NYC'ers - Do you think the city has changed for the worst

[smirkymonkey]

since 9/11? If so, explain what has changed for you.

I don't know if it has anything to do w/ 9/11 or not, but I have reached a point where I think this city is just too difficult to live in unless you are very wealthy or at the top of the food chain.

Maybe I am just getting to old for the feeding frenzy, but I think this town has really gone downhill since I moved here 5 years ago. I am probably going to move because I am just tired of being stressed out all the time.

[musette_sf]

1. I honestly think the worst time in NYC

was the mid to late 70s. I suspect that the current disparity between the Haves, and Have-Nots, is merely symptomatic of a nationwide slide. Since NYC is at the top of the scale for expensive places to live, you would notice the problem there more.

Admittedly, I haven't lived in NYC since 1980. But I'm not sure you are going to find much abatement from what you are seeking to flee, in other parts of the country. Everywhere in the US I have lived is going through this problem right now.

And having visited NYC several times since 9/11/01, I do think it is holding together better than I expected. Things now are nowhere near as bad as they appeared to me in the mid to late 70s.

One of my really good girlfriends, a native New Yorker, left about a year after 9/11/01, she said she couldn't take it any more. She regrets her move now.

[smirkymonkey]

3. I think it's the widening gap between the haves and have nots...

I know too many people like myself, highly educated and experienced, who are having a hard time finding work that pays enough to allow them to live a lifestyle that would seem to be appropriate for their level. It's so highly competitive and cut throat, and to stay ahead in the game you need to be the same way.

I think some of us are realizing that we don't want to live a dog eat dog life and are looking for a kinder, gentler way of life. The city I was considering moving to is Portland, Maine. I can make just about as much as I can here for what I do and the cost of living is MUCH cheaper - I have lived in Boston, San Francisco and NYC, and my standard of living is significantly lower here in NY.

Don't get me wrong, I love NYC, but lately I feel too stressed out to enjoy it.

[saltpoint]

2. Former resident here. I still love the city, but I liked --

-- Times Square better before its Disneyfication and liked the spirit of the place better under Dinkins than under Giuliani.

"Giuliani Time" was not a good time for the Big Apple.

I return for visits with friends as often as I can and I still am in love with the place, faults be damned.

[smirkymonkey]

4. I kind of feel like all the old institutions are closing down one by

one, and the city is turning in to a big chain store mall. There is still a lot of cool stuff here to do, but so many things that I once appreciated about the city seem to have been comprimised in recent years.

I wasn't here in the 70's, but I saw "Midnight Cowboy" - ha, ha!

I wonder if we are headed that way again. :shrug:

[saltpoint]

5. 'Midnight Cowboy' is a great film.

It gave me a notion of New York evern before I'd ever been there. It would give a lot of people a negative impression of the city, but it gave me many reasons to respect it.

Dustin Hoffman is awesome in that film.

You may have it right on the basic institutions. I hope a new Democratic mayor can be elected and that the city can "come back" to itself.

I'll send good vibes.

[smirkymonkey]

6. Thanks! I think I might stay here for a while longer.

It's like a bad drug - burns you out, but you can't quit it.

I am just afraid I will end up living like Ratso Rizzo unless I find a job soon.

Apartment rentals are out of control - I don't know how anybody affords these places unless they are making six figures at least.

[iconoclastNYC]

7. Landlord greed is killing off the city

Manhattan will be an outdoor mall for millionaires on day. The Chelsea/West and Greenwich Village, Soho and Tribecca area is there now.

You almost have to live in PA to have afordable rent. Even the shitty areas of Brooklyn are expensive now.....there are just way too many trust fund babies and foolish rich people who will pay anything to live in a good neighborhood, no matter how crappy the apartment is.

God i can't wait for the housing bubble to burst. When it goes I think the drop will provide much breathing room.

[smirkymonkey]

8. I think the housing situation is what makes it so brutal here.

I have lived in other expensive cities and lived in halfway decent apartments - I could actually afford to have decent one bedroom.

Here, I am looking at sharing a dump with a complete stranger in a not-so-great neighborhood for almost $1,000. I just feel like I am too old to live like a starving college student and unless you are making bank, that is pretty much how you are forced to live.

There is so much greed in this city and landlords know they can get away w/ charging outrageous rents. What is going to happen when the economy bottoms out and all the yuppies lose their fat paychecks? In a sick way, I hope some of these greedy landlords & developers get stuck holding the proverbial bag once everything goes bottom up.