New York City is for sellouts

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.

Yeah, I'm being a devil's advocate, but for a point. ;-)

As you say, you speak from your own experience -- speaking from mine, the humanity in a place that's more spread out than compacted is no less present and no less affected. And stepping away from where I live to even quieter areas...I've found it's there. Not in the cliched Ray Bradbury-as-misinterpreted-by-morons fever dream of some sort of rural purity of spirit, but just in casual "Hey, what's up? How are ya?" attitudes.

Humanity is where you find it, and I find it everywhere, compacted or diffused. Thank goodness for that too.

1991 to thread!

Look, I never denied I was a dated fuckhead. ( ;-) )

Moving anywhere is "selling out." Do people really care about this stuff?

Heh, I pointed this out earlier. But apparently, people still do...(although in Washington and Oregon states, there might be some valid arguments as to why there's a tradition of hating Cali immigrants.. i'm guilty as charged, your honor)

(and if you don't find some of the photos in this thread idyllic and peaceful, you're not looking hard enough)

So, like, um, all the beach pictures and woodsy pictures already posted don't count?

(xpost)

http://bitchcakes.topcities.com/summer/umbrella.jpg

Best post of the thread so far.

I think Lawrence is suggesting they wouldn't count if a good chunk of the eight million are there with him searching for peace and quiet.

To be fair, I've found perfect serenity more than once in the middle of Manhattan, and not in Central Park even. But I think it's more a matter of state of mind, really. Celebrating the rush of everything is similar -- it's not always NEEDED, but it's certainly nice to have around. But at the same time, I've found similar rushes in plenty of other cities (London, SF, Seattle, Melbourne, LA itself), which again takes us back to the whole 'why this city in particular' conundrum we started with...

Good luck, Aaron! Thanks Nordic! Hope your SF living situation works out as well. My fingers are crossed for you.

Another thing I love about NY is how green it is. Unless you've been or visited you don't realize how many parks and trees there are. Detroit, by comparision, definitely is an asphalt jungle.

I assume a beach, but what beach?

http://www.dabitz.com/albums/BearMountain/aaa.jpg

http://www.richmangalleries.com/images/Bear-Mountainweb.jpg

http://www.payphone-project.com/payphones/photos/usa/212/square.jpg

http://www.stat.uiuc.edu/~masha/nyc/met1.jpg

(Did you get my email?)

It's all context, though.

"I'm moving to NYC because it seems cool (or from past experience, one knows it is cool) and I think I would enjoy it given my interests and goals." = very spiff

"I'm moving to NYC because there is nowhere else in the world that has anything like any of this anywhere else and I refuse to believe that anyone would say otherwise and anyone who does just doesn't understand." = er (and NO, I don't think anyone on this thread has said this -- but I have encountered it face to face more than once, and it just makes me scratch my head)

Ned, you do this on every single thread about any city ever. "Oh yes it's lovely but I only want to live on the west coast". Do you realize this?

I think everyone's wanting to move to NYC is fine. It just means that there will be less people in Seattle when I move there at the end of September, and that's fine with me.

wrong

If I do, it is partially hyperbolic. I've considered a move to Michigan seriously at one point, for instance, in another instance was coming around to the idea of living in the UK, and looking in the future both Australia and New Zealand were captivating enough for me to want to visit again and not necessarily rule out a move. I don't necessarily think I'll be living on the west coast the rest of my life.

I'm so sorry, Ned!