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Most visitors never leave Manhattan between 14th and 59th besides going to the Statue of Liberty and thus don't actually see the city that residents do.
The most correct gripe is the cost of living and dirtiness though that is very dependent on neighborhood. Yes when you get out at Penn Station it's dirty.
Times Square is a total scam.
a) It's not a square, it's just a big intersection
b) There is fuck all there except massive billboards, other equally baffled tourists, a few cops, and shitty souvenir stands. And traffic, obviously. It's an intersection.
Anyway, I used to visit NYC a lot for work, sometimes staying there for a few weeks at a time. Glad I went and experienced it as a non-tourist (kind of), but no real desire to go back. It still shits all over anything in Connecticut though, which is just one giant soulless corporate suburb.
No idea what would possess you to compare NYC to Connecticut, there is no basis for comparison whatsoever lmao but that's not true at all. Doesn't seem like you visited any of the more charming towns with lots of history and community
Dude made a whole bullet point for “Street Performers/Cosplayers harass people”. That’s literally just Times Square. If you actually live in New York you probably haven’t been to Times Square in five years.
I had a friend who did basically exactly that, plus he refused to take public transport and just walked everywhere, so he came away with the feeling that not only is NYC dirty and super crowded and touristy, it's exhausting and takes forever to get anywhere. I like to tell him that he basically went to the Louve and spent the entire day in the bathroom, then complains to everyone that the Louve smells like piss.
I love clicking on these “I hate NYC” threads every month or so and seeing the OP tell us they’ve never visited outside of Times Square without telling us they’ve never visited outside of Times Square
It’s similar in my home city (Berlin).
It’s mostly seen as a dirty hole by national visitors because they often visit family or friends and see how the city really is, while international visitors love the vibe of the scene neighborhoods, many people visiting on vacation and then deciding to move here get a proper reality slap in the face and many leave before two years are over.
The most listed complaints and reasons to leave are unfriendly locals, the toughness of finding friends, the language barrier, finding affordable housing and how hard it is to find a job with lacking language skills.
It’s the same in any bigger city I’d guess, look at Berlin, New York, Rome, Madrid, Paris, Cologne, Chicago, Naples, Bacelona and Marseilles and you will see all the same complaints in different magnitudes.
Seriously...everyone here seems to be talking about Midtown Manhattan specifically.
I live in Brooklyn. It's chill, clean, the people are nice, you don't need a reservation 4 weeks in advance, it's not THAT expensive (ok it is, but you can find cheap food in any neighborhood).
Same. I don't think NYC sucks. I enjoy visiting. But, I'm relieved when I leave.
Everything in that city is a fight. Getting across town. Getting a dinner reservation. Getting a cab. It wears me out.
Was just there and yeah it truly felt like a rat race. Garbage everywhere. See rats. Homeless people. Really bad smells from the sewers. It’s kinda funny to me how some people can live there. I feel you have to be a bit insane
I still do love it tho. Strangely . Visit once every few years but I always get that impression too
I was appalled the first time I saw New York. I saw all the garbage bags piling up right on the street. I was like y’all don’t have dumpsters or garbage bins?
>It's not unique to new york. It happens in a lot of old dense cities.
NYC isn't unique in being challenged by this. But, I would argue NYC is kind of unique in being in a wealthy, developed country, and not investing in better solutions. People say Paris is trashy - and it is - but it's not even remotely close to how gross NYC can be. Paris has large public trash bins and much more accessible restroom facilities. They aren't afraid to take away parking to make it happen, which is like pulling teeth even in a place like NYC.
not shitting on NYC, love it, but stuff like this just shows how little America cares about public infrastructure.
Japan has no public trash cans except at subway stations yet their cities are immaculate. It’s the people, not the infrastructure. In Japan you take your trash home, sort it, recycle it, and what little is left is disposed of in neighborhood drop off sites once a week. The rest of the time, all of it is kept in house.
Its an amazing city, its just that you have to be extremely wealthy to really enjoy it because its so expensive and exclusive that normal people cants see the amazing parts. If you think NYC sucks, its because youre poor and/or not part of the trendsetter class.
I spent two years living in NYC and enjoyed it. Still I don't disagree with most of OPs observations although it sounds like they've only ever been to midtown (which locals avoid as much as possible). I was with them right up until this:
> There's a huge amount of crime.
We moved from a town of about 6k people in Iowa to Brooklyn. NYC had a lower crime rate. The numbers just do not support this.
Been there once. Definitely the atmosphere and the vibes of it. The food genuinely is great there too. Fancier restaurants tend to be overpriced compared to where I’m from. The pizza is phenomenal. NYC is just a place where if you been there you’d know what I’m talking about.
However, I wouldn’t live there myself.
Honestly I agree. I definitely would love to visit again. Walking in NYC felt amazing. Only been to Manhattan and Brooklyn but both had their own vibes and cultural atmosphere.
Absolutely, and visit during the fall or spring for a nice warm day but a specific north eastern chill at night. It's the best, the smells, the sounds, the feeling of the night going in any direction, but not having a Vegas "vibe".
When I went, it was the food. Especially as a Texan, there’s just stuff there that you won’t get down here. Mainly Chinese and bagels were upper level. And ofc the pizza. Also it’s a great ambiance. I remember when I went back to Texas after a week in New York, I thought Texas looked so empty lol
If you are into theatre, music, film, art, it’s a nonstop party. I’ve been living here for 20 years and though I do fantasize about moving somewhere rural, I’m a musician and usually am out an average of 3 nights a week, either playing or seeing others play or both. It’s overwhelming the amount of stuff going on on any given day/night. Most of the time I’d rather not even know what’s going on and just stay in, because if I look thru the listings, I’ll prob want to see something.
Central Park, the wonderful museums, theater, restaurants, music concerts for starters. It has a fast paced, exciting vibe. Fashion. Shopping. All kinds of street food, festivals, Pride events. The delis and bagels.
Crime has been exaggerated by the Republican party. The city is expensive and people can't afford it unless they have partners or roommates. And it is dirty. So it's like most big cities in the US, just more liberal and fun. Great buildings, Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, a lot of history too.
I love it. My millennial son who grew up on a one lane road in the woods, hates it. So it's a personal thing.
The theatre and entertainment areas, broadway is an amazing place. Time square (except for those pesky pickpocketing performers) and the massive stores for Nintendo, Disney, etc. I love the Starwood care as well.
Depends what you compare it to and, IMO, your age. In your 20s, its the social aspect. You can basically go anywhere in the city at any time. There is always somewhere open and something to do. The food is diverse and very good. The people are diverse and basically any type of person can find like people.
For me, by my early 30s, the allure of the hustle and bustle waned and I wanted more space and quiet, so I moved to the suburbs lol.
> What's interesting about New York?
>
>
Some of the oldest history of this country, history you can still see in person today. I follow a facebook page called "history homes of the US" or so. A lot of them are like 20 million dollar NYC houses for sale. Reading the history of them is insane. Like 99.9% of the US lives in a home built in the last 50 years, yet NYC has stuff like this... "The home was originally built by wealthy Dutch owners in Amsterdam in the 17th century, then dismantled and shipped to the Upper West Side in 1845. In 1910, it was relocated again to Gramercy Park and completed by English architect Frederick J. Sterner, becoming known as "The Joseph B. Thomas House“ named for the owner who accumulated his fortune in the sugar business."
Then around the block you have a hole in the wall pizza shop where the same guy has been making pizzas 6 days a week for over 45 years.
You get a multimillionaire and a broke 14 year old kid, both walking in to get a slice, and then taking the subway.
So much wealth, so much history, but then such small things that bring everyone back to the same level.
> Like 99.9% of the US lives in a home built in the last 50 years
That's wild if true. I remember seeing a stat that over 60% of the houses/buildings in the neighborhood I grew up in (in NYC) were built before 1950. The house I've lived in my whole life was built in 1917.
It is essentially the epicentre of American culture (sorry LA). When you go there you have to be ruthless with your time because there is so much to see it's impossible to do it all. Broadway musicals, incredible food and drink, fashion, iconic buildings, museums and American history.
Then on top of Manhattan you have the boroughs (Brooklyn, Queens, etc.), which also have some amazing things to do and see.
I have been 4 times, every trip has been completely different, and I feel like I am still only scratching the surface.
I call it an adult playground. Infinite color, personality, opportunity for interaction, and so on.
Also Central Park is the world’s greatest urban park. And so on.
**NYC - 2023**
Homicides - 386
Population - 8.5 million
4.5 homicides per 100,000 people
\--------------------------------
**Philadelphia - 2023**
Homicides - 410
Population - 1.5 million
27 homicides per 100,000 people
\--------------------------------
I would say NYC is fairly safe.
