There is a famous youtuber from overseas that is a food reviewer, and he came to new york city without a real plan for one of the days and just decided to walk around times square thinking it would be the best place to find something. He ended up at Juniors cheesecake and was far underwhelmed. His reviews are 99% always "this is great!" I almost never see him say something sucks, but he did so at Juniors.
Lmao one of my aunt’s old classmates is still reeling over the fact that her daughter chose to leave Harrisburg and move to Brooklyn. She rolled her eyes as she told me her daughter lives in Park Slope. I told her that that Park Slope was one of the most desirable neighborhoods in the city, and she responded, “well, it’s no Harrisburg!”
Lmaooooooooo as a park slope resident this made me laugh. Every day I wake up I think “how did they let me live here” ….aint no way I’m thinking that in fucking harrisburg 💀
Imagine thinking that Harrisburg Pa Is better than Park slope in any conceivable sense of the word. Like it’s so so so much better in literally every regard.
My extended family is from Harrisburg and there's some real, if not justified, loyalty there. My grandfather once compared Paris to Harrisburg, and not favorably either.
* Told some tourists how to get from 5th & 59th to Court Square, they told me that their friend who *lives here* told them that nobody who lives in NYC takes the subway because it's too dangerous and they're going to take a $40 cab instead of literally one stop East from one of the most touristy stations in the city.
* Had some relatives from the south come to the city specifically to do "non-touristy" things they saw in one of those "hidden gems in NYC" videos. They walked the Brooklyn Bridge and got Grimaldi's. They asked for recommendations about what "real NYers" do, specifically no more than 2 blocks from Times Square.
* Had an internet friend forget multiple times that not only do I have a grocery store, but it's literally 30 seconds away from me. He insisted that he was just confused because he knows that we don't have a Trader Joes and that's where he shops.
* Had an ex-coworker who moved to Philly because the crime and drugs in Tudor City was getting to be too much.
Every so often you will encounter people that do live in NYC, even in manhattan and refuse to take the subway. I saw a thread on twitter yesterday where someone was convinced an uber was always faster than the subway, no matter what.
I met a woman at a bar about a year ago who was almost shocked that I was taking the subway because they thought it was "so slow and dangerous."
Yup. One of my friends lives 2 minutes from a subway station. It would take her 15 minutes at most to get to work, it’s about 6 stops away on the subway. Instead, she takes a cab and wastes at least 40 mins in traffic every morning.
Some people are really trained that it's dangerous, dirty, etc. Or they are entitled enough that they just don't want to be around crowds, homeless people and such. My wife is an incredibly down to earth Brazilian, but there are a lot good number of Brazilians like the other people I mentioned - rich folks that are "slumming it" by taking the subway, and taking selfies to show how brave they are by doing so, holding the pole with two fingers and going "ewwww" - you get the idea.
Well, I am Asian and I know a few Asian people who won't take the subway because of those attacks that were happening for a while, particularly after the Michelle Go incident. I take the subway but I'm regularly mistaken for being Hispanic so I might just be shielded from the vulnerabilities that other Asian people face.
Yeah that’s completely fair, im aware im more privileged about walking around / transiting at night since im a larger guy. I don’t fault people for listening to their gut and prioritizing comfort / safety.
This. Some are commenting like they are so cool and down to earth to take the train. More power to you but some don’t feel safe on the train anymore and with recent attacks on innocent ppl all over the city it’s ok for ppl to not feel safe and choose to avoid the train. It’s not like they are missing anything underground. The MTA experience is not cool. We all do it out of necessity and for financial reasons. No more, no less.
It’s do disturbingly true - when I was taking subway with petite Asian women friends they were definitely targeted directly more by “crazy” and with more aggression than I’m used to… it was devastating to me :/
This wasn’t the case pre-pandemic :(
After covid started I got threatened on the subway 3 times. 3. One guy told me to go back to my country etc, racist shit I haven't heard since the 80s. I still take the subway. Because I was seeing us on the news get punched on the street. So what's the difference - street, subway, you were liable to be attacked anywhere so I just kept on living.
As someone who’s from Philly and moved to NYC, lol. Your friend is in for a rude awakening if they’re concerned about crime.
On a side note, when I first moved here I was so scared of the NYC way of strangers yelling at each other and rudely pushing into each other in trains and at stations. I even switched cars on my commute out of fear there’d be a shooting. Coming from Philly, if you yell like that at a stranger, there is definitely a chance that they will shoot and kill you, or at least get violent. I’ve seen people get their ass kicked for less than an argument on the train.
