The Best And Worst Things About Living In NYC
Two years ago, I packed up my stuff and left beautiful Arlington, Virginia for the big city of…Hoboken, New Jersey. When Barstool HQ relocated to NYC, I settled across the river in the 6th borough, Hoboken. I moved there for a few reasons- I found a roommate I liked with a dog, it wasn’t a hard commute to the office, and it’s legal to play online poker in NJ, and it’s not in NY.
Here’s Penny:
I then wrote about the things I liked and didn’t like about living in Boken.
Since I’ve lived in NYC for a few months now, I thought I’d share my best and worst things about living in NYC over Hoboken. And here they are:
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BEST: The Commute To Work
When I lived in Hoboken, I first settled in downtown, right near McSwiggans, for a year, and then I moved uptown to a much nicer apartment where I became a ferry guy. Being a ferry guy was great for a little bit. I enjoyed the views and how quickly it got me to the city. Andddd that’s about it. What I didn’t take into account was on rainy or windy days, I’d get seasick. Ferries are small and the Hudson gets rocky and I guess I didn’t consider that starting my day dry heaving on a boat wouldn’t be ideal. I also didn’t consider that paying $272 dollars a month for the privilege of being could be better spent literally anywhere else. Ok, not literally, I’m not like, donating it to charity or anything, but literally anywhere else for me. And finally, I didn’t consider the 45 minute morning commute and up to 90 minute night time commute would drive me crazy. It deflated my soul. Sometimes I would just pay for a $50+ dollar Uber home instead.
So I cut my losses (shout out to the $1200 breaking the lease fee!), bid Penny adieu, and found a wonderful 1BR apartment 10 minutes from our Flatiron office. I walk to and from work every day and life is grand. I highly recommend walking to work. Sure, those 95 degree Summer days I would show up looking like I just hopped out of a pool, and the NYC air is thiccer than your mom, but it certainly beats going into those infested Subways and packing in ass to dick with other sweaty humans.
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BEST: Living Alone
I’ve always had roommates. I’ve always enjoyed having roommates. Besides freshman year I had this roommate who decided he wanted to be Asian (none of this is a joke) to the point he changed his entire sleep schedule so he was on Japanese time, but then they removed him from the dorms when he started having Japanese knives delivered. He would just like, throw these knives at cardboard boxes and people were uneasy about it. Besides him though, I’ve had great roommates. But nothing beats living alone. NOTHING. When you live alone, you have complete freedom. The second you walk in the door,
If you don’t want to do the dishes, you don’t do the dishes. If you want to watch Titanic instead of football, you don’t have to pretend to want to watch football (allegedly). Sure it was nice to have someone to lounge around and shoot the shit with, but that’s what texting is for, and human interaction is highly overrated anyway. Plus, I’ll be 30 years old in a couple of weeks. There was something that was telling me that maybe at 30 it’s time to grow up and get my own place. I did, and it’s great.
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WORST: Paying For EVERYTHING
Friends, living alone is expensive af af af. There’s nobody to split the rent with. There’s nobody to split utilities with. Is there anyone to split cable and internet with? No sir! The “living alone in Manhattan” game is not a cheap game. Now I get why people move in with their significant others way too soon in this city. It’s not because people like them, it’s because it’s just financially responsible.
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BEST and WORST: Having To Buy Everything For The Place
This one goes both ways. For the first time I live by myself, so I figured I should buy all new things to furnish my new place. So while on paper that sounds great- new couch, new coffee table, new dresser, new pots and pans and plates and oh my god YOU NEED SO MUCH STUFF FOR AN APARTMENT! It’s awesome having new things, it’s not awesome paying for it. Did you guys know a nice rug is so expensive??? A framed picture for the wall, new sheets, kitchenware, all of it, it adds up quick and it adds up high. A 20% coupon helps, but only helps so much. But at the same time, it’s great having and owning your own things. Makes you feel like a real adult. I mean I’m looking at putting up shelves. Huge step for your boy. Huge.
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BEST: Food. So Much Food
One of the greatest things about NYC is you can get any food delivered, at any time. Want a bacon egg and cheese, a pepperoni pizza, ice cream, and roast beef sandwich at 3:30am? You can get it. Someone will bring it to your door. There’s always something open if you’re willing to pay. And the restaurant scene is ridiculous. I don’t take nearly enough advantage of all the great restaurants here, but I hear they are to die for. That’s definitely a New Years Resolution of mine- eat at more nice restaurants.
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WORST: Food. So Much Food
I’m fat now.
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WORST: It Just Smells So Bad
I mean…you can’t sugar coat this one. Hoboken, especially uptown, was so clean. Shiny. Vibrant. NYC is dirty and smelly. There is trash everywhere. On a Summer day it smells like spoiled egg salad on every street. I look forward to the rain because I feel it washes the filth off the streets just a little bit. Every walk at night you have to jump over bags of trash that spill onto the sidewalks and sidestep the homeless folk who live on them. I don’t mean to filth shame, but NYC, you are dirrrty
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BEST: It’s The Center Of The Universe
There’s something to say about living in the most important city in the world. Everything revolves around NYC. It’s cool to be just in the mix. Knowing something crazy can happen on any given day. Sure there are way too many people, but if you pick and choose your spots (like never going to Times Square) you can have a great experience here. It seems like it’s just building after building after building, but there are parks and places to go to get away from the hustle and the bustle. But being in the center of it all, being able to look one way and see the WTC, and look the other and see the Empire State Building, it’s just cool.
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Though it’s not my first pick for a place to live, I’m trying to be more positive about it. Trying to find the good things. I mean if I won the lottery would I live here? Hellllll no. But maybe it’s not all that terrible after all.
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But really. It just smells so bad. Figure that one out, NYC.