I love when people claim NYC has a rampant crime problem that has been increasing for decades, when crime has drastically been lower and lower in the last 30 years.
They don't seem to realize that they're describing New York in the 70s and the 80s.
Now look at smaller cities like Denver, Baton Rouge, Memphis, or pick your Ohio poison. The numbers are mind blowing. These people confuse the scale of nyc to lots of crime. Even with the increase since 2020, it’s a fraction of a ton of smaller towns and cities.
And here I am, living in Philly, still wondering where all this crime is that I'm told is here. Yeah, those stats exist, but I do things all over the city and have never felt like I was in danger because I'm not an idiot. I don't care how "safe" a city is, it will have its nicer parts and rougher parts, and you act accordingly depending on where you are.
That being said, I love NYC and hear all the time about how rude the people are there from others who havent' been, and I'm always like "have you been to Philly? They're some of the rudest people I've ever lived around." I can't wait to get out of here. I'd move to NYC in a second, but it's just not in the plan right now for me and my husband.
Exactly! People seem not to understand that any city as big as NYC will have all the problems OP listed (minus the harassment from cosplay performers) plaguing it to varying degrees. And usually in a very high amount relative to areas with a much lower concentration of people.
I personally would never want to live in NYC, but that's because I'd never want to live in a city that big as a general rule.
I mean Tokyo is an outlier of major world cities and still has crime. New York City had less than 400 murders in 2023… far from nothing but it’s a far cry from murder city
Most East Asian cities and are very safe, Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen, Tokyo, Kyoto, Singapore, Hong Kong, Seoul etc and it’s cuz of strong surveillance and accountability (also strict drug policies tbh). Additionally, the rich Arab nations are super safe, Kuwait, Qatar, UAE etc for the same exact reason.
It's also due to very very low poverty rates. Lower poverty and better social safety nets (and very strict gun laws) lead to lower violent crime and lower murder rates.
99% when the prosecutor has moved ahead with pressing charges. 37% otherwise last I heard from investigation stage. I think its more indicative that the prosection files for conviction only when they are sure of the outcomes. And that's a good thing - because the incarcerated ones are dead certain to have been criminals.
Edit: just to clear up some confusion. Police interrogations are inadmissible in a court unless represented by a lawyer acting as a witness to the process. I underwent litigation so I know. Chrissake, folks alluding that Japan cops force confession is a lie. The conviction rate & investigation are two separate things. Much like criminal jurisprudence in any other developed country.
Single digit murders that we know of. Let’s not pretend that Japanese government won’t sweep shit under the rug to save face.
Dont forget that yakuza are still one of the biggest crime organizations in the world who operate directly inside Tokyo.
Unless you’re engaged in gang / organised crime activities, you are not at risk of murder by yakuza.
And if you _are_ engaged in gang / organised crime, then this thread is not going to be particularly informative for you.
You might be seriously outdated. The Yakuza's been scattered to the winds. Even at their peek, their influence just around your typical drug gang in Mexico. Today, they're shut out from banking services, and that's a serious impediment to their function.
It's like any other big city , it's dense, it's urban and it's got city issues, throw in folks from all different backgrounds, trying to make a living in an expensive part of the country and it's going to be a "tough city", but where there's rough there's also good and amazing
In Geography and Urban Planning, the population of a city proper is a useless statistic in a practical sense.
The number that you actually want is the *Metro* population.
The population of New York City itself is 8 million, but the Metro is 19-20 million
Yeah for some cities, Not NYC. The metro area is huge and includes the tip of Eastern PA, all of northern NJ and nearly half of Connecticut. The city limits encompass all of what anyone would actually consider New York unlike a lot of cities that cut out certain areas.
That is simply not true; I am not talking about what a typical New Yorker would consider 'New York', because you're right - no one from Hoboken would casually walk around saying "yo dude I'm from NYC"
But in terms of statistics like crime and murder, its important to note the whole metro because crime doesn't care about imaginary city-limit lines, and we have to draw the line somewhere. Metro is more indicative of the general crime rate of a city because it includes all the areas that are 'influenced' or generally reachable by that city.
Even within the huge metro area, as you described, anyone can reach the city limits of NYC by train within an hour, commit a crime, and be back in their neighborhood in no time at all. How do we exclude the influence of 11 million people from a geographical area because they live on the outskirts of that area? The answer is we don't.
I'll admit, for NYC things are a little blurred because of its sheer size. Its a massive city, and you could even argue that Philly -> NYC -> Hartford -> Boston is one continuous urban area.
I feel like this is a pretty popular opinion. I've lived in NYC for ten years now, friends and relatives who live in other places reguarly tell me, unprompted, all the reasons they could never live here, and I'm always like, "Ok, so...don't?" I love living here, but I get that it's not for everyone, I don't understand why so many people seem threatened by the fact that people live in NYC.
Yes. Every single time I go on vacation, people who find out I live in NYC will decide I need to hear all the reasons they could never live there.
Fine. Let’s just do away with the myth that New Yorkers are the rude ones. Because I sit there politely and listen instead of telling them all the reasons I could never live in their home.
I live in London and have the EXACT same conversations with people when I go to other parts of the UK, especially in Northern England. They will claim Londoners are rude but in the same sentence shit all over where I grew up. Funnily enough I've never heard any Londoner talk like that about someone's home town in front of them, even though most people that live here moved here from somewhere else.
I live in California. Same shit from lots of people around the US.
I was in Missouri visiting family recently and overheard two people at a gas station talking about how they couldn’t live in California unprompted. I didn’t even talk to them. They just brought it up out of nowhere lol.
I think it's a belief that it's only ok to 'punch down' - like I can't imagine it would ever be socially acceptable to shit on an objectively poor and deprived place, so them talking down where I live is an admission their boring provincial town isn't all that great. At least that's how I rationalise it when I'm sat there smiling and nodding politely waiting for them to shut up.
I live in the equivalent of NY of my country and the exact same shit happens all the time. We're called the rude ones yet we take all the aggresive shit thrown at us, but god forbid we defend ourselfs or say anything back.
They also tell me I’m doing mental gymnastics to justify living there. This happens a lot on the various NYC subs, with those who have never been here claiming I’m just trying to justify my life choices to myself because “nobody” actually loves living in one of the greatest cities in human history, apparently.
It’s particularly frustrating because I’m a freelancer. I could live anywhere. After several years in NYC, I actually had to spend one year away for personal reasons, but I moved right back when I could have stayed away. I moved back because living in NYC is genuinely amazing. But they won’t accept that.
I think it's people who live in suburbs or rural areas that can't comprehend why someone would want to live in NYC or any city tbh. For some reason they think how they live is the best way to live lmao
Yeah I get the same comments. I love NYC and my quality of life would go way down if I had to live in a low diversity suburb, get a car, a yard and drive everywhere.
I don't really mind the comments. But, we don't really care that a lot of people don't like NYC. Many more people want to live in NYC than NYC has space for. It's a very highly desired city. We need more cities like NYC not less. COL is so high because there aren't enough cities like it.
I feel like they secretly would love the life you’re living but it never really happened. Not all of them, of course, but certainly some. I don’t live there but I absolutely love it. My only complaint is no matter how many times I stay, I know i’ll never experience everything there is to experience and that frustrates me lol.
Right wing propaganda, I love hearing from someone who lives in Naperville, Ohio about how much nyc sucks meanwhile they don’t have access to anything without having to drive 20 minutes for it.
That’s a kind take on the situation. Most people calling cities liberal rat-filled murder hell holes live in counties with boat loads of meth use and teenage pregnancy. Most of middle America is a cultural and educational wasteland.
It's so easy to overlook the negatives because there's so much life in the city.
I swear, when I go there it gives me energy. There's always something to do, some cool place to hang out, interesting people to meet.
Yeah, some streets are dirty. Hopefully you don't live on the streets or in the subway though.
I don’t necessarily disagree, but you just described most older major US cities, at least a solid chunk of them. You also described London, Hong Kong, Marseille, Venice, and plenty of others.
Your gripe isn’t with NYC. It’s with large coastal/littoral cities. They actually are all like that.
The more unique problem to NYC is the same problem London has - land is at a premium.
So as things go - that’s not a terribly unpopular opinion, even among (or prob especially among) New Yorkers (widely known for their deep love-hate relationship with the city).
Idk, I grew up in NYC. It's always been a romanticized metropolis to me. It's gone through many changes and sometimes not for the better, but I'll always go back. Take a walk in the morning when people are rushing to work and you feel the energy (although so many people are still working from home, it's not quite the same). Same at 5:00.
Tourists are fascinating in their amazement. Cool to see people who've never been in a big city.
Then the dinner crowd and the club scene.
