New York City is for sellouts

Ur, well Olympia is more like the "Albany" of Washington state, for obvious reasons.

"My life would be cooler if I lived there!"

Dallas now has the highest per-capita crime rate in the nation for cities of 1mln+, and Dallas County is the twelfth most-polluted county in the nation.

Like I said, grit. .

http://bitchcakes.topcities.com/nyc/chinatown3.jpg

http://bitchcakes.topcities.com/nyc/car.jpg

http://bitchcakes.topcities.com/nyc/bridges.jpg

http://bitchcakes.topcities.com/nyc/adam.jpg

http://bitchcakes.topcities.com/nyc/chinatown2.jpg

http://bitchcakes.topcities.com/nyc/boat.jpg

http://bitchcakes.topcities.com/nyc/adisteph.jpg

http://bitchcakes.topcities.com/nyc/albums.jpg

http://bitchcakes.topcities.com/nyc/highbuilding.jpg

http://bitchcakes.topcities.com/nyc/desk.jpg

http://bitchcakes.topcities.com/nyc/benchdude.jpg

http://bitchcakes.topcities.com/nyc/cabbie.jpg

http://bitchcakes.topcities.com/nyc/delancey.jpg

http://bitchcakes.topcities.com/nyc/chinatown1.jpg

http://bitchcakes.topcities.com/nyc/joeneil.jpg

http://bitchcakes.topcities.com/nyc/lighthouse.jpg

http://bitchcakes.topcities.com/nyc/tattooprocess.jpg

http://bitchcakes.topcities.com/nyc/monkey.jpg

http://bitchcakes.topcities.com/nyc/subway.jpg

http://bitchcakes.topcities.com/nyc/pigeon.jpg

http://bitchcakes.topcities.com/nyc/rockapulco1.jpg

http://bitchcakes.topcities.com/nyc/waterfall.jpg

http://bitchcakes.topcities.com/nyc/steph.jpg

http://bitchcakes.topcities.com/nyc/momdad.jpg

Ally is the next Ryan McGinley.

I know which one is the sad picture...I used to go up there like at least once a week to just stare at everything. Actually, two pix were taken from there: the view of the bridges and the one straight down on the city.

;)

Yes. I have no idea what. Further study is required.

it's pretty much our platonic ideal of 'the city;' anywhere else is just 'a city.'

Ding ding ding! (though see also London)

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!

Nothing good ever came of an enterprise of entirely NY-born humans.

Ned:
To be fair, I've found perfect serenity more than once in the middle of Manhattan, and not in Central Park even.

http://www.demotelco.com/fb/photo/resources/217114166216105612301474000001/ned.jpg?tw=450&th=450

OK let's move to Alabama immediately.

Sellout.

--

People move to NYC because they imagine that it has a constant stream of the new and interesting. This is true, because the people that come to see it, bring it.

Obviously, the chips on the shoulders of NYCers born and bred are nothing compared to those of people who moved there.

Sinatra got it slightly wrong: Once you make yourself there, you can take yourself anywhere. For people that are still cookie dough, it's the hottest oven. Obviously this is mass delusion, but so is the United States of America.

(I had to rewrite this, as the first time I was using 'here' instead of 'there').

Also, milo is OTM here: It's where you dream of moving when you're outside the cultural norm of your area (especially as a teenager). Nightlife, record stores, shopping, interesting people, adventure, etc. Basically a "get the fuck up and out" ideal.

And the reality of both is far less exciting than the fantasy.

(I'm a little sleepy, so this will be vague - I did miss NA's intention on this thread a bit, but I think he's missing the answer to his question that's implicated in NYC'ers answers to what they imagine the question to be. certainly there are people who move here for a fantasy, and find it or not, and there will be disillusionment for those who don't. but in fact, the reality for many people is better than the fantasy, and perhaps there are people who move here who have realistic, instead of fantastic, notions of what the city is like. therefore for many, whether native or non, NYC isn't overrated because they never rated it on to anything but its own terms. the "fantasy" in fact is perhaps largely invented by people *outside* of New York. people who live here may have trouble explaining it to non-NYCers because they don't have the same reference points. like, explain to me why Richmond is great (though I gather that's not necessarily the sentiment) - I'm not necessarily going to understand very well (though I'm willing to believe it). the backlash against NYC may just have to do with the number and volume of its flacks. then again, NA may be right about why people move here and we're ignoring his question, though it may be self-explanatory. or does the question have less to do with NYC than why *other* cities don't have the same allure? how many people really choose between cities to live in? and are they choosing between the cities themselves or the larger regions that they are found in (i.e. Coast v. Center, East v. West, South v. Middle v. North)?)

The phrasing of that raises my hackles, though I see your larger point. Might it be more accurate to say that other places have their own allure than simply investing NYC with something untouchable and unique?

I really hate discussing locale with you, though. No offense or anything but like I said you just seem to come in to these threads to play devil's advocate against whatever is being agreed to about the goodness of an area.

However, I do think NYC has something unique (as a matter of reality, not fantasy) that is particularly alluring to people who wish to live in a large city and that perhaps can't be found or is not imagined to be found anywhere else (except maybe London, Hong Kong, etc.). It might not be alluring to people who don't wish to live in a large city, or to people who wish to live in a large metropolitan area without a dense, residential, monumental core and active sidewalk culture.

DID YOU KNOW that the horse-drawn hansom cabs have rate signs like in taxicabs: " $34.00 for the first 1/2 hour or part thereof, $11.00 for each additional 1/4 hour"? I wonder how these rates stack up against those from Henry James' or Wharton's day.

If suburban mall culture = teen pop, do tourists gravitate towards Times Square because it's the least guitarbandlike place in NYC?

NA this totally depends on what you mean by 'large'. I've felt a similar level of excitement and potential in LA and SF as I did in NY (when visiting; I've never lived in any of these). Both of these cities also have their own strong moving-to mythologies. The only other US cities that can compare to NY in size are Chicago and maybe sorta Boston. If by large you mean Pittsburgh, Seattle or Denver, then yes, NY has a much greater selection of the unique and special. If you're a person who's interested in urbanity, and all the diversity and cultural stuff that comes with it, you don't really want to move to Seattle or Portland, despite the fact that they're officially cities (trust me).

New York has no gondolas

but it does!

http://www.rioc.com/tram.gif

xp: chester - what do you mean by large? surely not geography. the LA metro area has more people than does the NY, I think, and also greater density which is bizarre. maybe they count the bodies of water in NY? however, I'm NYC-born and bred and adore Seattle, though admittedly not for its 'urbanity'.