Left NY after 20 years
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7/5/2006
I moved to NY in my 20s and after living in Brooklyn, NY initially then to the West Village for 12 years, I decided I wanted to try someplace else. I sublet my apt and have the option of renewing my lease that is now going up to 1,600 for a one bedroom apt. (a great deal for that area) and I will not renew. Too much of my paycheck went to paying for the cost of living there, and I was always either in debt or on the verge of debt.
My former neighborhood, the West Village, is a beautiful and desirable one, is really now one for rich people, celebrities. Where it once had abandoned piers, old industrial buildings and overhead railways, they have now been transformed into chic restaurants and bars and condos only affordable to the rich.
I have many great memories of New York, and like most NYers felt that it was the only place where things were happening. I miss many things such as the nightlife and arts and entertainment scene, there is little that can rival NY in my opinion. The pay is better (out of necessity) than most places. I've seen surprising acts of both rudeness and kindness.
I just don't think NY is the ONLY place to live anymore, now that I'm in my 40s. And I increasingly think of how little money I have for retirement.
New York WAS very exciting in my 20s and 30s, but I got increasingly frustrated with the constant crowding and, like many, after 9/11 felt very acutely the sense of living in a "target."
I can agree with just about all the posts I've read here, NY really does have the best and worst of many things.
eileen | West Village - Soho, NY