New York, NY
Hello all 3 people that read my blog,
I figured I should make an appearance and issue my first official statement on how it is to live in NYC. My initial impression coming into the city:
1) It is a hugely inefficient. First of all Manhattan is a tiny island and this causes insanity to spread like wildfire. Instead of establishing a well spaced out city on Long Island, the brilliant forefathers of this country decided to sardine pack the island. Of course they also did not try to accomodate for the millions of people commuting through each day. The staircases in the train station fit maximum 1 obese American at a time causing gigantic line-ups. The Lincoln Tunnel is one lane in each direction through each tube with no shoulders or exits, if some poor saps car breaks down, traffic delays grow from the normal 1 hour to 4 hours. The N, R, W, S, B, F,V, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, A, B, C and possibly other subway lines all traverse the island lengthwise , but only the 7 train goes crosstown. Navigating the subway should be considered a MENSA challenge.
2) Everyone is super outgoing and friendly. This can be both a good and bad thing. I think I met 4 people on the first day who introduced themselves randomly to me and keep in touch as friends, everyone is willing to lend you a hand or help you get organized and settled. Conversely, people are so friendly they are willing to direct you whether they know where to go or not. This leads to having to ask multiple people for directions and hope that their collective intelligence will lead you home. People are also so outgoing that they will go out of their way to grab your laptop bag and shove a Jesus for Jews pamphlet into your now violated personal space. Of course I don't have the heart or time to tell them that I am Muslim and not looking to convert from Judaism to Christianity.
3) The Rich and Poor live door to door. A perfectly clean skyscraper-infested-corporate America area is juxtaposed with a pocket of the sketchiest sketch you could possible imagine. This leads to many ways to get robbed. You can either stay in the corporate American area and have your hard-earned cash stolen by a apartment broker in an Armani suit or you could get pillaged by the raving lunatic next door. The end result, everyone walks extremely fast and / or cabs around everywhere at night.
So in sum, the cliches are all true. New York city is a capitalist's dream, a commuters nightmare and its overpowering hegemony engulfs your being. Life speeds up and the thrill of its velocity makes you experience suspended moments of awe. It also makes you realize that no one here asks why are we here or where we are going - instead they simply ask how long will it take to get there. Everyone is climbing their respective corporate ladders. In this spirit, I wonder how long it will take me to get to where I understand fully what it is to be a New Yorker. Perhaps this high-paced city will finally teach me the value of patience.
I figured I should make an appearance and issue my first official statement on how it is to live in NYC. My initial impression coming into the city:
1) It is a hugely inefficient. First of all Manhattan is a tiny island and this causes insanity to spread like wildfire. Instead of establishing a well spaced out city on Long Island, the brilliant forefathers of this country decided to sardine pack the island. Of course they also did not try to accomodate for the millions of people commuting through each day. The staircases in the train station fit maximum 1 obese American at a time causing gigantic line-ups. The Lincoln Tunnel is one lane in each direction through each tube with no shoulders or exits, if some poor saps car breaks down, traffic delays grow from the normal 1 hour to 4 hours. The N, R, W, S, B, F,V, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, A, B, C and possibly other subway lines all traverse the island lengthwise , but only the 7 train goes crosstown. Navigating the subway should be considered a MENSA challenge.
2) Everyone is super outgoing and friendly. This can be both a good and bad thing. I think I met 4 people on the first day who introduced themselves randomly to me and keep in touch as friends, everyone is willing to lend you a hand or help you get organized and settled. Conversely, people are so friendly they are willing to direct you whether they know where to go or not. This leads to having to ask multiple people for directions and hope that their collective intelligence will lead you home. People are also so outgoing that they will go out of their way to grab your laptop bag and shove a Jesus for Jews pamphlet into your now violated personal space. Of course I don't have the heart or time to tell them that I am Muslim and not looking to convert from Judaism to Christianity.
3) The Rich and Poor live door to door. A perfectly clean skyscraper-infested-corporate America area is juxtaposed with a pocket of the sketchiest sketch you could possible imagine. This leads to many ways to get robbed. You can either stay in the corporate American area and have your hard-earned cash stolen by a apartment broker in an Armani suit or you could get pillaged by the raving lunatic next door. The end result, everyone walks extremely fast and / or cabs around everywhere at night.
So in sum, the cliches are all true. New York city is a capitalist's dream, a commuters nightmare and its overpowering hegemony engulfs your being. Life speeds up and the thrill of its velocity makes you experience suspended moments of awe. It also makes you realize that no one here asks why are we here or where we are going - instead they simply ask how long will it take to get there. Everyone is climbing their respective corporate ladders. In this spirit, I wonder how long it will take me to get to where I understand fully what it is to be a New Yorker. Perhaps this high-paced city will finally teach me the value of patience.
posted by Megalomaniac at 3:19 PM
3 comments
