Reply With QuoteI've only been to a small part of Hoboken but I loved what I saw. Great little place. I'm not a big fan of the Northeast in general, but Hoboken appeared to be a very liveable place. Some great little restaurants there as well.
Ton, look at it this way: A lot of times the way a person is treated in an environment is due to their own perceptions and feelings.
If you start to look uncomfortable around someone with a NYC accent, I guarantee that person will probably not recieve it warmly.
OTOH, I would not be able to live in the city either. I am a suburban boy here, living in NE NJ all my life and working in NYC for most of my career. I recently moved (heh, 7 years) to Hoboken and found it a nice mix, albeit it troublesome in some of the very same ways.
But one thing I have found as I looked around the city looking for a place to live is that there are SO MANY different places to be. I had never been to Brooklyn Heights before. It is honestly the only place in NYC that I have walked through with my GF and SMILED at the prospect of living there.
I guess I would come down as a moderate in this then. I have lived in NYC (well, VERY close), LA (2 months, it was MORE than enough), Boston (again Suburb, but a VERY nice, albeit COLD and WET town) and found good and bad in all of them.
I would say NYC is a great place to live NEAR, but I don't know if I could stay here too long!!!
I've only been to a small part of Hoboken but I loved what I saw. Great little place. I'm not a big fan of the Northeast in general, but Hoboken appeared to be a very liveable place. Some great little restaurants there as well.
Awww, couldn't you give them a year, at the very least? :mrgreen:Originally Posted by Tonina
:twisted:
It is. The parking sucks and the government there is VERY biased and, um, "influenced".
It used to be the rats behind for a number of years, but in the last 10 prices on hosing has gone up 300%-400% and development is EVERYWHERE.
Warning also, there are groups of cops (they usually dont last long) in Hoboken that are repeatedly, um, inconsiderate to the people that live there being how they resemble all the "new people" that are coming in and drinking and partying too much. (I have had my fill with the drunken yuppies myself, but they are a small % of the population).
Oh, San Fran is also an AWESOME area, but you really need a car.
Kind of ironic that the most envirnmentally concious state in the union is the most dependant on automotive transport.
But if you liked Hoboken, go over to BH and see what I saw. A lot of nice small shops, bars and restaurants. NO grafitti, NO streetside vendors, and generally a nicer "feel" to it (trees and all).
North Park Slope is similar. (North east of hfdjshfjkfhk park (I forgot name)). But the further south you go, and the farther away from the park, the more it gets like the rest of Brooklyn/Manhattan.
Also, take a look at $$ land on the upper west side. I was almost crying when I saw that area. I think it just bothered me that it really was not opulent, it was just done right. And I knew that I either probably never would be able to afford it, OR if I could, I could get a KILLER house in the suburbs.
One final comment (sorry). If you have so-so impressions of NJ, it is certainly understandable. It is pretty much the buffer zone for NYC on most of its populated areas (including Newark, Patterson, Hackensack, etc).
But if you get out past the airport and head into places like Ridgewood (I would recommend there first), Oakland, Franklin Lakes, some areas of Wayne, Ramsey, Wykoff, Allendale, Upper Saddle River, and Mahwah you will see a NJ that most people never really hear of.
No toxic waste, no "what exit do you live on". Just nicely spaced areas not suffering from the urban sprawl or commercial over-planning of housing communities. that is being infringed on now due to the people moving out from the city that have NO concept of what a "yard" is. Even in the most opulent of areas in Brooklyn and Queens, a "yard" is the 20 feet out in front of your row house......
Sorry, I am rambling..
I guess what I am saying is no matter how much you have seen of this city, there are always places that will still surprise you. It took me 8 years to get to BH even....
The PATH stations have a banner at the bottom of the monitors in each station that notify you how long until the next train and where it is going. This new service has received a ton of positive feedback. A few months ago the PA was quoted as saying how surprised they were at all the thankful letters. As ASchwarz said, the MTA has plans to do the same.
Are you kidding me?!? Londons underground is the oldest thing you can still be allowed in. It was built after the industrial revolution for gods sake. nearley all the stations are cladded with ugly stained yellow tiles (with tacky pictures of sherlock holmes in some of them) and by god do they smell!!! Its like aprison down there.
The only good subway stations in london are the ones at canary wharf, designed by norman foster.
If it was displayed on the outside (street level), it could be really useful.
Late at night (3am), you want to head home. You walk by the subway station, and see a sign that tells you when the next train is coming. If it's only 3 minutes away, you probably go down, and hop on the subway. But if it's 20+ minutes away, maybe you just grab a taxi.
When I was refering to cleaner & more modern I was more focusing on:Are you kidding me?!? Londons underground is the oldest thing you can still be allowed in. It was built after the industrial revolution for gods sake. nearley all the stations are cladded with ugly stained yellow tiles (with tacky pictures of sherlock holmes in some of them) and by god do they smell!!! Its like aprison down there.
