5 ms·

I know that someday I will be moving to a small city. However, there are huge pros and cons. I have lived for the past few years in San Francisco and New York.

by eshvk 12y ago

I know that someday I will be moving to a small city. However, there are huge pros and cons. I have lived for the past few years in San Francisco and New York. Both are massive cities; San Francisco is a huge tech echo-chamber. It can get nauseating at times. New York has people who can be complete assholes to strangers. Just because. Yet, every time, I leave the cities to travel elsewhere, I am reminded of why I pay the expensive amounts to live here. - Food: Walk out of your house. Go a few blocks. You will find ethnic food of your choice in New York or San Francisco. Hell, I live in the UWS in New York. Even here, in the midst of high residential nirvana, you can find random restaurants open at all hours of the night. Austin was a great city when I lived there. Except that the closest restaurant ( a subway) was 5 miles away. Ever want to do something crazy, like celebrate a birthday of a friend during thanksgiving. Not a chance. Everything is shutdown. This is not just an American phenomenon. I have been in Stockholm for the past few weeks. It is sunday afternoon and you want food? Nope, it is sunny out there so every restaurant owner in a five block radius wants to close his place and go hang out. - Transport: If you want to live in an American city and not drive a car, I haven't found better cities to live than the two. It is ridiculous how well a city like Austin is designed for the four wheeled population. To the extent that pavements are an afterthought, sandwiched between lawns and tarmac. - Culture: This is not going to be an issue for most people making the move. However, as a person who is a perpetual immigrant, I prefer cities that are filled with people from varying different backgrounds. New York is the most non American, American city that I have ever lived in. I wish I could say the same for San Francisco, but it really is a city of three major clusters.

potatolicious 12y ago
This reflects my thoughts on NYC perfectly. Even though every time I leave the city I end up complaining about how my apartment is the size of somebody's living room, when push comes to shove I wouldn't dream of trading my Manhattan shoebox for a big house in the suburbs. The culture part really rings true for me. I was born in Asia, immigrated to Canada at a very young age, and now I'm in the US. I find it difficult and oftentimes annoying to live in places without this sort of diversity. I've been to, for lack of a better term, "whiter" parts of the US and have always been a bit uncomfortable. I've met very few hostile "real" racists, but in these parts of the country I feel like every time I meet someone I have to first break through the stereotypes attached to my skin color. "Where are you from?" "Canada" (I speak with no trace of an Asian accent) "No, where are you REALLY from?" In NYC the answer is "Cool, which part of Canada?" Nevermind the people who just have to sneak in the "good at math" joke somewhere in there. Nobody ever means any harm, but it is profoundly annoying to go through life being the "other". In big cities this is never a problem - when I meet new people I'm treated as an individual first, not the sum perceptions of my race.
- a8da6b0c91d 12y ago
  I bounced around overseas as a kid due to my father's job. In most of the country there is the automatic assumption that my family is connected to the military. In their heads the only reason people go overseas for work is for the government. It's only in some of the major cities that people have the correct understanding that the vast majority of American expatriates have nothing to do with the military. It's not an annoying problem or anything like that, it just speaks to a certain mentality in most of the country that's hard to relate to.
- scott_s 12y ago
  You may find this comic familiar: http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2003/12/31 http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2003/12/31
- eshvk 12y ago
  > The culture part really rings true for me. I was born in Asia, immigrated to Canada at a very young age, and now I'm in the US. I find it difficult and oftentimes annoying to live in places without this sort of diversity. I've been to, for lack of a better term, "whiter" parts of the US and have always been a bit uncomfortable. I've met very few hostile "real" racists, but in these parts of the country I feel like every time I meet someone I have to first break through the stereotypes attached to my skin color. Hah. I feel ya. I was born, grew up in Africa. I am of Indian origin. I don't explicit identify as Indian. Hell, being asked if I am from India as the first question from the get go is pretty fucking infuriating for me. It is getting to the point where I occasionally ask if they are European? Not to say this doesn't happen in the big cities like NYC or SF, but it happens way less than it would in Podunk town, USA. But it happens more in SF with its huge Indian tech population than in NYC where tech is just one another industry. This [1] kind of hits too close to home sometimes. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMJI1Dw83Hc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMJI1Dw83Hc
a8da6b0c91d 12y ago
What is it with all the posts mentioning ethnic food? I can't be the only one who finds it crazy. I eat normal grocery store food and barely have use for restaurants at all. Yet there are apparently large numbers of people who decide where to live on the basis of restaurants? It's very strange to me.
- exstudent 12y ago
  Do you have the skills and access to proper ingredients to cook: Mexican, Indian, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Polish...? That's a pretty typical (and healthy!) diet in a large city. I myself have recently relocated to a middle US city from NY and definitely miss the cuisine. I find myself feeling much less healthy and craving my old dietary variety.
- justrudd 12y ago
  For me, I don't like to cook or cleanup. I'd rather pay 10 USD for a salad then to deal with any of the preparation myself. I'd much rather spend my time coding, reading, working out, etc. So being near a bunch of different types of food is a must for me.
  - a8da6b0c91d 12y ago
    The time argument makes zero sense. Going out to eat takes much more time than stocking and eating various zero prep foods. You don't have to cook to get complete nutrition. I often go days eating just bread, cheese/milk, OJ, and softboiled eggs, and maybe a carrot.
    - justrudd 12y ago
      I guess if I was just sitting there doing nothing waiting on my food to be cooked, sure. But I often read, sketch out ideas for my current project, figure out what my next goal in working out will be, etc. And given where I live right now, I can be to a restaurant and seated in about 5 or 10 minute walk. And bread, cheese/milk, egg and carrot - wow. How boring. Just because I don't want to cook doesn't mean I don't want my food to be good, flavorful, and exciting. I like food. I like hot, prepared food.