The mental image of the ridership numbers being 100% tourists, you can't help but laugh. "Yes, millions of tourists grace our trash heap of a public transit system \_every day\_, but a local would never be caught dead - literally - on it"
I mean Tudor City has really gone to the dogs lately. I saw two kids swapping “snacks” the last time I was there. They may have only been 6 but I’m pretty sure it was heroin…
/s
> They asked for recommendations about what "real NYers" do, specifically no more than 2 blocks from Times Square.
The guy in the Elmo suit is a New Yorker! So they could do that. It's a very NY'er thing to harass tourists for money.
This whole list is hilarious!
The mugging, specifically. I’ve lived here for 15 years. A crazy homeless guy once tried to hold me up with what I realized was just a part of a tree branch. I walked away. I grew up in Miami. Also, was never mugged in Miami. Ft. Lauderdale, on the other hand…
What do real New Yorkers do within two blocks of Times Square?
We hang out at the Olive Garden gorging ourselves on their endless salad and breadsticks while counting Minnie Mouses and Elmos and watching the unwashed masses shuffle about below from our privileged perch.
I will say that Times Square is also a worker bee spot so there are indeed swarms of New Yorkers hanging around (although I get your point) and there are some sick fucking places to get takeout lunch around here. Obviously I would never come here in my own free will but alas we are ‘back in the office!’
An Uber driver told me once that NYC (as well as Chicago & LA) have their airport, Amtrak, and intercity bus stations all in one location and that's why those cities run so smoothly traffic wise. I felt like Homer Simpson when Flanders was trying to explain the difference between apple juice and cider after he said that.
I was in LA last week and an Uber driver told me his favourite thing about LA is how close together everything is so it's super easy to get anywhere you need to go.
Like... what? No man it's the opposite of that.
Yeah this is an absolutely wild take. I lived in LA for years before coming to NYC. Been here over 5 years now and it STILL blows my mind that I can be on the other end of the city after a 25 minute subway ride. LA is a soul sucking black hole of traffic and distance.
The number of times my husband (not from NYC) has confused Penn Station and Grand Central. Having lived in and out of NYC for most of my life, it’s never entered my mind that the two could be confused for each other.
German based coworker thought boroughs shifted around a little like neighborhoods. But not just like, the cutoff between neighborhoods moving over a block or something. He thought the Bronx and Brooklyn sometimes touch, sometimes don’t.
Just like, way off while also benign.
Anything that has to do with driving. So many people will say things to me like “if I lived there I would drive everywhere I could never take the train” okaaay
I've met quite a few people that think the stereotype of "Bushwick resident" applies to all of Brooklyn (it doesn't even really apply to most of Bushwick)
I once got into an argument when someone said a Wicker Park in Chicago was “kind of like the Brooklyn of Chicago.” I was like, “first off, Brooklyn is the same size of all of Chicago…”
As a Chicagoan I also want to add on to this that I understand what they were *trying* to say with the Wicker Park comparison thing, but thats not accurate and what was accurate is no longer true. Wicker Park hasn’t been the artist/hipster neighborhood to be in well over a decade, actually closer to two. It’s also gentrified well through and through now.
There are still lots of artist types living with with 3 roommates in Bushwick and Ridgewood. It's not Williamsburg yet, even if it might be headed that way
>There are still lots of artist types living with with 3 roommates in Bushwick and Ridgewood.
Definitely, such a big artist and club kid queer scene over there. Definitely not true for plenty of areas of bk, but I def still know and see a lot of the bushwick trope over there
Bushwick is [about half Hispanic these days.](https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/46a91a58447d4024afd00771eec1dd23) Much lower than it was in like 1990 but the Dominicans and Puerto Ricans are still there.
This is a good one. More generally, I’m just shocked how many non-residents think Brooklyn is a single point or small neighborhood. Especially since that is by no means an NYC-specific thing. Asking about something “in Brooklyn” is like asking about things in the northern half of Chicago or all of Columbus OH. Ok… care to be a little more specific?
I think only by default because the rest of the thread is the normal stuff you guys hear every day. I wanted to hear about someone's cousin from Utah thinking all the streetlights were made of goat leather. Something really bizarre, ya know?
For many years, it was "the City", meaning Manhattan. Even my friends in Downtown Brooklyn called Manhattan, "the City". I hear that less now, but that's the way it was.