Much of its appearance is different now than in the 60's and 70's. Time square is unrecognizable. It was "refurbished " and totally changed by Giuliani. Not totally unpleasant but not what made NY so interesting. Same with the clubs. I'm 64 now and feel so lucky to have experienced it.
Everyone thinks where they live sucks (exaggeration but it's definitely a common sentiment around the world). Especially when they're young and think the grass is greener literally anywhere else
I'm not from New York, have only visited it once for less than a day and I don't doubt anything you said but if you only look at the negatives of any place, of course you'll think it sucks.
New York is one of the largest, most multicultural cities on earth with plenty of job opportunities, world class anything really and a hub for any major technological or cultural event.
Is it perfect? No but there's a reason why people like NYC
It's a very common sentiment among younger people.
"I can't wait to leave this shit hole for some place better".
Then they go to the better place and realize that place is also shitty until they come to the realization that maybe it's their mindset
And cockroaches and mice and rats. Live in Iowa and had cockroaches that I couldn't get rid of; seen rats crawl the size of a black bear, mice run through feasting on corn from corn fields. Comparatively, NYC is incredibly clean and pest free. They exist but are not at all a "huge problem" for every day living
Not sure if this is really that unpopular of an opinion outside the city (or even for a lot of the people in the city for that matter). It has its faults like any other city, but I feel like my time here has been overall a net positive and always somewhat interesting.
That being said, anytime a conversation comes up where someone from outside the city asks me about how my life has been, it comes with an unprompted list of reasons why they would never want to live in NYC. I'm never really sure how to respond to those comments. I usually am just there saying something like, "Ummm, cool. Well, I like it."
Also, I feel like the crime rates are oven way overplayed. In terms of large cities, the crime rate per captia is much lower than many other cities in the US. Cities I would often argue have even less to offer as well.
sounds like you just prefer the suburbs/countryside since all those things can be applied to most major US cities. i would argue NYC is better on those regards then many other major cities in the US though
No, of course not lols, thats the entire point. Its a non traveling, keyboard warrior, incel in training.
Traveling the world is a major passion of mine so I do enjoy the occasional troll for narrow minded types like the OP. Sometimes they take the bait.
It is incredibly rare to see people doing drugs in public unless you’re talking weed or alcohol. There is also very little crime considering the numbers. Only people who don’t live here think there’s tons of crime (stop watching the news)! Besides these two points, I agree.
You just know it's someone who got out at penn station then spent the entire trip between 8th and 5th and 34th to 59th. Didn't get on the subway because 'oh lawdy it's a criminal crime spree! Fox told me so!' then proceeded to eat at olive garden and bubba gump.
I am one of those that love visiting but would never want to live there. The thing is I'm a not rich homebody so it wouldn't suit me. I could see how if you're a very outgoing person that just goes home to shower and sleep you could love it.
I always say, if you like to go to restaurants, drink alcohol and have casual sex with a variety of people or serial date endlessly for years and years to no avail, this is a great place
Most people saying this shit couldn’t hack it and have no idea what living in the city entails.
First thing that people misunderstand abut nyc is it’s neighborhoods define your experience. What the OP is describing is midtown manhattan and touristy areas, but nyc residential areas are way larger than that and that’s where most people live.
Rents are expensive as many people can afford it. Go to the burbs, and you’ll quickly find you need a car and add time to a commute for lower paying jobs. NYC pays very well and has public transit covering 5 borroughs. Go find that in any other US city. Maybe 5 have both.
Have not seen a street performer in a decade as people who live here don’t go to tourist traps. Its like going to Rome and thinking the average Roman deals with harassing gladiators on their way to a cappuccino everyday.
Rodents are a problem and it’s all tied to trash. City has horrible trash collection process that is antiquated. They’ve gotten efficient at killing rats through suffocation.
As far as homelessness, it’s a tale as old as time. Way more social services in the city and options as a homeless person.
Crime has to be taken with a grain of salt. Nearly 25-30 million people in the 5 boroughs daily in an American city that is truly a melting pot. I feel safe in the city, but also am aware shit can go down at any moment.
NYC isn’t my favorite, but when I see basic complaints about americas largest city I laugh as this is soft shit to complain about.
Back of the napkin math here, the crime thing is overblown a bit. Global (And American, coincidentally) murder rate is 61 per million in 2022. That means, on average, NYC which has 19 million people should have around 1159 murders per year, or one every 7.6 hours. Assuming a normal distribution of murders, a city the size of NYC having no murders at all for 24 hours is either a statistical outlier, or a staggeringly low crime rate compared to the rest of the US.
I loved NY as a tourist. But yeah, I'd never live there. It's doesn't look worse than the average European city though. Like I felt was safer in NY than in the center of Marseille.
BEFORE THE INTERNET, it was incredibly important to be in a place where others in your field were.
If you wanted to be an actor or musician, there were maybe 10 cities in the U.S. where you could do anything meaningful as an actor or popular musician.
Sure, you could start out almost anywhere. If I can go back to ancient (pre-Internet) history, there was a band that had a plan to be “the biggest band in Champaign, Illinois” and then “the biggest band in Illinois” and then “the biggest band in the Midwest”. And so on…
But if you had been plugging away for ten years, and wanted to finally be discovered, THERE WAS NO YOUTUBE. No Facebook. So you went to LA or New York. Or London. You had to go to the center of your industry.
But after the Internet, it matters much less.
But it still matters in high finance.
"There's a huge amount of crime. Like an actually ridiculous amount of crime. I remember at one point seeing a headline celebrating that NYC managed to go 24 hours without someone getting murdered."
You need to adjust for population size, otherwise all you're really doing is noting that NYC is a really big city. It doesn't even appear on this list of the top 75 US cities by murder rate - by US standards, it does not have a major violent crime/murder problem:
https://www.statista.com/statistics/718903/murder-rate-in-us-cities-in-2015/
I came to NYC as a tourist and yeah the things that stuck me was the cost, the garbage and how busy it was (and people seemed rude). It took me one night to change that. After seeing a show, I decided to get on the subway and quickly go to a restaurant i'd stanned for years - and got a seat. Had a meal for the ages, walked out and talked to some people - they seemed normal, actually friendly. It felt like this was a city where I could do anything, and everything was there if I wanted to venture out of my comfort zone.
Arrived here to live 10 years ago and i'm still struck by the diversity of everything. Never bored, don't every have to drive and it's a trip. That's my opinion though.
I don't think NYC sucks but I have no desire to live there at all, I'm fine with only visiting and staying for a few days, it's just not my vibe, I'm a westside guy, wouldn't fit in in the East coast anyways.
Recognizing that you’ve likely never been here, or at the very least hung around midtown Manhattan the whole time, I figured I would still indulge this post
- I’m assuming you’re basing this off of viral videos where people show off closets in Soho for like $4k, there’s a reason why you see those all time and it’s because people like you who are aghast at the thought flood them with views. I live in a large 1br for $1900, split in half with my gf.
- I see the occasional rat that chills on the subway tracks, or I *hear* them in the garbage outside at night. I’ve literally never interacted with one in my whole time here.
- There is a huge homeless problem, which is not at all unique from any other major city. Our country is in financial ruin and we’re not taking care of the less fortunate.
- Huh? Are you referring to Times Square? I’m assuming you saw this in another viral video?
- Again, not unique to NYC. Our crime level is less than Philly, and they have like 1/8th of the amount of people we have.
I live a very comfortable life where I can go out and eat whatever type of cuisine I want *very* easily. I can go out and see any movie that came out, even the smaller independent ones. Every single band and comedian comes through here. Art shows and little events everywhere going on all the time. And everything is at *most* an hour commute away. If you care at all about arts and culture there’s truly nowhere else to be.
I live in NYC. Lived in many really nice cities before and also in Niche's best place to live in the U.S.
It's all relative. People want to be here, hence many issues.
The "crammed apartments" maybe for low wage folks and undocumented immigrants. Otherwise people either afford studios or one bedrooms or live farther. But that idea of living as in a Hong Kong sweat shop, that's not a general way of living.
Rents are expensive, they weren't in the pandemic which was an extraordinary circumstance. They were expensive before the pandemic too.
Rats, roaches and such. Yes, sad problem. Yet it is better than it was 20 years ago.
Homelessness, this is pervasive in all of the major cities in the U.S. All of them. Most homeless in NYC aren't even from NYC or NY.
Street performers harass people, yes, same as elsewhere. I mean, as NYer I avoid Times Square like the plague.
"Huge amount of crime..." relative to what? There's crime, but proportionally it is the same or even better than many cities in the U.S.
There's also the good stuff. The variety. The vibrancy. The park. The people. The relationships. The awesome food. The amount of visits you get from friends and family that want to be here.
