What are the best essays by New Yorkers on New York?
February 22, 2010 7:57 AM Subscribe
What are the all-time best pieces of writing by New Yorkers on New York? And what do you, personally, hate the most about New York today?
I've been asked to write a sort of "hate-letter" to New York City for a journal. I'll likely focus on the looming presence of too much money, the financial industry in general, and how the effects of both trickle down to everyday life.
As part of my preparations, I'd like to read the most significant love-letters to and surveys of the city by New Yorkers of the past. I know about "Here is New York" by E.B. White. What are some others?
And what do you find hateful about the New York of 2010?
I've been asked to write a sort of "hate-letter" to New York City for a journal. I'll likely focus on the looming presence of too much money, the financial industry in general, and how the effects of both trickle down to everyday life.
As part of my preparations, I'd like to read the most significant love-letters to and surveys of the city by New Yorkers of the past. I know about "Here is New York" by E.B. White. What are some others?
And what do you find hateful about the New York of 2010?
the best non-fiction love-letters to New York? The first thing I think of is, well, most of the writing in Joe Mitchell's Up In The Old Hotel.
posted by .kobayashi. at 8:16 AM on February 22, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by .kobayashi. at 8:16 AM on February 22, 2010 [1 favorite]
I hate how every walk in Manhattan is a journey from or to a commercial destination. A friend of mine once called this the $20 penalty for leaving your doorstep.
posted by yellowcandy at 8:22 AM on February 22, 2010 [4 favorites]
posted by yellowcandy at 8:22 AM on February 22, 2010 [4 favorites]
I've extolled Joan Didion on Metafilter before - this essay, Goodbye to All That, is perhaps the most heart-wrenchingly accurate portrayal of life in NYC that I've ever read.
(Coda: She eventually returned to NY, where she still lives today.)
posted by bookgirl18 at 8:23 AM on February 22, 2010
(Coda: She eventually returned to NY, where she still lives today.)
posted by bookgirl18 at 8:23 AM on February 22, 2010
My opinion about what I find hateful about the NY of 2010 coming form born, raised and current NYer is that NYC is becoming more and more homogenized as it becomes more and more diverse. The quirky NY characters are gone. The Felix Ungers and Oscar Madison characterizations have given way to a culture that the citizens are all unique like everyone else. I blame a lot of it on Mayor Bloomberg. We are becoming a tourist town split into the haves and have nots. The middle class has been priced out of the city and it is the working middle class that gives the city its character. More and more the workers are moving farther out from the center of town and even commuting from far reaching suburbs.
I also do not like all the advertising that is everywhere. Walk the norht entrance hall of Grand Central and you literally walk on advertising. Ugh. I also have a hard time with everyone who blames the financial sector/wall street for the country's ills as well as NY's. NYC collapses under the weight of government spending if it loses its wall street tax base. All those bonuses you read about are mostly taxed here in NY State and the city. it pays for all the services the city provides.
posted by JohnnyGunn at 8:24 AM on February 22, 2010
I also do not like all the advertising that is everywhere. Walk the norht entrance hall of Grand Central and you literally walk on advertising. Ugh. I also have a hard time with everyone who blames the financial sector/wall street for the country's ills as well as NY's. NYC collapses under the weight of government spending if it loses its wall street tax base. All those bonuses you read about are mostly taxed here in NY State and the city. it pays for all the services the city provides.
posted by JohnnyGunn at 8:24 AM on February 22, 2010
LCD Soundsystem's I Love You New York, But You're Bringing Me Down sums it up for me.
posted by haqspan at 8:31 AM on February 22, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by haqspan at 8:31 AM on February 22, 2010 [1 favorite]
As an outsider, I hate how many NYers seem to think New York City is THE BEST and anyone who thinks otherwise is deluded or jealous.
