New York City is for sellouts

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!

Fair enough, and you'd know better than I, but in the time I was there I didn't have much luck finding the kind of places I needed to find for me.

Not only that, but the amount of $$ necessary to live there was enough to make relaxation nearly impossible for me even if I had known of a place I could go to be alone for a while.

I have more respect, approval, whatever, for any of the upthread reasons to move to NYC

Agreed there. Ain't nobody here idiots none, which is the point, really.

The pics are beautiful, but prove nothing. Anybody from any city can post pretty pictures of their home city. Sorry, but it's true.

Anyways, I didn't mean for this thread to be "people that live in NYC, defend it," but rather: Why is NYC is the default place for people to move to? I like NYC, it's great fun, but I've had just as much fun in every city I've lived in or visited. Do people just have no imagination?

I hate to say this because it sounds like I'm saying "lady, if you have to ask..." but if these photos prove nothing to you about why people would want to move here, I feel sorry for you.

Why is NYC is the default place for people to move to?

Live here for a while (and by "live here" I mean "actually take advantage of the place") and you'll understand why so many people move here.

I really think this is just a very, very subjective thing. What a place looks like wouldn't even make my top ten list for why I would or wouldn't want to live somewhere, and not much of the content (like, what they're photos of, as opposed to how nice they look) would really sway me one way or the other. People want different things from where they are; if that weren't the case, the only things that would vary would be climate and cost of living.

(xpost--like I said, there is no way to describe in words why any of us live here besides the explanations already given, so we're using pretty pictures to help illustrate. None of us can speak for the specific people being asked about being as they aren't the ones replying to you)

I mean I'd hate to think you're implying that people who choose to live here have no imagination.

Well, to be fair, NA, you did kinda spring this thread during the day when proud New Yawrkers are at work and can't go home to prepare Powerpoint slides and portfolios. :)

Yeah, I always felt like the real sellouts are the people who move to Chicago instead of New York because it's "easier to make it." If that's the case, why not stay in Ohio, Missouri, Michigan, the Rockies, etc.?

http://www.cap.bnl.gov/nufact03/campus_lo2-020924c.jpg