It’s a common conversation though. I live in a big city and people who live in rural areas say this to me all the time. I just shrug my shoulders and say, “ya, good, live where makes you happy.”
Some of the rural people I know are extended family and if I take them at face value what they are essentially explaining sounds like some yet to be undefined personality disorder.
They all circle around a set of claims that amount to an inability to adhere to basic social skills that even the most neurodivergent person manages to perform.
. I hate living in the city. I walk. ALOT. I love walking in my rural area, fishing, camping, engaging with neigbors and meeting the lady downtown street who makes gluten free cupcakes ( amazing).
Its what i like
I know people who rave about the things they can do that I can't. And I love how happy they are living where they love
People need nature, and they need each other. So live where your needs are met the. Most and stay happy.
Your attitude is best. Let's all be happy for those who can live where they love. Because Many can't.
I do love the looks of bus drivers when you get on with a load of crap in your hands.
One time, I had to fetch two larger packages from the post office, so when I got onto the bus, I really had to aim to fit through the door and also prop up my ticket in my right hand, so I could still hold the packages with both hands. And the bus driver just looked at me like "ehm... okay... I guess, we doin package delivery then".
Another time, I went shopping in the next city over and after half an hour, I got back onto the bus with four packed shopping bags and saw that it was the same bus driver who brought me into the city. And he clearly saw that I had just been shopping and nothing else, so he gave me a look of "well, that's convenient, that you've got your personal chauffeur". 🙃
I guess I don't understand the reference. How else are you going to get something you bought back to your place? This doesn't seem weird. I'm not in or from, and have never been to, NYC though, so I'm probably missing something lol
Its an infrequent question you get if you dont own a car in the US. With mass transit generally being shit everywhere, but slightly less shit in cities, people who dont live in cities think moving things around is impossible, because a car is the only possibility that they are personally acquainted with.
Its not impossible, just vaguely awkward sometimes as this meme shows, which is a solid tradeoff for not having to deal with all the bullshit owning a car entails.
Right. Think of all the few times you might need to buy something truly cumbersome and bulky that can’t realistically be brought home via mass transit. Now, think of how much it might cost to have that item delivered - a service readily available in cities.
Calculate up how much a car costs, insurance, fuel, maintenance, and parking, and to be fair, subtract mass transit costs.
Compare that to the rare delivery.
See if you’re better off, saving money, not having a car.
On the rare occasion you do want a car for long-distances not practical by air or other transit, rent one.
Source: lived in a major metro area. Car was a real burden having the expense of it, parking it, and having to be on watch all the time for street sweeping or snow days where you couldn’t park on the street. The subway was cheap, accessible, and far quicker than driving the vast majority of the time.
Last time I rented a car to get my sister home from the Airport a little more comfortably after a long flight, she was worried about me spending too much just for that.
I had to put it in perspective for her: The rent with fuel was around 45 CHF. One year of insurance for a normal car alone would be about 450 CHF. Never mind any of the other costs.
And I don't even rent a car 10 times a year! (Unless you also count when I rent one for work, but that's charged to the workplace of course.)
I just checked the website of Citybee. That seems quite similar to the service I use actually.
The one here is called Mobility you pay by time and by kilometer. Around 2.50 CHF / h and 0.75 CHF / km, but it depends on the category of vehicle of course. I used it for about 3h and 50km for that airport trip.
Ah yeah. When people say "rent" I still read it as Hertz/Avis/Sixt/Enterprise in my head lol
To be fair, anything over a day, these seem cheaper. But yeah, for a few hours, my preference is Bolt Drive as it's convenient and a local company unlike Citybee which I think is Lithuanian. It still serves as an alternative though
Yeah for full days or long distances the older places can be cheaper. Also for vans for moving furniture.
I helped in a move once where they had gotten a van from Mobility. Suddenly we had to start hurrying with the loading and unloading because the cheapskate had reserved only minimal time, I think like two or three hours. That was the worst thing ever, as if moving furniture isn't a bad enough activity already, lol.
Ive rolled a queen bed from house to house on a dolley before, along with many other things. Pulled my old couch to the same house on its one good rolling wheel. The grand old "5 block city move." It wouldn't be realistic to do outside of a city, but it also took some real grit and just embracing the stupid to do there.
The fun part? Several people honked and waved, while others offered to help. People loved seeing someone just hulking that shit down the road. One of those nice "city people" moments.
I think your summation of the sass is better than mine, to be sure.
I think it's because... "rural" people who shit on NYC, yet have never set foot in a modern American city, will hear shit on Fox News and literally believe that the NYC subway is a warzone for rival vagrants to fight to the death, and there's no way you'd be able to transport something like that without it being stolen, or broken, etc.
