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There’s a certain air of magic that is used when describing New York City. It’s the concrete jungle where dreams are made up, and the headquarters of all things fashion forward and cool. I recently found myself city bound, taking the train to Penn Station. I had landed a spot on a podcast, a huge dream of mine, and I couldn’t have been more excited.
I haven’t been to NYC for years and this was the first time I was making the trek alone. I was understandably nervous about getting around. A friend who used to live downtown gave me some pointers and looked over my planned subway route. “Just try to look like you know what you’re doing and you’ll be fine,” she reassured me.
When I arrived at Penn Station, I was sweaty, confused, and in desperate need of a bathroom. Once I took care of business, the real terror of the trip began as I tried to unsuccessfully navigate the subway system. I was looking for a “C” line, but there are also numbered lines that really threw me for a loop. I ended up leaving and re-entering the station, paying for two tickets in the process. Once I was onboard, I suffered through a man giving a lofty speech about how he needed money (not for drugs) and would be accepting patronage from anyone on board. During a line transfer, I watched the fattest rat in the world drag a churro underneath a concrete barrier.
While I was waiting on the platform for my second train, a woman approached me and asked if I spoke Spanish and pointed at a map she had in her hand, presumably looking for help. I used my extremely limited Spanish vocabulary to apologize that I didn’t speak the language but could try to help her. It didn’t work with the language barrier, and she moved down the line looking for someone else who could lend a hand. I watched multiple people ignore her, and the train arrived before I could see if she was ever able to find someone willing/able to help her.
When I finally arrived at my destination, I emerged from underground onto the noisy streets like a mole. The sun seemed so bright, the air too brisk. I had only been traveling for 45 minutes but it felt like I had been in the tunnels for years. I started the 10-block trek to my destination. To say the walk was a sensory overload would be an understatement. I was meeting up for the podcast at someone’s house in Brooklyn, and they lived in an area I learned afterward is considered a dangerous part of the city. Sirens wailed, construction equipment chattered away, and cars and people were flying by in all directions. Two men got into a heated argument as I walked by a bodega and I almost peed my pants when I thought one of them was talking to me.
Later that afternoon, I witnessed an incident that could be used as a textbook example on city people. A woman tripped in front of me on the sidewalk, her entire body falling flat onto the concrete while the iced coffee in her hand spilling everywhere. I asked if she was alright, and offered to help her up. There were dozens of people streaming by, and I was the only one who stopped to say anything. Not a single person wanted to get involved. I had always known that New Yorkers are described as heartless, but I didn’t realize how on par this characterization was.
As I headed home that night, I can’t say I was sad to be leaving. It had been a fun day, but that environment is so draining.
I can understand that you need a thick skin to survive in that fast-paced world, but the amount of not giving a shit is borderline psychotic. I’m convinced someone could die suddenly anywhere in the city and most of the population would simply push them out of the way to make room to walk by. Waves of people are drudging down dirty subway steps, fighting for hard plastic seats. That is how they will live indefinitely: cold, unkind, and compassionless.
I can’t imagine I’m going to be the spark for change in reforming an entire city’s mentality. I don’t live there and probably never will so it doesn’t even affect me in that big of a way. But for the sake of the confused Hispanic woman and the girl who ate it on the sidewalk, I think someone needs to get a conversation going. Anyone who lives in New York should encourage others to display the smallest amount of human decency, and I imagine the entire landscape of the city would change. It’s a dirty place, both physically and metaphorically, and mankind is entirely to blame for that. .
Respond
Kell
future soccer mom of America (AKA I drive a Volvo.) Miracle is my favorite movie and it should be yours too.
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“Just send me to Hell or New York City. It would be about the same to me” – Hank Williams Jr. God damn right.
Texas: No state income taxes, warm weather, nice folks, low cost of living, plenty of personal space, good infrastructure, year-round golf, etc.
NYC: 3.6-3.9% city income taxes with 6-8% state income taxes, freezing winter weather paired with the smell of piss and garbage in the summer, cat-sized rats, a shitty subway system full of nutjobs, absurd regulation
Texas forever
Good infrastructure?
Bahahhahahhahahahahahaha
A highway with a pothole or two is better than a perpetually late subway system with hobos that are attempting to extort you for money and/or jerk off
I’m sure every subway system ever is like that. I’ve ridden pretty much every line the Chicago Transit Authority has and guess what, there are creepers and panhandlers everywhere.
You mean a public transit system that’s designed for people rather than automobiles? You’re comparing that to a highway system that falls apart at a certain level of population density?
