tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6244999628674918029.post9024931242596592835..comments2024-03-28T12:13:06.135-05:00Comments on Bayou Renaissance Man: I couldn't live there without going nutsPeterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10595089829300831372noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6244999628674918029.post-24637656164273657232018-06-17T13:32:21.965-05:002018-06-17T13:32:21.965-05:00NYC grew up, not out. It's constrained by bei...NYC grew up, not out. It's constrained by being, for the most part, on islands (Manhattan is an island, Staten Island is an island, and Brooklyn/Queens share one end of an island, with suburban communities on the other side. Even the Bronx, which is on the mainland, has cities just north of it (go north from my house in the Bronx, and you run into the Yonkers city line -- and it's got 200,000 people in it).<br /><br />Manhattan started out as a small settlement near the tip of the island. Wall Street, which is all the way down at the lower tip, is where the wall marking the north boundary of the original settlement was. It's about 500 yards from the tip of an island that's a dozen miles long. ANd the population density there is high -- 1.6 million people, in 23 square miles of land (there are some smaller islands in the rivers/harbor that count as part of the county, so that, drawing the county lines (NYC has five complete counties in the city boundary) you pick up another 10 sq miles of water. <br /><br />In total New York has 8.5 million people, and just over 300 sq miles. And a lot of that is urban parkland (the large park near me is over 1100 acres).Ben Yalowhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12559411931000354498noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6244999628674918029.post-68582379057818326302018-06-17T13:15:43.945-05:002018-06-17T13:15:43.945-05:00I don't know how much the rent is, but the pop...I don't know how much the rent is, but the population density must be something. Here is an overhead picture of <a href="https://i.redditmedia.com/IQfa_MQunPpfwpNNmNB8EU-B-GK24TshH5KNZ9oFnRs.jpg?fit=crop&crop=faces%2Centropy&arh=2&w=960&s=4c17f671806b5993d365b04c10b215a0" rel="nofollow">New Delhi, India</a>. I also don't think it would have the cultural items mentioned above.Steve Skyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00626594557764599205noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6244999628674918029.post-3387502350179016512018-06-17T01:26:38.399-05:002018-06-17T01:26:38.399-05:00I think I' generally pretty sane. And live in...I think I' generally pretty sane. And live in NYC.<br /><br />Yes -- some of the thing mentioned are absolutely true. Rents are very high, the subways don't work as well as they did when I was a kid, etc.<br /><br />But they still generally work, and can take you long distances, 24/7/365, for cheap. And New Yorkers generally walk if it's short distances -- a half mile or so is not something you'd take transit for. (And yes -- driving in Midtown is an art form, since jaywalking makes dancing through traffic normal.)<br /><br />And food is cheap, whether you're looking for basic supplies, or the few hundred different beers my grocery store 3 blocks from my house carries, or restaurants at every price range (with 26,000 restaurants in the city, if you don't give good value for money -- at whatever its price level is -- it closes fast).<br /><br />And I got to graduate from a regular public high school that has 8 Nobel Laureates among its alumni (7 Physics, 1 Chemistry). Ay my high school's alumni weekend a few weeks ago, the discoverer of the p53 cancer gene (class of '80) gave a talk about how her graduating as a dance major ended up with a major advance in cancer research.<br /><br />And live music -- pretty much most of the bands that Peter has mentioned since the 60s groups have played here.<br /><br />Etc.<br /><br />Yes -- there are real downsides. But there are also some pretty wonderful upsides. It's very much tradeoffs, and different people make different tradeoffs, at different times of their lives.Ben Yalowhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12559411931000354498noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6244999628674918029.post-49180165051569220162018-06-16T15:03:05.976-05:002018-06-16T15:03:05.976-05:00"I simply can't fathom why any sane perso..."I simply can't fathom why any sane person would live in such an environment."<br />"Sane" is the key word here.Sam L.https://www.blogger.com/profile/00996809377798862214noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6244999628674918029.post-50052447748684303622018-06-16T12:45:47.795-05:002018-06-16T12:45:47.795-05:00Having moved a year ago from a 3 bedroom house on ...Having moved a year ago from a 3 bedroom house on a lot to a 540sqft apartment with an additional storage shed, well, it's kinda nice for me and the wife not to have all that extra space to worry about. Simplification of life and all that.<br /><br />But, 3.5K a month? To live in rat-infested NYC? Er, no. <br /><br />Not to mention, I can has gunz here, my preciouses...Beanshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15293778848879361153noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6244999628674918029.post-62057815514973845462018-06-16T08:32:22.875-05:002018-06-16T08:32:22.875-05:00Rents in San Francisco are higher, if you can find...Rents in San Francisco are higher, if you can find a place. Rent for what I would consider a decent studio apartment in a non-ghetto part of town begin at about $5K/month. If you add one small bedroom, add another $1K or more.<br /><br />When in NY, I usually stay at the Shelburn (boutique hotel at Lexington and Third) more because I don't like to stay in the "usual places". I'm not practicing tradecraft these days but it's one of those hotels where you can stay without attracting a lot of attention in the $350/night range, that I favor and there's a greasy spoon restaurant across the street that never closes. When I'm staying in NYC on business, I bill the client $500/day in expenses and it usually comes close to that number. If I'm staying in Mid-Town or the Financial District, I can lose money - and I'm not talking about staying anywhere swank. DC is the same. $500/day in expenses. $3,500/week, etc. London is $600/day, Tokyo is more. LLhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05538854359365988863noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6244999628674918029.post-49850141575139189702018-06-16T08:12:20.735-05:002018-06-16T08:12:20.735-05:00Dad29- what's funny to me is that while I work...Dad29- what's funny to me is that while I work in NY (well, dock my boat there, which means I fly in and out and buy groceries there), electric cars are conspicuously absent, while at my house in south FL, very much NOT in an urban place, they're fairly common. <br /><br /> As to the rest, yes, NY is insane. The insane rent, the rudeness, the VERY criminal immigrant underworld.... and the high salaries. I make about $30k more per year by working close to NY than I would doing the same thing in FL. People pay the price they do in order to have the non-monetary benefits that subjectively mean something to them. About the only thing I'd like about living here is access to good theater, the pizza, and museums. Not nearly enough to entice me from moving out of Margaritaville. There's a reason NY's rich live in CT or rural Long Island 60 miles away.Paul, Dammit!https://www.blogger.com/profile/02264872375942355609noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6244999628674918029.post-35947408128737455452018-06-16T07:59:41.554-05:002018-06-16T07:59:41.554-05:00The target-market for subscription (really, "...The target-market for subscription (really, "shared") cars lives in those cities, as does the target-market for all-electric cars. Dad29https://www.blogger.com/profile/08554276286736923821noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6244999628674918029.post-6595120373660826522018-06-16T07:19:11.874-05:002018-06-16T07:19:11.874-05:00A lot of big city pricing is the result of rent co...A lot of big city pricing is the result of rent control. If you keep shutting down the cheaper stuff, the prices only have one way to go on the rest.Gorges Smythehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08777621500611603786noreply@blogger.com