is New York City dead?

Not the subway—the city

The last job I had there, I almost had a breakdown every time I took the subway. I would sometimes using the plodding R so I wouldn't have to deal with the insaneness of the 4,5,6 during rush hour. That train really has the worst people to be stuck with in the tunnel.

I do drive into the city regularly. Many mornings I drive in and drop my wife off at work and then drive home. It helps that we live near the Manhattan Bridge and her office is in chinatown. We also might drive in and park for any number of special events.

I had the same commute. Bushwick to East Harlem. L to union square than the green line. Sometimes I found myself wishing I would just spontaneously die.

Interesting, ian. I don’t have too much experience driving in manhattan but when I’ve done it I didn’t have a good time.

Last time I tried to take the L train during rush hour I almost had a panic attack trying to change from the G at Metropolitan; just a slow moving mass of people slowly slithering thru the tunnel. Really grim.

I used to drive in the city all the time. It's fine. It was parking that was the issue.

I miss DUMPLINGS! and pizza. And things not being closed on Sunday, Monday, half of Wed. or for whatever random holiday/break pops up.

driving from Queens to Manhattan is not terrible, although sometimes you wind up having to park in a garage that costs more than whatever you're actually going to the city for.

Agreed that the real issue with driving into the city is the parking. Ive gotten used to cruising the grid to find street parking; even if it's metered it's way better than paying a garage imo.

I commuted into the city every weekday for work from roughly March 2000-May 2016. Since May 2016, I've been into NYC maybe 20 times - roughly once a month, on average - and I don't miss it at all.

Uptown is really nice and feels weirdly timeless, both the east and west sides.

new york is obv dead bc we are now just talking about the subway

subway complaints otm though it really is awful

I’m planning to move to east williamsburg soon — with friends — but maybe that isn’t my scene.

tbh i've never lived in ny, just visited a ton over the 15 years i lived on the east coast. i love visiting. there is a manic creative energy there, i enjoy being around all different kinds of people, and last time i visited (a month ago) it really struck me how globally, ethnically, socioeconomically diverse it STILL is

claims of a rust belt migration are overblown, though i do meet a fair share of folks who moved back to cleveland like i did after spending time in more expensive cities. there is a cool art scene in cleveland, there is stuff happening. but come on as cool and livable as rust belt cities are (and i do genuinely love them) they are provincial compared to a place like new york

i've been in NYC for eighteen years now and got through 9/11 and sandy evicting me and the 2003 blackout and am now old and fat and running into people I haven't seen in a decade on the way to the dentist
i would likely be a great deal less patient with city life if i had to still be doing daily subway commuting but I've been freelance for about five years and while that comes with its own hassles, i recommend it.
i would say one of the three major reasons i wanted to come here was because i hate cars and car culture and this was one of the few places you could get by without wheels... in the uber economy, this may be less true now?
NYC has ridic good live music and theater and film and art and general performance and lectures every single night of the week and the food is great
you can do all the above for a lot of money or for free/nearly free with a fair amount of due diligence
the rent remains too damn high but i remain amazed that the melting pot is still melting: every ethnicity/gender/class/creed is slammed together and we mostly all get along cheek by jowl without fucking killing each other somehow and that's a small miracle
there are days when i hate everybody and everything here but they're rarer than the days when I'm utterly floored by what the city has to offer.
i <3 ny

also treeship comment about the internet is partially right to some extent those more clearly defined scenes are happening more online than geographically. everywhere has scenes though

Everything here is comically more stressful than any other place.

Try living in London, there's a real shithole for you.

they are provincial compared to a place like new york

you can get people to piss on you anywhere in america

xp That’s what i’m talking about ulysses. I need to rediscover some of that love — that Whitmanian view of new york. That’s what makes stuff like the stress of commuting bearable. It’s hard to feel that sometimes with all the grotesque and out of control wealth. And also I am just bitter now

"Try living in London, there's a real shithole for you."

Don't talk to me about sophistication, Ive lived in Woolwich.

The East River Ferry is sort of a life-changing alternative to subway commuting. You can spend an entire week without going underground ever. But yeah, to get back to the thread topic, RIP New York.

new york city is dead but where in america isn't? america is a failing nation. we should all be trying to immigrate to asia!

I love NYC more when I am not in it. I don't like to shop, my favorite restaurants/bars are closed, the weather was getting to me. Cell phones/internet kind of ruined most aspects of going out (but that is true for a lot of places, just other places can have better manners about it). Tourism is killing a lot of cities. I say that as someone who is frequently a tourist to other places. But at least tourists from NY walk fast and try not to gawk.

