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| NYC Skyline |
It’s
been more than two decades since I decided to give up the humble and often
humiliating life of a struggling New Yorker and move out of the city. I was living in a tiny basement apartment in
Jackson Heights, Queens, working in Manhattan, but with an income that made
living on America’s most fabulous island impossible.
From a May 18, 2023 CNN article:
"... The median cost of renting an apartment in Manhattan was $4,241 in April. That’s up 8% from a year ago and up 1.6% from March, when rents hit a record high of $4,175.
A one-bedroom apartment had a median rent of $4,200, up 5% from last year; while a two-bedroom apartment had a median rent of $5,500, up 11% from a year ago. A studio apartment rents for a median price of $3,235, up 13.5% from last year..."
So, on this two-decade anniversary of me moving out of NYC Housing Hell,
here is my top 10 list of reasons why I don’t like NYC:
1) >>
The Rent Is Too Damn High! <<
2)
There is dog poo EVERYWHERE!
Why do New Yorkers think it’s OK to leave feces all over the place, so
that we can all step in it and drag it into our homes? DISGUSTING!
Sometimes I think I’m the only one who hates this.
3) NYC Subway I: It’s way
too crowded during rush hours. If you
can’t find a seat, you’ll stand. And if
you’re lucky, the guy or gal who is packed into a subway car and standing next
to you -- and I mean so packed that they are right in your face -- didn’t
bother to brush their teeth that morning…
4) NYC Subway II: In the dead of winter, the air in underground
platforms is colder than the air outside, and hotter than the outdoors during
the oppressive heat of mid-summer.
Lovely.
5) NYC Subway III: Rats and Roaches. Nice. And the rats are
brazen. One time, I caught one
literally spitting in my direction, and looking me dead in the eyes while doing
so…
6) NYC Subway IV - More disgust: I was moving between subway cars
one morning, trying to find a seat, and found a MASSIVE pile of human feces
in-between the cars. Almost stepped in it. Awesome.
7) Residential and Commercial Roach Problems: Trying to eradicate
cockroaches is pretty much pointless.
They are too hardy. Too resilient. Too evil. I’ve gotten a free meal in
my favorite restaurant on more than one occasion, because they couldn’t get rid
of them.
8) I love the city, but not the people. The typical New Yorker is a negative, rude, nasty, putrid piece
of junk. Too much schadenfreude. Not enough community (with the exception of
the 9/11 terror attacks, when, during a long mountain-bike ride around three
boroughs, I witnessed thousands of ordinary city folk gather at their local
fire house to cheer and salute the heroism of New York City’s intrepid
firefighters.)
9) The cops: Not all bad, of course, but enough are so bad that
they engender much displeasure for all the cops.
10)
When my mom retired from her job, and bought herself a new car
as a retirement preset, she donated her old diesel workhorse to yours
truly. And I was quickly reminded how
bad NYC roads are. On one beautiful
spring morning, I wasn’t able to avoid a huge pothole, and BANG! Had to replace a rim. With labor, it cost me $400 to replace, and
the replacement was used!
Labels: Cost_Of-Living, Cost_Of-Living_Crisis, housing, Housing_Affordability, housing_crisis, housing_market, New_York, New_York_City, NYC, Real Estate, real_estate, rent, USA
