New Yorkers: Is NYC worth living in at some point in one's life, even if you're old?

[Taverner]

As in I'm turning 40 next year

I have two kids

But I've always wanted to live in NYC just to see what it would be like

Not because I've always loved it, but because I've always been intrigued by it

I mean, to paraphrase Buckaroo Banzai, 'no matter where you go, there it is'

[WilmywoodNCparalegal]

1. Speaking as a former NYer...

as long as you and your kids can adapt to living in very small spaces and renting at higher-than-average rates, I'd say it's an experience like no other. I thoroughly enjoyed my life in NY. Just walking around is a pleasure that is free and fantastic. I loved to walk from my job in the Meatpacking district to my pad near Battery Park, admiring the architecture of the West Village, window shopping, at times stopping for a quick bite and just observing people going about. For your kids, they could really exploit all the city has to offer in terms of entertainment and the arts or, just simply, walking around.

It is one crazy thing I did in my life in my early 30s that I am glad I've done and I will never regret it.

[Taverner]

2. Coming from the Bay Area, I am used to higher-than-average rates

Although I probably would wait until the kids are older (3 and 6 now)

But that is a draw - think about being able to take your kids to a museum on ANYTHING!!!

Or if you wanted Burmese-Mexican Fusion Cuisine - they would have it. And if they didn't, they would have.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

3. Nope

It's got a lot of great, unique things -- but there's a con for nearly every pro if you were going to make a list.

I've known some -- well, actually, a lot now that I think of it -- people who are quite literally driven to the breaking point due to the stresses and strains of living here.

This city is one of a kind, but it can take a severe toll on your mental health and well-being -- and what's more important than that?

[Generic Brad]

4. Were you listening to Psychic Radio today?

I heard Baz Lurmann's "Don't Forget the Sunscreen" on it this afternoon and the line that stood out for me today was the one about living in New York before you get too hard.

[Javaman]

5. Having lived in NYC during it's cruel years: late 70's early 80's

I had the time of my life being a NY hardcore punk.

That NYC of a still alive village, music and art scene and just general cool weirdos, is long gone.

However, since you never have lived in NYC and don't know what it was like before ghouliani turned into a corporate disneyland, it will be an all new experience to you. It will still be rich with culture, crazy with art and you certainly will have the New York "experience" of the daily nuts on the subway.

So go for it. Rent prices have come way down, so you won't have to live in a closet and pay out through the nose in rent. You might actually get someplace decent.

My advice is: look in Brooklyn first, but that's me.

For me however, my NYC is long gone never to return. >sniff sniff<

[rug]

12. R.I.P.

[The empressof all]

14. I was there....

I lived on 6th street between A & B. Ate all the time at the Kiev...far better than Leshko's...or maybe it was the other way around...Who can remember. I hung out a lot on 2nd by the Hell's Angels --I had a boy there. We went to that bar on St Marks Place at least twice a week...they had a great juke box. And do you remember than place that baked bread I think it was across from Venero's.

I wound up marrying my upstairs neighbor and moving out west. I still miss NY...but maybe it's just my youth. :shrug:

[Javaman]

22. I just got chills when you wrote about Kiev's!!! oh how I miss that place. :(

I can't remember the name of the bread place, but man, it was so good. I lived in a closet sized dump with what seemed like a dozen other people for a while on 2nd right above Love saves the day.

it's all gone. :(

did you ever go to that dump The World I think it was on Ave D? Saw the Dead Kennedy's there one night and got caught up in a riot. LOL ahhh good times. LOL

[The empressof all]

23. No but I was too scared to venture past Ave C

Truth be told I rarely ventured further east than my Apt. I did go to a Chinese place on B quite a bit. I think it was between 6 and 7th. They had great food very cheap.

I think the building I lived in was the only habitable structure on my side of the street (south). When I moved in and turned on the light the first night the ceiling literally moved from all the roaches. I quickly became the worlds biggest fan of boric acid which was the best roach killer back in the day.

The Nuyorican opened while I lived there and I hung around there a bit...and of course CBGB's. I remember seeing Debbie Harry quite a bit and of course Talking Heads there all the time before they hit it big. Dead Kennedys were there almost every week it seemed

There was another joint on the Bowery that we use to go to all the time but I can't remember the name of it but can still conjure up the stench.

[Book Lover]

16. Everything you said

I grew up in Queens as a metalhead in the 70s and 80s (didn't discover punk until 87 and by then...) - those days are long gone several times over now. Manhattan is a Disneyland and Queens is filled with Archie Bunkers. I also vote Brooklyn if you have to. But you don't have to.

[Beetwasher]

6. Old?? WTF???

I'm 40, fucker. I ain't old and I lived in NYC up until 2 years ago. It is expensive especially w/ kids.

NYC is great to live in no matter what age you are. The only reason I moved out is because I wanted more room and a yard for the kids. Now I live in NJ, about 20 minutes from the city.

[smirkymonkey]

26. That's the great thing about NYC - you are never old!

You don't get pidgeonholed like you do in smaller places, you can just be who you are. For someone your age (my age too) with kids, the Upper West side would be a great place to live. Rents have gone down, a lot of the apartments are huge up here (all my apartments have been enormous and even at the top of the market, still reasonably priced for the space you get - renting, anyway). People are walking out on the street until mid-night - kids, teens, people from their 20's through their 80's and everyone is pretty friendly.

