Humans of New York

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1. Thanks for the post. There was a very interesting NY Daily News op-ed today

about a journalist who left New York after a lifetime here and moved to rural Colorado - and he LOVES it. And the anecdotes from others are equally interesting:

>>Recently I asked several old friends — all, like me, born-and-raised middle-class New Yorkers — if they still liked living here.

I was curious because, a year ago, as a freelance magazine writer unconstrained by workplace, I headed west to a small town in Colorado, where rents are low, life is relaxed and the landscapes are wild and beautiful. A beer at a bar runs a buck-fifty, a big meal for two at a decent restaurant $15.

My poll produced some very angry commentary about the outrageous cost of living in a city Mayor Bloomberg once described as “a luxury product” and about the takeover of neighborhoods, especially in parts of Manhattan and Brooklyn, by the super-rich, who drive rents up and character out.

“The city is almost entirely about money now,” said Dave, 39, a Manhattan contractor. “A dead place full of people so tired and overworked they don’t remember what it feels like to feel good.”<<

http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/christopher-ketcham-new-york-city-article-1.1963991

I'm a longtime resident here who can only +1 almost all of these remarks. Life for the middle class is getting worse every year - not so bad that it's a shock, but just enough so that, over time, when you assess where you were 10 years ago and where you are now, you're like, 'why the FUCK am I struggling when I'm doing everything the same way I was doing back THEN?'