is New York City dead?

NYC seems genuinely out of fashion for the first time in my life, and maybe its history? Williamsburg is a punchline, Manhattan both above and below 14th St is just rich fuxors, seems like everything that used to happen in only NYC or LA now happens in LA or some other ascendant metropolis. I am not particularly worldly or sophisticated or mobile these days so I can't offer much more evidence, this is just my lay observation. What u think?

New York isn't dead.
There are still lots of great things about this city.
The things I value might not be the same things others value, of course.

https://saysomethingvague.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/lcd-soundsystem-t-shirt-losing-my-edge.jpg

no you're dead

okay

I mean, IDK, I was out in bushwick recently on a saturday night and it still seemed happening and teeming with young artsy cutting edge types brimming with energy. However it's been rough for a good amount of time now as far as being a city that young people without a bankroll or a professional job can live in, and that definitely cuts into the creative energy of the city some. I mean I don't even think the bronx offers the kinds of rents today that could be had 20 years ago in brooklyn.

like if you mean "dead" as in "no longer can birth a 'scene' the way it could in the 60s/70s/80s/90s, that might be true just because rents are so high.

I think that is what I mean. Although "scene" sounds a little tinny/reductive, scenes kind of matter. A city births a scene which creates stuff that matters.

Is Paris dead? How about London? Those cities are pretty expensive too, and have been for some time. New York is still a place that attracts ambitious young people, including artists, and I don’t expect that to change anytime soon.

well yeah, I mean a scene as in the beats or the greenwich village folk scene or disco or no wave or whatever. Like the combination of cheap living and high density and educational and arts institutions and economic activity that allows for a scene that actually produces something of worth. Like I just don't think there are many corners of the city left where a bunch of musicians could live close to one another and work more or less full time on their music and pay rent waiting tables part time or whatever. And to the extent such pockets exist, they're scattered at the edges of the city instead of centralized.

All cities are dead because culture travels faster through the Internet than it ever could geographically.

Rising rents making it hard for young people to live there unless they're being bankrolled is basically true for all major international cities now. Even Berlin's getting expensive these days.

But hey, there are always aspiring artists with trust funds, so the city will never die

i don't know the deal w/rents in NYC but i find it funny when people come out to L.A. from there and rhapsodize about how comparatively inexpensive the rent is here.

I don't go out much anymore, so maybe there's some lively cheap shit I'm missing out on.

It's also really hard for some people in late middle age (w/out a LUCRATIVE CAREER) to live here.

I'm also old and have a family and work a lot, and I just don't really know what's happening anymore. When we went out in Bushwick, we saw some local DJs/electronic artists in a little club and it was absurdly packed and seemed pretty alive.

I guess another thing I've noticed is that galleries tend to show artists from all over the US and world, and I'm guessing that's more true than it used to be. But that's also an internet-erasing-borders thing.

All cities are dead because culture travels faster through the Internet than it ever could geographically.

― treeship 2, Tuesday, February 6, 2018 3:28 PM (thirteen minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this is pretty otm

it's all about the rust belt, my friend

we eat the cheeses here too

they are artisanal

our cities are the envy of all, their livability is primo

Here's how I think about New York, after my last visit there last summer:

New York is good and the only actual large city in America on the metric of everything existing there. Big cities are the ones where there is everything; you can tell Seattle is a small city because there are things that are not here.

New York is bad in that it smells of garbage. In the summer, hot garbage.

If more American cities grow to populations in the millions, New York will be more dead by comparison due declining uniqueness. Is this going to happen? Who knows.

i kinda want to leave, but i have a job i like okay and an unusually fortuitous living situation. there's no real reason for me to be here; i don't partake of the cultural opportunities available

it'll probably be the subway that finally drives me away

NYC: where if you can make it there as a successful artist, you can also have a successful time crowdfunding your medical bills.

Telecommuting will finish it off.

Less of a joke, not as dead as San Francisco?

Feels like people have been waiting for a rust belt/flyover city to take over since our traditional metropolises are more 'playground for the rich' than ever but I still don't hear kids looking to move to Columbus or Pittsburgh.

Have the media decided where the New Portland is?