by eshvk 12y ago

potatolicious 12y ago

This reflects my thoughts on NYC perfectly. Even though every time I leave the city I end up complaining about how my apartment is the size of somebody's living room, when push comes to shove I wouldn't dream of trading my Manhattan shoebox for a big house in the suburbs. The culture part really rings true for me. I was born in Asia, immigrated to Canada at a very young age, and now I'm in the US. I find it difficult and oftentimes annoying to live in places without this sort of diversity. I've been to, for lack of a better term, "whiter" parts of the US and have always been a bit uncomfortable. I've met very few hostile "real" racists, but in these parts of the country I feel like every time I meet someone I have to first break through the stereotypes attached to my skin color. "Where are you from?" "Canada" (I speak with no trace of an Asian accent) "No, where are you REALLY from?" In NYC the answer is "Cool, which part of Canada?" Nevermind the people who just have to sneak in the "good at math" joke somewhere in there. Nobody ever means any harm, but it is profoundly annoying to go through life being the "other". In big cities this is never a problem - when I meet new people I'm treated as an individual first, not the sum perceptions of my race.

a8da6b0c91d 12y ago
I bounced around overseas as a kid due to my father's job. In most of the country there is the automatic assumption that my family is connected to the military. In their heads the only reason people go overseas for work is for the government. It's only in some of the major cities that people have the correct understanding that the vast majority of American expatriates have nothing to do with the military. It's not an annoying problem or anything like that, it just speaks to a certain mentality in most of the country that's hard to relate to.
scott_s 12y ago
You may find this comic familiar: http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2003/12/31 http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2003/12/31
eshvk 12y ago
> The culture part really rings true for me. I was born in Asia, immigrated to Canada at a very young age, and now I'm in the US. I find it difficult and oftentimes annoying to live in places without this sort of diversity. I've been to, for lack of a better term, "whiter" parts of the US and have always been a bit uncomfortable. I've met very few hostile "real" racists, but in these parts of the country I feel like every time I meet someone I have to first break through the stereotypes attached to my skin color. Hah. I feel ya. I was born, grew up in Africa. I am of Indian origin. I don't explicit identify as Indian. Hell, being asked if I am from India as the first question from the get go is pretty fucking infuriating for me. It is getting to the point where I occasionally ask if they are European? Not to say this doesn't happen in the big cities like NYC or SF, but it happens way less than it would in Podunk town, USA. But it happens more in SF with its huge Indian tech population than in NYC where tech is just one another industry. This [1] kind of hits too close to home sometimes. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMJI1Dw83Hc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMJI1Dw83Hc

a8da6b0c91d 12y ago

What is it with all the posts mentioning ethnic food? I can't be the only one who finds it crazy. I eat normal grocery store food and barely have use for restaurants at all. Yet there are apparently large numbers of people who decide where to live on the basis of restaurants? It's very strange to me.

exstudent 12y ago
Do you have the skills and access to proper ingredients to cook: Mexican, Indian, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Polish...? That's a pretty typical (and healthy!) diet in a large city. I myself have recently relocated to a middle US city from NY and definitely miss the cuisine. I find myself feeling much less healthy and craving my old dietary variety.
justrudd 12y ago
For me, I don't like to cook or cleanup. I'd rather pay 10 USD for a salad then to deal with any of the preparation myself. I'd much rather spend my time coding, reading, working out, etc. So being near a bunch of different types of food is a must for me.
- a8da6b0c91d 12y ago
  The time argument makes zero sense. Going out to eat takes much more time than stocking and eating various zero prep foods. You don't have to cook to get complete nutrition. I often go days eating just bread, cheese/milk, OJ, and softboiled eggs, and maybe a carrot.
  - justrudd 12y ago
    I guess if I was just sitting there doing nothing waiting on my food to be cooked, sure. But I often read, sketch out ideas for my current project, figure out what my next goal in working out will be, etc. And given where I live right now, I can be to a restaurant and seated in about 5 or 10 minute walk. And bread, cheese/milk, egg and carrot - wow. How boring. Just because I don't want to cook doesn't mean I don't want my food to be good, flavorful, and exciting. I like food. I like hot, prepared food.