Why I’m Leaving New York City

zzzzzzzzzzz

Want some cheese with that whiiiiiiiiine?

I'm sure NYC is devastated

You won't be missed.

r1, r2 and r3 why don't you watch the damn video? You all obviously didn't, given your timestamps. He makes some excellent points and r

FASCINATING

Also r4.

I don't care about his points, valid or otherwise. Of course NYC has horrible downsides. I wasn't referring to his points. He's just annoying -- not to mention unattractive. I watched as much as I could stomach. He finally lost me at "Let me be clear." May he get over himself--and beat a hasty retreat.

r8 has stated her boundaries. I know a couple people who know him and they say he's lovely.

Of course the bitter misanthropic prisspots of DL have issues.

I strongly encourage everyone should live in NYC once in their lives… I lived there for over 20 years, then my husband and I picked a day on the calendar a year out and carefully ever so carefully designed a way out. We waited two weeks prior to tell our friends because they would have talked us out of it.

The trick is to leave before becoming bitter about it.

"I know a couple people who know him and they say he's lovely."

Sorry if I insulted your son, lady.

This is the most important news anyone has EVER heard!

So is the summary that she can’t live out her Carrie Bradshaw dreams any longer?

He's a "polyglot," you misanthropes!

He should move to a shithole red state like Texas.

Don't let the Brooklyn Bridge hit you in your fat ass on your way out.

What a crock of shit.

No native calls his home “Manhattan , New York City”

No one. Ever.

His YT profile suggests he travels the world and documents it. Apparently for a living.

Maybe if he got a full-time job, finances wouldn’t be so tenuous.

Also, he leaves the viewer the impression that Manhattan is the only borough choice in the city…Brooklyn is quite nice, bro, and can be more affordable, as are others.

I smell a fraud who leans right-wing and has an agenda, as does the piece of shit who posted this.

It’s not an airport, no need to announce departures.

r13 you clearly didn't watch the vid.

[quote]I smell a fraud who leans right-wing and has an agenda, as does the piece of shit who posted this.

Project much? What he says is in line with what a lot of NYers are feeling.

Not one lie was told. So he was born in 90. By the time he was in middle school, high school age New York was safe again.

Broken windows theory. It’s real no matter what fringe libs tell you. I’m glad Jamaal Bowman lost.

So this is what the working poor of NYC look like.

I guess if you're a shut in who watches Dynasty reruns all day and still lives in the 80s this video doesn't make much sense to you.

R13 He’s not gay and look 20 of 33 years means he grew up in New York at least partially.

Just to add he said 20 of 33 years he’s lived in Manhattan. I’m guessing his family lived in Queens or Brooklyn before that.

R21

My brother in sister-in-law own a 3-plex, rent out two units in Brooklyn…nice, quite up-to-date for $2K a month.

It’s close to major subway lines, near great restaurants, bars and is within walking distance o the Brooklyn Museum — a treasure.

Yes, taxes are higher, but the ROI is worth it to someone of his age.

In middle age, yes, there’s a case for moving on.

I did a bit of fast forwarding, but I didn't find the guy or his positions objectionable. (If he ever made an exact contrast of his overall tax contribution on each side of the river, I missed that key element, and got instead comparisons of aspects of that total. Again, maybe I missed something that was in the too long video.)

I get that NYC is an expensive place to live, not least of all for its taxes, and not least of all (for what I see as a decline in quality of life and safety and general services), but yes, that's all obvious. I get that for parents unless they are head over heels rich, it would be worth some serious consideration of relocating for a better life overall.

I really think he's decided to focus on taxes (and the return in value for taxes) as means to justify his move more than the actual reason for it

Having a partner, having children, both things can be points of compromise and change. Nothing wrong with that. Considering your age and your future trajectory of opportunities in life makes perfect sense to me, and the decisions that accompany this. But fucking have the confidence of convincing not to feel a compulsion to explain it to death.

