Hello to All That
An essay about returning to New York City
Hey, it’s great to have you.
“It’s been a long day, without you my friend”.
These are my words to NYC as I moved back this spring after a few years away. It’s like picking things up with a close friend after not seeing them for years. Coming back to familiarity - but at the same time realizing that we’ve both changed from the passage of time.
On my end, I moved out of NYC in 2020 during the pandemic and spent most of my time in New Jersey, with stops in Los Angeles, Fort Lee, and Mexico City. When it comes to NYC, the city definitely feels different post-pandemic. A Reddit comment captures this accurately in saying that “everything feels like 10-20% crappier”. Convenience stores lock everyday items behind shelves. The subway feels sketchier. Food prices are at least 25% higher (hello inflation).
More on prices, Manhattan is beginning to feel like a city catered towards knowledge workers. With sky-high rents and $15 to-go lunches as the norm, it’s hard to imagine how those in other occupations can even afford to live in the city. The new norm of work from home created more demand for nicer apartments, driving up rent. Restaurants had to raise their prices to address this slowdown in business from office workers. New York City was always expensive, but never to this extent.
But even so, the city continues to be special. Each neighborhood in the city has a completely different look and feel - you can walk a few blocks and feel like you’re in another world. You can be anyone you want to be in a place where everybody is too busy minding their own business and following their dreams to mind what you are doing (as long as it’s not something crazy). You can find anyone here with the slew of events, industries, and accessibility of the city. Even if the subway isn’t working as well as it once was, this is still the most walkable city in the USA.
Is the trade-off worth it?
I considered the move by thinking about the following factors:
Career - events, networking, access to people
NYC is the center of crypto/blockchain in the USA and is a great location for in-person meetings
There is also a vibrant community in venture capital, second only to Silicon Valley
Fun - dining, nightlife, things to do
There is no shortage of restaurants to try, nightlife venues, and places to just hang out and wander around
It’s also been great catching up with friends I haven’t seen in years
Dating - NYC has a huge population of single people
Not applicable to me since I’m in a relationship
These are all of my factors I looked at when thinking about my move. I know it’s expensive to live in the city and I’m not one to live like how those in the early 1900’s lived (hello fifth floor walkup) for no reason. I knew what I was getting myself into in returning to the city and have been taking it all in.
In her farewell letter to New York City titled “Goodbye to All That”, Joan Didion wrote: “I know now that almost everyone wonders something like that, sooner or later and no matter what he or she is doing, but one of the mixed blessings of being twenty and twenty-one and even twenty-three is the conviction that nothing like this, all evidence to the contrary notwithstanding, has ever happened to anyone before.”
The conversations with fellow dreamers that make you feel alive. Late nights spent partying with friends. Chance encounters with people you haven’t seen in years. These are all parts of the city I’ve experience and re-experienced.
Now I’m back. Hell to All That.
P.S. - now that I’m back, let’s catch up. Please reach out!
Until Next Time
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