Please, tell me more about how the MTA is the worst because the trains are “perpetually late,” whatever that means.
I’ve lived in NYC for 6 years and I’ve never seen someone defend the MTA. It’s trash and it gets worse every year.
MTA > No public transit and 12 lane highways for days
Just because it’s got its problems doesn’t mean that it’s somehow worse than having nothing at all.
MTA is a mess but still seems preferable to having a car or relying on public transit in a city that cannot decide if it actually wants to offer public transit for real (I.e most American cities).
No state income taxes but property taxes are pretty high. Even renting a place, the higher property tax is baked into the rent. No income tax is a selling point for companies because they generally get to avoid property tax through incentives. It doesn’t matter what tax a state does or doesn’t have, The Man is going to get his from the worker.
Yeah but which cities have the highest rent in the country? It’s basically NYC, San Francisco, and D.C. in some order.
Don’t forget about us folk in TN. No state income tax here and lower property taxes.
Hell yeah brother
I can’t even imagine living without a car.
If I lived in a city where public transportation actually worked and was reliable I would 100% be ok with not having a car or driving.
I used to say that until I moved to Chicago, and let me tell you. Not having a car is the best. No car payment, no insurance payment, never have to worry about finding a DD when you go out, it’s a great time.
I dropped the car in Chicago. Praying there would a place to park in front of my apartment everytime I got home was lame.
I drive so infrequently in Denver that when I actually drove to work a couple Thursdays ago, I forgot about it until Sunday when my car was missing from my garage. Lucky it was only $60 for three nights of parking in the downtown garage. I definitely love having a vehicle to get to the mountains though.
CO guy myself and the thought of not having a car is awful. Nobody wants to be that guy asking for rides up to the mountains every other weekend.
Lol. Agreed. I haven’t gone out to the mountains as much this winter, but couldn’t imagine not having a truck (or any vehicle) here.
I’ll come and visit NYC and enjoy the entertainment, Michelin starred restaurants, nightlife, etc. I will have a blast but man, coming back home feels nice. My car is paid off, insurance is only $100 per month and gas is pretty reasonably priced, even the premium fuel I have to use. I just like having my own personal space, the pride of owning something, and just car/driving culture in general.
User name checks out
It can be annoying at times, but honestly it’s not too tough. It can be a little trickier getting out of the city, but I like to frame it that as long as I don’t rent a car more than 3 times a month, it’s still cheaper for me than even paying for a parking space at my apartment. And that’s ignoring maintenance, car insurance, car payment, and what have you.
I have not had a car since 2009 and I hope I never have to own one again.
He’d know plenty about hell. He’s there right now.
Hank is still very much alive
Eh, whatever. Guy is still a POS.
How can you hate on Hank Williams Jr?
Nothing to do with his musical talent. Just a garbage person from my point of view is all.
What did he do to you? Lmao
I find some of the views and opinions he’s expressed rather gross. Tremendous musical talent. Just not a whole lot of respect for him as an individual is all. To each their own, though.
Oh, I genuinely have no idea what any of his views and opinions are.
I just thought maybe he knocked your snow-cone down on a warm summer day or something so you had beef.
Not one for snow cones. More of an ice cream guy.
Throwing support your way, in total agreement with what you’ve been saying, Cheers
This is a good take, to each their own.
You clearly didn’t try the crack. That would have changed your take here.
Name checks out.
I get what you’re saying but…. it’s the city. I’m not gonna go to Idaho and complain about smelling cow shit all day and nothing but farm fields and no Starbucks within 200 miles. It’s just how it is in a city whether it’s right or wrong.
Yeah, a lot of this was just a generic “I’m not used to cities” ramble.
There’s a goddamn Starbucks in practically every town in Idaho now. My hometown didn’t get a stoplight until 2008 and we have one.
Eh sure all cities are like this to some extent, but NYC is a special kind of awful. I’m from Boston and I’ve traveled around the country for work and no city comes even close to being as dirty, gross, and expensive as New York. It constantly smells like hot garbage and pee, and the subway is awful. I remember when I visited Chicago, my first thought was, wow this feels like New York, except clean and with nice people.
I wish I had one of those buckets of trash popcorn that Duda was talking about while I read this comment section.
Basically, every single major city in America is turning into a place that’s massively over priced and over populated yet super convenient. Just wait like 10 years and pretty soon you’re gonna be seeing real estate listings that will say “Soon to be waterfront property! $7.5M with a toilet and a view of this massive trash head!” It’s gonna be so great lol
Pretty much. I drove Postmates in Chicago for 3 weeks, it’s killed me on wanting to do any sort of city driving, let alone really wanting to live in it.