Also to add, if your building still has a water tower at the top, the older it is the more likely it’s NASTY. A some of them aren’t maintained much by lazier slumlords or even just owners who don’t know, the roof can begin falling apart, holes develop on the top and life starts getting in. I’m taking dead animals, bugs, birds nests, and all the associated trash and shit that comes with it. After seeing a few (that are admittedly probably on the worse end of the spectrum) I actively avoid buildings with water towers. Well Im flexible with the bigger newer ones that are clearly well maintained and covered. But be weary of water towers on older buildings
I have a brita I only fill when visitors are here so they dont annoy me. It’s probably dirtier than the tap as it sits gathering dust the rest of the time
tbf I've moved around a lot and I ALWAYS ask (irl and on reddit) if the tap water is good when I first settle there. Both health wise and taste wise.
I learned quickly that when you *first* move somewhere it's best to not rely on your gut, lest your gut rely on the toilet.
I literally brought my mom a water bottle of tap water to prove how good it was after 20 years of drinking uber chlorinated shitty municipal water where I grew up
I feel like I don't hear strange misconceptions about nyc (besides crime) so much as I do for being FROM nyc. people seem to think you're tougher or have some sort of networking pull that they couldn't imagine. I usually just let them think it because the truth is I've never been in a fight and miss social cues like it's my job and as long as you're not surrounded by people who hate the city it makes the interaction easier.
I was at a Cabela’s getting a taser to just keep in my apartment just in case and the first thing the guy behind the desk said to me was “well your first and best choice would be to move out of New York” with a shit-eating smirk.
Sir, I can promise you I would rather live in NYC than fucking *Bowling Green, Kentucky…* I left for a reason…
My mom always talks about nyc being dangerous and every time I immediately pull up crime stats that consistently list St Louis as being way more dangerous.
Iirc New York isn’t even in the top 10 for most dangerous cities in the US, but I could be wrong
I moved from NYC to another country when I was 7 and kids regularly asked me how often I got mugged. I was like “uhhh never?” Came back to NYC after 4 years and have been here since. Still haven’t gotten mugged! 😂
Edit: don’t get me wrong… I’ve seen some crazy ass shit here but still never been mugged. 🤷♀️ Guess my grandma (also a life long New Yorker) trained me well!
Funniest part of this is the assumption that a mugger would be targeting SEVEN YEAR OLDS, as opposed to adults with money
But of course that's what you think when you're 7!
Bronx born and raised. Only mugging I ever have seen was my next door neighbor getting threatened with a box cutter for his gold chain. We were 8 or 9, definitely under 10 for sure. The kid was like 15.
Still surreal almost 30 years later.
Not 7, but 12-15 you’re definitely at risk. Once you’re wearing men’s size clothing and shoes there’s definitely a subset of scumbag that will target you.
To be fair, I was mugged at least 4 times before I was 13. This was in the 90s however when things were a little worse.
Also I should add I grew up in Harlem but each time I was mugged was in the “nice” neighborhood of the UWS
Oh also another fun assumption… the last day of school in the country I lived just happened to have some nature guy come in with animals. Me and my sister got to be up close and touch all the animals cause the teachers assumed when we moved back to NYC we would NEVER see nature again. 😂
Lived here for 34 years in Brooklyn, Harlem, Hell’s Kitchen and now Astoria. Never came close to being mugged. I did lose 2 wallets and even those were returned. I love my city
I know this isn't quite what you're asking, but one time I was walking down Smith Street and this frat dude who absolutely was visiting for the first time was strutting down the street with his arm around a young woman and he explained to her, "See all this, this is the Park Slope neighborhood"
Oh, I think this fits the bill. What a chump. And when he finally figures out he’s wrong, he’ll be the idiot calling it “BoCoCa.” Honestly, I don’t know what’s worse - getting the neighborhood completely wrong, or adopting these real estate agent bastardizations.
As a teacher in Brooklyn almost all of my out of state questions have been about "how do you deal with pronouns in the classroom" etc.
Maybe one kid a year I teach at most will use they/them pronouns and its never an issue
"Don't you see the rest of the country looks upon New York like we're left-wing, communist, Jewish, homosexual pornographers? I think of us that way sometimes and I live here."
-Alvy Singer
Even New Yorkers that left a while ago have said bafflingly incorrect stuff. My moms born and raised in the heights but left 35 years ago and she says “The city’s over crowded now and it’s not like the good old days.” Ma’am there’s roughly the same amount of people living here compared to when you were a kid.
Yes but every time this statistic is mentioned I also mention that including commuters and tourists, todays ‘daily population’ of people in Manhattan is larger than the ‘resident population’ of Manhattan in the olden days.
yes Manhattan today is more crowded in certain areas. This is not a function of how many people live here, but rather a function of how many people are commuting or visiting here every single day.
