Reasons why New York Sucks

[Churchill W]



he went ALL out by avoiding a few things that could have made it easier on others ... he didn't bother to sneak between two cars (European style) nor did he aim away from the sidewalk. He aimed IN.

He did step to the side of the sidewalk at least.

Once again, we were not born in an overpriced NYC apartment, we all had previous experiences with housing in other parts of the country or world and yet we choose to pay what we pay to live here.

I actually was born here, but not in an overpriced NYC apartment. Have never lived anywhere else, but just can't imagine living anywhere else.

I agree with much of this.
I love being/coming home. Love spending time in my place and it is also my favorite place to be. I also love the neighborhood that I live in.

On vacation, while I do like a nice/safe hotel and don't only use it to sleep, it isn't a "substantial" part of my experience. I am out in the AM and back possibly in the early evening before I head out for the night.

Agree with this. I prefer to stay in a nicer hotel when I'm away too if given the opportunity to spend a little more.

 

[Piobaire]

Trip Adviser ranks Chelsea Pines Inn as the #1 hotel in NYC.

 

[patrickBOOTH]



That you are using Cambodia as a comparator kind of says it all.

Not really, you were claiming that people have it better in third world countries. I am saying you don't know what the **** you're talking about.

 

[StephenHero]

But when people **** in public in Cambodia, it just falls on the dirt sidewalk, so it's basically nature.

 

[archetypal_yuppie]



Not really, you were claiming that people have it better in third world countries. I am saying you don't know what the **** you're talking about.

Dyed in the wool 20-something New Yorker spends a few weeks in Cambodia, thinks he is authority on third world countries.

 

[patrickBOOTH]

You don't know how many times i've been here and where I've been. Regardless, it doesn't make it any less true.

 

[archetypal_yuppie]

I spent spring break in Cabo San Lucas once. Third world countries are ROUGH.

 

[tropics]



You don't know how many times i've been here and where I've been. Regardless, it doesn't make it any less true.

haven't you mentioned before that you don't really like vacations and travelling, prefer to go to work? i may be mixing you up with someone else.

 

[Bounder]

That you are using Cambodia as a comparator kind of says it all.

Not really, you were claiming that people have it better in third world countries.

wut?

Once again, you do not get the point. We are (I am) willing to pay more for what may seem as the same intrinsic product if it provides me with a better experience. I am willing to pay more for a drink when I also get live jazz around it. I am willing to pay more for an ice cream in the theater because of the convenience factor. People are willing to pay for the experience around the product.

But I do get the point. Well, that one, anyway. You are willing to pay more because the drink comes with an experience. But you have to pay more because the jazz club can engage in a species of monopoly pricing. Paying more does not enhance your experience (pace Veblen). In fact, if you feel you got ripped off for drinks, you will enjoy the experience a good deal less.

Housing should not work that way. Yet, for a variety of regulatory and historical reasons, a lot of people in NY end up with housing that would be considered substandard and/or overpriced anywhere else in the country. While NY landlords are not, of course, monopolists, there are a variety of supply restrictions that conspire to create a similar effect. The wonderful experience of living in NY would be even more wonderful if, say, your rent/mortgage was 30% cheaper so that you had even more disposable income to enjoy all the many wonderful things that NY has to offer.

If you cannot comprehend that what we are paying for is not simply the housing but the convenience and experience provided by the location, you're missing the point entirely and you'll continue to err on your condescending, slightly idiotic, rant.    

I have to say I'm a little bemused by the hostility this is generating in some quarters. I would have thought that a thread called "Reasons Why New York Sucks" would be just the place for slightly idiotic rants.  

The people who do feel sorry for the value we get for our housing are typically the people we feel sorry for, for having to live where they live.  The reality is that we make conscious and reasoned choices, and that these choices don't square with what you value and think is important to you - so you don't understand it, and you resort to the silliness of the Iraq/terrorism comparisons.  That's not a good look.

The point . . . well, in that there ever was a serious point in what was originally light persiflage . . . is that New Yorkers get used to what would be intolerable conditions elsewhere and come to accept them as normal. It's not the Stockholm Syndrome. It's the Hedonic Treadmill.

 

[poorsod]

NYC is good for some but worse for others.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/28/m...rk-is-not-affordable.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

While compiling her research, Handbury looked at Nielsen shopping data for 40,000 American households, across more than 500 food categories, with details on everything from organic labeling to salt content. Remarkably, she found that for households earning above $100,000, grocery costs are 20 percent lower in cities with a high per-capita income (like New York) than in cities with a low per-capita income (like New Orleans). There’s evidence that the same forces hold true for other products that cater to upper-income people, from high-end retail to beauty services. The average manicure, for example, is about $3 cheaper in New York City than in each of the rest of the top 10 biggest cities in the United States, according to Centzy, a company that collects data on the prices of services.

Part of the reason high-income residents get good deals, Handbury explains, results from a particular economic system. Highly educated, high-income New Yorkers are surrounded by equally well-educated and well-paid people with similar tastes. More vendors compete for their business, which effectively lowers prices and provides variety. There’s also a high fixed cost to distributing a niche product to an area; if there’s more demand for that product, then the fixed cost can be spread across more customers, which will justify bringing the product to the market in the first place. That’s why companies go through the expensive hassle of distributing, say, St. Dalfour French fruit spreads in rich cities but not in poor ones and why New York can support institutions like the Metropolitan Opera.

 

[NickCarraway]

Yet, for a variety of regulatory and historical reasons, a lot of people in NY end up with housing that would be considered substandard and/or overpriced anywhere else in the country.

The 8 Reasons Why New York Rents are so Ridiculously High

http://www.businessinsider.com/the-8-reasons-why-new-york-rents-are-so-ridiculously-high-2013-7

TL/DR pretty pictures showing the distribution of apartment pricing in Philadelphia vs. New York:

 

[gdl203]

But I do get the point. Well, that one, anyway. You are willing to pay more because the drink comes with an experience. But you have to pay more because the jazz club can engage in a species of monopoly pricing.

The jazz club does not engage in practices that are any more monopolistic than the dive bar. They function the same way. Assuming we're talking about a jazz bar where you do not pay admission, the price you pay for your drink there includes the experience, location, being surrounded by a set of people - all that you may enjoy more than a dive bar. Which is why you're willing to pay more for that same exact drink. Neither engages in any form of monopoly pricing - any consumer can choose to not have that drink in either place and have it somewhere else.

 

[ter1413]

Malcolm Smith guilty of trying to rig NYC mayor’s race

http://nypost.com/2015/02/05/malcolm-smith-guilty-of-trying-to-rig-nyc-mayors-race/

 

[patrickBOOTH]



I spent spring break in Cabo San Lucas once. Third world countries are ROUGH.

You also moved from NYC to Houston, Texas.

haven't you mentioned before that you don't really like vacations and travelling, prefer to go to work? i may be mixing you up with someone else.

I don't like the process of traveling, but once I am there I like it. Also, this isn't a pure "vacation" I have been working for my normal job and doing board duties for a not-for-profit out here.

 

[ter1413]



You also moved from NYC to Houston, Texas.
I don't like the process of traveling, but once I am there I like it. Also, this isn't a pure "vacation" [COLOR=FF00AA] I have been working for my normal job[/COLOR] and doing board duties for a not-for-profit out here.