Fine, you moved from one side of a ricer to another. Less tax. Better schools. Some better services. I'm happy for you. Now let's talk about something interesting

[quote]My brother in sister-in-law own a 3-plex, rent out two units in Brooklyn

Rental properties that provide income. Most people don't have that.

I’m not sure it’s a big loss for the city, losing a resident that, from the looks of the video thumbnail, doesn’t have sense to get in out of the rain.

[quote]Fine, you moved from one side of a ricer to another. Less tax. Better schools. Some better services. I'm happy for you. Now let's talk about something interesting

Bitching about living in NYC is the #1 topic of conversation for NYers, dear.

Where you gonna go bitch-everywhere is fucked up.

Try North Korea-

R29

You missed the point…rents are somewhat reasonable in the outer boroughs…if that entitled cunt could suffer through a 20 minute subway ride into the city.

He’s a pussy.

Brooklyn is pretty damn expensive.

R30. You nailed it!

He apparently is multi-lingual, can negotiate international travel, but is still some what “off.l

Aspie troll, I just opened the door.

Come on in!

R35

What do you consider “expensive?”

I lived in NYC 35 years, from 24 to 59. Chelsea for 33 years.

I loved it madly until I didn't. About 33 years in my partner and I planned our exit. It may be us, it may be the city, or both, but we turned our back and left 10 years ago.

And yes, I know the city will go on without us, no doubt for a very long time. In fact I hope it gets the renaissance it deserves.

Sounds awful. I wouldn't live anywhere near it.

It sounds like you’re flouncing out of NYC.

All you have to do is move to Brooklyn and own multiple rental properties! Why can't everybody own something that genrates a passive income? Losers.

R41. You stupid cunt!

In the NYC area, an employed “youth”…even the unwashed-looking TY host couple get a decent-enough job to afford a nice apartment close to several cultural spots.

He appears to be college-educated and reasonably well-spoken white boy, so he could easily score a $125k job and afford an apartment.

All these big-city-awfulness posts from flyover Gay MAGATs are tiresome.

Enjoy your Log Cabin, small-dicked, self-hating circle jerks.

r42 that's not what he was talking about if you watched the damn video. And no, not everyone can afford "a nice apartment close to several cultural spots."

Christ, do you write for Fodor's or something? Where are all those young hepcats hanging out these days? Where are all their "cultural hot spots?"

[quote]Enjoy your Log Cabin, small-dicked, self-hating circle jerks.

I have a house in CT and an apt. on the UES, but thanks.

I hear Trump Tower is still nice OP. If you're a Russian oligarch living in 1993.

Fuck off with your culture war trolling. That's all this thread is about.

He has run into enough 'half naked' men in his 20 years living in NYC - enough to scare him away, apparently. Though he doesn't say which half of them were naked - probably the top half, which is very common to see (especially in the hot weather) just about any place on earth. We gay guys rather enjoy it and don't usually 'run from it'.

Speaking of which, if he was 'half naked' while filming his tirade, it would've captured my interest much longer.

r44 it has nothing to do with a culture war, if you watch the video.

Christ, I swear some of you are retarded.

[quote]He has run into enough 'half naked' men in his 20 years living in NYC - enough to scare him away, apparently.

The ones who are half naked are never the ones you want to see half naked.

[quote]I hear Trump Tower is still nice OP. If you're a Russian oligarch living in 1993.

And.....enter a Trump reference in a thread that has fuck all to do with Trump. God, you're obsessed.

Chris Cuomo of NewsNation wants to interview you and feel your pain

OMG the fags on this post! The 20% of you should be ashamed of yourselves and put yourselves to bed.

The other 80%…you Petrograd-based trolls are so obvious…find a new target. And a new tact.

This thread is dying.

r49 maybe you should try the medicated douche next time.

So Brooklyn is no longer Crooklyn?

Brooklyn

More Brooklyn

He hit his 30s, had a kid, and now moved to Jersey.

