Anyone live in downtown NYC?

[MagnusTheBrewer]

This is the biggest misunderstanding of NYC. And I don't blame ya since I thought the same thing before I moved here (less than a year).

It's not crime ridden at all. I've never felt unsafe in the city once even at night.

Except for the areas everyone knows to stay away from.

 

[K1052]

Comparing relative hell holes are we? You've absolutely convinced me NYC is where it's at.

In the 500K+ population range NYC is pretty damn safe these days, look at the stats.

The stinking part largely comes from the lack of alleys in NYC since the city is so old. Trash has to go on the street. Chicago would be the same way but a lot of it burned down in 1871 and the city got to do some better planning.

 

[Zeze]

Except for the areas everyone knows to stay away from.

Yeah, forget about the serial sexual assaulters that have been hitting lately. Gavin DeGraw might disagree with you.

It's easy to put the city into lockdown when your cops routinely wear swat gear, have granade launchers and can shoot down airplanes. Ohh, and not to mention they have one of the largest intelligence operations in the world outside of the NSA/CIA.

All of that for an extra 4%+ city tax.

But I did love paying $3,524/mo for a 688sqft place.

Hey I'm not defending the city. I just moved here and and while I enjoy it, don't intend on staying long.

If you dislike NYC, I'm not here you convince you otherwise because I agree with you.

But as far as CRIME alone goes, NYC is pretty god damn safe. That you can't argue it. Giuliani cleaned, gentrified, and sterilized the fuck out of the city. This isn't the 80s/90s NYC. I go night jogging by the esplanade, walk around Chinatown, and wandered around drunk with GF in the bumfuck nowhere outerskirts of Chelsea. Never felt unsafe once.

Harlem's pretty fucking cleaned up, so is Brooklyn. I'd say Bronx is probably the least now.

 

[LegendKiller]

In the 500K+ population range NYC is pretty damn safe these days, look at the stats.

The stinking part largely comes from the lack of alleys in NYC since the city is so old. Trash has to go on the street. Chicago would be the same way but a lot of it burned down in 1871 and the city got to do some better planning.

While the trash has something to do with it, it's not 100% of it.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

In the 500K+ population range NYC is pretty damn safe these days, look at the stats.

The stinking part largely comes from the lack of alleys in NYC since the city is so old. Trash has to go on the street. Chicago would be the same way but a lot of it burned down in 1871 and the city got to do some better planning.

Did I mention the disease also causes New Yorkers to defend their city as the best hell hole around?

 

[K1052]

Except for the areas everyone knows to stay away from.

Most people who say this don't know about all the development that's happened in the last decade. Same thing with here, people still ask me if Cabrini Green is still a deathtrap...I have to explain to them slowly that it basically doesn't exist anymore. Impressions in popular culture a much more lasting than what's actually going on in the city.

 

[jingramm]

Masshole. It's beautiful, but sick of everything after living there for 16 years (13 to 29).

I don't know how anyone can grow up and live in the same town forever. It's one thing to try somewhere else THEN come back to your sweet hometown, but never leaving the place? I'd kill myself.

so near Boston or something like that?

 

[K1052]

While the trash has something to do with it, it's not 100% of it.

Cars, planes, power generation, industry, and being surrounded by water all takes a toll as well. Ironically our large cities have never had cleaner air. They power washed some buildings here recently and they freaking changed color from black to a nice cream brick due to decades of soot build up from coal and diesel before emissions regulations and the switchover to NG for heating.

 

[LegendKiller]

Hey I'm not defending the city. I just moved here and and while I enjoy it, don't intend on staying long.

If you dislike NYC, I'm not here you convince you otherwise because I agree with you.

But as far as CRIME alone goes, NYC is pretty god damn safe. That you can't argue it. Giuliani cleaned, gentrified, and sterilized the fuck out of the city. This isn't the 80s/90s NYC. I go night jogging by the esplanade, walk around Chinatown, and wander around drunk with GF in the bumfuck nowhere outerskirts of Chelsea. Never felt unsafe once.

Give yourself a year, you'll want out by then. It's why I moved to CT and commute in. Rarely do I go beyond midtown.

I agree that most of Manhattan is safe.

 

[Juked07]

Can't imagine commuting from CT. I walk five blocks to work and it's awesome.

And to address the OP, I live in the middle (ish) of the financial district and I haven't heard anything.

 

[Lifted]

Give yourself a year, you'll want out by then. It's why I moved to CT and commute in. Rarely do I go beyond midtown.

I agree that most of Manhattan is safe.

You bash NY because of Metro North, but then state you moved to CT and commute in on Metro North.

NYer's don't take Metro North, bridge and tunnelers do.

And NYer's take care of the city. It's the suburban slobs who come in, throw their crap everywhere, act like drunk idiots at a night out in Vegas, and pass out on the commute back to the sticks.

I'd gladly pay a 25% tax for wall to keep you lot out!

 

[halik]

They don't just think it is preferable, they think they are better because they do it. Like going to a gladiator school where you live a shitty life and get no credit for even being a gladiator is some life-long dream. I lived in the city for a year and have worked in it for almost 5. NY stinks, looks like shit, and the people are assholes. NY'ers take no pride in their city and are willing to fuck it up just to be lazy and seem "cool" about living in a shithole.