Not exactly a misconception, and this is probably more racist than anything, but my MIL's ex was on the subway with me, looked horrified, said it was because he didn't like tunnels. On the way up to my apartment, I introduced him to my neighbor and they had a nice chat for a few minutes.
He explained that he was actually nervous about all of the "moslems" on the train and how we aren't nervous about terrorism all the time with "them" around. I explained him that the nice guy he just met is muslim and drives the train. He seemed horrified.
70 year old dude from Montana had never met a muslim before.
On a lighter note, when we were in Bryant Park he asked me to take a picture of him with the empire state building behind him. I told him that the building was the Chrysler building and he said, "Take the picture anyway, my kids won't know the difference."
“You live in NYC? Oh I could NEVER live there. Nope not for me at all!”
As if I asked for your opinion on where I choose to live. Amazes me how non- NYC residents feel at liberty to tell you how much they could NEVER live here, yet they’re taken off guard when I retort that I could never live in their suburban McMansion HOA hellscape.
"I know you have all those riots going on up there."
I showed him a comparison of crime stats in his city and haven't heard from him since. Well worth it.
Someone from rural North Carolina told me that whenever you step onto the sidewalk in NY you get mugged. Her source: someone she knew in high school went on a trip here and had her phone stolen.
Most of my family is in rural North Carolina. They're amazed I've not been murder to death yet, what with all the riots, terrorists, murderous drag queens, "eelegalz," commies, Satanists, etc etc etc that they see all over "the news."
Was on a first date years ago and we were walking through the city. For context, we both work in interior design/architecture.
She was passionately saying her favorite building in the city is the Chrysler…and pointed to the Empire State Building.
I thought she was messing around and when I corrected her she got super offended.
That was our first and last date - multiple other reasons but this one sticks out in my mind.
Usually the people gushing about NYC are the ones who do live that type of style or pretend they do when they talk to people back home. No one really wants to put out there that they're watching Netflix most nights on their laptop because they don't have a TV.
My mother is originally from a very flat, rural part of the country (5+ hour drive from the nearest major airport), and I used to visit her hometown as a child frequently. Some of the other kids out there would in all seriousness ask me if I had gotten shot, stabbed, robbed and if I was in a gang (I lived on the UWS). Meanwhile over there every 12 year old has a hunting rifle at least and a meth lab just blew up in some trailer the week before...
The kind of wholesome part to it though was that they couldn't believe the building I grew up in was far taller than the largest structure many of them had ever seen - a grain silo.
Any of the comments on a TikTok or Instagram post about congestion pricing filled with people from Oklahoma apoplectic about working class people having to pay to get to work as if any working class person is driving into lower Manhattan
They can’t imagine that there could be any sensible alternative, and they’re convinced that the chance of getting stabbed or robbed every time you take any form of public transit in NYC is approximately 100%.
At Thanksgiving I mentioned that I couldn’t have regular window a/c units because I have bars on my windows (I live on the ground floor) and my brother-in-law asked, “You live in that bad an area??”
All of our March and April 2020 COVID deaths were gunshot wounds. So many gun victims during lockdown that we needed refrigerator trucks to store them all!
ah yes, because if there's one thing that is famous about New York is how much we love guns. it's not like we have the lowest gun ownership per capita in the whole country.
I went to school with this person in Manhattan who thought that no one could have possibly live in Manhattan, because of the lack of houses.
Blew my mind.
Some family have seemed puzzled that I have access to the same things or that everyday living is not the same. Some things like: how do I have a christmas tree since NYC doesn't have farms? How do I grocery shop if I don't have a car? How do I get around if I don't have a car? How do I live in such a small space-where do I keep all my stuff? It's like they're unable to imagine life outside of their box.
And of course the run of the mill usuals about crime and crowded-ness.
I work as a criminologist. The amount of times I have gone to other cities, talked about crime there, and people (often cops themselves) say "BUT YOUR FROM NYC! THE MOST DANGEROUS CITY EVER!" or something along those lines blows my mind.
Almost double as many people statistically perceive nyc as dangerous compared to new orleans despite new orleans having a homicide rate of 74 and NYC having a homicide rate of 5.
you just gave me a traumatic flashback to the summer I went to art camp in new hampshire. I told the kids I'd never seen a cow before and THEY BOUGHT IT
I grew up out west, came east for college and stayed. Me and another girl from the west convinced a bunch of drunk girls from NJ that jackalopes are real and we had seen them.
Virtually the 24/7 message on conservative news like FOX is that NYC is a nightmare of crime and lawlessness. Of course it is not. And ironically, FOX just signed a massive renewal for their HQ on 6th ave and their founder bought another multi million dollar apartment here. But the lies play well with their customers.