There are a lot of young families with kids in strollers, but also a lot of young to middle aged adults sitting around at sidewalk cafes and just hanging around in Central Park. The greatest amount of stress comes from working here and the whole rush hour commute thing, but other than that, there is still a lot to take advantage of here. Great museums too! And Central Park is just stunningly beautiful.

And if you get tired of it, you can always leave. I did the same thing w/ San Francisco - I decided that I would rather regret something I did that regret never having given it a chance. I liked it for a few years and then I decided that I was a dyed-in-the-wool East Coaster, so I moved to NYC and have been here for 10 years. Good luck!

[jumptheshadow]

7. I have a colleague who moved here at age 63...

She moved from the Midwest and loves it here.

I moved to the city when I was about 27. I had a couple of difficult years adjusting and it took quite a while to find the right apartment.

But I love this city and am constantly falling in love with some new aspect of it. During the summer it's teeming with free music, film and culture.

I say go for it.

[Captain Hilts]

8. There isn't a better city in which to be older. Go for it. nt

[Demoiselle]

11. My thoughts, too, Captain, with fairly strict financial requirements...

Of course, it also depends on what you mean by "older." If you're talking about the kid-raising parental years, it's pretty stressful, I think.
However, if your kids are grown, and and there you are, it seems to me that it's easier for older people to live in small spaces. And when you get to the age where driving might present problems...my goodness, you can stand on the curb and signal a taxi to get you just about anywhere you need to go. (Manhattanites do tend to think that they don't need to go anywhere but Manhattan for anything, so it can get pretty convenient.) I daydream about old age in Manhattan. But that daydream also included winning Powerball.

[Rabrrrrrr]

9. Every person who has intellectual curiosity, a fondness for the arts, and isn't afraid of difference

should live in NYC at least once in their life, preferably for a few years.

And when I say NYC, I really mean Manhattan, though parts of Brooklyn, and even some parts in Queens, count as well.

[BurtWorm]

10. I'm raising a daughter in Manhattan.

It is a great city for kids of a certain kind: Great parks, great museums, unbeatable arts programs in all the arts, great restaurants.

My daughter has always envied kids who have houses with yards, though. Consider, too, that most parents who can send their children to camp in the summer, and camp is expensive. But you should be able to find a good public school for them in every grade. You have a lot of choice as a parent with respect to public school.

As for you and your partner: if you like a lot of people of all kinds, find urban space beautiful, like to be where the action is, are willing to use public transportation and walk a lot, are willing to spend a lot of money just on living, then you'll probably like living in New York.

[Yavin4]

13. It Takes A Certain Mentality To Live In NYC

Your current lifestyle would cost you more than double, so you have to make adjustments. For me, I live with roommates, which aint easy at times, but it does keep my rent low and I can do things that other people cannot.

[Fire Walk With Me]

15. If you get lucky and win $500.00 on "Cash Cab"

you'll have just enough money to pay for the return taxi ride, so it all works out.

[Chan790]

24. Ive never spent more than $60 on a cab ride.

n/m

[Burma Jones]

17. Yes, maybe especially when you're old, but always Yes

And I don't mean old like 40, I mean old like 70 or 80.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

18. Do it -

I lived there in the sixties, at 89th St and First Avenue, when the city was wide-open, everything was out there, and, lord, did we have a time! I had a fifth-floor walk-up, and one day, a knock on my door, and John Sebastian - the Lovin' Spoonful had the number one hit over and over that year - was standing there, hands in a prayerful pose, wondering where my neighbor, the girl he'd been dating was. She wasn't home, so I invited him in.

He had some magnificent spliff, I had some wine, and we passed a lovely few hours just chatting until his girlfriend came home.

That was the kind of thing that could happen only in Manhattan. And the time that I lived there was, I think, the last really good time. Now, Times Square is Disneyland North, and so much has become commercialized, but whenever I go there to meet with my editor and my agent, it's like nothing else in the world, walking around mid-town and just taking in the vibe.

Go. Live there. It's just a wonderful, wonderful place, and it's a great place to raise kids......................

[Captain Hilts]

20. I LOVE John Sebastain! I've been to Manhattan a lot. But have lived in Toronto and Moscow and

gotten some of the 'neighborhood' feeling that NYC does so well. But there's nothing like NYC.

I laugh when folks tell me that "Toronto is a lot like New York." I tell them that means they've never been to NY.

I'm told the great thing is that kids don't have to bug you to drive them everywhere!

[Tangerine LaBamba]

21. My friends had their kids while living on the

Upper East Side - this was the early eighties.

Their daughter used to run ahead of them, full flat-out, running as fast as she could (she was maybe four years old), and head straight for the corner. People would scream, sometimes they'd try to grab her, but her parents just laughed because Sadie was trained to stop at the corner. And she always did.

These parents also taught their kids that FAO Schwarz was a toy museum. The kids loved to look, but had absolutely no idea that anything there could be purchased.

Ultimately, they moved to Hastings-On-Hudson, but those kids were already city kids, so they got all the best of living in the city during their formative years.

Manhattan kids grow up wise and fearless in a way that other city kids don't. Maybe Chicago comes close, but having lived there, too, I have to admit that it's not quite the same. Close, but not the same.............................

[Danmel]

19. Especially when you're old

People around all the time, everything available 24/7, no need to drive, world class medical care,an active vibrant arts community, the safest large city in the country, great food delivered to your doorstep. I hope I can retire to the city.

[KamaAina]

25. Good grief, man! I just got here!

And you're already trying to get away from me?! :wtf:

(actually I am an ex-NYCer; it is a really cool place to live IF you've got some $$$. Otherwise, not so much.)