People have been doing that for decades, all for very sound reasons, but none of it is earth shattering.

I think a lot of this comes from the unusual way that many Manhattanites’ make being a Manhattanite a large part of their identity. Because so many have moved to “The Big Apple” from Bumfucke, USA to follow their dream or seek their fortune they wear it like a badge of honor. The native-born ones are split between those that are even more defined than transplants by being a native of Manhattan and those that seem not to even care because the idea that they would live anywhere else is unfathomable. Like practically all Harvard grads, CrossFit devotees and vegans, they will find some way to casually, but forcefully, let you know at some point in your first conversation with them.

Living in Manhattan is not easy; it’s either expensive or uncomfortable and many times some of both and inevitably some decided to move to greener, more open pasture, preferably with a two car garage and a good school system.

This causes shame from fear of failure and a crisis of identity. Who are they, now that they are no longer are Manhattanites? One way to cope is to embrace being expat NYers and create a new identity based on being an expat, an exile, driven from where they belong and love by a laundry list of things.

Excellent analysis, R55.

Does anyone know on which corner you’re supposed to make these Official Announcements? These Official Press Conferences??

He's annoying at the best of times. It's great he can speak different languages, but he carries himself with a massive air of arrogance because of it. When he speaks an obscure language you can tell he's waiting for adoration, and that's if phrases like "locals amazed" in his video titles didn't give it away.

That said, I saw a video recently where he got humbled because he tried speaking Sicilian and got laughed at by the locals, due to a mixture of getting it wrong but also being inappropriate (Sicilians generally only speak the language at home, preferring to speak Italian in public). I was a little surprised he uploaded it, but I suppose when you've paid for flights to Sicily, you need to recoup the cost somehow.

NYC is dealing with lots of quality of life issues. I don’t feel unsafe but there is sense of disorder. I don’t think a Repub could be mayor again ala Bloomberg. But I think the progressives are done. and I certainly hope Bragg is replaced. That would be a good start.

Finally, a rational person from NYC.

He claims he paid more than 50% of his income “to the government “ last year. How is that possible if you just do your taxes by the book. Fed State & City i pay a total of 36% taxes all total - and that’s typical if you live in NYC and have a well paying job but no access to Trump-level accounting shenanigans (another sore subject)

There’s either some serious BS in his tax argument or he’s doing some bad math with his personal finances and doesn’t know it.

It's an old trope. Where is he moving? If he's a travel writer, I'm guessing it's some place where he skirts a lot of laws around taxes, citizenship, etc. Living abroad, I've encountered lots of people like that. It works until you have legal or health problems.

R61 I was his accountant 🤭 look, we all have a hustle

and another hundred people just got off of the train

He is yet just one more example of a Millennial filled with undeserved self-importance who has access to social media, and believes we care about his personal decisions.

R8, I don't know if you're right or you're wrong about his substance, but if that's how you really feel, you are truly a fucking idiot.

👋👋👋

Already seen this. And it's a whole genre. Search for the title on YouTube and other New York escapees will appear.

The first New Yorkers to complain and flee to NJ were Lenape who were sick of the drunk Dutch in about 1650.

I've watched him for years he has a big following. I think it's funny that his big move is to New Jersey and he's filming from Hoboken with Manhattan in the background. Why do people always tell you exactly where they moved from in Manhattan (Chelsea!) but are completely vague about the place they moved to? "New Jersey". Ft. Lee or Cape May, it's a big state with big problems.

Notably, the video is not titled, "Why I'm moving to New Jersey". Is it for the lower taxes, less political corruption, superior trains and the better smell? Zhù nǐ hǎo yùn, with that.

For the haters, what paradise do you live in? Just for fun, what's the spotify playlist from your hometown?

"Who needs a house out in Hackensack, is that all you get for you money?" 1977

I’ve got problems of my own.