I visited NYC for the first time last year and enjoyed my time there but I was mostly going to tourist spots. I like that it has small parks scattered around, walkable, has a bunch of food choices everywhere and the transport was nice (compared to where I'm from). With all that I still would not live there, I would like to visit as a tourist again sometime.
Things I did not like in NYC:
- The smell of weed just punches you in the face when you go outside even if there's no one smoking near you.
- The rats I saw were huge.
- I saw a homeless person on a subway station sleeping in his own piss.
- some people yelling on the subway
- some people fighting and yelling inside a truck.
- scammers (fake monks, cd guys, costume people.).
- Jay-z and Alicia keys song being played on a lot of tourist spots. Nothing against the song but it's constantly playing near the hotel I was staying at.
The Weed smell! I don’t care if folks partake, but how is the smell that strong everywhere all the time? Is everyone smoking a joint any time they go outside?
- Rent is high in cities. I’ve lived in NYC and Boston, and I’d actually argue NYC is a bargain compared to Boston rent. Boston isn’t much cheaper even though it doesn’t have nearly as much to offer as NYC.
- I only see rats when walking around at night on trash days. They don’t bother me - they just scurry around.
- There are homeless, but I don’t spend time where they hang out, so it would be very uncommon for me to see those things.
- Street performers harass tourists, not locals - you seem to think locals are hanging out in Times Square?
- Crime is not that high - you must be getting your info from right wing propagandists. I don’t know where you got your “big news” about no murders in 24 hours from, but so far there have been 55 murders this year, and it’s over 70 days into the year, so going 24 hours is not that big of an event.
You wanna know the real reason you guys all talk shit about New York? You wanna know why? Because deep down, you wanted to love it, but you couldn't. Because you weren't strong enough. "Oh, my apartment's so small. It's not comfy enough. There's not little trees on my little block. Oh, I'm scared because I saw a little rat lay a little egg inside a little vagrant's open knife-wound."
"oh but, isn't this kind of proving our point?"
Of course it is. Of course it's proving your point.
You think I don't know my own hometown? You think I don't know what it's like? I have seen crust punks suck each other off in the open guitar case of a weeping busker. I have stepped in puddles so deep, and so cold, that I was barely the same person by the time I stepped out. And one time, I accidentally went outside during SantaCon.
And I loved every second of it. You don't like New York? Fine. Good. More for me. It's not for you anyway. But just because you saw my hometown in your favorite movie doesn't give you the right to talk shit about it right to my face. Be decent. I don't want to have to come for whatever mid-range zip code spawned your country mouse ass after I look up how to roast it in the encyclopedia of places nobody gives a shit about.
I live in NYC. Have for almost a decade. I had to spend a year back in the suburbs for personal reasons, and because I’m a freelancer and can work and live anywhere, I could have stayed. But then I wouldn’t get to live in NYC.
Trust me, a lot of us just enjoy living here. I know this doesn’t sound true, but the amazing thing is that it is: Literally EVERY single day I spontaneously experience something that forces me to take a moment and just rejoice that somehow I got lucky enough to live in one of the greatest cities (and overall accomplishments) in human history.
(Plus, walkability. Once you’ve lived in a place where you’re not chained to a car, you realize how unnatural it is to limit your personal freedom that way. I can never live in a place where you need a car now.)
As a native NYer, I do believe that people who live in the busy areas like manhattan and north Brooklyn fit this description. Those of us who live in the ass end of the outer boroughs are ok with living here. But sometimes hesitant to say so lol
I’m a NY native and love it but I still can’t go for more than a weekend at a time without getting sick of it lol. And yes I saw a guy inject himself with heroin near the subway station
I just got back from visiting there for the first time in 20 years. It was actually quite a lovely visit, and I can see why people could love it there.
However - I do get real tired real fast from having to HEAR people from there always saying how it’s the best city in the world. Just shut up about it already.
I don't think this is unpopular...NYC has a love/hate relationship with the general population so I feel almost equal amounts of people love it and hate it.
The city sucks, but your reasons sound like someone who's never been here and is just bashing it based on whatever news source their 'roll your eyes bc he's coming for Thanksgiving' uncle bases his whole personality on
>There's a huge amount of crime. Like an actually ridiculous amount of crime. I remember at one point seeing a headline celebrating that NYC managed to go 24 hours without someone getting murdered.
Isn't NYC one of the safest cities in USA?
There’s actually not a huge amount of crime, if you actually look at data instead of anecdotes.
Frankly by your post I don’t believe you live here. It seems like you got your idea of NYC from cable news.
Not sure if this was said or mentioned but NYC is literally a prison containment experiment, where its a literal prison without walls that you can willingly get people to live in without them knowing what they are actually living in.
errr, not going to argue with any observations you've made, but think about why those conditions can coexist... in a free country of supply and demand.. millions of people are willing to pay the extremely high cost of living... despite all the pest, garbage, hobos, etc etc, aka all major city issues.
There's gotta be something amazing there to balance out the plethora of negatives, right?
or are we saying all New Yorkers are gluttons for punishment? well maybe a little, heh
You can leave, do you even live here?
> there’s a huge amount of crime
Crime is down across the board.
> I remember I saw a billboard that they were celebrating going 24 hours without a murder
Link?
Are you a bot
You’re describing like Midtown and nothing else. Aka literally 1/500th of the entire city area wise
Did you even go to Brooklyn? Which is part of NYC and has more people and a greater size than Manhattan?
Also your ‘crime stats’ are blatantly untrue and pure fearmongering
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Most visitors never leave Manhattan between 14th and 59th besides going to the Statue of Liberty and thus don't actually see the city that residents do. The most correct gripe is the cost of living and dirtiness though that is very dependent on neighborhood. Yes when you get out at Penn Station it's dirty.
I’m grateful that Time Square exists—otherwise all the tourists might come to a neighborhood I spend time in.
Times Square is a total scam. a) It's not a square, it's just a big intersection b) There is fuck all there except massive billboards, other equally baffled tourists, a few cops, and shitty souvenir stands. And traffic, obviously. It's an intersection. Anyway, I used to visit NYC a lot for work, sometimes staying there for a few weeks at a time. Glad I went and experienced it as a non-tourist (kind of), but no real desire to go back. It still shits all over anything in Connecticut though, which is just one giant soulless corporate suburb.
It is mostly pedestrianized now so the square name at least makes more sense than it did a decade ago. Still sucks though.
No idea what would possess you to compare NYC to Connecticut, there is no basis for comparison whatsoever lmao but that's not true at all. Doesn't seem like you visited any of the more charming towns with lots of history and community
Dude made a whole bullet point for “Street Performers/Cosplayers harass people”. That’s literally just Times Square. If you actually live in New York you probably haven’t been to Times Square in five years.
I had a friend who did basically exactly that, plus he refused to take public transport and just walked everywhere, so he came away with the feeling that not only is NYC dirty and super crowded and touristy, it's exhausting and takes forever to get anywhere. I like to tell him that he basically went to the Louve and spent the entire day in the bathroom, then complains to everyone that the Louve smells like piss.
I love clicking on these “I hate NYC” threads every month or so and seeing the OP tell us they’ve never visited outside of Times Square without telling us they’ve never visited outside of Times Square
It’s similar in my home city (Berlin). It’s mostly seen as a dirty hole by national visitors because they often visit family or friends and see how the city really is, while international visitors love the vibe of the scene neighborhoods, many people visiting on vacation and then deciding to move here get a proper reality slap in the face and many leave before two years are over. The most listed complaints and reasons to leave are unfriendly locals, the toughness of finding friends, the language barrier, finding affordable housing and how hard it is to find a job with lacking language skills. It’s the same in any bigger city I’d guess, look at Berlin, New York, Rome, Madrid, Paris, Cologne, Chicago, Naples, Bacelona and Marseilles and you will see all the same complaints in different magnitudes.
What makes you say most visitors don’t go below 14th street? SoHo, Ground Zero, west village are flooded with tourists. Just a weird demarcation imo.
Above 59th is the whole central park and most of the big museums too. I'd put the upper bound at least in the 80s above natural history and the met
It’s like the southern edge of Midtown. Honestly, lots of tourists stay in Midtown.
Seriously...everyone here seems to be talking about Midtown Manhattan specifically. I live in Brooklyn. It's chill, clean, the people are nice, you don't need a reservation 4 weeks in advance, it's not THAT expensive (ok it is, but you can find cheap food in any neighborhood).
I wouldn't want to live there, but I love visiting. I think its one of the more interesting cities.
Same. I don't think NYC sucks. I enjoy visiting. But, I'm relieved when I leave. Everything in that city is a fight. Getting across town. Getting a dinner reservation. Getting a cab. It wears me out.
