5 ms·
You should really get out of NYC sometime. Pretty much every city and even mid-sized town in the US has what you're describing. A lot of it is far easier to nav
by hypeit 3y ago
You should really get out of NYC sometime. Pretty much every city and even mid-sized town in the US has what you're describing. A lot of it is far easier to navigate than Brooklyn as well.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- afavour 3y agoI get out of NYC plenty! I’m not saying mid-sized towns have no amenities. I’m saying the sheer density of NYC provides many more opportunities. If you’re claiming that even mid sized towns have dozens of museums accessible by public transit… they do not. But to provide more context to my original comment about serendipitous connections: the default path for many people living in NYC is not to move to a mid-sized town (fewer job opportunities, for one), it’s to move to the suburbs. Out in the burbs (where I’ve spent more time than I ever care to) you’re driving absolutely everywhere and people are scattered all over the place. That is what I don’t want.
- hypeit 3y agoWell you talked about having ice cream and going to parks, so I'd say yes pretty much everywhere in the US has that. Other places are also much more walkable than Brooklyn, tons of smaller cities have started focusing on revitalizing their downtowns and providing walkable communities.
- afavour 3y ago> Well you talked about having ice cream and going to parks That's two of the things I mentioned, yes. I also mentioned museums and other amenities which are also "third places", as discussed in the article.
- ryanklee 3y agoIt still sounds like the things you claim are unique to NYC aren't. Maybe your strong preference rests on something else you aren't identifying. In my experience NYC has nothing in it that you can't find in dozens of other US cities for far cheaper. Edited to remove worthless snark.
- afavour 3y ago> In my experience NYC has nothing in it that you can't find in dozens of other US cities for far cheaper. Then you haven’t truly experienced NYC, I’m sorry. It’s simply not a true statement. I’m not saying NYC is for everyone or that you even have to like it, but it having nothing you can’t find in dozens of other cities? To paraphrase Principal Skinner: “can it be that I simply don’t know NYC as well as I should? No, it is all of the seven million inhabitants who are wrong”
- ryanklee 3y agoName something. Also, it's pretty dubious to think 7 million people agree with you just because they live in the city in question.
- legerdemain 3y agoI 100% concur with afavour that regularly running into acquaintances around town is magical, and wonderful, and pro-social, and a rare privilege. I've had that experience only once in my life, when I lived literally in the center of town in Palo Alto, and ran into coworkers very regularly on the street, because our company gave us a subsidy of hundreds of dollars every month to live within a 10-block radius of the office. And these were misanthropic pale boys who mostly had no hobbies and avoided going outside and meeting other people if they could help it. I've lived in 200k-sized cities and I've lived in college towns and I've lived in quaint, "walkable" suburbs. And nowhere have I had the experience of serendipity as a result of density, because in all those other places I would get in a car and drive to a specific destination point and meet no one either there or en route. And even if there were some amenities I could "easily" walk to within "only" a mile or so, no one else I knew walked there with any regularity, so I'd never see any friends around town. Objections that go "but I'm happy with my life in XYZ location, how can you say that" are missing the point. If you haven't experienced the difference, it is as stark as night and day.
- rashkov 3y agoThe hard part is not finding an ice cream shop, it’s bumping into people you know, or being able to walk over to their home easily
- hypeit 3y agoBumping into people you know is more likely in a small city than a large one. > being able to walk over to their home easily Unless your friend (or you) lives on the G or some other impossible to get to place in NY.
- refurb 3y agoPeople do this all the time across America. I did this in Michigan, California (not the coastal cities), small town New England, Colorado, Texas, etc.
- Klonoar 3y agoNo, no they don’t. That commenter explicitly called out museums etc. You are not going to find that level of museum in a mid sized town.
- hypeit 3y agoI think they're mixing two different things. Yes, you can go to a lot of museums in NY. No, living in NY doesn't provide an easier and more serendipitous social environment for families than the average US city.
- ryanklee 3y agoThat's so misleading. The number of mid-tier cities in the US with worthwhile museums and varied cultural access is in the many dozens. Totally skewed to think that NYC/L.A./Chicago are the only places you can raise kids in a bustling urban community. Anything Cincinnati-sized or bigger will do.