"Leaving NYC" videos are all the rage these days. Even DL fave George Hahn with the enviable tush wrote an essay on this topic when he temporarily relocated to Ohio a few years back. The reactions are always a mix of "Who cares?" and eye-rolls, but there’s a reason these stories keep popping up.

NYC is a place that constantly dares you to leave. It’s exciting and full of opportunities, but the cost is astronomical and there are many annoyances on a daily basis. It has become a city for those with the deepest of pockets, and the rest of us are left juggling multiple jobs just to pay the rent.

I've called this place home for 13 years and wouldn’t trade the experience for anything, but there’s a looming expiration date for many of us.

The real issue is figuring out not just when to leave, but how to find a new place that doesn’t feel like a consolation prize.

I couldn't make it through the whole thing but when he said he had a little kid I knew right then why he was moving.

I lived in Shanghai for a year and it's true you are not likely to get assaulted or threatened by crazies, (although they exist) and it's cheaper, and I think our friend cares about those two things more than any of the other downsides of American city living that he mentioned. And it's telling that he moved just far enough away to have a semi-suburban lifestyle which is what a good number of New Yorkers do who aren't billionaires. My sister loved living in San Francisco until she had a kid-one year later she and her family were renting a house in dullsville. So yeah, this guy is making a video about how ordinary he is, in spite of his language skills which I do envy.

If you can't make it there you can't make it anywhere.

I was molested.

R66 Thanks for weighing in!

I didn't click on the link. where is he moving to?

What R71 said. The whole thing is if you have to or choose to go you're a failure. And of course NYC is the greatest city in the world, etc.

R76 Hoboken.

R76 Chicago, where crime is virtually non-existent.

I have neighbors and colleagues raising children in high cost DC. My reaction to him is so what? I've known people who've done quite well figuring out how to maneuver in the NYC school system. If he travels for a living, it may be time to parlay that into a corporate, NGO or govt job that comes with paying for an international school.

I'm guessing that he'll wind up in some other high cost place or one with shitty schools like most of the sunbelt.

Oh, now I remember this douche! I used to watch his videos about ten years ago. He would go into Chinese restaurants and order in Chinese, recording reactions of the staff. The whole shtick was attention seeking behavior.

You're leaving? Noooooo!

(Here's your hat; what's your hurry?)

You have to remember that DLers in NYC are eldergays who've been living in the same rent-controlled fifth floor walkup hovels since the 80s so they're not spending a fortune on market rate apartments.

What a putz.

Is it because he didn't have enough sense to come in out of the rain?

Move to Phoenix, homo. It'll never happen again.

He looks.much better wet than dry. Maybe it's purely vanity.

R76 Hoboken is often referred to as the 6th borough. It's a fast commute to midtown NY by bus, Path train, car or ferry. It's a haven for young people who work in NYC just 10 minutes away.

Hoboken floods with just a little rain and it ain't cheap either.

R88 Hoboken is cleaner, safer, quieter and calmer than NYC and is a quicker and safer commute to midtown Manhattan than the outer boroughs. And there is no need for metal detectors at the Path Train station. It doesn't have random crazies roaming the streets nor a homeless population. In April 2024 Hoboken had its first homicide in over 2 years. And it takes a heavy rain for it to flood just like the NY subways.

Hoboken used to be a shithole, but it's been totally gentrified. It's quite expensive now.

For all of my overwrought, armchair psychologist’s musings at R55, I have to say that the most likely reason for this screed in video form is that he is one of what we’ve decided to call “content creators,” so every statement, every opinion he voices has to be looked at with consideration to how the quest for and views influences the “content.”

Is he that annoying in all the languages he speaks?

The thing about NYC when you live here is that there's no reason to take any of it personally.

NYC is a massive 8+ million strong dynamic economic creation. It is unwise to over-personalize any of it.

Every rat should leave its cage at some point.

[quote]I lived in Shanghai for a year and it's true you are not likely to get assaulted or threatened by crazies, (although they exist) and it's cheaper, and I think our friend cares about those two things more than any of the other downsides of American city living that he mentioned.