Also I hate how in the summer you get dripped on by the condensation from air conditioners. It gives me the willies.
posted by sallybrown at 8:34 AM on February 22, 2010 [1 favorite]
Also I hate how in the summer you get dripped on by the condensation from air conditioners. It gives me the willies.
posted by sallybrown at 8:34 AM on February 22, 2010 [1 favorite]
Jane Jacobs's influential The Death and Life of Great Cities is about cities in general but has a strong focus on NYC. She was living in NYC when she wrote it.
It's very brief and maybe too frivolous for your purposes, but I like the first scene of the Manhattan - Woody Allen's voiceover. (The part in italics here.)
posted by Jaltcoh at 8:41 AM on February 22, 2010
It's very brief and maybe too frivolous for your purposes, but I like the first scene of the Manhattan - Woody Allen's voiceover. (The part in italics here.)
posted by Jaltcoh at 8:41 AM on February 22, 2010
The middle class has been priced out of the city and it is the working middle class that gives the city its character.
This attitude is what I hate most about New York today. My friends and I are all working middle class/creative types. We live in Manhattan. It's awesome.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 8:42 AM on February 22, 2010 [1 favorite]
This attitude is what I hate most about New York today. My friends and I are all working middle class/creative types. We live in Manhattan. It's awesome.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 8:42 AM on February 22, 2010 [1 favorite]
I hate the sorry state of the MTA -- I adore public transit, and it hurts me to see this amazing system be so routinely mismanaged and neglected.
posted by Narrative Priorities at 8:49 AM on February 22, 2010
posted by Narrative Priorities at 8:49 AM on February 22, 2010
What are the all-time best pieces of writing by New Yorkers on New York?
Jimmy Breslin's entire body of work.
And what do you, personally, hate the most about New York today?
The hordes of young people who watched "Sex in the City" and decided to move to New York so they could live JUST LIKE THAT, and the fact that these folks tend to think that New York City means Manhattan (below 96th Street) and Brooklyn (but only the parts north and west of Prospect Park).
posted by deadmessenger at 8:51 AM on February 22, 2010 [2 favorites]
Jimmy Breslin's entire body of work.
And what do you, personally, hate the most about New York today?
The hordes of young people who watched "Sex in the City" and decided to move to New York so they could live JUST LIKE THAT, and the fact that these folks tend to think that New York City means Manhattan (below 96th Street) and Brooklyn (but only the parts north and west of Prospect Park).
posted by deadmessenger at 8:51 AM on February 22, 2010 [2 favorites]
I hate how as New York becomes more commerical and prominent, there are fewer and fewer reasons to go there because the same shops adn eateries can be found in the suburbs.
posted by WeekendJen at 8:53 AM on February 22, 2010
posted by WeekendJen at 8:53 AM on February 22, 2010
LCD Soundsystem's I Love You New York, But You're Bringing Me Down sums it up for me.
We are becoming a tourist town split into the haves and have nots.
See I came in here specifically to say that this attitude is what I hate about NYC - everyone thinks they 'own' what it's supposed to be about and that the thing they want the city to be about cuz they read a cool book or saw a cool movie or they grew up around 'unique' characters is somehow not what the city is any longer. I particularly hate the sentiment of that LCD Soundsystem song, even though I love the song. I've actually been trying to compose a response in my head for a few years. It would be something like a letter written by a girl to a boyfriend who has put her up on a pedestal and treats her like an object that he has pre-conceived romantic notions about rather than treating her like the actual person she is.
I find that so much of this 'new york is dead' stuff comes from people who grew up (I know that JohnnyGunn is born/raised - there are exceptions to every generality) somewhere else and hated it and saw NYC as the mecca where they would find the answer to all their dreams. Well, guess what, MOST of NYC is a place where people have to live and work and raise families. It's not some playground for every frustrated sububurban kid all over the country. It is organic - it moves and changes and grows and recedes - because it is inhabited by real people. It is not, despite what everyone wants to believe about it, an object of desire. Things change - it can't be the late 60s/early 70s/early 80s forever. And I think that most people who dream of that NYC, if they actually LIVED here during that time, would have hated the dirt, the crime, the desperation, the con men, the gloom, the slime, the unreliable transit, the crappy grocery stores, etc etc etc. Cuz I saw all of that, and I'll talk the NYC of now, thanks.
posted by spicynuts at 8:57 AM on February 22, 2010 [12 favorites]
We are becoming a tourist town split into the haves and have nots.
