Thinking About Moving to NYC

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Matt L

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I've lived in a small rural town in Kentucky my whole life. I'm not a country person. I've always loved going to bigger towns and the excitement of city life. I'm 24 years old, never been to college, and I've had 1 job my entire life. I'm a minimum wage stock worker at a local grocery store going on 6 years. My girlfriend works at a papa johns and we live comfortably in a tiny 2 bedroom apartment with our cats. 

With all of that laid out, lately I've been fantasizing more than ever about moving to NYC. I'd love to find a mildly decent apartment in a mildly decent neighborhood just outside the city. Anyone here who lives in NYC or in other bigger cities; what's it like? Can someone live an okay life working minimum wage in a city like New York or am I way in over my head?
 
I'm not American but looking at how badly NYC is being hit by COVID 19 I'd suggest you might want to hold off for a while. Can't imagine it is a fun place to be.
 
If you want to pay triple the amount of money for a house that you can get around 120,000 for a nice 5 bedroom house. Pay over 4 dollars for a gallon of gas. Love to sit in the traffic no matter where you go.and On top of that eat the worst pizza in the world then yes New York is the place you want to be.

I have to go to the big Apple once a year for my business and I dread it each time. I try anyway to get out of it every year but none of my other associates can’t speak well to the trade shareholders.

I would invest in a better job in ky and build a solid foundation and get a nice home for a fraction of the cost. If anything take a mini vacation there and see for yourself how horrible New York is.

But whatever you do, don’t move to Tennessee. So much racism and bad attitudes there. Unless you wait a couple years to see the for sale sign at the Gibson guitar workshop lol.
 
Matt L said:
I've lived in a small rural town in Kentucky my whole life. I'm not a country person. I've always loved going to bigger towns and the excitement of city life. I'm 24 years old, never been to college, and I've had 1 job my entire life. I'm a minimum wage stock worker at a local grocery store going on 6 years. My girlfriend works at a papa johns and we live comfortably in a tiny 2 bedroom apartment with our cats. 

With all of that laid out, lately I've been fantasizing more than ever about moving to NYC. I'd love to find a mildly decent apartment in a mildly decent neighborhood just outside the city. Anyone here who lives in NYC or in other bigger cities; what's it like? Can someone live an okay life working minimum wage in a city like New York or am I way in over my head?

I would guess that you'd be in over your head, and that you have to make more than that if you want to live in any big city, let alone NYC. Otherwise I'd imagine you'd have a bad time. I can't see how you'd ever be able to do anything. You'd be around all the excitement of city life, but unable to participate in it, which defeats the whole purpose of moving to the city.

It has me thinking though, I don't know where I'd want to move to. I've lived in suburbs all my life. It's OK here, but the weather can be lousy (more of a regional thing than a suburb thing) and it is expensive.

The city would have more to do, but it's also expensive. Plus I'm not crazy about crowds, and people having their eyes on you everywhere you go. Not that I want to do anything sneaky. I just want to feel like I can do my own thing in my own space.

The country, I don't know. I didn't grow up in the culture, and I don't know how to do country things. But I like open space and wild lands to explore. Often times, I wished I had somewhere more interesting to go on a walk or bike ride or even a run, than the same old suburban streets.

PS - I saw you got into a relationship, which is something you said you struggled with in your past threads and posts. Congrats! It must have felt good to overcome something that was getting you down for a while.
 
I think it would be a challenge to find a “mildly decent” apartment as a minimum wage worker. NYC is a high cost of living area. If your girlfriend is moving with you that could help a bit with the burden of paying rent. But I’ve heard of tiny closet-sized apartments people are living in and having lots of roommates to be able to afford an apartment.
 