There was a Tooze tweet recently, where he showed stats on how professional actors in the USA, vastly outnumber coal miners. I forgot by much, but it was significantly much.

I do hear murmurings about ppl aspiring to move to Pittsburgh, Detroit, Denver, a few others

According to @BLS_gov and @TheEconomist there are 51,200 people employed as coal miners in the US v. 785k in 1920. In 2017 there are more florists, actors and personal fitness instructors than miners. pic.twitter.com/m913tHokI2

— Adam Tooze (@adam_tooze) January 2, 2018

Less of a joke, not as dead as San Francisco?

Feels like people have been waiting for a rust belt/flyover city to take over since our traditional metropolises are more 'playground for the rich' than ever but I still don't hear kids looking to move to Columbus or Pittsburgh.

― louise ck (milo z), Tuesday, February 6, 2018 6:27 PM (seven minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I hear rumblings about Pittsburgh now and then. Also tons of my friends moved to Philly over the years and it did seem to be producing bands at a good clip for a while.

And no one talks about how many administrative assistant, secretarial and receptionist jobs were lost in NYC due to automation, because... women, a lot of woc. Breadwinners for their families. Fuck coal miners and their sooty tears.

I’m moving back to new york soon bc of my job but it’s not a nice place to live.

I still have my apartment in Astoria. But I really don't want to go back. I dread having to deal with the subway.

The subway is inexcusably unpleasant

i get more anxious/aggro in nyc in my old age. i don't know what it is. impatient. people bug me more. i think its just a case of the olds. i will always love the city though. in general. i've loved hanging out there my whole life.

it really is me being set in my ways. we stayed in brooklyn one summer with the kids and i seriously didn't want to leave the hotel room. get on a subway to go to a museum in manhattan? kill me now.

Everything here is comically more stressful than any other place.

I car commute to the suburbs now and it's glorious to not be taking the subway anymore

Why is the ceiling always dripping down there?

Second and third tier cities could attract people by just showing how messed up the MTA is in their promo material.

I haven't lived in nyc full time for almost two years now. I miss it, but I really don't miss it. Just the thought of having to take the subway to work gives me anxiety.

Part of me really regrets accepting another job here. As a teen my dream was living here but it’s not that fun.

NYC misses Yerac and Znarf

Fix the subway and get rid of GOP madness and I am there!

fuck the subway, i drive most places now. and when i do take the subway it's in the middle of the day.
sorry can't do anything about the GOP.

Do you have to go in and out of manhattan a lot or no?

I remember taking the subway maybe 1-2 times a month when I worked in Williamsburg. It was the best. My tweety truck got sold like 3 years ago.

i've honestly not experienced the subway horrors that many have, but i will say that the subway is nearly unusable on nights and weekends

just not enough trains

I want to get myself to love it again.

Not the subway—the city

The last job I had there, I almost had a breakdown every time I took the subway. I would sometimes using the plodding R so I wouldn't have to deal with the insaneness of the 4,5,6 during rush hour. That train really has the worst people to be stuck with in the tunnel.

I do drive into the city regularly. Many mornings I drive in and drop my wife off at work and then drive home. It helps that we live near the Manhattan Bridge and her office is in chinatown. We also might drive in and park for any number of special events.

Queens is so weird. So suburban

Proud Mets fans *vomits*
Feel like Bk has some limited rights to be dodgers fans

Parts of queens are very suburban. So are parts of the Bronx and Brooklyn. It’s almost as if the further away you get from Manhattan and from subway access, the more suburban it seems.

I knew Dan would reply

i knew you would be weird about it

lol
Where do you live

carroll gardens, brooklyn

which tbf hasn't been the same since esposito's pork store closed

^

Carroll Gardens hasn’t been the same since Leonardo’s Brick Oven Pizza closed.

Gonna drive my car all over the outer boroughs today!

Parts of queens are very suburban. So are parts of the Bronx and Brooklyn. It’s almost as if the further away you get from Manhattan and from subway access, the more suburban it seems.

― dan selzer, Saturday, March 22, 2025 10:39 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

north shore of long island just resembles suburban DC at this point

Baby you can drive Dan’s car

Birthday spa day at Rockaway Hotel but I out the wrong Rockaway Hotel in the GPS and ended up in Brownsville. Made it to the Rockaways a half hour later.