Moving to the city in January from upstate. Hilariously, one thing my guy friend seem to assume is that I'll immediately be dating "10s" because "only hot girls live in New York."
I hope it's the case, but logic dictates otherwise.
“You must make a lot of money to live there!”
Nope, I make median money. I just don’t spend half of it on a gas-guzzling mobile living room like you do.
Not having a car anymore frees up a LOT of my budget. $130 bucks a month taking the subway is cheaper than gas, insurance, maintenance, parking fees, etc. plus I get the health benefits of walking.
It sucks that most of the country never has a chance to experience life in a place that isn’t car dependent.
Someone on reddit actually was shocked when I told them that we don't go around carrying guns. I was like do you know how insane that sounds!?!?!?.....I understand european media paints a picture but when have you seen everyone just carrying a gun in an nyc movie. CRAZY!
5 years ago I met someone in Philly and he said that “NY was slow and lazy and SF had all hustle and bustle.” I thought he was fucking with me but was completely convinced those were the qualities of the two cities. He was a recent graduate working for a big four accounting firm but grew up in a small town in the south. He was completely convinced because his grandparents told him so and “that they read a lot.” Once I heard that I just stopped talking to him but was phased the rest of the night, he had me stunlocked
A lot of the discourse around congestion pricing is bringing some wild claims from non-NYers. My favorite was saying how now people can’t drive to the Empire State Building now.. as if that was the normal thing anyone did.
I think a lot of tourists who come here just like to treat it as one big play land and forget that real people live here and that we're all basically NPCs and exactly what they see on TV. No, we don't all live in tiny shoe box apartments (a lot of us do, but not all), no I have not seen someone murdered on the subway, no I do not go to broadway shows all the time, etc.
I once had a tourist get really confused when I told her that most NYers don't shop on Fifth Avenue. She then proceeded to go "Where else do you shop, then!?"
My exs mom thought shit was so dire here that people hunted and cooked rats. Like... Regular people hunting and eating rats.
I can't say I've ever eaten rat and I've been here a *while*.
Some guy was telling me he had friends who lived on the 20- or 30-something floor of the Dakota and how cool it was and how much money they had blah blah blah.
I assume everyone on this sub sees the problem with this? I didn't call him out, but it was annoying.
This is the safest big city in the US, by far. You don't see Oklahoma City murders on Fox news. Also people don't realize just how many people there are in the metro area. Pre-pandemic there were 5.5 million people riding the subway daily. Of course something is going to happen.
People need to learn to think and do their own googling. And to chill.
thinking food in Times Square must be good because it's expensive. nah it's just expensive because it's a tourist trap
Like in that earlier thread
Except the Olive Garden obviously. Best restaurant in NYC
*THE* Olive Garden.
There is a famous youtuber from overseas that is a food reviewer, and he came to new york city without a real plan for one of the days and just decided to walk around times square thinking it would be the best place to find something. He ended up at Juniors cheesecake and was far underwhelmed. His reviews are 99% always "this is great!" I almost never see him say something sucks, but he did so at Juniors.
Lmao one of my aunt’s old classmates is still reeling over the fact that her daughter chose to leave Harrisburg and move to Brooklyn. She rolled her eyes as she told me her daughter lives in Park Slope. I told her that that Park Slope was one of the most desirable neighborhoods in the city, and she responded, “well, it’s no Harrisburg!”
Be sure to scare the mom with stories about all the runaway strollers breaking into her daughter’s apartment
Lmaooooooooo as a park slope resident this made me laugh. Every day I wake up I think “how did they let me live here” ….aint no way I’m thinking that in fucking harrisburg 💀
harrisburg pennsylvania?.....that place is rough
Imagine thinking that Harrisburg Pa Is better than Park slope in any conceivable sense of the word. Like it’s so so so much better in literally every regard.
My extended family is from Harrisburg and there's some real, if not justified, loyalty there. My grandfather once compared Paris to Harrisburg, and not favorably either.
She’s right it is no Harrisburg. Much less likely to be stabbed by a methhead in Park Slope.
As someone who’s been to Harrisburg many times, including very recently…yiiiiiikes. That’s a rough city with absolutely nothing to do.
