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As someone who's lived in New York a long time... this argument is ridiculous. New York IS cheap. If Williamsburg is too expensive, go another subway stop out

As someone who's lived in New York a long time... this argument is ridiculous. New York IS cheap. If Williamsburg is too expensive, go another subway stop out to Bushwick. If that's too expensive, go another subway stop out. Take an extra ten minutes on the subway and enjoy thousands of dollars off your monthly rent. NYC is absolutely enormous, and there are parts of Brooklyn and Queens that have grown CHEAPER over the past few decades. Admittedly, that's because the criminal elements of NYC have been concentrated there... but cheap is cheap. NYC is unique among American cities in that our subway infrastructure allows ENORMOUS expansion of affordable housing in virtually every direction at no financial expense and almost no sacrifice in time. It's cheap as hell to live in the South Bronx, for example, and you'll get anywhere in Manhattan relatively quickly. San Francisco simply doesn't have the same flexibility, since the transit there is so god-awful by comparison. Artists don't get to live in the Upper West Side just because "art!" Go live in edge neighborhoods, of which there are plenty. If you want to complain that neighborhoods are increasingly less walkable and more dilapidated the further out you go... lobby to allow developers to build new, dense buildings out there. The only solution to expensive housing is to build more housing.

Ollinson 12y ago
For me Roosevelt Avenue in Queens between Jackson Heights and Junction Blvd on a 80F day is the real NYC. People of every ethnicity on the street, everyone in the shade of the elevated 7 train, street vendors selling everything and thousands of people strolling along. Rents are cheap here but it is not glamorous and in some areas even borderline dangerous (around Corona, especially at night). People in Manhattan and trendy parts of Brooklyn don't realize it but they're paying high rents for safety. Gentrification brings police protection and in my area of Queens you're not going to see cops on that dark corner at 1AM like you would in Williamsburg. There are many neighborhoods in The Bronx and Brooklyn that are still like this but people don't feel comfortable living there.

Ollinson 12y ago

For me Roosevelt Avenue in Queens between Jackson Heights and Junction Blvd on a 80F day is the real NYC. People of every ethnicity on the street, everyone in the shade of the elevated 7 train, street vendors selling everything and thousands of people strolling along. Rents are cheap here but it is not glamorous and in some areas even borderline dangerous (around Corona, especially at night). People in Manhattan and trendy parts of Brooklyn don't realize it but they're paying high rents for safety. Gentrification brings police protection and in my area of Queens you're not going to see cops on that dark corner at 1AM like you would in Williamsburg. There are many neighborhoods in The Bronx and Brooklyn that are still like this but people don't feel comfortable living there.