My ex made me carry a window unit air conditioner someone was throwing away to the subway, take two trains then carry it home. She was visiting from New Orleans and didn't believe me when I said people leave shit like that on the sidewalk all the time in New York. It was fall. I could very well find another one closer to home.
My apologies to everyone the one time I needed to get a coffee table to my new apartment on 179st. I was a really broke student and it was too heavy to lug.
If you're referring to the anti-immigrant shit, then NYC is probably one of the safest places in the country you could stay in that regard. They value multiculturalism there.
Okay so I saw someone yesterday also walking home with a chair, but my real question is who the fuck needs just one single dining room chair? Do y'all not have sets?
I mean, I don't even have a dining room so I guess who am I to talk but it was just confusing to me.
Would you want to carry an entire dining room set while walking or taking the subway home?
It would be difficult to carry even just two non-folding chairs without inadvertently being an asshole to people around you, unless the sidewalks were dead.
We're not the same. I like being able to go on a hike after taking 20 steps from my front door. I like hearing and seeing new birds regularly from my window. I like walking my dog without suffocating on the smog of the Manhattan streets.
I've been to New York 4 times and to new England many many times. Funny how YOU can't tell. Sometimes I like to say things that get people riled up. Like saying I like living in the city that I live in. I'm sorry I'm happy?
Not counting nice walks in prospect Park, I can get on the metro north train and go on a variety of hikes. It's not 20 steps, but I also get all the other benefits of a city.
Also Manhattan isn't known for smog, and there is a lot more to New York than Manhattan. Go look at like park slope or Astoria
I had to go into CVS to escape the air in Manhattan. Granted I've only been to Manhattan and Brooklyn, those are "city" parts, which this post refers to.
Yes some cities have a lot of perks, no the air quality isn't as bad as the 60s, but pretending that taking the metro to the park is comparable to living in a forest is a little silly.
I'm amused too. People are offended that I prefer living in nature compared to a concrete jungle. That's my preference. Live where you want folks. I'm not your mommy.
Yeah, I think you're being a bit hyperbolic, but I generally agree. I live about an hour from Manhattan (from the Holland, and then another hour to get through lololol), but I'm fifteen minutes from a reservoir that you can hike and boat, fifteen minutes from farms. My town is walkable, and I can walk to a hospital, grocery store, and library in, you guessed it, fifteen minutes. I'm an hour and change from the shore, about the same from the Poconos. I like having access to all the places, but I like to live in suburbia.
Air quality is getting worse everywhere thanks to wildfires and the like, but my point was that you don't look at a city like NYC or Boston and see an orange haze from the smog and leaded gasoline emissions anymore.
The biggest issues with cities largely come down to cars, and having grown up in a summer beach hotspot, I can tell you that it can be just as bad out in the countryside. From noise pollution to emissions to traffic, you can largely thank cars for all of it. Road noise is actually one of the loudest things in a city. In places that have limited access to cars, you can immediately tell the difference.
That's fair, but my understanding is that Los Angeles is an extreme case rather than a representative example of a typical American city, in part because of its unfortunate location in a valley and in part because of its sprawl. The fact that pollution is particularly hard to control there is why California is legally uniquely able to apply for its own set of automobile pollution regulations that are stricter than the rest of the country.
I'm confident whatever you are imagining is not the daily lived experience of new york city. People picture like times square in 1973 on new years eve and also classic film the warriors. Go look at like park slope on google street view (or another similar service of your choosing).
I went through Penn Station more times than I would have wanted. Arriving and leaving from there twisted my stomach in a knot, I wouldn’t be able to handle it every day.
Rents in NYC are rising higher than salaries, squeezing out the poorer segment of the population. This, between other symptoms, generates homelessness. That’s what I see in NYC.
They said the problem was "widespread". I'm saying it's not like everywhere you look, but it feels worse than it is if you only go to the high traffic areas where homeless people go to beg for help.
Cost of living is rising higher than salaries everywhere. This isn't unique to New York.
The fact that homeless people exist is a poor reason to avoid New York, in my view. People act like you're going to be wrestling with the homeless every day.
We should do more than ignore the homeless, but that's a separate conversation.
You ever get stuck in Penn after the last train leaves at like 150, and you have to wait til 527 to catch the train home? That's when it gets interesting.
The homelessness epidemic is a problem everywhere in the US. You just notice it in cities because of the population density.