Birthday spa /
Rock hotel /
Nice n brown /
GPS town

Wouldn’t mind moving to rocjawat

learned today that zohran mamdani was in my brother-in-law's graduating class at bronx science.

also his mother is mira nair.

Queens is so weird. So suburban

― calstars, Saturday, March 22, 2025 8:32 PM (three days ago)

forest hills feels a bit like stepping into another dimension. however i feel the same about windsor terrace

Hah I was just in Forest Hills a few hours ago for a food pantry visit. It's weird there for sure. Almost a similar architectural mix to where Ditmas meets Flatbush and there are big buildings on the avenues and free-standing private homes on the streets.

Except not the same community vibe at all, because it's Queens.

https://www.press-citizen.com/story/news/local/2014/08/25/brooklyn-stands-iowa-city-girls/14567431/

think weirdest queens nabe i’ve passed through is jamaica estates - all manors. where trump grew up iirc

So are parts of the Bronx and Brooklyn

My college boyfriend was from the north Bronx and grew up on Van Cortland Park. So suburban in feel and very close to Westchester. Was completely surprised the first time we went there.

There's a pretty amazing youtube video of somebody visiting Riverdale and talking to locals and the cultural disconnect is pretty awkward. Wealthy white boomer joking about being from the "boogie down bronx" while private security services ask kids of color if they haven't strayed too far from school.

I don't know Riverdale well but had a couple friends who went to fieldston so I know of it and that tracks. Will see if I can find the vid.

ffs is it really going to be 82° tomorrow

Got tickets to the vessel

hope that’s not a symptom of depression

Nah
Wife is out of town
Bonding experience with my boys

saturdays are, after all, for the boys

Staring into the vessel, with the boys

I’ve mentioned it before, but the one time I visited that area, the wind was making an unreal screaming/whistling noise. I think it was due to some construction equipment nearby, but if the screaming is coming from the vessel… I get it

honestly more real estate developments should have a screaming void at their center

Little Spain is pretty good. The “empanada” (more like a patty), some meat and machete, patatas Brava and churros.

A million lantern flies are being born today

We found ourselves at Little Spain after Luna Luna and had a darn satisfying custard tart from the pastry counter. My partner wants to go back just to eat the other pastries.

temperature in central park dropped 26 degrees between 4:51 and 5:51 without a storm

weird

I think I saw that movie.

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BOGZmNDYyNmMtNDQyNy00OTkzLTg1OGUtYWJiNmQ5Y2Q5ZGU3XkEyXkFqcGc@._V1_FMjpg_UX1000_.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/DwzcjysY/IMG-2002.jpg

Last year the lantern flies outside my office building near Battery Park were like a literal plague, covering surfaces, crowding the windows 24 floors up. Building maintenance was using pressure washers to dislodge them from the walls. It would be great if the Parks Dept or someone had done mitigation over the winter on the park foliage but I guess we'll see.

it was very funny seeing people running yesterday in Prospect Park from the sudden cold. swear to you, it all became empty in 2 minutes

It was very surreal because I was in a basement for an all day event. Went in and it was a brisk morning, came out for lunch and it was balmy summertime, emerged again at 5 and it was ghastly with rain spitting from a frigid sky.

Man wanted after video shows him performing sex acts on corpse on NYC subway

Things aren't going well, are they?

New York City is dead and this guy had sex with it on the subway

Even with my jaded perspective this story is pretty grim
First I heard of it they were calling it a “corpse” which…yeah. There’s a distinction between a recently dead person and a corpse, right?

This protracted sunshower is pretty cool

I didn't think anything could make Andrew Cuomo less appealing, but support from Bill Ackman does it. Ugh is that guy really gonna be mayor?

NYC Library Workers Say Cuomo’s Campaign Asked If They’ve Considered Charging for Services

ranked voting and we still end up with asshole after asshole on end

My BIL’s show opens today! People should go.

https://karmakarma.org/exhibitions/randy-wray-ny-22-188-2025/

I'm in NYC for a couple weeks rn and that's super close to me. Going to check it out!