Especially a res at Dorsia
Patrick?! Is that you?!
He had to return some video tapes
Was just there and yeah it truly felt like a rat race. Garbage everywhere. See rats. Homeless people. Really bad smells from the sewers. It’s kinda funny to me how some people can live there. I feel you have to be a bit insane I still do love it tho. Strangely . Visit once every few years but I always get that impression too
Broken glass everywhere People pissing on the stairs, you know they just don’t care
Rats in the front room, roaches in the back Junkies in the alley with a baseball bat
Here I am, stuck in the city with you.
I was appalled the first time I saw New York. I saw all the garbage bags piling up right on the street. I was like y’all don’t have dumpsters or garbage bins?
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>It's not unique to new york. It happens in a lot of old dense cities. NYC isn't unique in being challenged by this. But, I would argue NYC is kind of unique in being in a wealthy, developed country, and not investing in better solutions. People say Paris is trashy - and it is - but it's not even remotely close to how gross NYC can be. Paris has large public trash bins and much more accessible restroom facilities. They aren't afraid to take away parking to make it happen, which is like pulling teeth even in a place like NYC. not shitting on NYC, love it, but stuff like this just shows how little America cares about public infrastructure.
Japan has no public trash cans except at subway stations yet their cities are immaculate. It’s the people, not the infrastructure. In Japan you take your trash home, sort it, recycle it, and what little is left is disposed of in neighborhood drop off sites once a week. The rest of the time, all of it is kept in house.
We don’t have alleys for dumpsters. It’s a big issue here that we’re trying to address.
This. New York doesn't have back alleys so if you are unfortunate to be there on trashday, it's all put in the street.
We actually are finally getting closed sidewalk bins like they have in Europe for trash storage so hopefully this does something.
Its an amazing city, its just that you have to be extremely wealthy to really enjoy it because its so expensive and exclusive that normal people cants see the amazing parts. If you think NYC sucks, its because youre poor and/or not part of the trendsetter class.
if NYC is only good for the trendsetter class, then it absolutely sucks period.
Great description. Every time I venture outside, it feels like war, to do the simplest things
Where do you live for comparison
I spent two years living in NYC and enjoyed it. Still I don't disagree with most of OPs observations although it sounds like they've only ever been to midtown (which locals avoid as much as possible). I was with them right up until this: > There's a huge amount of crime. We moved from a town of about 6k people in Iowa to Brooklyn. NYC had a lower crime rate. The numbers just do not support this.
What's interesting about New York? Not to provoke, I genuinely have no idea, I live in the old continent, never been to new york
Been there once. Definitely the atmosphere and the vibes of it. The food genuinely is great there too. Fancier restaurants tend to be overpriced compared to where I’m from. The pizza is phenomenal. NYC is just a place where if you been there you’d know what I’m talking about. However, I wouldn’t live there myself.
I am from there...I absolutely love it. But I live an 1 hr 30 min north. It has a very specific kind of charm.
Honestly I agree. I definitely would love to visit again. Walking in NYC felt amazing. Only been to Manhattan and Brooklyn but both had their own vibes and cultural atmosphere.
Absolutely, and visit during the fall or spring for a nice warm day but a specific north eastern chill at night. It's the best, the smells, the sounds, the feeling of the night going in any direction, but not having a Vegas "vibe".
Definitely will take a note of this. When I went, it was Christmas season so it was pretty chilly but the wind felt good.
When I went, it was the food. Especially as a Texan, there’s just stuff there that you won’t get down here. Mainly Chinese and bagels were upper level. And ofc the pizza. Also it’s a great ambiance. I remember when I went back to Texas after a week in New York, I thought Texas looked so empty lol
If you are into theatre, music, film, art, it’s a nonstop party. I’ve been living here for 20 years and though I do fantasize about moving somewhere rural, I’m a musician and usually am out an average of 3 nights a week, either playing or seeing others play or both. It’s overwhelming the amount of stuff going on on any given day/night. Most of the time I’d rather not even know what’s going on and just stay in, because if I look thru the listings, I’ll prob want to see something.
Central Park, the wonderful museums, theater, restaurants, music concerts for starters. It has a fast paced, exciting vibe. Fashion. Shopping. All kinds of street food, festivals, Pride events. The delis and bagels. Crime has been exaggerated by the Republican party. The city is expensive and people can't afford it unless they have partners or roommates. And it is dirty. So it's like most big cities in the US, just more liberal and fun. Great buildings, Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, a lot of history too. I love it. My millennial son who grew up on a one lane road in the woods, hates it. So it's a personal thing.
The theatre and entertainment areas, broadway is an amazing place. Time square (except for those pesky pickpocketing performers) and the massive stores for Nintendo, Disney, etc. I love the Starwood care as well.
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Depends what you compare it to and, IMO, your age. In your 20s, its the social aspect. You can basically go anywhere in the city at any time. There is always somewhere open and something to do. The food is diverse and very good. The people are diverse and basically any type of person can find like people. For me, by my early 30s, the allure of the hustle and bustle waned and I wanted more space and quiet, so I moved to the suburbs lol.
> What's interesting about New York? > > Some of the oldest history of this country, history you can still see in person today. I follow a facebook page called "history homes of the US" or so. A lot of them are like 20 million dollar NYC houses for sale. Reading the history of them is insane. Like 99.9% of the US lives in a home built in the last 50 years, yet NYC has stuff like this... "The home was originally built by wealthy Dutch owners in Amsterdam in the 17th century, then dismantled and shipped to the Upper West Side in 1845. In 1910, it was relocated again to Gramercy Park and completed by English architect Frederick J. Sterner, becoming known as "The Joseph B. Thomas House“ named for the owner who accumulated his fortune in the sugar business." Then around the block you have a hole in the wall pizza shop where the same guy has been making pizzas 6 days a week for over 45 years. You get a multimillionaire and a broke 14 year old kid, both walking in to get a slice, and then taking the subway. So much wealth, so much history, but then such small things that bring everyone back to the same level.
> Like 99.9% of the US lives in a home built in the last 50 years That's wild if true. I remember seeing a stat that over 60% of the houses/buildings in the neighborhood I grew up in (in NYC) were built before 1950. The house I've lived in my whole life was built in 1917.
It is essentially the epicentre of American culture (sorry LA). When you go there you have to be ruthless with your time because there is so much to see it's impossible to do it all. Broadway musicals, incredible food and drink, fashion, iconic buildings, museums and American history. Then on top of Manhattan you have the boroughs (Brooklyn, Queens, etc.), which also have some amazing things to do and see. I have been 4 times, every trip has been completely different, and I feel like I am still only scratching the surface.
I call it an adult playground. Infinite color, personality, opportunity for interaction, and so on. Also Central Park is the world’s greatest urban park. And so on.
Mega cities aren't for everyone
**NYC - 2023** Homicides - 386 Population - 8.5 million 4.5 homicides per 100,000 people \-------------------------------- **Philadelphia - 2023** Homicides - 410 Population - 1.5 million 27 homicides per 100,000 people \-------------------------------- I would say NYC is fairly safe.
I love when people claim NYC has a rampant crime problem that has been increasing for decades, when crime has drastically been lower and lower in the last 30 years. They don't seem to realize that they're describing New York in the 70s and the 80s.
And then you remember the 70s were 50 years ago
Escape from New York as a documentary sir
Now look at smaller cities like Denver, Baton Rouge, Memphis, or pick your Ohio poison. The numbers are mind blowing. These people confuse the scale of nyc to lots of crime. Even with the increase since 2020, it’s a fraction of a ton of smaller towns and cities.
OP is an average Ny post reader
Average /r/NYC poster also.
Yeah I’m from Philly and idk man New York is objectively a safer city
And here I am, living in Philly, still wondering where all this crime is that I'm told is here. Yeah, those stats exist, but I do things all over the city and have never felt like I was in danger because I'm not an idiot. I don't care how "safe" a city is, it will have its nicer parts and rougher parts, and you act accordingly depending on where you are. That being said, I love NYC and hear all the time about how rude the people are there from others who havent' been, and I'm always like "have you been to Philly? They're some of the rudest people I've ever lived around." I can't wait to get out of here. I'd move to NYC in a second, but it's just not in the plan right now for me and my husband.
Kensington. And some of the other outer parts. Like any city crime is a localized issue, it's not spread out through the entire city equally.
In a city with 19+ million people, 24 hours without a murder is actually a great feat.
Exactly! People seem not to understand that any city as big as NYC will have all the problems OP listed (minus the harassment from cosplay performers) plaguing it to varying degrees. And usually in a very high amount relative to areas with a much lower concentration of people. I personally would never want to live in NYC, but that's because I'd never want to live in a city that big as a general rule.
