Living in Brooklyn, NY
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9/2/2014
I was born and raised in Brooklyn, NY. I attended elementary school, middle school, and high school, in Brooklyn, New York, and college in Manhattan. I worked at part time summer jobs while going to college. I even worked for the City of New York for three years before moving out. I hated living in NYC for the last eight years that I lived there. Basically, I couldn't take the following:
a) Quality of life-The polluted air, and the polluted streets, flowing with debris, litter, and dog droppings;
b) The unfriendliness of the population, who would step right over you, if you fell down in the street. One time, when I had a lot of heavy suitcases, and was returning from a trip, I offered to pay someone if they would help me carry the suitcases for several blocks to my home. Not only did they refuse, but they even cursed me out;
c) The aggressiveness of the population- New Yorkers will want to start a physical fight at the drop of a hat. It could involve giving a seat to someone on the subway, moving out of someone's way in the street or on the subway, not blocking someone's driveway with their car, or just starting a fight for the heck of it. One time, when I was cleaning my car in front of my home, some idiotic pedestrian came along and accused me of cursing him out the night before. I never saw that individual before in my life, and to this day, I'm convinced that he was a psycho;
d) Hostile merchants-If you don't give a merchant the exact change or pretty much close to the exact change, or he has to break a $1.00 bill, a $5.00 bill, a $10.00 bill, or heaven forbid a $20.00 bill, it is like a declaration of war! He will get very hostile, and state "GOT ANY CHANGE" or "GO TO A BANK". I've never encountered that situation out of town-only in NYC;
e) Racial tensions-There seems to be a preponderance of racial tension in NYC, which can have bad consequences;
f) Noise- All night, one hears police sirens, burglary alarm car sirens, car horns honking, and other noise. In some neighborhoods, around July 4th, it sounds like a war zone. It is impossible to get a good night's sleep, with all of the noise;
g) Tipping-Everyone has their hand out for a tip. I remember when the Sanitation Dept. used to ring our doorbell around Christmas expecting a top for taking out the garbage. Although NYC threatened to fire any Sanitation worker who engaged in that illegal and unethical practice, it still continues around the holidays. One time, a delivery person brought over some furs to our home, which had been stored by them. He insisted on an additional penny, before he made change. Then, he cursed me before he left, as he was expecting a tip;
h) Double Parked and triple parked cars; cars which back up a full block to get a parking spot; cars which block fire hydrants and driveways; cars which race around without a muffler, causing a loud grating sound; cars which run red lights, and fail to yield the right of way to pedestrians; cars which drive like Kamikaze pilots and pass other cars on a double yellow line. A few years ago, in Borough Park, which is part of Brooklyn, NY., an elderly man, who was 99 years old, and a survivor of the Nazi death camps, politely asked an 83 year old man, not to block his neighbor's driveway with his car, as his neighbor was a Doctor, and he needed his driveway cleared for emergencies.
At that point, the 83 year old beat the heck out of the 99 year old, breaking his nose. Although the 83 year old was convicted of felonious assault, I doubt that he was sent to jail. If this case didn't happen in NYC, the felon would have done jail time, for such a heinous act;
i) Neighborhood residents who refuse to shovel their walkways of snow, and who refuse to expeditiously pick up their empty garbage barrels, after the garbage has been collected;
j) Sanitation workers who throw the barrels all over the street, because they are too lazy to place them neatly where they found them, in an upright position;
k) Cops who do not expeditiously respond to calls for assistance, from citizens;
l) Hoodlums who terrorize pedestrians, and who disturb the peace at all hours;
m) City workers who think that it is their right to strike the subways, buses, bridges, schools, social services department, schools, as well as public safety forces;
n) Utilities who think that it is their right to drill with loud pneumatic drills in residential areas late at night, on non-emergency routine maintenance.
o) Heating oil delivery truck drivers, who think that they have a right to block the street, while making fuel oil deliveries;
p) Delivery personnel who strike and cause a disruption in bread and milk to all grocery stores throughout NYC. One time, when my Father was visiting me out of town, he bought some milk at a local grocery store, to take back on the plane, since there was a milk strike in NYC!
q) Lazy subway token workers who will deliberately cause lines, by servicing the token machines, when a train is pulling into the station.
r) Subway cars which are too hot in the summer, and too cold in the winter, because of deficient maintenance. Subway trains which deliberately slam on their brakes for no apparent reason, causing passengers to lurch forward, causing injuries;
s) Surly and rude bus drivers, who could use a lesson in manners.
t) Lazy NYC postal workers who do as little as possible. When they went on strike, it was the beginning of the end of good postal service, as we once knew it;
u) The NYC Fire Department who would routinely make "inspections" in residential neighborhoods. They came into our home, and gave us a summons for not having a fire escape. However, a check with the building department revealed that according to the NYC Administrative Code, two family homes built before 1910, were not required to have fire escapes. The NYC Fire Department should have known about that regulation, but they just insisted on harassing the populace. In any event, the summons was dismissed.
I last visited Brooklyn, NY in 2011, and quite honestly, I couldn't wait to leave, even after a brief visit! When tourists think of NYC, they think of Manhattan, and all of the tourist sites to visit. However, they don't have to live in the outlying residential areas, and put up with all of the garbage, which I enumerated above.
Nate | Columbus, OH