Assaulted by crazies in Shanghai? Seriously? Is this a topic the Chinese government tries to conceal? (I was unaware of it despite having been to China several times.)

[quote]NYC is a place that constantly dares you to leave. It’s exciting and full of opportunities, but the cost is astronomical and there are many annoyances on a daily basis. It has become a city for those with the deepest of pockets, and the rest of us are left juggling multiple jobs just to pay the rent.

Well put. I moved there after college and stayed till 35, but even with a decent income I couldn't afford my own apartment in Manhattan, aside from studios or shitholes. I definitely miss it, but at the same time almost all of my friends there moved away within five years or me, so even if I wanted to go back I'd have to start from scratch in terms of socializing.

Finally, a grand announcement of moving to Hoboken: all of 1.5 miles from Manhattan? Golly, a whole three stops to 14th St. 🙄

Much ado about an uncharismatic, banal millennial smugsplainin' about why he's moving to Hoboken. Revolutionary! Nobody else has EVER done that! Shocking that his "content" wasn't lucrative enough to stay in Battery City 🙄 He'll be much happier in Jersey.

Would he have been inspired to do what he does now by any other city? Yeah, lots of cities have Chinese populations, but... NYC is special in that it has tiny communities, restaurants, etc. from almost everywhere on the planet. The language learning opportunities for even the lesser commonly used languages are immense.

I get he has a family now, but if his parents had made the same decision, would he be where he is now?

r97 he grew up in a different era. Manhattan was not the playground/shopping mall for filthy rich scumbags like it is now.

Okay r96 we get it. You don't like him.

R99 And "we" get that you're desperately trying to promote your friend/son/client/associate around these parts. You're the one throwing a hissy fit at anybody who didn't genuflect at the altar of this drab millennial cliche.

r100 unclench. I don't know the guy. I thought it was an interesting take on life in Manhattan in 2024. I know so many people who feel the same.

Of course the old misanthropic queens on here don't get it because they're not part of the modern world.

[quote] Why I’m Leaving New York City

I'd be much more impressed if it had been done by Billy Porter, Andy Cohen, Eric Adams, and Chris Cuomo.

R101, I'm not offended or bothered by the points your video friend makes, but he does have the currently popular talent for making the simple and personal into the momentous.

As others have pointed, he's hardly a pioneer in his move across the river, and probably not even indicative of some novel group. NYC has been a magnet for a couple of centuries easily: people come...and people also go. The greatness of NYC doesn't spring entirely from its native born; it's not only the Van Rensselaers around whom the city orbits, rather it's the comings and goings of mass numbers of individuals. And somite has been from the 19thC (it wasn't until 1820 that Manhattan had more than 100,000 people; central London had 1.5M in 1820 for comparison)

People come and go. In NYC much more so (per capita) than in many other US cities, and so it's been for a very long time.) Many of the earliest American suburbs from the last quarter of the 19th are suburbs to NYC; the first truly modern (and hideous) U.S. suburb was Levitation NY outside NYC in 1959.

As others have said, this guy isn't the first man to reach his 30s in Manhattan, to have a kid, to question his financial prospects for the rest of his life...and to move to cheaper, easier New Jersey with it's better schools. Maplewood was a rural NJ community until 1902 when train lines to Manhattan were opened and the crossroads transformed in a leafy and lovely upper middle class suburb within 20 years which continued growing long after.

More than anything, the bitchery your friend is reviving in the thread is directed at someone who has followed a numerically significant trend if the last 150 years and proclaimed his very own novel discovery. He's just not that clever, not exactly a trail-blazer.

I'm an American who has lived in Europe for some years and everyday I will encounter someone on social media who has moved to.my city for all of five minutes and proclaims himself ir herself an expert on the place: where to eat, where to drink, the "hidden gems", the places to avoid, the locals and the city and their ways explained -- via a conga line of "influencers" who came before them. There's nothing new in their observations, yet they annoying present them with great import and urgency. In that respect your friend is annoying in thinking that he has discovered something that has been commonplace for a century and a half.

r103 = tedious, know-it-all bloviating bore.