Cape Cod, the famous summer vacation hotspot south of Boston, has the highest rates of drug addiction and homelessness in the entire state. The same is largely true of any vacation area, actually. They often have the highest rates in their state due to high CoL and poor job opportunities outside of low wage jobs in the tourism industry (all of which are seasonal jobs as well, meaning they close when the tourists leave).
It’s a common conversation though. I live in a big city and people who live in rural areas say this to me all the time. I just shrug my shoulders and say, “ya, good, live where makes you happy.”
Some of the rural people I know are extended family and if I take them at face value what they are essentially explaining sounds like some yet to be undefined personality disorder.
They all circle around a set of claims that amount to an inability to adhere to basic social skills that even the most neurodivergent person manages to perform.
Yep live where you like.
. I hate living in the city. I walk. ALOT. I love walking in my rural area, fishing, camping, engaging with neigbors and meeting the lady downtown street who makes gluten free cupcakes ( amazing).
Its what i like
I know people who rave about the things they can do that I can't. And I love how happy they are living where they love
People need nature, and they need each other. So live where your needs are met the. Most and stay happy.
Your attitude is best. Let's all be happy for those who can live where they love. Because Many can't.
All of those shampoo bottles were WRONG!
Look, I found the losers who say shit like “I could never live in NYC”!
I do love the looks of bus drivers when you get on with a load of crap in your hands.
One time, I had to fetch two larger packages from the post office, so when I got onto the bus, I really had to aim to fit through the door and also prop up my ticket in my right hand, so I could still hold the packages with both hands. And the bus driver just looked at me like "ehm... okay... I guess, we doin package delivery then".
Another time, I went shopping in the next city over and after half an hour, I got back onto the bus with four packed shopping bags and saw that it was the same bus driver who brought me into the city. And he clearly saw that I had just been shopping and nothing else, so he gave me a look of "well, that's convenient, that you've got your personal chauffeur". 🙃
I wish my city had half the transportation of New York.
I would take half the restaurants.
Ah, I see what you did there...
Wish granted, you have all the cars, but no trains or buses.
Reddit ass comment
While I enjoy your use of reddit as a pejorative, ass will always be high prise for me, so thank you.
I guess I don't understand the reference. How else are you going to get something you bought back to your place? This doesn't seem weird. I'm not in or from, and have never been to, NYC though, so I'm probably missing something lol
Its an infrequent question you get if you dont own a car in the US. With mass transit generally being shit everywhere, but slightly less shit in cities, people who dont live in cities think moving things around is impossible, because a car is the only possibility that they are personally acquainted with.
Its not impossible, just vaguely awkward sometimes as this meme shows, which is a solid tradeoff for not having to deal with all the bullshit owning a car entails.
Right. Think of all the few times you might need to buy something truly cumbersome and bulky that can’t realistically be brought home via mass transit. Now, think of how much it might cost to have that item delivered - a service readily available in cities.
Calculate up how much a car costs, insurance, fuel, maintenance, and parking, and to be fair, subtract mass transit costs.
Compare that to the rare delivery.
See if you’re better off, saving money, not having a car.
On the rare occasion you do want a car for long-distances not practical by air or other transit, rent one.
Source: lived in a major metro area. Car was a real burden having the expense of it, parking it, and having to be on watch all the time for street sweeping or snow days where you couldn’t park on the street. The subway was cheap, accessible, and far quicker than driving the vast majority of the time.
Last time I rented a car to get my sister home from the Airport a little more comfortably after a long flight, she was worried about me spending too much just for that.
I had to put it in perspective for her: The rent with fuel was around 45 CHF. One year of insurance for a normal car alone would be about 450 CHF. Never mind any of the other costs.
And I don't even rent a car 10 times a year! (Unless you also count when I rent one for work, but that's charged to the workplace of course.)
Here it's more like 40-200 eur per year for insurance and 60+ to rent for a day
But if you can get your shit done in an hour or 2, Bolt Drive or Citybee are prolly gonna cost you under 20.
I just checked the website of Citybee. That seems quite similar to the service I use actually.
The one here is called Mobility you pay by time and by kilometer. Around 2.50 CHF / h and 0.75 CHF / km, but it depends on the category of vehicle of course. I used it for about 3h and 50km for that airport trip.
Ah yeah. When people say "rent" I still read it as Hertz/Avis/Sixt/Enterprise in my head lol
To be fair, anything over a day, these seem cheaper. But yeah, for a few hours, my preference is Bolt Drive as it's convenient and a local company unlike Citybee which I think is Lithuanian. It still serves as an alternative though
Yeah for full days or long distances the older places can be cheaper. Also for vans for moving furniture.
