New York City Rent Is Too High!

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! 

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My Job Interview at The New York Public Library

The New York
Public Library

Back in 1999, I interviewed for a tech support job at the New York Public Library (NYPL.) I showed up looking very smart: new suit from Macy's, a fresh haircut and a laminated resume.

The lady who interviewed me was Caucasian, probably in her late 20s or early 30s, and attractive in a "girl next door" kinda' way.

Interview questions: I was perfectly ready for anything and everything, from the obvious and valid to the unethical and incredibly annoying (Unethical as in questions about your current employers operations.  They want to steal as many good ideas as they can... And MAYBE hire you.)

So, as soon as I sat down, I was met with that look.

You see, I'm a person of color, with very dark skin.

Fear!

Anybody who looks like me knows this look.  It's that "deer in the headlights" look, except it's from human eyes. It's that look that says, "I'm scared of you, and I just can't help it."  It's the kind of look we colored men get just before a fearful woman pulls her purse in closer to her body, because she automatically thinks that we may snatch it and run.

I thought she would catch herself, and the look would stop. But this was just silly, wishful thinking. It didn't stop. It was locked in.

So I got up, thanked her for her time, and left.

For me, this episode was exceptionally disappointing, considering that the NYPL is one of America's greatest fonts of free learning.  

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