R104 as if you are adding anything interesting to the discussion.

R101 Because nothing screams youthful, cutting-edge "modernity" like this dull, unoriginal Jersey-bound pudge.

DoomLA we've all had sufficient. Go back to your walk up hovel and let the adults talk.

All yours. You two have fun.

He is kind of a smug cunt. New Jersey is so trashy. I rather live in a ghetto part of NYC than Jersey.

He’s probably just suffering from irregularity or is having a bad hair day because of the New Jersey rain.

What a pussy. Those of us who lived in NYC in 1970s, 1980s and 1990s laugh at him, Not to mention those who lived there in 1840s in the Five Points, lol.

[quote] the first truly modern (and hideous) U.S. suburb was Levitation NY

Even without the typo, that’s incorrect

r111 NYC was much cheaper then.

R109 is apparently not a millionaire and knows nothing about NJ.

NJ is the state with the highest number of millionaire households.

[quote] He would go into Chinese restaurants and order in Chinese, recording reactions of the staff. The whole shtick was attention seeking behavior.

Omg, it’s that guy?! He’s such a twat. Those videos were such set ups. He’d say two sentences in a Chinese dialect and the workers would literally laugh at him, then they’d compliment him.

It’s very common in Asian culture to be polite and encouraging to people trying to learn your language. There are literally hundreds of these videos on YouTube. (“Watch this white girl speak Korean to people in Seoul!!! See their astonished reaction!!!”)

There were a few that were actually sad because they were people who’d been brought up in China or Japan by parents who were missionaries. The kids spoke the local language fluently but were never accepted by the locals. One girl talked of buying a wig of black hair and applying eyeliner so she wouldn’t stand out so much. But she was always “the other” and never fit in.

[quote] R111] NYC was much cheaper then.

In 1840, yes. You could live in NY for a song

In 1980s and 1990s it was already changing, I could not afford my own studio, even when subsidized by the hospitals or by the state. I had to have a bf living with me to share rent and utilities. It was different for men because they made more money and could live in sketchier areas. Women who’d moved to NYC just a few years previously had much lower rent than I did, I knew some nurses living in big one bedrooms for $650. The hospital would require 2 nurses to share a one bedroom, but if one of them moved out, the other could stay in the apartment alone for $650. But that changed by the time I got there. Those nurses were grandfathered in while the rest of us paid $650 for a studio and had to work the night shift to make enough money for rent, food and utilities.

But I never took a dime from my parents. I couldn’t. They had no money.

[quote]In 1980s and 1990s it was already changing,

Relatively speaking it was much more affordable than today.

Of course, eldergays are stuck in the 80s and have little to no knowledge of how society is in the 21st Century.

I lived in NYC from 1988-2006 and it became expensive when Bloomberg was the mayor (2001-2013).

Bloomberg is a bad man.

He certainly was!

For me New York is no longer a cultural Mecca. Where in contemporary NY are the equivalents of Fran Leibowitz, Woody Allen, Neil Simon, Leonard Bernstein, Robert Mapplethorpe, Basquiat, Andy Warhol, Vera Wang, Donna Karan, Calvin Klein, Mel Brooks, Spike Lee, Martin Scorsese, Jonahan Larson, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Roy Lichtenstein . . .?

NY is no longer a place that nourishes and inspires artists. It's become filled with so many chain stores and smoke shops and high rises that it has lost its uniqueness in many ways.

R121 Agreed. And it is sad. That said -- is it really a NYC thing or just a sign of the times? Is there another city a US (or any) country that has that kind of energy currently? Prague? Old (as in Fremont Street) Vegas?

^ *in the US

Brooklyn

[quote]Of course, eldergays are stuck in the 80s and have little to no knowledge of how society is in the 21st Century.

Troll much, OP?