New York, New York
We call it twice to emphasize how great the city is, but it is not for everyone.
“How’s New York? How do you like it so far?” Those questions will always be in everyone’s small talk when they connect with new people here in New York. I have been in both positions, answering and questioning them. From there, I know that there are only two types of people who come to and live in New York: love it or hate it — there’s no one in between (at least in my circle).
New York is undoubtedly the greatest city in the world. It attracts top employers worldwide to open their offices here, hence creating plenty of top jobs to persuade professionals from all industries around the world to experience the greatness of the city. New York also has several prominent universities such as Columbia University, New York University, Cornell Tech, Parsons School of Design, The Juilliard School, and many more. These schools have allured young generations to study in New York, seducing them to find jobs here after school. These new New Yorkers are the ones who shape New York even better, making it a super diverse environment that eventually makes the city alive.
I find New York to be more than exceptional. New York simply has everything, both in positive and negative ways. You can do whatever (like literally whatever) you want in this city. If you like entertainment, you can experience Broadway, Nutcracker, or other unique live performances like the magic flute. If you like to exercise, you can run at Central Park or even ride your bike in the middle of skyscrapers. You can eat Western, Italian, French, Vietnamese, Thai, Japanese, Korean, Malay, Mideast, Indian, and even Indonesian foods. Or maybe other foods from every part of the world that I haven’t even tried.
If you love art, you can visit the Met or MoMA, which has the finest various arts that can freshen your eyes. If you enjoy sports, it has Yankees and Mets in baseball, Knicks and Nets in basketball, Giants in NFL, and Rangers in NHL. New York is the city that never sleeps. It has magical nightlife, from dive bars, jazz bars, and micropubs with so many different themes to give you the best night of your life. It has the famous Brooklyn Bridge, Empire State, and 274 other skyscrapers across Manhattan. In addition, New York State just legalized marijuana for recreational use in April 2021. You can work so hard to earn six figures annual salary while you can get high in public on the same night. Amazing right?
New York has five boroughs from Manhattan, Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island. To explore Manhattan alone, you need to spare some time because it is so huge and has different vibes inside: Lower Manhattan is a hangout place of prominent lawyers and investment bankers; Midtown Manhattan is mainly filled with tourists experiencing the light of Times Square; Upper West Side Manhattan is mixed with young workers and students; Upper East Side Manhattan is a home to old money New Yorkers; and Harlem is a mini-capital of African American in New York.
While Manhattan is so diverse, the Bronx is quite dodgy, where violence and crime are considered usual in the neighborhood. I only came twice to the Bronx to watch the Yankees and meet my insurance agent. Queens has a typical American city landscape and offers better cheaper food, especially for Asians like me. So many Asians live there. Brooklyn is famous for its people, fashion, and pizza — possibly the best in town. There are many places and attractions that I have yet to visit in those areas.
Even if you are not in New York, I can show you how to feel New York. You can open your Spotify, click search, and type New York. There will be plenty of songs about New York. Just listen to the lyrics. You can compare it to any other cities’ songs. Do you feel it? Suppose you love movies instead and want to feel New York, you can watch New York vibes series, such as Friends, Suits, Only Murders in the Building, and Succession. I can’t even remember how many movies take place in New York. Too many. I also wonder why the writer of La Casa de Papel did not name one of his characters ‘New York’. Maybe New York is a different beast that is unparalleled to any other city in the world. I might be subjective, but that’s how I feel, at least for me, an ordinary guy who mostly spent his life in a developing country.
But being the greatest does not mean New York will be a perfect fit for everyone. My two housemates in New York do not enjoy living in New York. When I asked them, “if you can choose anywhere in the world to live, would you like to live in New York for some time?” They answered no. While they are happy with the city’s attractions, they think that the city is not so friendly, especially to Asian people. They also reason that New York is expensive, intense, and dangerous.
New York is the most expensive city in the US and one of the most expensive cities in the world. New York has 8,875% sales tax, one of the highest in the in the US. Not to forget, if you eat in any restaurant in the city (also in the US), you need to give at least 15% tip of your total bill. On average, you would spend around $20-$25 for one person in a regular restaurant. Rental housing is also that expensive in New York. According to Zumper, the median monthly rental price for 1BR in New York is $3260 in January 2022, the highest rent price in the US. Even during the pandemic, New York City has the nation’s fastest rent growth over the past year, as claimed by apartment list research. Though cheaper apartments can be found in Queens and Brooklyn, the price would still be expensive to most people in general.
Being the greatest also means that the pressure to live here is crazy. People here are super competitive. They compete in education, fashion, gadgets, body fitness, wealth, work, school, social status, etc. If you want to work here, you will compete with not only New York-based university graduates, but also with other top school graduates, such as Harvard, Yale, Wharton, MIT, University of Chicago, Berkeley, Stanford, and even European graduates.
Their super-high competitive lifestyles create a hell of pressure. People who cannot afford decent incomes will feel marginalized living here. They could not eat in fancy restaurants or watch the entertainment as regular New Yorkers do. People here are forcing each other to be better and better each day. The competitiveness of New York has spread to every single corner of the world. Even Indonesian companies that do not have a single business here compete in advertising their brands here at Times Square as if reaching Times Square is their ultimate goals (wtf???). Apparently, this constant pressure is a significant cause of the suicide and homicide in New York.
Lastly, New York is home to 78 thousand homeless people, the highest number in the US. It has rising violence and crime rate in the past five years. If you are new in New York, you can hear the sound of at least one siren from police, ambulance, or firefighter every night. You will be highly warned to cross Morningside Park and walk alone in Amsterdam Avenue, Upper West Side Manhattan. You will be persuaded to not go home alone after 10 pm by subway. You will never be suggested to visit the Bronx, except for watching Yankees. And you will hear people are shouting so loud or fighting with someone else in the subway or street. It is common here in New York. It is true. It just shows how intense the city is. I am not trying to exaggerate or sugarcoat it.
Two months ago, a Ph.D. candidate from Columbia University was stabbed when he walked home near Morningside Park around 11 pm. Later, NYPD caught the suspect, but, unsurprisingly, the suspect just made a random attack. Weird. Another extreme case of living in New York happened a couple weeks ago when a 40-old-year Asian American was pushed by a crazy person to a running train in the 42nd Times Square subway station. According to the NYPD investigation, the suspect has three past emotional encounters. Bizarre.
So, you can be a great successful person here and enjoy the most spectacular attractions in New York, but at the same time, you can get mugged or, even worse, killed. I mean, life’s insane here.
But for a guy like me, New York is incredible, and I would take the risk to taste life’s crème de la crème, at least for some time.
It’s up to you, (to live or not to live in) New York, New York.
A perspective from a new New Yorker. Series 1/12.
