970s
I’ll get back to you
On second thought, I won’t take the bait.
I stand behind my view that NYC is generally overrated by the MEDIA and New Yawkers.
I’ll leave your criticism up for my readers to decide if your rebuttal has any validity, since I believe in alternative views on every issue.
Getting into a debate about a subjective theory about how people view New York City is not on my Things to do List…
Take the bait! Take the bait! Take the bait!
Don’t take it! Don’t take it! Don’t take it!
NYC is definitely in my top 10 for most overrated. Feel free to check out my list…
http://thecorner33.blogspot.com/
New York city sucks. Overcrowding, smelly streets, rude people… c’mon, its the worst place you can live…
Now i grew up in Los Angeles, California, you have the best weather, the people can be rude, but at least the pluses outnumber the minuses. I don’t get the hype. I see footage of New York, and all i can think of is that its an American version of Hong-Kong. You can’t turn around without being crowded and stepped over by by dozens of people. I have never been there, and i don’t ever want to visit. Its just an ugly place to be.