Like the South Loop-lots of stuff within walking distance, but you have to deal with the taxes and paying $400k for a 1 bedroom condo. No thanks. I’ll stick to the suburbs where I can pay way less and have the city close by when I want it(auto show)
It’s like peeling an onion with you, man. All these layers of mystery
You go to lunch and you come back to see this has turned into a giant dick measuring contest. This is an exhilarating Tuesday.
Meanwhile in the mountains, I’m sitting on my porch listening to DMB and sipping Rare Breed listening to the rain pelt my roof.
Hot damn. I could have used a day like that yesterday.
“I visited a place and took issue with aspects of it” – everyone who ever traveled anywhere ever. NYC transit blows. People in LA are fake. Austin is too hot. Chicago is too cold. The food in England sucks. There’s too much crime in Barcelona. Cape Town is still very racist. Tokyo is too fast paced. Do you see what I’m getting at here? (I’m picking these places bc I’ve been to them, didn’t just throw darts at a map)
Nope, love NYC. The older I get the more I love it.
But you also live in DC where the biggest fucking assholes in the country live. NYC might be a dick swinging contest in regards to which investment bank you work for, but nothing is worse than insufferable Hill douches talk politics at a house party.
People in DC love when you talk about that missile, i mean, plane that hit the Pentagon…if I am killed randomly this week. It was the Clinton Foundation lol
Good thing I don’t ever find myself at house parties filled with hill interns.
DC has an inferiority complex with NYC
I don’t know about you, but I love every time the NYT writes an article about spending a weekend in DC as if it’s some small provincial town.
You live in Cincinnati. You don’t get to have an opinion about cities.
My opinion is that your opinion about who should be “allowed” to have an opinion about cities is trash.
In all seriousness, this comments section is out of control – and Cincinnati isn’t a bad place to live my dude
I get the same level of ethnic food that exists in DC, minus a Chinatown. The nightlife is honestly on par with DC and we’re constantly growing. We’re close to major cities like Chicago and Nashville, the citizens aren’t insufferable and we don’t have a murder problem. But hey, keep your monuments, overpriced housing but give us mumbo sauce.
If you have to use your proximity to other cities as a means to justify the benefits of your city, then that says all I need to know.
Because you never want a change of scenery for the weekend without buying a flight?
Cincinnati’s homicide rate is 20.2 per 100,000 residents, compared to 18.5 for DC. So either neither city has a “murder problem,” or Cincinnati has a worse one.
I feel bad for people who think all DC has to offer is a bunch of stuck up pricks who work on the Hill. This city is rich in culture and diversity. Don’t let stereotypes from TV shows and terrible Washingtonian articles define your mental image of DC.
The food in DC sucks.
Bruh. Have you even heard of Freddy’s BBQ?
This made me laugh.
Not sure when the last time you were in DC was, but there is 0 shortage of good food in this town. And it’s not even a case of “well you have to know where to look.” It’s literally everywhere, even the trucks.
This part isn’t directed at you E&D – i know this is going to get downvotes but Hill Country in DC actually makes fire BBQ. i went to school in South Carolina and visit family often in Texas where we always eat barbecue. I HAD good que. Hill Country is objectively good BBQ.
Now bring on the snobs who tell me it’s impossible to have good BBQ anywhere outside the south.
Lest we forget I got ripped the one time I criticized National Airport. I’ll take a hard pass on DC. I saw the Capitol and the Washington Monument from the airport. I’m good.
Dave, you’re welcome in our nation’s capital any time, we’ll take you to Dan’s Cafe, home of squirt bottles full of tequila, and take you dancing at the Codmother.
Sounds like fun. 🙂
Ah yes, I forgot how early twentysomething bros who work on the Hill represent an entire city of 700,000.
can confirm
Yes, but there’s a huge difference between crashing your friend’s couch for a weekend and actually living there and becoming desensitized to the overstimulation and lack of human decency.
lol yet another article from a non-New Yorker talking about how terrible this city is.
I agree NYC sucks if you don’t know what you’re doing/where you’re going, but I’d rather be in NYC than anywhere else.
I grew up in Chicago, lived in Manhattan for a year, and live in DC now. While Chicago will always be my favorite city, New York is far from trash. The airports are horrible and there’s a stank over the city from June-August, sure. But the sheer amount of things to do and see all over the city far outweigh the negatives.