I've been spending a month in France and London. It's cold and grey. I would always choose them over NY because of all the ways they are different.

There are still millions of young people living, drinking, making music, etc. in NYC, but apparently the city is dead because it's the wrong TYPE of young people?

Most of what I love about the place has gone away or I've been priced out of participating.

I hate it. And I can't leave.

I've never thought about NYC as being for "young people".

it seems like it's exclusively for young people. most people get out of dodge when they have kids to avoid paying for private school.

ok maybe not most people, but a lot of people. i think when i'm in my 40s i would probably rather live in a house in a less exciting place than a tiny apartment in the city. but idk, i haven't gotten there yet.

Some of those young ppl won't be here much longer because there's nowhere affordable to live while you work nights and go to community college or start having kids before you have a "career." There are even a lot of young people coming back from college who can't afford to go back to the communities that they came from.

Anyway, whatever, I'm over it. My bf just bought a house in the Hudson Valley. I'm not moving up there with him but I am saving money for my own house somewhere there-ish or near-ish. I want a porch.

i enjoy living a few miles away in NJ with the ability to either drive in, take a train, bus or ferry. Im not sure i could deal with living there day to day. i only have to go into the city for work a few times a month so any other time is for entertainment and that's cool with me.

I've never thought about NYC as being for "young people".

― Yerac, Wednesday, February 7, 2018 10:18 AM (forty minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Manhattan is for old people with yorkshire terriers.

I think people are kidding mostly but there are a lot of seniors living in NYC. And not on the UWS either.

It’s a little annoying when people plug their ears about the economic differences between NYC today vs 20 years ago because it’s pretty obvious that it’s become a much harder place for any non-monied person to live and undertake creative pursuits.

i've been here for 14 years and i am definitely worn down to a nub. life here has defeated me. we are dangerously near to being served an eviction notice this month so i might have worse problems than nyc exhaustion soon. i've been stuck here mostly because my wife is very very rooted to the city, with a broad tree of good friends and useful contacts. We'll see how it goes.

If so, it's about time. It's had a good run, and maybe it should be grateful for all the time it's had as being the coolest hippest best biggest etc.

Maybe it should follow the example of straight white men: recognizing that it's had more than its share of glory, and gracefully stepping aside so that other entities might get a share of the spotlight every now and then.

nyc should step to the left, into NJ, or to the right, further onto long island

new york's alright if you like sex and phones

america being a country descended from farmers who went west for 40 acres and a mule, i think it's a wonder the NYC exists at all. there are really no alternatives to NYC infrastructure-wise, easy to see why people come here. nobody, the feds or the state is willing to invest in it anymore so it's going to die a slow death. america!

new york's alright if you like sex and phones

I hear some other cities may be getting those things soon.

Everyone in Williamsburg pivoted to video

grass is greener lads

it depends where your priorities are and what your tastes are

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycR3K1IIf9U

Twenty years, for me--my entire adult life. But I'm so tired, every day, all the time. Taking the subway is an exhausting chore and it doesn't even count as part of my exhausting workday. Even with a vehicle, it takes an hour to travel 8 or 10 miles bc of traffic and lights. The things I like about NY are now limited to my friends and my immediate residential community, and I can transplant/develop those things elsewhere. (PS I hate all music and shows and movies and bars and loud noises.)

NYC is the best if you are older and have no kids. You're not the weirdo, old person with no kids. You can get everything delivered, never have to drive, the doorman can do welfare checks if you have no family.

I hate it. And I can't leave.

No, that's Minneapolis that people hate and can't leave.

I think I just happened to luck out by buying a super shitty Trump Sr. row house in Wburg in 2004 before I knew any better.

xxxp Sure if you have $$$. Otherwise you can be any of the mobility-challenged seniors in my neighborhood who are confined to their homes bc they can't walk or climb stairs anymore, living alone or being checked on by one or two children, refusing to leave their homes but not able to care for them anymore. Two of them died in a house fire a few days after Christmas, right across the street from me. I worry about my next-door neighbor constantly but she's too stubborn to budge. I don't have children to take care of me, or own a home to die in, so I figure I'd better get started making something stick.

Seriously tho, this ...

The things I like about NY are now limited to my friends and my immediate residential community, and I can transplant/develop those things elsewhere.

... is basically true of every major city. They're all fucking exhausting and at a certain point you age out of city life.

I went to Hamburger America today and damn if that isn't the most excellent burger (the Motz Onion Burger).

Will try

on first impression the Brooklyn Paramount is really a great music room, and gorgeous.