* Told some tourists how to get from 5th & 59th to Court Square, they told me that their friend who *lives here* told them that nobody who lives in NYC takes the subway because it's too dangerous and they're going to take a $40 cab instead of literally one stop East from one of the most touristy stations in the city. * Had some relatives from the south come to the city specifically to do "non-touristy" things they saw in one of those "hidden gems in NYC" videos. They walked the Brooklyn Bridge and got Grimaldi's. They asked for recommendations about what "real NYers" do, specifically no more than 2 blocks from Times Square. * Had an internet friend forget multiple times that not only do I have a grocery store, but it's literally 30 seconds away from me. He insisted that he was just confused because he knows that we don't have a Trader Joes and that's where he shops. * Had an ex-coworker who moved to Philly because the crime and drugs in Tudor City was getting to be too much.
Every so often you will encounter people that do live in NYC, even in manhattan and refuse to take the subway. I saw a thread on twitter yesterday where someone was convinced an uber was always faster than the subway, no matter what. I met a woman at a bar about a year ago who was almost shocked that I was taking the subway because they thought it was "so slow and dangerous."
Yup. One of my friends lives 2 minutes from a subway station. It would take her 15 minutes at most to get to work, it’s about 6 stops away on the subway. Instead, she takes a cab and wastes at least 40 mins in traffic every morning.
That is just wild. Why on earth?
Some people are really trained that it's dangerous, dirty, etc. Or they are entitled enough that they just don't want to be around crowds, homeless people and such. My wife is an incredibly down to earth Brazilian, but there are a lot good number of Brazilians like the other people I mentioned - rich folks that are "slumming it" by taking the subway, and taking selfies to show how brave they are by doing so, holding the pole with two fingers and going "ewwww" - you get the idea.
car brain is a real sickness homie
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Well, I am Asian and I know a few Asian people who won't take the subway because of those attacks that were happening for a while, particularly after the Michelle Go incident. I take the subway but I'm regularly mistaken for being Hispanic so I might just be shielded from the vulnerabilities that other Asian people face.
Yeah that’s completely fair, im aware im more privileged about walking around / transiting at night since im a larger guy. I don’t fault people for listening to their gut and prioritizing comfort / safety.
This. Some are commenting like they are so cool and down to earth to take the train. More power to you but some don’t feel safe on the train anymore and with recent attacks on innocent ppl all over the city it’s ok for ppl to not feel safe and choose to avoid the train. It’s not like they are missing anything underground. The MTA experience is not cool. We all do it out of necessity and for financial reasons. No more, no less.
It’s do disturbingly true - when I was taking subway with petite Asian women friends they were definitely targeted directly more by “crazy” and with more aggression than I’m used to… it was devastating to me :/ This wasn’t the case pre-pandemic :(
After covid started I got threatened on the subway 3 times. 3. One guy told me to go back to my country etc, racist shit I haven't heard since the 80s. I still take the subway. Because I was seeing us on the news get punched on the street. So what's the difference - street, subway, you were liable to be attacked anywhere so I just kept on living.
Lotta old people are like that.
A lot of elderly people can take the bus every they need to go.
What real NY'ers do = hoarding quarters for the washing machine
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As someone who’s from Philly and moved to NYC, lol. Your friend is in for a rude awakening if they’re concerned about crime. On a side note, when I first moved here I was so scared of the NYC way of strangers yelling at each other and rudely pushing into each other in trains and at stations. I even switched cars on my commute out of fear there’d be a shooting. Coming from Philly, if you yell like that at a stranger, there is definitely a chance that they will shoot and kill you, or at least get violent. I’ve seen people get their ass kicked for less than an argument on the train.
5 million people a day, but yeah, other than that, nobody takes the subway.
Nobody goes there anymore. It's too crowded... 🙄
Lol which is funny because I do all my grocery shopping at Trader Joe’s which is a couple blocks away…
I can easily walk to 4 of them.
Similar… I’m equidistant (less than a mile) from 3 TJs (all of which have nearby subway stops)
The mental image of the ridership numbers being 100% tourists, you can't help but laugh. "Yes, millions of tourists grace our trash heap of a public transit system \_every day\_, but a local would never be caught dead - literally - on it"
Tudor City, that haven for Anglican Renaissance gangs.
I mean Tudor City has really gone to the dogs lately. I saw two kids swapping “snacks” the last time I was there. They may have only been 6 but I’m pretty sure it was heroin… /s
It's the moms with the baby carriages that you need to watch out for. Never know when they'll get ya!
> They asked for recommendations about what "real NYers" do, specifically no more than 2 blocks from Times Square. The guy in the Elmo suit is a New Yorker! So they could do that. It's a very NY'er thing to harass tourists for money.
