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Same goes for NYC. I enjoyed going to work every day more when I didn't have to think about the subway commute.

mechagodzilla 11y ago
That requires that you work somewhere that you'd want to live, though. A few hundred thousand people work in midtown manhattan, but it would be a miserable place to live. The subway isn't great, but commuter rail is pretty pleasant. Commuting 10 miles each way in LA traffic is definitely the worst commute I've ever had!
- harryh 11y ago
  I live in midtown manhattan (46th & 2nd) and while I don't enjoy it quite as much as I did living downtown it's still pretty great. I've no idea why you think it would be miserable.
- modfodder 11y ago
  I lived on 37th and 10th for a while (working about 10 blocks south). You don't have to live a block from your office to make it enjoyable. A 15-20 min walk is more enjoyable than a 20min (more likely 40min) subway trip. While it obviously wouldn't work for everyone, it worked for me and was more pleasurable than living in even nice parts of Brooklyn and dealing with crowded trains in the morning.
  - avn2109 11y ago
    9AM L train is pretty bad nowadays.
- giaour 11y ago
  I used to work next to Times Square and before that in Hoboken. I would never want to live within walking distance of either.
- dr_ 11y ago
  I live in midtown Manhattan. It's not at all a miserable place to live. We can catch most of the subways within a block or two. We are a couple of blocks from Central Park. There are more and more families that have been moving into the area. There's an increasing number of restaurants, cafes etc. There are a lot of tourists coming thru, but we don't mind. It's been fun living here.
  - Roritharr 11y ago
    Just out of curiosity, how much rent do you pay? I live in Frankfurt Germany and find rent pretty expensive here, but i can't imagine how expensive midtown Manhattan must be.
    - cguess 11y ago
      Not OP, but you can expect to start at about $1500 a month for a studio apartment (maybe cheaper if you find a damn good deal). If you want a one bedroom, $2000/month is probably closer.
      - a8da6b0c91d 11y ago
        > start at about $1500 a month for a studio I'm not a New Yorker but I'm having a very hard time believing this. Poking around online I get the strong sense any non-roommate living space at all in Manhattan is going to be very well over $2000.
        modfodder 11y ago
        If your only avenue to finding an apartment is Craigslist, then most likely. But once you've lived in NYC for a while and have a group of friends who've lived there a while, it's not difficult to find good deals (especially if you're patient and don't need to move in a hurry). It's just like searching for a job, sometimes the best job openings are never advertised outside a small subset of people.
        11y ago
- solve 11y ago
  "it would be a miserable place to live" Different people, vastly different tastes, dude. Every small town around the world spreads this weird rumor among themselves that cities are so terrible. Apparently caused by the small percentage of people who moved to a city and then later moved back. Great sample to draw on. What if -- dense cities are extremely packed with millions of people because that's exactly what some people love? Not some convoluted tradeoff that millions of people are being forced to make by living there. What if the answer to why cities are that way is simply because people love it that way?
  - a_c_s 11y ago
    That's what I thought before moving to NYC. After being here a few years, I've found New Yorkers are rather more provincial than I had expected and many don't have any idea what "not New York" (or at least the tri-state area) is like. At this point I think a majority of people who live in NYC do so because they already live here.
    - solve 11y ago
      My theory on that is because Manhattan is so great, and the immediate surroundings are relatively so much worse in many ways (opinions vary but it's generally accepted). So, they get the idea that this trend just continues indefinitely, the further away you get the worse it gets.
mullingitover 11y ago
Difference is, in LA I have a small house and a back yard. There are olive trees with a hammock strung between them and my rent is 1850 a month. I'm pretty sure that would get me a small closet in Manhattan.

That requires that you work somewhere that you'd want to live, though. A few hundred thousand people work in midtown manhattan, but it would be a miserable place to live. The subway isn't great, but commuter rail is pretty pleasant. Commuting 10 miles each way in LA traffic is definitely the worst commute I've ever had!

harryh 11y ago
I live in midtown manhattan (46th & 2nd) and while I don't enjoy it quite as much as I did living downtown it's still pretty great. I've no idea why you think it would be miserable.
modfodder 11y ago
I lived on 37th and 10th for a while (working about 10 blocks south). You don't have to live a block from your office to make it enjoyable. A 15-20 min walk is more enjoyable than a 20min (more likely 40min) subway trip. While it obviously wouldn't work for everyone, it worked for me and was more pleasurable than living in even nice parts of Brooklyn and dealing with crowded trains in the morning.
- avn2109 11y ago
  9AM L train is pretty bad nowadays.
giaour 11y ago
I used to work next to Times Square and before that in Hoboken. I would never want to live within walking distance of either.
dr_ 11y ago
I live in midtown Manhattan. It's not at all a miserable place to live. We can catch most of the subways within a block or two. We are a couple of blocks from Central Park. There are more and more families that have been moving into the area. There's an increasing number of restaurants, cafes etc. There are a lot of tourists coming thru, but we don't mind. It's been fun living here.
- Roritharr 11y ago
  Just out of curiosity, how much rent do you pay? I live in Frankfurt Germany and find rent pretty expensive here, but i can't imagine how expensive midtown Manhattan must be.
  - cguess 11y ago
    Not OP, but you can expect to start at about $1500 a month for a studio apartment (maybe cheaper if you find a damn good deal). If you want a one bedroom, $2000/month is probably closer.
    - a8da6b0c91d 11y ago
      > start at about $1500 a month for a studio I'm not a New Yorker but I'm having a very hard time believing this. Poking around online I get the strong sense any non-roommate living space at all in Manhattan is going to be very well over $2000.
      - modfodder 11y ago
        If your only avenue to finding an apartment is Craigslist, then most likely. But once you've lived in NYC for a while and have a group of friends who've lived there a while, it's not difficult to find good deals (especially if you're patient and don't need to move in a hurry). It's just like searching for a job, sometimes the best job openings are never advertised outside a small subset of people.
        11y ago
solve 11y ago
"it would be a miserable place to live" Different people, vastly different tastes, dude. Every small town around the world spreads this weird rumor among themselves that cities are so terrible. Apparently caused by the small percentage of people who moved to a city and then later moved back. Great sample to draw on. What if -- dense cities are extremely packed with millions of people because that's exactly what some people love? Not some convoluted tradeoff that millions of people are being forced to make by living there. What if the answer to why cities are that way is simply because people love it that way?
- a_c_s 11y ago
  That's what I thought before moving to NYC. After being here a few years, I've found New Yorkers are rather more provincial than I had expected and many don't have any idea what "not New York" (or at least the tri-state area) is like. At this point I think a majority of people who live in NYC do so because they already live here.
  - solve 11y ago
    My theory on that is because Manhattan is so great, and the immediate surroundings are relatively so much worse in many ways (opinions vary but it's generally accepted). So, they get the idea that this trend just continues indefinitely, the further away you get the worse it gets.

mullingitover 11y ago

Difference is, in LA I have a small house and a back yard. There are olive trees with a hammock strung between them and my rent is 1850 a month. I'm pretty sure that would get me a small closet in Manhattan.