We might be the most expensive city in America, but we don't let those $18 carrot entrees bring us down: according to a recent survey, 84 percent of New Yorkers are satisfied with their lives! Orchestrated by the Municipal Art Society, the survey found that the vast majority of respondents are very satisfied or satisfied with living in New York, Prozac be damned. The survey also noted that respondents in Manhattan and Brooklyn were significantly more satisfied than New Yorkers in other boroughs, and that the level of satisfaction was (surprise!) higher among households earning $75K or more.
Factors like economic status and race also affected respondents considerably: 17 percent of people in households earning under $75K said they don't feel safe walking around their neighborhoods versus 4 percent of those earning over that amount, and 20 percent of African-Americans and 23 percent of Latinos were dissatisfied with their lives in New York versus nine percent of white respondents. And MAS did rankings by borough, with Manhattan coming in with a 28 percent vote as the best place to live, Queens following at 25 percent, Brooklyn at 24 percent, Staten Island at 9 percent and the Bronx at 8 percent. At 62 percent, Manhattan was also voted as the most artistic borough (sorry, Brooklyn!).
But of course, we know not everybody's such a fan of the Land Time Warner Forgot. And with everyone and their mother and their bodega cat conducting surveys on infidelity, sensitivity and rudeness each minute, it's hard to take a satisfaction survey in stride, which we think might be especially true if you've ever had to ride the G train.