See I came in here specifically to say that this attitude is what I hate about NYC - everyone thinks they 'own' what it's supposed to be about and that the thing they want the city to be about cuz they read a cool book or saw a cool movie or they grew up around 'unique' characters is somehow not what the city is any longer. I particularly hate the sentiment of that LCD Soundsystem song, even though I love the song. I've actually been trying to compose a response in my head for a few years. It would be something like a letter written by a girl to a boyfriend who has put her up on a pedestal and treats her like an object that he has pre-conceived romantic notions about rather than treating her like the actual person she is.
I find that so much of this 'new york is dead' stuff comes from people who grew up (I know that JohnnyGunn is born/raised - there are exceptions to every generality) somewhere else and hated it and saw NYC as the mecca where they would find the answer to all their dreams. Well, guess what, MOST of NYC is a place where people have to live and work and raise families. It's not some playground for every frustrated sububurban kid all over the country. It is organic - it moves and changes and grows and recedes - because it is inhabited by real people. It is not, despite what everyone wants to believe about it, an object of desire. Things change - it can't be the late 60s/early 70s/early 80s forever. And I think that most people who dream of that NYC, if they actually LIVED here during that time, would have hated the dirt, the crime, the desperation, the con men, the gloom, the slime, the unreliable transit, the crappy grocery stores, etc etc etc. Cuz I saw all of that, and I'll talk the NYC of now, thanks.
posted by spicynuts at 8:57 AM on February 22, 2010 [12 favorites]
It's funny; I was discussing precisely this with a friend on the subway this morning, and his reasons for hating New York have already all been touched on: Bloomberg, who can buy himself elections (and how he seems to be socialist when it benefits the rich and capitalist when being socialist would hurt them); the Sex-and-the-City-fication of Manhattan; ever present advertising. His opinion was that the city was much better when he arrived here six years ago, and that it's been a downward slide toward being the playground of the rich and the super rich ever since.
Maybe all of that is there. I certainly do feel constraint on what I am and am not able to do because my salary, which would be perfectly decent (though not great) anywhere else is just so small here. But when I walk around the city, those aren't the things that jump out at me. I'm more taken in by the diversity of the people. I do see real New York characters (all the time!).
If I were writing a hate-letter about the city, though, I would definitely include dog shit on the sidewalks. That shit drives me crazy.
posted by ocherdraco at 9:03 AM on February 22, 2010 [1 favorite]
Maybe all of that is there. I certainly do feel constraint on what I am and am not able to do because my salary, which would be perfectly decent (though not great) anywhere else is just so small here. But when I walk around the city, those aren't the things that jump out at me. I'm more taken in by the diversity of the people. I do see real New York characters (all the time!).
If I were writing a hate-letter about the city, though, I would definitely include dog shit on the sidewalks. That shit drives me crazy.
posted by ocherdraco at 9:03 AM on February 22, 2010 [1 favorite]
I hate it when New Yorkers (or anyone from anywhere) think that living or having lived there is some kind of accomplishment or somehow reflects on them positively.
posted by cmoj at 9:11 AM on February 22, 2010 [4 favorites]
posted by cmoj at 9:11 AM on February 22, 2010 [4 favorites]
I used to live in New York and I loved it. But I had to leave. I'm a serious introvert by nature and the constant interaction with people tapped all of my social reserves and by the time I got home to California I was exhausted, depressed, and generally used up. I slept for three months.
You can never be alone in New York. Unless you have a great job you can't afford to live by yourself, so you wake up in a small apartment with someone else in it. Then you get on a bus or the subway with hundreds of people. You walk down the street, dodging other people (tourists, short people with umbrellas at eye level), you work for eight hours with other people, maybe you go out to a bar after work (Why is it always a bar? I never drank so much in my life as I did when I lived in New York) to socialise with people, you take the subway full of people home, and when you get back to your small apartment it's got someone in it. That's too much social interaction for me.