I helped in a move once where they had gotten a van from Mobility. Suddenly we had to start hurrying with the loading and unloading because the cheapskate had reserved only minimal time, I think like two or three hours. That was the worst thing ever, as if moving furniture isn't a bad enough activity already, lol.
I mean it's awkward if you're moving a chair. Moving house though can be a real pain if you're not paying for movers.
I think the association here is more "you barely even walk into Walmart, I carry my house with my own legs when move."
Ive rolled a queen bed from house to house on a dolley before, along with many other things. Pulled my old couch to the same house on its one good rolling wheel. The grand old "5 block city move." It wouldn't be realistic to do outside of a city, but it also took some real grit and just embracing the stupid to do there.
The fun part? Several people honked and waved, while others offered to help. People loved seeing someone just hulking that shit down the road. One of those nice "city people" moments.
I think your summation of the sass is better than mine, to be sure.
I think it's because... "rural" people who shit on NYC, yet have never set foot in a modern American city, will hear shit on Fox News and literally believe that the NYC subway is a warzone for rival vagrants to fight to the death, and there's no way you'd be able to transport something like that without it being stolen, or broken, etc.
I also don't get it.
Obviously they are not the same if one is comfortable in NYC, on the subway with a chair, and the other one is not.
Is this an idiom I don't understand? We are not the same? Is it like Kendrick Lamar saying "they not like us"?
My ex made me carry a window unit air conditioner someone was throwing away to the subway, take two trains then carry it home. She was visiting from New Orleans and didn't believe me when I said people leave shit like that on the sidewalk all the time in New York. It was fall. I could very well find another one closer to home.
Says the guy who would get scared by the noise if a squirrel in the woods at night.
Point being. No.. You ain't one for not living in a city, and they ain't one for not wanting to
I live in NYC and never leave the house now what
Do you just...live chairless?
Sometimes I take a break and catch a seat on the turlet.
I spent dickity years on that terlet
You can have chairs delivered
What's the fun in that
Watching others suffer the pain in The ass nanrrow curving stairs of an old brownstone?
( delivered furniture in the city In a past life)
Home installation options I hope
Pregnancy kink.
Well now I'm very confused and curious lol.
Might be a whole world of chairs out there I never knew about.
Boom, roasted.
My apologies to everyone the one time I needed to get a coffee table to my new apartment on 179st. I was a really broke student and it was too heavy to lug.
One day some lady brought her full grocery store cart she took from No Frills on the bus. I think the driver was just too tired to argue.
Truth be told I think they just let the passengers work it out. For example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnTGKti2-X0
Weirdest thing I've brought on public transit:
Agreed, but at least the two chairs you brought provided a nice table for that plant.
I'd love to work in NYC as a bartender, but it being in the US is a big turnoff
If you're referring to the anti-immigrant shit, then NYC is probably one of the safest places in the country you could stay in that regard. They value multiculturalism there.
As long as you make it past immigration and customs at the airport.
Yeah us is abducting tourists atm so imma pass
Yes, I concur. Have been coming to the US since 1992, no more. The last time was 2023 and I don't forsee anytime soon I'll be returning.
Come to Toronto! It's like NYC lite
Okay so I saw someone yesterday also walking home with a chair, but my real question is who the fuck needs just one single dining room chair? Do y'all not have sets?
I mean, I don't even have a dining room so I guess who am I to talk but it was just confusing to me.
Who says she just has one? She might be taking one chair a day home.
Would you want to carry an entire dining room set while walking or taking the subway home?
It would be difficult to carry even just two non-folding chairs without inadvertently being an asshole to people around you, unless the sidewalks were dead.
Could you imagine carrying home 3 chairs of a set one-at-a-time and finding out that they just stopped selling that style?
There is a Czech saying "Kdo židli má, bydlí": Who has a chair, lives (in the reside sense).
dwells?
Does that chair have a hole in the center?
How else you going to poop on the subway?
People will find a way.
That's the bottom of the chair, not a hole
Such a portable toilet might be great for shit posting whilst waiting for the train.
Unfortunately someone needs to photoshop a bit of the background platform colour in there
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNfBF2xvhaE&list=PLD19BCF9D57320E03&index=4&pp=iAQB
It doubles as a weapon on the train once the cage match ensues. Most people use folding chairs, but this one isn't fucking around.
We're not the same. I like being able to go on a hike after taking 20 steps from my front door. I like hearing and seeing new birds regularly from my window. I like walking my dog without suffocating on the smog of the Manhattan streets.
It's funny how you can immediately tell when someone has never been to a big city
I've been to New York 4 times and to new England many many times. Funny how YOU can't tell. Sometimes I like to say things that get people riled up. Like saying I like living in the city that I live in. I'm sorry I'm happy?
