New York City is for sellouts

http://bitchcakes.topcities.com/images/belmont.jpg

..for visiting.

(also, um, some people grew up here)

(Tracer, Felicity, Mary, bnw--look familiar?)

http://forgotten-ny.com/Alleys/GREENWICH%20VILLAGE/pamela1.jpg

Then why make the case for how great it is for all the random googlers who will eventually read the thread! ;-)

..says the Phoenix native?

Sorry, Ally, didn't mean to be flippant. No one should be made to feel guilty about moving to any place if they just feel it suits them. But I think NA's indirect point is that there is nagging "NY is the only place" vibe that gets tiring after a while. (not accusing you of that)

http://www.norfolkwindmills.com/images/apple.jpg

http://www.norfolkwindmills.com/images/wbridge.jpg

http://www.norfolkwindmills.com/images/littlelighthouse.jpg

http://www.norfolkwindmills.com/images/coney3.jpg

http://www.essentialbigapple.com/graphics/66stsign.jpg

Gareth's pix are lovely :)

I'll say this, though. I certainly wish fuckin' less people would move here and leave the city for those snobby shits like myself who were actually born here, goddammit!

Just kidding......sorta.

And some elsewhere! And that's a large part of it too, what feels like 'home,' wherever it is. I had the best of both worlds, I think, in that I grew up moving around to various places -- including upstate New York, let us not forget! -- but kept coming back to San Diego as a home. I'm used to SoCal, its weather and its ways and its atmosphere, and I dearly love it still. For all the cases that can be made for NYC and all the comparative inconveniences that may occur -- the whole 'how do you live in SoCal without a car' thing, f'r instance -- there's as much captivation and potential magic here as there is there. I wouldn't make the case for it being better than NYC but I *would* make the case that it's more equal than either side would realize, and you could make similar comparisons for many other cities and NYC at that.

ha, nativism, gimme a break.

To me, the western states are one big vacuous hole of hellpit.

So yeah, to me, people move to NYC for personal reasons. Other people might be here for other reasons, but since I never ask them, I don't speculate why they might want to be here.

(massive xpost)

(I'm going back to posting pix, I want to scan in the rest of my photography tonight and upload! So now I am relying on others)

(I thought the west coast was boring before I had a whole lot of shit happen to me)

(hahaha everyone on ILX can figure out exactly where I live from my pictures on this thread, it's great)

I think I may move to SF at the end of the year Sam, so if you want to visit...

Can we admit it's all about stereotypes (and ones which pretend the rest of the country doesn't exist)?

East Coast on West: 'Shallow, obsessed with surfaces losers!'

West Coast on East: 'Pretentious, snobbish idiots!'

Truth of matter: 'There are things to like and dislike about both places, actually. D'oh.'

Rest of country: 'Fuck you and your ocean-moderated weather.'

ALSO my NYC is covered in snow at all times.

1991 to thread!

Okay, I can only talk from my experience. I've lived in the Midwest for all my life, but because my grandparents lived in NYC and my parents grew up there, it has always felt like my second home. When I was young, it was completely intimidating and overwhelming and I used to have panic attacks trying to walk down the street. When I reached high school and college, it suddenly changed and made sense.

New York is impractical. This is why I love it. There is more going on there at any given moment than anywhere in the world, and the thing is, it's all accessable.

That's because, what 8 million people pack themselves into 25 square miles or something every single day? (i'm pulling these numbers out of my ass but I'm sure they're not too far off). That's one of the biggest reasons I have for no longer living there.

This is also why I love it and can't wait to move. Somehow, when so many people have been crammed into the same space, their underlying humanity comes out. I know it's hard to believe and most won't believe it, but I've experienced it every time I visit.

So, anyway, I'm going to law school with an eye to go into media/entertainment law... that's why I'm moving.

http://www.rushmillerfoundation.org/FOA%20-%20FDNY%20L-35.jpg

After that I left NYC because it became extremely tiresome, increasingly difficult to afford (and still have money to have a life and things I want), and generally anxiety-inducing. I will be the first to admit that my inability to deal with anxiety well was the most important part of the decision and a factor in both of the other reasons I state.

That said, if one enjoys the constant buzzing of activity 24 hours a day, seven days a week, I cannot think of a place in the US that will deliver quite as well as NYC. Aaron's right... there is something magical about how insanely active the place is, but the other side of that is that it's extremely difficult for some people to relax in that city no matter how badly they want to.

I have severely ambivalent feelings toward NYC, but I definitely don't hate it. I just wouldn't want to live there again.