Someday, if I'm rich enough, I'll move back to New York and live alone and take a car service everywhere.
Actually, that's not true. I'm going to buy an island and live there all by myself.
posted by elsietheeel at 9:19 AM on February 22, 2010 [4 favorites]
You can never be alone in New York. Unless you have a great job you can't afford to live by yourself, so you wake up in a small apartment with someone else in it. Then you get on a bus or the subway with hundreds of people. You walk down the street, dodging other people (tourists, short people with umbrellas at eye level), you work for eight hours with other people, maybe you go out to a bar after work (Why is it always a bar? I never drank so much in my life as I did when I lived in New York) to socialise with people, you take the subway full of people home, and when you get back to your small apartment it's got someone in it. That's too much social interaction for me.
Someday, if I'm rich enough, I'll move back to New York and live alone and take a car service everywhere.
Actually, that's not true. I'm going to buy an island and live there all by myself.
posted by elsietheeel at 9:19 AM on February 22, 2010 [4 favorites]
roomthreeseventeen: This attitude is what I hate most about New York today. My friends and I are all working middle class/creative types. We live in Manhattan. It's awesome.
This attitude is generally meant to encompass older people with families, not young professionals. Just wait...
posted by mkultra at 9:24 AM on February 22, 2010 [1 favorite]
This attitude is generally meant to encompass older people with families, not young professionals. Just wait...
posted by mkultra at 9:24 AM on February 22, 2010 [1 favorite]
This is going to be a little vague, but maybe it will help. There was an essay, I want to say it was published in the New Yorker in the 30s that was a love letter to summers in New York. It was all about how when the temperature gets up in the 90s and the humidity is approaching 100%, all the rich people flee to vacation homes, the tourists go home, and everybody else relaxes and unbuttons a little. You go outside, you meet the neighbors you've never met, you get a cold drink and watch kids play in a fire hydrant. I think there's a lot of truth to that and June through August, New York is my favorite place to be.
As far as what I hate about it? Well I left for Los Angeles, so now I have more space, I don't miss walking to the subway during Nor'easters, it's easier to save money, etc. and so forth (you can pretty much see the last paragraph of that Didion essay). For me though, the Wall Street presence was probably a net positive since I work in theatre and somebody has to buy season tickets to The Public... outside of that they didn't go to my bars, and I didn't go to theirs so I just had sort of a live and let live attitude about them.
posted by Thin Lizzy at 9:33 AM on February 22, 2010
As far as what I hate about it? Well I left for Los Angeles, so now I have more space, I don't miss walking to the subway during Nor'easters, it's easier to save money, etc. and so forth (you can pretty much see the last paragraph of that Didion essay). For me though, the Wall Street presence was probably a net positive since I work in theatre and somebody has to buy season tickets to The Public... outside of that they didn't go to my bars, and I didn't go to theirs so I just had sort of a live and let live attitude about them.
posted by Thin Lizzy at 9:33 AM on February 22, 2010
You can never be alone in New York.
See, I find that I am always alone, here in NYC, one of the most crowded cities ANYWHERE. It is impossible to move without bumping into someone, the subways and streets are packed. But it can feel like the loneliest fucking place in the world. Everyone is trapped in the same bubble, just trying to get through each day, with all the other crowds and traffic and stress and cost of living and general insanity. It takes a particularly harsh toll.
Of course, there are always tons of things to do and people to meet, and I don't know how I'd get through without my friends. And there are, of course, wonderful special NY things (all the museums, movies at Bryant Park in the summer, fireworks over the Brooklyn Bridge, the amazing diverse cast of characters) that offset the bad parts. And perhaps a lot of this aloneness is a part of the human condition in general. But I think there's a particular brand of New York "alone in a sea of people" sadness that can wear down even the most determined bright young thing.