It's funny how you can immediately tell when someone has never been outside of a big city
Apparently you can't though..
Not counting nice walks in prospect Park, I can get on the metro north train and go on a variety of hikes. It's not 20 steps, but I also get all the other benefits of a city.
Also Manhattan isn't known for smog, and there is a lot more to New York than Manhattan. Go look at like park slope or Astoria
I had to go into CVS to escape the air in Manhattan. Granted I've only been to Manhattan and Brooklyn, those are "city" parts, which this post refers to.
That sounds psychosomatic but I'm not a professional. You take care of yourself.
I'm a little amused by the down votes.
Yes some cities have a lot of perks, no the air quality isn't as bad as the 60s, but pretending that taking the metro to the park is comparable to living in a forest is a little silly.
I'm amused too. People are offended that I prefer living in nature compared to a concrete jungle. That's my preference. Live where you want folks. I'm not your mommy.
I'm from the country side and I very much like easy access to nature, but New York is a great city, especially with all the parks! The subway is bomb
Yeah, I think you're being a bit hyperbolic, but I generally agree. I live about an hour from Manhattan (from the Holland, and then another hour to get through lololol), but I'm fifteen minutes from a reservoir that you can hike and boat, fifteen minutes from farms. My town is walkable, and I can walk to a hospital, grocery store, and library in, you guessed it, fifteen minutes. I'm an hour and change from the shore, about the same from the Poconos. I like having access to all the places, but I like to live in suburbia.
Smog hasn't been a problem in US cities since like the 60s...
More like the '90s and the Montreal protocol, but yeah. It ain't what it was. Now it's wildfire smoke from Canada!
Bad air quality still exists. Sorry I'm just not used to that quality of air. My bad?
Air quality is getting worse everywhere thanks to wildfires and the like, but my point was that you don't look at a city like NYC or Boston and see an orange haze from the smog and leaded gasoline emissions anymore.
The biggest issues with cities largely come down to cars, and having grown up in a summer beach hotspot, I can tell you that it can be just as bad out in the countryside. From noise pollution to emissions to traffic, you can largely thank cars for all of it. Road noise is actually one of the loudest things in a city. In places that have limited access to cars, you can immediately tell the difference.
That's fair, but my understanding is that Los Angeles is an extreme case rather than a representative example of a typical American city, in part because of its unfortunate location in a valley and in part because of its sprawl. The fact that pollution is particularly hard to control there is why California is legally uniquely able to apply for its own set of automobile pollution regulations that are stricter than the rest of the country.
She put that thing down a tramp will immediately come sleep on it.
I could never live in NYC… the homelessness problem is too widespread in pretty much all of US cities.
I'm confident whatever you are imagining is not the daily lived experience of new york city. People picture like times square in 1973 on new years eve and also classic film the warriors. Go look at like park slope on google street view (or another similar service of your choosing).
I went through Penn Station more times than I would have wanted. Arriving and leaving from there twisted my stomach in a knot, I wouldn’t be able to handle it every day.
If you live here you don't really go through Penn station. That's a major commuter hub.
I've lived here for years and only go there if I need to go to NJ transit for some reason (which isn't often).
That's like thinking all of NJ is Secaucus train station, or all of someplace else is just the airport. It's not representative.
“There is a homeless problem, look there”
“But if you don’t look you don’t see the problem”
Rents in NYC are rising higher than salaries, squeezing out the poorer segment of the population. This, between other symptoms, generates homelessness. That’s what I see in NYC.
They said the problem was "widespread". I'm saying it's not like everywhere you look, but it feels worse than it is if you only go to the high traffic areas where homeless people go to beg for help.
Cost of living is rising higher than salaries everywhere. This isn't unique to New York.
The fact that homeless people exist is a poor reason to avoid New York, in my view. People act like you're going to be wrestling with the homeless every day.
We should do more than ignore the homeless, but that's a separate conversation.
My dude never left the fucking train station
You ever get stuck in Penn after the last train leaves at like 150, and you have to wait til 527 to catch the train home? That's when it gets interesting.
The homelessness epidemic is a problem everywhere in the US. You just notice it in cities because of the population density.
Cape Cod, the famous summer vacation hotspot south of Boston, has the highest rates of drug addiction and homelessness in the entire state. The same is largely true of any vacation area, actually. They often have the highest rates in their state due to high CoL and poor job opportunities outside of low wage jobs in the tourism industry (all of which are seasonal jobs as well, meaning they close when the tourists leave).
But out of sight, out of mind.