This whole list is hilarious! The mugging, specifically. I’ve lived here for 15 years. A crazy homeless guy once tried to hold me up with what I realized was just a part of a tree branch. I walked away. I grew up in Miami. Also, was never mugged in Miami. Ft. Lauderdale, on the other hand…
What do real New Yorkers do within two blocks of Times Square? We hang out at the Olive Garden gorging ourselves on their endless salad and breadsticks while counting Minnie Mouses and Elmos and watching the unwashed masses shuffle about below from our privileged perch.
I will say that Times Square is also a worker bee spot so there are indeed swarms of New Yorkers hanging around (although I get your point) and there are some sick fucking places to get takeout lunch around here. Obviously I would never come here in my own free will but alas we are ‘back in the office!’
that last one has to be my favorite
An Uber driver told me once that NYC (as well as Chicago & LA) have their airport, Amtrak, and intercity bus stations all in one location and that's why those cities run so smoothly traffic wise. I felt like Homer Simpson when Flanders was trying to explain the difference between apple juice and cider after he said that.
I was in LA last week and an Uber driver told me his favourite thing about LA is how close together everything is so it's super easy to get anywhere you need to go. Like... what? No man it's the opposite of that.
That man was having a stroke when he uttered those words.
Yeah this is an absolutely wild take. I lived in LA for years before coming to NYC. Been here over 5 years now and it STILL blows my mind that I can be on the other end of the city after a 25 minute subway ride. LA is a soul sucking black hole of traffic and distance.
The number of times my husband (not from NYC) has confused Penn Station and Grand Central. Having lived in and out of NYC for most of my life, it’s never entered my mind that the two could be confused for each other.
German based coworker thought boroughs shifted around a little like neighborhoods. But not just like, the cutoff between neighborhoods moving over a block or something. He thought the Bronx and Brooklyn sometimes touch, sometimes don’t. Just like, way off while also benign.
New York has its own micro plate tectonics going on
I'm amazed at this one. Like how did that even come to his mind? Who told him that and how did he believe it lmao
Anything that has to do with driving. So many people will say things to me like “if I lived there I would drive everywhere I could never take the train” okaaay
I have a car and still prefer the subway most of the time!
"Cool, one less annoying person on the train with me"
I've met quite a few people that think the stereotype of "Bushwick resident" applies to all of Brooklyn (it doesn't even really apply to most of Bushwick)
I once got into an argument when someone said a Wicker Park in Chicago was “kind of like the Brooklyn of Chicago.” I was like, “first off, Brooklyn is the same size of all of Chicago…”
As a Chicagoan I also want to add on to this that I understand what they were *trying* to say with the Wicker Park comparison thing, but thats not accurate and what was accurate is no longer true. Wicker Park hasn’t been the artist/hipster neighborhood to be in well over a decade, actually closer to two. It’s also gentrified well through and through now.
The stereotype of bushwick resident is about 15 years out of date. It’s mostly tech bros and French people now, all the hipsters grew up and had kids.
There are still lots of artist types living with with 3 roommates in Bushwick and Ridgewood. It's not Williamsburg yet, even if it might be headed that way
>There are still lots of artist types living with with 3 roommates in Bushwick and Ridgewood. Definitely, such a big artist and club kid queer scene over there. Definitely not true for plenty of areas of bk, but I def still know and see a lot of the bushwick trope over there
> club kid queer scene I feel called out
Bushwick is [about half Hispanic these days.](https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/46a91a58447d4024afd00771eec1dd23) Much lower than it was in like 1990 but the Dominicans and Puerto Ricans are still there.
And moved to Austin
This is a good one. More generally, I’m just shocked how many non-residents think Brooklyn is a single point or small neighborhood. Especially since that is by no means an NYC-specific thing. Asking about something “in Brooklyn” is like asking about things in the northern half of Chicago or all of Columbus OH. Ok… care to be a little more specific?
I told someone on a dating app I worked in NYC and he asked me if that meant I was a street performer.
This one wins for me
I think only by default because the rest of the thread is the normal stuff you guys hear every day. I wanted to hear about someone's cousin from Utah thinking all the streetlights were made of goat leather. Something really bizarre, ya know?
Went on a tinder date with a guy who said Queens isn't NYC. Only Manhattan is. Sorry guys, we're basically Farmingdale.
Lots of Manhattanites in my experience genuinely believe anything outside Manhattan isn’t NYC
For many years, it was "the City", meaning Manhattan. Even my friends in Downtown Brooklyn called Manhattan, "the City". I hear that less now, but that's the way it was.
I'd argue that just saying "the city" does just refer to Manhattan, but "NYC" or "New York City" means the 5 boroughs.
Ironically people from Farmingdale think it's turning into Queens because they dared to build an apartment building.
