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Gothamist became very relieved this weekend after a pair of articles touting that places other than our dear city would have various NYC charms. Because there's no nightmare we'd like better during a drunken bender than to be dropped into either Philly (which is supposedly masquerading as Brooklyn) or Las Vegas (which has a development called East Village, but includes the Washington Square Arch and a diamond district - for those high rollers, one can only assume), only to wake up in a strange new world that seems like New York but isn't New York. It would be a great high-concept movie (think Judgement Night) and a very terrible real life - where are our sweaty subways? Where are the rats picking through garbage? Where are the $20 cocktails? Where are the tourists with fannypacks? All told, we rather be lost in The Brick Apple or Lego's NYC Miniland (hope they revise the Freedom Tower design!).
Curbed has design plans of the NYC: Las Vegas. Our own Phillyist notes "8,000 commuters and Brooklyn transplants do not a borough make." But it is a NY Times Styles section story!
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Arguably, some would call NYC itself a bizarro New York, as self-proclaimed "New Yorkers" walk up and down the streets speaking with perky California valley accents, trash and graffiti-lined $3K/month apartments, and non-artists living in artist neighborhoods.
Bickle, very astute statement. I agree 100%.
When did outsiders with strange accents start moving to New York, and who lived in the "artist neighborhoods" before the artists moved in?
C'mon, you knew what I meant. Joe, you are correct that New York had always been inhabited by ousiders who later made New York their home.
But the "New York" as the we've come to know is no longer here, which is why NYC itself is bizarro New York. (You know, checker cabs, loud streets, rough edge). New York is now New-New York. Or should I say, like omigod DUDE... New York is... like.... totallly... different? [in the new New York accent, apparently].
I agree too, Bickle.
Of course, it's hard for anyone who's spent most of their life outside this area to imagine the change. I remember even in the mid-90s it wasn't too hard to find a good weirdo - these days they've all been replaced by ridiculously wealthy, and ridiculously boring, 20-something Ivy League kids (and 40-something professionals trying to live a lost childhood) who think their money can buy them a personality.
Alas! Where have all the actual weirdos gone? New York City used to be that last great refuge for the person who didn't fit in anywhere, but now it's the world-class center for what makes the US so boring.
Of course, I'd still be nice to live in New York ... if I could even afford a rat-hole in the worst neighborhood. New Jersey, here I stay.
Don't fret, Muhhh. New York's personality may be down, but not completely out. These things happen in cycles. The signs say that within the next 10 years, the bubble will pop (primarily, when people realize that 3K for a 400 sq foot apartment really is ridiculous). It will be an avalanche. Remember how in 2002 people started leaving Brooklyn to go back into the city? It was because of a slight dip in prices in Manhattan after 9/11. Mark my words; things will shift. Hopefully one day New York will return to its former charm.
Priced out of Brooklyn? Priced out of the hipster neighborhoods is more like it.
The idea of living in proletariat Flatbush, Flushing, or anywhere in the Bronx is so abhorent to these dilettantes that they're prepared to move across two states to avoid them. Good riddance.
wah wah wah. let's go to austin.
I had to look up "proletariat" "abhorent" and "dilettantes" because I didn't get an expensive college education. Oh sweet irony.......
Good riddance? If you know the metro area, rents are cheaper in New Jersey and New York and the commutes are shorter to Manhattan than from the "cheaper" outer-boroughs (as in, it's only $1200 to live in a one-bedroom in a ghetto where there's gunfire once a week and nothing else but bombed-out parking lots and shady, gouch/roach-fest corner delis).
I've lived in Borough Park, Bed-Stuy, etc. etc.. Trust me, the ability to blend in like you do in Manhattan is pretty much non-existent, verging on violent sometimes. There's a good reason people refer to only Manhattan as "the city".
It always seems like you are the very people you claim to hate and attack, and you speak from the very position of luxury you criticize everybody else for having, since you never actually seem to understand what life is like when you are roughing it.
"It's only $1200 to live in a one-bedroom in a ghetto where there's gunfire once a week and nothing else but bombed-out parking lots and shady, gouch/roach-fest corner delis"
Don't believe the hype.
"Trust me, the ability to blend in like you do in Manhattan is pretty much non-existent, verging on violent sometimes. There's a good reason people refer to only Manhattan as "the city"."
Trust me, this is entirely YOUR opinion of the kind of neighborhoods I grew up and still live in.
You grew up in both a predominantly Orthodox Jewish -and- a predominantly black neighborhood? That would give a pretty diverse upbringing.
There are definitely decent places for cheap when you get inward into the outer-boroughs, but honestly, life is cheaper, just as diverse, and closer to Manhattan if you stick with New Jersey or New York State (yes, Manhattan is important unless you work out of your apartment). That's just how life is right now, and when money is tight, you go where's cheap.
"You grew up in both a predominantly Orthodox Jewish -and- a predominantly black neighborhood? That would give a pretty diverse upbringing."
Mix in some Italians, Koreans, Dominicans, etc., etc., then yes, it really was.
"There are definitely decent places for cheap when you get inward into the outer-boroughs, but honestly, life is cheaper, just as diverse, and closer to Manhattan if you stick with New Jersey or New York State (yes, Manhattan is important unless you work out of your apartment). That's just how life is right now, and when money is tight, you go where's cheap."
Your preaching to the choir my friend. Those who totally gave up on living in NYC snubbed Jersey and Upstate as well.
look everyone...this city is sucking more and more everyday. ikeas, jets, nets, starbucks, jamba juice, the gap, 7/11's, wal-mart...when will it stop. when will people take a stand? at least go vote for Ferrer for mayor. i can't stomach this shit anymore.