New York City Guide Revised

Lately I’ve been exploring/considering other living options… not too soon, but maybe around next fall. I’m feeling bolder than ever, mostly over the fact that I’ve managed to “settle” in this metro area. Quite an adjustment from Californian suburban living. If I managed this, why couldn’t I try other cities? Yet other American cities pale in comparison to New York City. I read travel guides about the City as compared to others, and I do want to refute a few points.

• High cost of housing. Guides usually fail to mention the surrounding Burroughs and cheaper alternatives to Manhattan city living. Largely undiscovered neighborhoods are still out there. Explore my Burrough of Brooklyn. Forget the hipster-art scene in Williamburg – you’ll pay the price. How about Clinton Hill or Red Hook? The biggest challenge is really housing-hunting, but luckily I bypassed this step through the friends connection.
• High cost of living. Everything is expensive, people say. But it’s true everywhere – depends on how you budget, and where you go. Even high-fashion SoHo in Manhattan has its back-alley delis and shops. I recall being pleasantly surprised as a new New Yorker (ha!) when I discovered that clothing is tax-free. Want to go for food? Explore student-friendly Village area. My favorite is the abundance of affordable falafels, in the $2 range. And of course a New York specialty: pizza! Drinks? There are plenty of happy hour specials around the city with some offering open bars, free food. Although I’m not necessarily endorsing these organizations, I’ll point you to: myopenbar.com and freenyc.net. I still prefer my Brooklyn neighborhoods but you already knew that. The upside about Manhattan is that you can get everywhere by walking. But if you’re not a walker, subway lines and buses are dispersed neatly and closely all over. I’m a walker – I walk over bridges around once a week to get home from work.
• High crime rates. This statistic supposedly brings down the standard of living rating. While I won’t defend the crime incidences, I can say that for a big city population (and I mean it: nearly 9 million residents), crime rates are relatively low. Compared to you know, say, Chicago. Some places, again, are more crime ridden than others. I would avoid East New York. But with safety precautions (i.e. avoiding strangers late at night in desolate areas), I’ve felt secure in my neighborhood of Bed-Stuy. Also consider many areas of Brooklyn is undergoing fast-paced gentrifying development, which means the landscape will change to the point of unrecognizability from its former “undesirable” state. Will it affect crime rate? Certainly it’s a factor to consider.

The bottom line is that the city encompasses so much with its vast city limits, diversity and endless opportunities that’s it’s hard to pinpoint its exact faults. I did have a hard time here initially, and that is soley based on the facts of New York City: it’s too big and populated, and thus impersonal. And that might, eventually, be the ultimate reason to drive me out of city life in general.