Gothamist: Bizarro NYC Everywhere Else

i h8t bloomberg

Thu, 18 Aug 2005 11:31:34 -0500

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.

Think twice

Wed, 17 Aug 2005 09:54:06 -0500

"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.

Muhhh

Tue, 16 Aug 2005 20:11:06 -0500

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.

Think twice

Tue, 16 Aug 2005 18:04:59 -0500

"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.

Muhhh

Tue, 16 Aug 2005 17:04:13 -0500

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.

lp

Tue, 16 Aug 2005 10:55:22 -0500

I had to look up "proletariat" "abhorent" and "dilettantes" because I didn't get an expensive college education. Oh sweet irony.......

cc

Tue, 16 Aug 2005 09:43:56 -0500

wah wah wah. let's go to austin.

Think twice

Tue, 16 Aug 2005 08:22:15 -0500

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.

Bickle

Mon, 15 Aug 2005 16:56:06 -0500

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.

Muhhh

Mon, 15 Aug 2005 16:28:05 -0500

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.

Bickle

Mon, 15 Aug 2005 15:31:53 -0500

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].

joe

Mon, 15 Aug 2005 14:40:41 -0500

When did outsiders with strange accents start moving to New York, and who lived in the "artist neighborhoods" before the artists moved in?

Ha!

Mon, 15 Aug 2005 14:25:10 -0500

Bickle, very astute statement. I agree 100%.

Bickle

Mon, 15 Aug 2005 11:44:56 -0500

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.