(Maybe I should just move back home down below the Mason-Dixon line, where the tea is sweet and there's no chance of snow in April. But that's another post.) :)
posted by bookgirl18 at 10:00 AM on February 22, 2010
See, I find that I am always alone, here in NYC, one of the most crowded cities ANYWHERE. It is impossible to move without bumping into someone, the subways and streets are packed. But it can feel like the loneliest fucking place in the world. Everyone is trapped in the same bubble, just trying to get through each day, with all the other crowds and traffic and stress and cost of living and general insanity. It takes a particularly harsh toll.
Of course, there are always tons of things to do and people to meet, and I don't know how I'd get through without my friends. And there are, of course, wonderful special NY things (all the museums, movies at Bryant Park in the summer, fireworks over the Brooklyn Bridge, the amazing diverse cast of characters) that offset the bad parts. And perhaps a lot of this aloneness is a part of the human condition in general. But I think there's a particular brand of New York "alone in a sea of people" sadness that can wear down even the most determined bright young thing.
(Maybe I should just move back home down below the Mason-Dixon line, where the tea is sweet and there's no chance of snow in April. But that's another post.) :)
posted by bookgirl18 at 10:00 AM on February 22, 2010
It's not about the modern city (and therefore likely of little use to you) but Luc Sante's Low Life is an amazing bit of research and writing about the history of crime (organized and otherwise) here in New York.
posted by JaredSeth at 10:02 AM on February 22, 2010
posted by JaredSeth at 10:02 AM on February 22, 2010
If you can get your hands on The Complete New Yorker, you will have oodles to choose from. As a former New Yorker, I hate how when I go back, everyone seems simultaneously wired and tired, like they haven't had a good night's sleep in years and are jacked on coffee. I see a lot of people there working insane hours to be able to afford their tiny apartments, and as a result, they never have enough time to do the things you'd want to do if you were going to move to New York: museums, shows, cultural stuff.
And they get so spoiled! Like, "eh, The Rolling Stones are playing a free gig--where? No, I'm not going to Brooklyn tonight, thankyouverymuch." Which sort of relates to this interesting article on why New Yorkers in particular are so unhappy.
Have fun and good luck with the piece!
posted by blazingunicorn at 10:03 AM on February 22, 2010 [1 favorite]
And they get so spoiled! Like, "eh, The Rolling Stones are playing a free gig--where? No, I'm not going to Brooklyn tonight, thankyouverymuch." Which sort of relates to this interesting article on why New Yorkers in particular are so unhappy.
Have fun and good luck with the piece!
posted by blazingunicorn at 10:03 AM on February 22, 2010 [1 favorite]
Joe Mitchell wrote great stuff about New York.
posted by OmieWise at 10:09 AM on February 22, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by OmieWise at 10:09 AM on February 22, 2010 [1 favorite]
What do I most hate here? State and local taxes.
posted by grobstein at 10:10 AM on February 22, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by grobstein at 10:10 AM on February 22, 2010 [1 favorite]
I grew up here, and what I dislike is people mentally playing back the 70s and 80s through the psychological equivalent of VHS videotape recording (and in many cases it's not even their own memories they are playing back) - all the good, bright stuff is prominent - however what's lost with the missing details is the dirt, petty crime, and a very low level of discontent and despair in the background of many people's lives. It was almost like the city itself was harrassing you. I don't miss express subway trains crawling along at 10mph because the MTA was too broke to perform capital maintenance, I don't miss the walkman snatchers who would get a running start, and in a single bound rip off a Sony - out of the hands of some unfortunate shmuck changing tapes near the top of a staircase - then disappear after making a perfect landing just past the bottom step. Yes, a lot of the interesting old stuff has been lost - but a lot of quality of life issues have improved in return. You say you'd take some extra crime and grime for that extra color? Sure, that'll work if you're just passing through here for a few years - but that crap gets old fast if you want to stay for good.
As for what to read - perhaps some of Pete Hammill's stuff? Or Murray Kempton's.
posted by Calloused_Foot at 10:13 AM on February 22, 2010 [4 favorites]
As for what to read - perhaps some of Pete Hammill's stuff? Or Murray Kempton's.
posted by Calloused_Foot at 10:13 AM on February 22, 2010 [4 favorites]
The last week of the past year, The Awl had a series of essay mostly about peoples experiences in New York. I found most of them to be very charming.