The only good subway stations in london are the ones at canary wharf, designed by norman foster.
1) The digital "Next Train ETA" signs.
2) The fact that NYC was still running old redbird subway trains until recently.
But on the issue of general station cleanliness, I honestly felt London's stations, on average, were cleaner. Not a big issue for me. NYC's subway's relaibility & 24/7 service was more important for me.
(Edit: part of my daily commute in London involved the newer Docklands Light Railway, so that might have subconsciously influenced my opinion of the cleanliness of London's mass transit.)
btw, on the issue of clean & modern, both London & NYC's subway stations look like total crap compared to Singapore's. Singapore's stations are incredibly clean, air conditioned, and they have glass walls separating the platform from the tracks (so people can't fall on the tracks). The trains pull up, and the trains doors open in sync with the platform glass doors.
Yes, Singapore. Maybe NYC can adopt a rule that if anyone spits or throws their batteries in the subway they can be flogged?
On second thought...that wouldn't work here.
Those who defend the New York Subway often tend to focus on the geographical and temporal breadth of its service as well as its efficiency, but most outsiders' criticisms are more generally directed at its overall appearance. Step into a station in London or Washington to compare and the stations in New York, with their tracks covered in garbage, peeling paint on the walls, and bare I-beam support pillars begin to seem like laughable affairs.
London's Underground: bright, clean, open:
Paris, same deal:
A train at a station in London. Note how the destinations and estimated arrival times of trains are displayed. Also note the fairly modern, sleek design of the train itself:
Granted, there's a bit higher level of civil obedience there, allowing for such comparative luxuries as cloth seats:
Washington, in our own country, disrespectful as it is of the entire concept of public transit, has a system fairly comparable to those in Europe:
The trains in Berlin's U-Bahn even have television screens which display not only ads but useful information like the news and weather:
New York subway: by comparison, rather dark and foreboding. I always wonder what those black spots on the platforms are. Trash, gum, and other products of human waste often seem to be worked into the surface. High volume the excuse? Paris and London are huge cities too with their own rush hours. In only perhaps a third of the stations in Manhattan do I see regularly cleaned platform floors...
The caving ceilings and crud stuck in the walls can also be somewhat disturbing...
Even NY's own PATH is much better:
Of course, improvements have been made. Some stations have been painstakingly upgraded, but compared to the new lines in London, they've still got quite a ways to go. The means by which most people commute in the wealthiest city in the wealthiest country in the world ought to set the standard, not be embarrassed by it...and express trains (which I sorely missed living in Berlin) don't nearly make up for it.
Having been born in the Bronx, going through the school system, living in Queens, Flushing et all then moving to LI, going to Radio City Music Hall, seeing the Rockettes, going to Macy's/Gimballs for Christmas, going to see the tree @ RC. I had an idyllic life, and memories through rose colored glasses.
Having done jobs out there @ the Javitz, staying in some nice hotels, the imagery to me is still one of wonder and amazement about the city. Yes, its different seeing the city from 4 feet off the ground hanging onto your mom or dads hand/coat tails vs. tooling around in a rental or a taxi hitting the vodka bars w. your current paramour of the moment, but the feeling is still there.
To me, I truly believe in the lyrics "if I can make it there, I'll make it anywhere" because my folks did it. My childhood friends are doing it. There is a lore, there is a mystery, there is a challenge.
Only "major" cities I've lived in were Atlanta (5 yrs) and San Francisco (5 yrs) since college. Known entities? Yes. Get pretty much anything and everything one could possibly need? Check. On par w. the level of sophistication, history and awe that New York exudes every second of every day? Don't bet on it.
.02 cents.
Speaking of the NY accent. I had to lose mine. When we moved down to the Sunshine state, not only did I look different, I got the comments of "why do you talk so funny?" from my cruel classmates. I adapted accordingly.
I love NYC. Being born and raised in Jersey City right across the river from Manhattan and across the harbor from Brooklyn, I love everything about the city. People hate it for many unfounded reasons. I guess to appreciate everything the city has to offer you have to be an urbanite. I know many people that I go to college with and they don't like the city because its not squeaky clean like there overly steralized like their suburban and country lives. Another complaint I find is the sirens. lol. It's so funny when there like I couldn't sleep last night and I'm like why and they go becasue of the sirens and cars outside my window. LOL. I look at it this way you don't like the city then get the hell out the last thing the city needs is people like that who complain over every little damm thing. Also I go didn't you come to the open house and see what the city is really like? Usually the ansewer is no they think the city is like Manhattan, in other words LALA Land so it should be cool they really don't know what city living is REALLY like. A lot of people make the 4 outer boroughs and surrounding areas to be all like Manhattan and the city they see in Friends and Sex in the City. Its really quite funny LOL. Sorry rambling.
Which is why it's always on the top of it's game.
However, take note how lots of people will say they hate the city, but will never leave, or if they do, will always identify themsleves with it.
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