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Need to move - 4/4/2013
I love New York. It's the city where I was born and raised and lived most of my life. And I'd be happy to stay, but I can't afford to. I've been on disability since late 1995, and I don't seem to be getting better, just worse. I've been staying with my mom in her one bedroom coop for more than a year now, when I had expected to be out within the first month. But it became clear that I would have to move out of state, to an area which meets ALL of my criteria, because they're all equally important. E.g. It doesn't help if I can find an apartment I can afford and even a doctor capable and willing to treat me if the town doesn't have a reliable public transport. system. Or moving to what looks like a great place without having set up a doctor. I did that once before and nearly died. But because I went on disability before my office was wired for the internet, I'm just now learning. And added to that is the headache pain from spending too much time on the computer, because I am legally blind without corrective lenses, and because I can no longer tolerate my contacts, I'm limited to glasses. In my opthalmologist's own words, "We can't correct your vision any clearer with the glasses, or your head will explode." Well, you know what? If I have to spend much more time living with my verbally and emotionally vicious mother who it seems is gaslighting me, I'd rather my head exploded. I have no one to help me, I just got out of the hospital with what I was told was the worst case of pneumonia they'd seen in a long time, along with the fact that altho I don't look my age of 52, I now have the lungs of an 80-year-old, despite never having smoked.
The NYC I remember is gone. Yes, it's true that we've always been a city of immigrants. My own grandparents were. But in the past, each group arriving had to assimilate to survive. Now they make no effort to speak the language, learn the laws, or even act with basic courtesy to customers who are American! And yet the federal government gives these new immigrants grants to start businesses, while Americans born here are lucky to get minimum wage jobs, especially as we grow older. We even thank our returning military and our firefighters, who place their lives on the line regularly, by removing benefits and withholding wage increases.
New York has turned into a city for the newly arrived, and for the Yuppie rich. It's sad but true. Even the Brooklyn Heights area, where I lived in the 90s, has lost its unique charm and has been turned into a cookie-cutter version of the upper East Side, despite the fact that the landmark laws should have prevented that. We have a lot to thank Mayor Bloomberg for. No, actually we don't![read more...] |