The thing I hate most about New York is the lack of responsibility/tact people seem to have for each other or themselves. Whether its the 40 year old man who acts like he's 19, still determined to be an actor while working at the juice bar at the gym and living off mommy and daddy, or the 17 year old teenager pushing her baby stroller directly into your ankles on the subway.
posted by Unred at 10:33 AM on February 22, 2010
The thing I hate most about New York is the lack of responsibility/tact people seem to have for each other or themselves. Whether its the 40 year old man who acts like he's 19, still determined to be an actor while working at the juice bar at the gym and living off mommy and daddy, or the 17 year old teenager pushing her baby stroller directly into your ankles on the subway.
posted by Unred at 10:33 AM on February 22, 2010
One of my favorite pieces on NYC is Adam Gopnik's Charlie Ravioli piece. Really sums up it up.
posted by moedym at 10:44 AM on February 22, 2010
posted by moedym at 10:44 AM on February 22, 2010
I love Cynthia Heimel's writings about New York. You can read some of them on Google Books.
posted by SisterHavana at 10:52 AM on February 22, 2010
posted by SisterHavana at 10:52 AM on February 22, 2010
Fran Lebowitz's stuff from the 70s - particularly the essay about neighborhood names, and the tendency towards micro-neighborhoods, but all of it really. Collected in "Social Studies" and "Metropolitan Life."
What I hate? People who stand in doorways, in subway entrances, etc - who assume that, because they have successfully entered (for instance) the subway, that the work of entering the subway is complete. People who block entrances, people who walk three abreast on sidewalks, people, in a word, who are inattentive to the existence of other people, are the very model of solipsism - they are New York's answer to driving in two lanes of traffic at once in an SUV going ten under the speed limit, and they provoke in me New York's answer to road rage. When I see people walking slowly three abreast on the sidewalk I want to walk towards them with my arms held out sideways as big as I can.
But I haven't yet.
posted by Pickman's Next Top Model at 11:22 AM on February 22, 2010 [4 favorites]
What I hate? People who stand in doorways, in subway entrances, etc - who assume that, because they have successfully entered (for instance) the subway, that the work of entering the subway is complete. People who block entrances, people who walk three abreast on sidewalks, people, in a word, who are inattentive to the existence of other people, are the very model of solipsism - they are New York's answer to driving in two lanes of traffic at once in an SUV going ten under the speed limit, and they provoke in me New York's answer to road rage. When I see people walking slowly three abreast on the sidewalk I want to walk towards them with my arms held out sideways as big as I can.
But I haven't yet.
posted by Pickman's Next Top Model at 11:22 AM on February 22, 2010 [4 favorites]
The first couple pieces of Luc Sante's "Kill All your Darlings" are windows into a New York from the recent past.
There's an episode of Dylan's radio show about New York that's floating around online.
Jay Z and Alicia Keys wrote a pretty good love letter last year.
Hate aggro mommies who think having kids in strollers confers special status as they barrel down the sidewalks.
posted by minkll at 12:54 PM on February 22, 2010 [2 favorites]
There's an episode of Dylan's radio show about New York that's floating around online.
Jay Z and Alicia Keys wrote a pretty good love letter last year.
Hate aggro mommies who think having kids in strollers confers special status as they barrel down the sidewalks.
posted by minkll at 12:54 PM on February 22, 2010 [2 favorites]
Colson Whitehead's The Colossus of New York is wonderful. He has also written shorter pieces on New York for the New York Times.
posted by dizziest at 1:15 PM on February 22, 2010
posted by dizziest at 1:15 PM on February 22, 2010
What I hate most about NYC are those damned subway platform crowds that swarm the train doors like it's Paris circa 1775 and I've got baguettes stapled all over me
LET ME OUT YOU ZOMBIEFIED VULTURES
posted by chalbe at 3:05 PM on February 22, 2010 [2 favorites]
LET ME OUT YOU ZOMBIEFIED VULTURES
posted by chalbe at 3:05 PM on February 22, 2010 [2 favorites]
I was born in Manhattan, moved to Philadelphia when I was eighteen, then to Los Angeles (a truly loathsome town) several years later, and quickly returned to New York with a profound appreciation for this place. I love it here, but there's always plenty to complain about.