Despite the age of this thread, I'll toss in my $.02 as a hand who has visited NYC a dozen times, including one 2-day jaunt wherein I explored as much of Manhattan as I could. Here's a link to the story of that adventure:

Monkey Business In Manhattan 

Ya gotta close that first pop-up window, after that you'll be okay, lol. Anyway, I found NYC to be an interesting place to visit, but I damned sure wouldn't wanna live there, aye? And I'll list my reasons for NOT wanting to live there...

First of all, rents are SKY-HIGH, and no minimum wage worker will be able to make the rent. Cost of living is high too, though you can trim that by looking for bargains while you shop for food, alcohol, etc. But utilities are also expensive, compared to smaller towns & rural areas.

Traffic is INSANE, and I ought to know, having driven a big truck into that burg numerous times... not only that, the money which SHOULD have gone to repairing infrastructure has gone directly into the pockets of SCUMBAG POLITICIANS, so the roads & bridges themselves are in bad shape. 

Many country rubes have a glamorous vision of NYC as depicted in numerous BULLSHIT HOLLYWOOD MOVIES... in reality, much of NYC is gritty & dirty, and CRIME is rampant in certain areas. Not quite so GLAMOROUS as depicted in those propaganda films, LOL.

Now, there are heller cool aspects of NYC: it's a bustling metropolis surrounded by a magnificent harbor, so I recommend the Harbor Tour with NY Water Taxi. I'm no shill for the company, but they offered a damned good $30 deal on a 2-day pass while I was exploring Manhattan.

Yo, TheSkaFish, since you mentioned crowds, read that bit about trying to hide my knife after being bouted by the Feds on the Liberty Tour, lol. Nothing you do in NYC will really be private, unless you do it under the cover of darkness, and that's when the muggers operate, lol. 

The public transportation system isn't bad, 270+ miles of subway track under NYC, which is a considerable feat of engineering... but every time ya board the train, "CHA-CHING!" It's gonna cost ya, though it might cost less than paying out the ying-yang for gasoline or diesel, lol. 

Might wanna carry some bear spray while ya ride public transport, maybe even a loaded pistol, BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! It'll certainly be safer that way, if ya catch my drift. Meh, as adults we all make choices, just remember that criminals make choices too, and not beneficial ones either.

What else? Oh, yeah, the air quality, which is SHITHOUSE... if ya like sucking smog, then move to NYC. I was fortunate during my 2-day jaunt in Manhattan, there was a nice breeze which kept the air *fairly* fresh, but there's no getting around all those auto emissions, 10-4?

Truth be told, these other hands who responded have it right: if anything, take a little tour of NYC and see just how expensive it can get living in that burg. Talk to some locals and get an idea of what rents cost. Those alone should deter you from wanting to move there, believe me.

Moi, I had a BLAST during my 2-day jaunt in Manhattan, but I was self-sufficient in my truck, which was idling away in New Jersey (adding to the pollution, no doubt), so I didn't have to worry about hotel fare, making the rent, etc. In trucking, a man's sleeper is his castle, lol. 

So, OP, if you happen to read this, and you haven't already been shot & killed by some mugger in Manhattan, you might wanna consider the excellent advice given by others in this thread. Life in "The Bluegrass" would be far easier and WAY less expensive, YEAH? 

This seems like a classic case of the grass being "greener" on the other side of the fence... lemme tell ya, grass doesn't GROW in NYC, and there's a REASON for that, lol. The birds wake up at dawn and go: "CHEEP, CHEEP... HAAAAACK!!!" Choking on the smog, of course.

I'd sooner stay in Kentucky and buy a primo country property where I wasn't dealing with CROWDS, TRAFFIC, SMOG, HELLER CRIME, ETC. And I get it, you have this vision of NYC as some Utopian Paradise... but I can assure you, it is NOT what you think.

It's still an interesting place to VISIT, that much is certain, I still remember seeing trippy honeysuckle there, including underground clubs and vertical parking spaces, those were a goddam trip, lol. Try parking BIG TRUCKS that way, LOL... yeah, good luck with THAT, and CHEERS!!!   :cool:
 

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