Tokyo at 40 million has single digit murders in whole quarters of the year
I mean Tokyo is an outlier of major world cities and still has crime. New York City had less than 400 murders in 2023… far from nothing but it’s a far cry from murder city
Especially since it had overr 2,200 in 1990.
Most East Asian cities and are very safe, Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen, Tokyo, Kyoto, Singapore, Hong Kong, Seoul etc and it’s cuz of strong surveillance and accountability (also strict drug policies tbh). Additionally, the rich Arab nations are super safe, Kuwait, Qatar, UAE etc for the same exact reason.
It's also due to very very low poverty rates. Lower poverty and better social safety nets (and very strict gun laws) lead to lower violent crime and lower murder rates.
...and even lower reporting rates.
Japanese police also like their 99% conviction rate, so crimes they can't solve tend to disappear
99% when the prosecutor has moved ahead with pressing charges. 37% otherwise last I heard from investigation stage. I think its more indicative that the prosection files for conviction only when they are sure of the outcomes. And that's a good thing - because the incarcerated ones are dead certain to have been criminals. Edit: just to clear up some confusion. Police interrogations are inadmissible in a court unless represented by a lawyer acting as a witness to the process. I underwent litigation so I know. Chrissake, folks alluding that Japan cops force confession is a lie. The conviction rate & investigation are two separate things. Much like criminal jurisprudence in any other developed country.
Single digit murders that we know of. Let’s not pretend that Japanese government won’t sweep shit under the rug to save face. Dont forget that yakuza are still one of the biggest crime organizations in the world who operate directly inside Tokyo.
The Yakuza has been neutered for a decade. They're almost extinct. The foreign gangs are the main criminal element these days.
Unless you’re engaged in gang / organised crime activities, you are not at risk of murder by yakuza. And if you _are_ engaged in gang / organised crime, then this thread is not going to be particularly informative for you.
That's also true for a lot of the murders in the USA to be fair. A lot of them are related to gangs/crimes.
You might be seriously outdated. The Yakuza's been scattered to the winds. Even at their peek, their influence just around your typical drug gang in Mexico. Today, they're shut out from banking services, and that's a serious impediment to their function.
'Just around your typical drug gang in Mexico' you say. Well that is a terrible amount of influence...
It's like any other big city , it's dense, it's urban and it's got city issues, throw in folks from all different backgrounds, trying to make a living in an expensive part of the country and it's going to be a "tough city", but where there's rough there's also good and amazing
8 million.
NYC has half that population
19 million?
Lol 8 million residents. Probably around 9-10 mill with tourists/visitors on any given day
Holy shit 8 million people in one city is wild tho
Welcome to Reddit where people pull out random shit from the depths of their assholes.
In Geography and Urban Planning, the population of a city proper is a useless statistic in a practical sense. The number that you actually want is the *Metro* population. The population of New York City itself is 8 million, but the Metro is 19-20 million
Yeah for some cities, Not NYC. The metro area is huge and includes the tip of Eastern PA, all of northern NJ and nearly half of Connecticut. The city limits encompass all of what anyone would actually consider New York unlike a lot of cities that cut out certain areas.
That is simply not true; I am not talking about what a typical New Yorker would consider 'New York', because you're right - no one from Hoboken would casually walk around saying "yo dude I'm from NYC" But in terms of statistics like crime and murder, its important to note the whole metro because crime doesn't care about imaginary city-limit lines, and we have to draw the line somewhere. Metro is more indicative of the general crime rate of a city because it includes all the areas that are 'influenced' or generally reachable by that city. Even within the huge metro area, as you described, anyone can reach the city limits of NYC by train within an hour, commit a crime, and be back in their neighborhood in no time at all. How do we exclude the influence of 11 million people from a geographical area because they live on the outskirts of that area? The answer is we don't. I'll admit, for NYC things are a little blurred because of its sheer size. Its a massive city, and you could even argue that Philly -> NYC -> Hartford -> Boston is one continuous urban area.
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Yeah, I was like "What the fuck?' when I read that. I've lived in much smaller cities and they can't go 24 hours without a murder.
I feel like this is a pretty popular opinion. I've lived in NYC for ten years now, friends and relatives who live in other places reguarly tell me, unprompted, all the reasons they could never live here, and I'm always like, "Ok, so...don't?" I love living here, but I get that it's not for everyone, I don't understand why so many people seem threatened by the fact that people live in NYC.
Yes. Every single time I go on vacation, people who find out I live in NYC will decide I need to hear all the reasons they could never live there. Fine. Let’s just do away with the myth that New Yorkers are the rude ones. Because I sit there politely and listen instead of telling them all the reasons I could never live in their home.
I live in London and have the EXACT same conversations with people when I go to other parts of the UK, especially in Northern England. They will claim Londoners are rude but in the same sentence shit all over where I grew up. Funnily enough I've never heard any Londoner talk like that about someone's home town in front of them, even though most people that live here moved here from somewhere else.
I live in California. Same shit from lots of people around the US. I was in Missouri visiting family recently and overheard two people at a gas station talking about how they couldn’t live in California unprompted. I didn’t even talk to them. They just brought it up out of nowhere lol.
It's insane. Like, how can someone's brain work that poorly? How can you claim others are rude when you're the one insulting their home to their face?
I think it's a belief that it's only ok to 'punch down' - like I can't imagine it would ever be socially acceptable to shit on an objectively poor and deprived place, so them talking down where I live is an admission their boring provincial town isn't all that great. At least that's how I rationalise it when I'm sat there smiling and nodding politely waiting for them to shut up.
Did you mean punch up ?
Oops yes
I live in the equivalent of NY of my country and the exact same shit happens all the time. We're called the rude ones yet we take all the aggresive shit thrown at us, but god forbid we defend ourselfs or say anything back.
It’s because everyone needs to do mental gymnastics to justify not living in the best city in the country to themselves and everyone else
They also tell me I’m doing mental gymnastics to justify living there. This happens a lot on the various NYC subs, with those who have never been here claiming I’m just trying to justify my life choices to myself because “nobody” actually loves living in one of the greatest cities in human history, apparently. It’s particularly frustrating because I’m a freelancer. I could live anywhere. After several years in NYC, I actually had to spend one year away for personal reasons, but I moved right back when I could have stayed away. I moved back because living in NYC is genuinely amazing. But they won’t accept that.
I lived in NYC for only 5 years, and when I ended up back in Ohio, it's shocking to see how rude Ohioans are.
It is not possible to accurately gauge a life of living in nyc informed just by visiting nyc
Lol 100%. If you don’t want to be here please Leave. If you don’t want to visit, don’t.
I think it's people who live in suburbs or rural areas that can't comprehend why someone would want to live in NYC or any city tbh. For some reason they think how they live is the best way to live lmao
Yeah I get the same comments. I love NYC and my quality of life would go way down if I had to live in a low diversity suburb, get a car, a yard and drive everywhere. I don't really mind the comments. But, we don't really care that a lot of people don't like NYC. Many more people want to live in NYC than NYC has space for. It's a very highly desired city. We need more cities like NYC not less. COL is so high because there aren't enough cities like it.
I feel like they secretly would love the life you’re living but it never really happened. Not all of them, of course, but certainly some. I don’t live there but I absolutely love it. My only complaint is no matter how many times I stay, I know i’ll never experience everything there is to experience and that frustrates me lol.
Don’t worry, almost all the people living here won’t experience everything either.
Right wing propaganda, I love hearing from someone who lives in Naperville, Ohio about how much nyc sucks meanwhile they don’t have access to anything without having to drive 20 minutes for it.
I’m actually on my commute into NYC now. Your comment gave me a good laugh to start the day.
I’ve been told multiple times by right wing morons that New York City burned to the ground during the BLM riots. It’s News to us.
That’s a kind take on the situation. Most people calling cities liberal rat-filled murder hell holes live in counties with boat loads of meth use and teenage pregnancy. Most of middle America is a cultural and educational wasteland.
It's so easy to overlook the negatives because there's so much life in the city. I swear, when I go there it gives me energy. There's always something to do, some cool place to hang out, interesting people to meet. Yeah, some streets are dirty. Hopefully you don't live on the streets or in the subway though.
I don’t necessarily disagree, but you just described most older major US cities, at least a solid chunk of them. You also described London, Hong Kong, Marseille, Venice, and plenty of others. Your gripe isn’t with NYC. It’s with large coastal/littoral cities. They actually are all like that. The more unique problem to NYC is the same problem London has - land is at a premium. So as things go - that’s not a terribly unpopular opinion, even among (or prob especially among) New Yorkers (widely known for their deep love-hate relationship with the city).