Hate:
Wall Street is essentially ground zero of the current global economic crisis. Many of the world's most evil entities and individuals are headquartered here. This, too, defines the character of New York.
I'm sickened by all the nostalgia; the yearning for an old world which probably never existed and none of us ever knew, as others here have noted.
Good luck with the article.
posted by xndr at 4:32 PM on February 22, 2010 [1 favorite]
Hate:
- Williamsburg, Brooklyn; all of its special snowflakes
- Proliferation of Los Angeles-born ideals and products; celebrity worship; reality TV (see: most shows on Bravo, starting with "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy"); rewarding deplorable people for bad behavior
- Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who personally invited real estate developers to take a giant glass-and-steel-condo crap on the city, leading to...
- Ubiquitous overdevelopment, which slowed at the start of the current recession, leaving many open construction sites and partially-finished buildings ripe for squatters
- "Sex and the City" and the behavior it encourages
- The pseudo-insider tone found in Time Out New York and New York Magazine; scenesters; trend chasers
- Advertising and marketing industry prominence; overpopulation of marketing professionals
- Suburban New Jersey and Long Island residents who visit in large packs most Friday and Saturday nights to "go clubbing," creating a general nuisance; cocaine use
Wall Street is essentially ground zero of the current global economic crisis. Many of the world's most evil entities and individuals are headquartered here. This, too, defines the character of New York.
I'm sickened by all the nostalgia; the yearning for an old world which probably never existed and none of us ever knew, as others here have noted.
Good luck with the article.
posted by xndr at 4:32 PM on February 22, 2010 [1 favorite]
A year or two ago, New York Magazine collected some of its past articles into a book called New York Stories: Landmark Writing from Four Decades of New York Magazine. It contains pieces about New York culture, journalism, growth, and change. Might be worth a look.
posted by hat at 5:16 PM on February 22, 2010
posted by hat at 5:16 PM on February 22, 2010
Native Angelena (which I don't hate but where I don't belong). I've lived here since 11-2000.
What I hate about NY:
The attitude.
The whiny, nasal voices.
Laws made but not enforced.
New England is where I feel most content.
posted by brujita at 12:06 AM on February 23, 2010
What I hate about NY:
The attitude.
The whiny, nasal voices.
Laws made but not enforced.
New England is where I feel most content.
posted by brujita at 12:06 AM on February 23, 2010
What I hate the most about New York today, is that I am no longer twenty-something, living in it. Oh, also, it isn't like it used to be.
posted by Goofyy at 12:13 PM on February 23, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by Goofyy at 12:13 PM on February 23, 2010 [1 favorite]
The feeling (exemplified by many of the posts here) that everyone in the city actively hates you for who you are. As a hipster-y dude (although not exactly in-your-face-lime-green-pants!) living in a less-than-gentrified neighborhood, every trip out of the house was like psychological warfare -- with the neighbors, strangers, the clerks at the grocery store. When I wore a tie on the L train to go to a wedding, the hipsters glared at me too. Once, while walking home, somebody yelled at me that there was a new iPod I ought to buy. (?) A couple weeks later, someone shoved me off the sidewalk and kept walking.
I've been refused service at pizza places. Once a gentleman spat on me from a moving car.
I left; I'm sure I'll be back.
posted by zvs at 2:45 PM on February 23, 2010 [2 favorites]
I've been refused service at pizza places. Once a gentleman spat on me from a moving car.
I left; I'm sure I'll be back.
posted by zvs at 2:45 PM on February 23, 2010 [2 favorites]
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by jbenben at 8:03 AM on February 22, 2010 [1 favorite]