That's not even starting on a disgusting grocery stores that mark everything up by 30% or how the great "variety" of restaurants yield a single good one out of every 10 while you pay for shitty service and overpriced "chi-chi" crap.

Or the Metro North with their 40 year old trains that smell like Porta-Potty or NJ Transit where trains break down every day or the subway which smells like rats, shit, and festering garbage.

NY has one major redeeming quality, jobs (that and good sightseeing but shitty living). Fuck everything else about it.

Come to Chicago! I'm paying 1/2 the price for housing, have a car and making more than double the money than what I did at a bulge bracket in new york

Plus even after the jacked the IL state tax, it comes out less than NYC state + city tax. The only downside really is that midwest folk tend to wanna talk to you (a stranger) on the mass transit.

 

[rh71]

Also, I never said I want to stay in NYC forever.

I'd kill myself. I'm enjoying the city now, getting it out of my system. I long for suburban life myself when I have family.... a green lawn of my own, grilling with my kids...

yup, just outside of NYC is where it's at. Can visit and escape whenever you please. But a few of these surrounding counties are the highest taxed in the country. Enjoy.

 

[yuchai]

You guys are so emotional about all this stuff. Just live wherever you like to live - no one is forcing you to do anything.

I live in NYC and like it. I live way out in Brooklyn so my rent is cheap. Yes, my commute is 1 hour each way. But, I'd rather have a 1 hour commute on the train, than have to drive, in traffic for even 30 minutes. Because I can actually do stuff on the train, like read or even do some work.

Like many people said, crime simply isn't an issue anymore in the city. That's an old, old myth. The main draw for me is the diversity of people here - there aren't many places in the world that can match this.

 

[ViviTheMage]

I don't live in NYC, but people in this thread are pretty ignorant.

http://www.policymap.com/city-crime-rates/new-york-city-crime-statistics/index.html

the crime rate is comparable to those other bigger cities around the US...shit, it's even better then most.

 

[Blieb]

I don't live in NYC, but people in this thread are pretty ignorant.

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2194695

the crime rate is comparable to those other bigger cities around the US...shit, it's even better then most.

Couldn't resist ...

 

[patrick409]

Sometimes they practice fireworks on the Hudson and East River. Even in the winter.

I live downtown and can see the Manhattan/Brooklyn Bridges from my window.

There were fireworks last night a bit south of the Seaport.

 

[Gibson486]

NYC is the same as other metropolitan cities. The biggest difference is the amount of tourism. You go to NYC, you will meet people on vacation from 5 different countries on any given day. That is why it's so busy. Take that out, you have big city that is like any other city.

There is one thing I love about NYC. B&H video. Man, that place is mad house. Just a question. I do not mean to be racists or anything, but is there a reason why almost every employee in the store is Jewish?

 

[Oyeve]

Saw it from my terrace on LES. Louder than it usually is.

 

[vshah]

i hate NYC, can't wait to leave

 

[chihlidog]

LOL @ NYC being "crime ridden". Certainly not Manhattan. I feel much safer walking the streets of Manhattan at night than I would my own downtown, and this is ranked as one of the friendliest places in America.

The other boroughs, hey, maybe they are, but how could anyone knock Manhattan?

 

[MichaelD]

FTFY
Oh wait...in NYC, somebody would do that for you.
New Yorkers all suffer from a disease that makes them think living in a cramped, over priced, crime ridden, stinking landscape of concrete and steel is preferable to living anywhere else on the planet. I guess it all works out because no one else would live there.

I'm from NYC and I agree with this statement 100%. I now live in a Texas suburb and the ONLY thing I don't have that NYC is the museums, which I do miss. I drive less than 20 minutes to 3 different large malls, many different food stores, entertainment AND the liquor store. I don't have to take taxis or God forbid, public transportation.

For what my 4br/3ba/2car garage, 2600SF house cost per month, I could rent a shithole in the north Bronx or Long Island City in Queens.

It took me getting out of NYC to realize there's a whole freaking world out there and 90% of it beats the crap out of NYC.

 

[Oyeve]

i hate NYC, can't wait to leave

Same here. 2k a month for a fucking 1 bedroom 850sf apt. Man, if I wasnt in my mid 40s I would buy a house. But houses cost so fucking much and I would have a mortgag til the day I die.

 

[uclaLabrat]

I'm from NYC and I agree with this statement 100%. I now live in a Texas suburb and the ONLY thing I don't have that NYC is the museums, which I do miss. I drive less than 20 minutes to 3 different large malls, many different food stores, entertainment AND the liquor store. I don't have to take taxis or God forbid, public transportation.

For what my 4br/3ba/2car garage, 2600SF house cost per month, I could rent a shithole in the north Bronx or Long Island City in Queens.

It took me getting out of NYC to realize there's a whole freaking world out there and 90% of it beats the crap out of NYC.

I can't express how jealous I am of you right now. I fantasize about sitting in my own back yard with a grill (or a SMOKER!) having a beer with some friends and making some decent food.

grrrrr

 

[Phokus]

Visited NYC to do some errands. I went to some Chinese dumpling place that sold 5 fried dumplings for 1 dollar (10 for $2), unbelievable