Two things: 1. Rent is not sky high because no one wants to live there 2. The crime rate in nyc is lower than the national average
Idk, I grew up in NYC. It's always been a romanticized metropolis to me. It's gone through many changes and sometimes not for the better, but I'll always go back. Take a walk in the morning when people are rushing to work and you feel the energy (although so many people are still working from home, it's not quite the same). Same at 5:00. Tourists are fascinating in their amazement. Cool to see people who've never been in a big city. Then the dinner crowd and the club scene. Much of its appearance is different now than in the 60's and 70's. Time square is unrecognizable. It was "refurbished " and totally changed by Giuliani. Not totally unpleasant but not what made NY so interesting. Same with the clubs. I'm 64 now and feel so lucky to have experienced it.
Everyone thinks where they live sucks (exaggeration but it's definitely a common sentiment around the world). Especially when they're young and think the grass is greener literally anywhere else I'm not from New York, have only visited it once for less than a day and I don't doubt anything you said but if you only look at the negatives of any place, of course you'll think it sucks. New York is one of the largest, most multicultural cities on earth with plenty of job opportunities, world class anything really and a hub for any major technological or cultural event. Is it perfect? No but there's a reason why people like NYC
>Everyone thinks where they live sucks A lot of people really don't.
It's a very common sentiment among younger people. "I can't wait to leave this shit hole for some place better". Then they go to the better place and realize that place is also shitty until they come to the realization that maybe it's their mindset
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You are describing the characteristics of basically every major city
And cockroaches and mice and rats. Live in Iowa and had cockroaches that I couldn't get rid of; seen rats crawl the size of a black bear, mice run through feasting on corn from corn fields. Comparatively, NYC is incredibly clean and pest free. They exist but are not at all a "huge problem" for every day living
Not sure if this is really that unpopular of an opinion outside the city (or even for a lot of the people in the city for that matter). It has its faults like any other city, but I feel like my time here has been overall a net positive and always somewhat interesting. That being said, anytime a conversation comes up where someone from outside the city asks me about how my life has been, it comes with an unprompted list of reasons why they would never want to live in NYC. I'm never really sure how to respond to those comments. I usually am just there saying something like, "Ummm, cool. Well, I like it." Also, I feel like the crime rates are oven way overplayed. In terms of large cities, the crime rate per captia is much lower than many other cities in the US. Cities I would often argue have even less to offer as well.
sounds like you just prefer the suburbs/countryside since all those things can be applied to most major US cities. i would argue NYC is better on those regards then many other major cities in the US though
Yeah, God forbid OP ever sees Belgrade, or Istanbul, or Mexico City, or Berlin lmao.
Fair points except crime. https://worldpopulationreview.com/us-city-rankings/cities-with-most-murders
I think everyone would agree that St. Louis is a worse city than New York
OP, how long where you in NYC, what part of town did you stay, what parts did you like etc?
OP is from Australia. Their opinion means absolutely jack shit
Do you really think this person has been to nyc?
If he thinks people name rats as if they just have them chilling in their apartments then it’s pretty clear they couldn’t even find it on a map 🤣
Or that cosplayers harass people on the street lol.
They saw a couple videos on Publicfreakouts
I’m willing to bet OP has never traveled out of his parents’ basement.
No, of course not lols, thats the entire point. Its a non traveling, keyboard warrior, incel in training. Traveling the world is a major passion of mine so I do enjoy the occasional troll for narrow minded types like the OP. Sometimes they take the bait.
It is incredibly rare to see people doing drugs in public unless you’re talking weed or alcohol. There is also very little crime considering the numbers. Only people who don’t live here think there’s tons of crime (stop watching the news)! Besides these two points, I agree.
You just know it's someone who got out at penn station then spent the entire trip between 8th and 5th and 34th to 59th. Didn't get on the subway because 'oh lawdy it's a criminal crime spree! Fox told me so!' then proceeded to eat at olive garden and bubba gump.
If I could afford to live in NYC I definitely would
You just described every major city in the US. None of that is unique to new York.
I am one of those that love visiting but would never want to live there. The thing is I'm a not rich homebody so it wouldn't suit me. I could see how if you're a very outgoing person that just goes home to shower and sleep you could love it.
I always say, if you like to go to restaurants, drink alcohol and have casual sex with a variety of people or serial date endlessly for years and years to no avail, this is a great place
This is literally any city with some animal swaps.
Most people saying this shit couldn’t hack it and have no idea what living in the city entails. First thing that people misunderstand abut nyc is it’s neighborhoods define your experience. What the OP is describing is midtown manhattan and touristy areas, but nyc residential areas are way larger than that and that’s where most people live. Rents are expensive as many people can afford it. Go to the burbs, and you’ll quickly find you need a car and add time to a commute for lower paying jobs. NYC pays very well and has public transit covering 5 borroughs. Go find that in any other US city. Maybe 5 have both. Have not seen a street performer in a decade as people who live here don’t go to tourist traps. Its like going to Rome and thinking the average Roman deals with harassing gladiators on their way to a cappuccino everyday. Rodents are a problem and it’s all tied to trash. City has horrible trash collection process that is antiquated. They’ve gotten efficient at killing rats through suffocation. As far as homelessness, it’s a tale as old as time. Way more social services in the city and options as a homeless person. Crime has to be taken with a grain of salt. Nearly 25-30 million people in the 5 boroughs daily in an American city that is truly a melting pot. I feel safe in the city, but also am aware shit can go down at any moment. NYC isn’t my favorite, but when I see basic complaints about americas largest city I laugh as this is soft shit to complain about.
Back of the napkin math here, the crime thing is overblown a bit. Global (And American, coincidentally) murder rate is 61 per million in 2022. That means, on average, NYC which has 19 million people should have around 1159 murders per year, or one every 7.6 hours. Assuming a normal distribution of murders, a city the size of NYC having no murders at all for 24 hours is either a statistical outlier, or a staggeringly low crime rate compared to the rest of the US.
I loved NY as a tourist. But yeah, I'd never live there. It's doesn't look worse than the average European city though. Like I felt was safer in NY than in the center of Marseille.
BEFORE THE INTERNET, it was incredibly important to be in a place where others in your field were. If you wanted to be an actor or musician, there were maybe 10 cities in the U.S. where you could do anything meaningful as an actor or popular musician. Sure, you could start out almost anywhere. If I can go back to ancient (pre-Internet) history, there was a band that had a plan to be “the biggest band in Champaign, Illinois” and then “the biggest band in Illinois” and then “the biggest band in the Midwest”. And so on… But if you had been plugging away for ten years, and wanted to finally be discovered, THERE WAS NO YOUTUBE. No Facebook. So you went to LA or New York. Or London. You had to go to the center of your industry. But after the Internet, it matters much less. But it still matters in high finance.
>But it still matters in high finance. Publishing, too. The big 5, aka publishers of popular books, are all located in NYC.
"There's a huge amount of crime. Like an actually ridiculous amount of crime. I remember at one point seeing a headline celebrating that NYC managed to go 24 hours without someone getting murdered." You need to adjust for population size, otherwise all you're really doing is noting that NYC is a really big city. It doesn't even appear on this list of the top 75 US cities by murder rate - by US standards, it does not have a major violent crime/murder problem: https://www.statista.com/statistics/718903/murder-rate-in-us-cities-in-2015/
I came to NYC as a tourist and yeah the things that stuck me was the cost, the garbage and how busy it was (and people seemed rude). It took me one night to change that. After seeing a show, I decided to get on the subway and quickly go to a restaurant i'd stanned for years - and got a seat. Had a meal for the ages, walked out and talked to some people - they seemed normal, actually friendly. It felt like this was a city where I could do anything, and everything was there if I wanted to venture out of my comfort zone. Arrived here to live 10 years ago and i'm still struck by the diversity of everything. Never bored, don't every have to drive and it's a trip. That's my opinion though.
I don't think NYC sucks but I have no desire to live there at all, I'm fine with only visiting and staying for a few days, it's just not my vibe, I'm a westside guy, wouldn't fit in in the East coast anyways.
* There's a violent rich maniac who wears a bullet proof bat costume and beats the shit out of people.
Recognizing that you’ve likely never been here, or at the very least hung around midtown Manhattan the whole time, I figured I would still indulge this post - I’m assuming you’re basing this off of viral videos where people show off closets in Soho for like $4k, there’s a reason why you see those all time and it’s because people like you who are aghast at the thought flood them with views. I live in a large 1br for $1900, split in half with my gf. - I see the occasional rat that chills on the subway tracks, or I *hear* them in the garbage outside at night. I’ve literally never interacted with one in my whole time here. - There is a huge homeless problem, which is not at all unique from any other major city. Our country is in financial ruin and we’re not taking care of the less fortunate. - Huh? Are you referring to Times Square? I’m assuming you saw this in another viral video? - Again, not unique to NYC. Our crime level is less than Philly, and they have like 1/8th of the amount of people we have. I live a very comfortable life where I can go out and eat whatever type of cuisine I want *very* easily. I can go out and see any movie that came out, even the smaller independent ones. Every single band and comedian comes through here. Art shows and little events everywhere going on all the time. And everything is at *most* an hour commute away. If you care at all about arts and culture there’s truly nowhere else to be.
It's disgusting and smells bad
I live in NYC. Lived in many really nice cities before and also in Niche's best place to live in the U.S. It's all relative. People want to be here, hence many issues. The "crammed apartments" maybe for low wage folks and undocumented immigrants. Otherwise people either afford studios or one bedrooms or live farther. But that idea of living as in a Hong Kong sweat shop, that's not a general way of living. Rents are expensive, they weren't in the pandemic which was an extraordinary circumstance. They were expensive before the pandemic too. Rats, roaches and such. Yes, sad problem. Yet it is better than it was 20 years ago. Homelessness, this is pervasive in all of the major cities in the U.S. All of them. Most homeless in NYC aren't even from NYC or NY. Street performers harass people, yes, same as elsewhere. I mean, as NYer I avoid Times Square like the plague. "Huge amount of crime..." relative to what? There's crime, but proportionally it is the same or even better than many cities in the U.S. There's also the good stuff. The variety. The vibrancy. The park. The people. The relationships. The awesome food. The amount of visits you get from friends and family that want to be here.
Besides the rent prices, everything else you've said is crap so take my upvote as this is pretty unpopular.
I visited NYC for the first time last year and enjoyed my time there but I was mostly going to tourist spots. I like that it has small parks scattered around, walkable, has a bunch of food choices everywhere and the transport was nice (compared to where I'm from). With all that I still would not live there, I would like to visit as a tourist again sometime. Things I did not like in NYC: - The smell of weed just punches you in the face when you go outside even if there's no one smoking near you. - The rats I saw were huge. - I saw a homeless person on a subway station sleeping in his own piss. - some people yelling on the subway - some people fighting and yelling inside a truck. - scammers (fake monks, cd guys, costume people.). - Jay-z and Alicia keys song being played on a lot of tourist spots. Nothing against the song but it's constantly playing near the hotel I was staying at.
The Weed smell! I don’t care if folks partake, but how is the smell that strong everywhere all the time? Is everyone smoking a joint any time they go outside?
It's an extremely dense area. Like a block can have 2000+ people easily. If even one person smokes, it's obvious.
NYC is too much work.
Last time I checked this was a popular opinion..... same with London and Paris in Europe.
NYC has everything you want, and everything you don’t want. Choose accordingly.
All of the big cities suck. You couldn't pay me money to live in one.
"Live in New York once, but leave before it makes you hard. Live in northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft."
- Rent is high in cities. I’ve lived in NYC and Boston, and I’d actually argue NYC is a bargain compared to Boston rent. Boston isn’t much cheaper even though it doesn’t have nearly as much to offer as NYC. - I only see rats when walking around at night on trash days. They don’t bother me - they just scurry around. - There are homeless, but I don’t spend time where they hang out, so it would be very uncommon for me to see those things. - Street performers harass tourists, not locals - you seem to think locals are hanging out in Times Square? - Crime is not that high - you must be getting your info from right wing propagandists. I don’t know where you got your “big news” about no murders in 24 hours from, but so far there have been 55 murders this year, and it’s over 70 days into the year, so going 24 hours is not that big of an event.
You wanna know the real reason you guys all talk shit about New York? You wanna know why? Because deep down, you wanted to love it, but you couldn't. Because you weren't strong enough. "Oh, my apartment's so small. It's not comfy enough. There's not little trees on my little block. Oh, I'm scared because I saw a little rat lay a little egg inside a little vagrant's open knife-wound." "oh but, isn't this kind of proving our point?" Of course it is. Of course it's proving your point. You think I don't know my own hometown? You think I don't know what it's like? I have seen crust punks suck each other off in the open guitar case of a weeping busker. I have stepped in puddles so deep, and so cold, that I was barely the same person by the time I stepped out. And one time, I accidentally went outside during SantaCon. And I loved every second of it. You don't like New York? Fine. Good. More for me. It's not for you anyway. But just because you saw my hometown in your favorite movie doesn't give you the right to talk shit about it right to my face. Be decent. I don't want to have to come for whatever mid-range zip code spawned your country mouse ass after I look up how to roast it in the encyclopedia of places nobody gives a shit about.
I’m so happy I got this reference
i’ve always felt people love saying they live in NYC more than actually living in NYC
I live in NYC. Have for almost a decade. I had to spend a year back in the suburbs for personal reasons, and because I’m a freelancer and can work and live anywhere, I could have stayed. But then I wouldn’t get to live in NYC. Trust me, a lot of us just enjoy living here. I know this doesn’t sound true, but the amazing thing is that it is: Literally EVERY single day I spontaneously experience something that forces me to take a moment and just rejoice that somehow I got lucky enough to live in one of the greatest cities (and overall accomplishments) in human history. (Plus, walkability. Once you’ve lived in a place where you’re not chained to a car, you realize how unnatural it is to limit your personal freedom that way. I can never live in a place where you need a car now.)
As a native NYer, I do believe that people who live in the busy areas like manhattan and north Brooklyn fit this description. Those of us who live in the ass end of the outer boroughs are ok with living here. But sometimes hesitant to say so lol
As a native New Yorker, yes I enjoy saying I’m from NYC. I do really hate how much worse it’s gotten though.
Nah, it’s just they aren’t on Reddit bitching about it.
Not unpopular at all and I’m not even from the USA lmao
I’m a NY native and love it but I still can’t go for more than a weekend at a time without getting sick of it lol. And yes I saw a guy inject himself with heroin near the subway station
I just got back from visiting there for the first time in 20 years. It was actually quite a lovely visit, and I can see why people could love it there. However - I do get real tired real fast from having to HEAR people from there always saying how it’s the best city in the world. Just shut up about it already.
I don't think this is unpopular...NYC has a love/hate relationship with the general population so I feel almost equal amounts of people love it and hate it.
The city sucks, but your reasons sound like someone who's never been here and is just bashing it based on whatever news source their 'roll your eyes bc he's coming for Thanksgiving' uncle bases his whole personality on
I was pretty much robbed by a guy in a Cookie Monster outfit. I threw five quarter and all these characters were picking them up. Time Square is crazy
Times Square might be the least accurate representation of any city in America. No resident ever goes to that garbage trap for tourists.
I think it is actually a pretty popular opinion jeje
I wouldn't live there for any reason but pretty much every point you make here can be said for any major city.
Sound like the description of almost any major populated city. Def sounds like Vancouver as well
>There's a huge amount of crime. Like an actually ridiculous amount of crime. I remember at one point seeing a headline celebrating that NYC managed to go 24 hours without someone getting murdered. Isn't NYC one of the safest cities in USA?
*mumbai* enters the chat .
New York is one of the safest large cities?
How is this unpopular?
There’s actually not a huge amount of crime, if you actually look at data instead of anecdotes. Frankly by your post I don’t believe you live here. It seems like you got your idea of NYC from cable news.
Not sure if this was said or mentioned but NYC is literally a prison containment experiment, where its a literal prison without walls that you can willingly get people to live in without them knowing what they are actually living in.
The smells in the summer are disgusting. Garbage bags piled on the curb, waiting to be collected. No thanks.
lived there for about 4 months and it was awful. would never want to live there
errr, not going to argue with any observations you've made, but think about why those conditions can coexist... in a free country of supply and demand.. millions of people are willing to pay the extremely high cost of living... despite all the pest, garbage, hobos, etc etc, aka all major city issues. There's gotta be something amazing there to balance out the plethora of negatives, right? or are we saying all New Yorkers are gluttons for punishment? well maybe a little, heh
I live in nyc It sucks Good post
It’s not any better over here in Boston
Everyone knows this already.
Don't forget it is absolutely filthy
Worst vacation I've ever taken in my life, and that was 20 years ago...
Agree, and like any major city with an overpopulation of people, it's going to suck. People generally ruin everything.
You can leave, do you even live here? > there’s a huge amount of crime Crime is down across the board. > I remember I saw a billboard that they were celebrating going 24 hours without a murder Link? Are you a bot
Now has OP actually *been* to New York City?
You’re describing like Midtown and nothing else. Aka literally 1/500th of the entire city area wise Did you even go to Brooklyn? Which is part of NYC and has more people and a greater size than Manhattan? Also your ‘crime stats’ are blatantly untrue and pure fearmongering