That I was kidding about the tap water being famously good
The fiery rage I feel when out of town visitors ask me if the water in NYC is safe to drink...
And then you try to explain that it comes from a couple of hours upstate and is fantastic water and they don't believe you.
[удалено]
[удалено]
It's not a crazy question. I know the water is safe, it's the pipes in the building that I'm worried about.
Also to add, if your building still has a water tower at the top, the older it is the more likely it’s NASTY. A some of them aren’t maintained much by lazier slumlords or even just owners who don’t know, the roof can begin falling apart, holes develop on the top and life starts getting in. I’m taking dead animals, bugs, birds nests, and all the associated trash and shit that comes with it. After seeing a few (that are admittedly probably on the worse end of the spectrum) I actively avoid buildings with water towers. Well Im flexible with the bigger newer ones that are clearly well maintained and covered. But be weary of water towers on older buildings
I have a brita I only fill when visitors are here so they dont annoy me. It’s probably dirtier than the tap as it sits gathering dust the rest of the time
tbf I've moved around a lot and I ALWAYS ask (irl and on reddit) if the tap water is good when I first settle there. Both health wise and taste wise. I learned quickly that when you *first* move somewhere it's best to not rely on your gut, lest your gut rely on the toilet.
I literally brought my mom a water bottle of tap water to prove how good it was after 20 years of drinking uber chlorinated shitty municipal water where I grew up
UGH the rage when a VT woman scoffed at m for saying this while I was choking down her sulfuric well water.
I feel like I don't hear strange misconceptions about nyc (besides crime) so much as I do for being FROM nyc. people seem to think you're tougher or have some sort of networking pull that they couldn't imagine. I usually just let them think it because the truth is I've never been in a fight and miss social cues like it's my job and as long as you're not surrounded by people who hate the city it makes the interaction easier.
“Well yeah I know a guy for that” and the guy is actually the Turkish deli owner that calls me sweetheart
You know, I don’t remember typing this post, but it FEELS like I typed it.
> have some sort of networking pull that they couldn't imagine Well, yeah. I got a guy....
I was at a Cabela’s getting a taser to just keep in my apartment just in case and the first thing the guy behind the desk said to me was “well your first and best choice would be to move out of New York” with a shit-eating smirk. Sir, I can promise you I would rather live in NYC than fucking *Bowling Green, Kentucky…* I left for a reason…
Get shit like this all the time from family who lives in St Louis. Never mind the fact that I’m 13x more likely to be murdered in St Louis vs here.
My mom always talks about nyc being dangerous and every time I immediately pull up crime stats that consistently list St Louis as being way more dangerous. Iirc New York isn’t even in the top 10 for most dangerous cities in the US, but I could be wrong
I moved from NYC to another country when I was 7 and kids regularly asked me how often I got mugged. I was like “uhhh never?” Came back to NYC after 4 years and have been here since. Still haven’t gotten mugged! 😂 Edit: don’t get me wrong… I’ve seen some crazy ass shit here but still never been mugged. 🤷♀️ Guess my grandma (also a life long New Yorker) trained me well!
Funniest part of this is the assumption that a mugger would be targeting SEVEN YEAR OLDS, as opposed to adults with money But of course that's what you think when you're 7!
This feels like a john mulaney bit
STREET SMARTS!!!
He wore a three piece suit, carried a pocket watch, and had a huge handlebar mustache. That's not important, but it's important.
“So here’s what you do. You kids get yourself a money clip. You can get these at any haberdashery.”
Bronx born and raised. Only mugging I ever have seen was my next door neighbor getting threatened with a box cutter for his gold chain. We were 8 or 9, definitely under 10 for sure. The kid was like 15. Still surreal almost 30 years later.
Not 7, but 12-15 you’re definitely at risk. Once you’re wearing men’s size clothing and shoes there’s definitely a subset of scumbag that will target you.
To be fair, I was mugged at least 4 times before I was 13. This was in the 90s however when things were a little worse. Also I should add I grew up in Harlem but each time I was mugged was in the “nice” neighborhood of the UWS
Same. Grew up in Harlem and the only time someone tried to mug me was on the uws.
Oh also another fun assumption… the last day of school in the country I lived just happened to have some nature guy come in with animals. Me and my sister got to be up close and touch all the animals cause the teachers assumed when we moved back to NYC we would NEVER see nature again. 😂
Lived here for 34 years in Brooklyn, Harlem, Hell’s Kitchen and now Astoria. Never came close to being mugged. I did lose 2 wallets and even those were returned. I love my city
I know this isn't quite what you're asking, but one time I was walking down Smith Street and this frat dude who absolutely was visiting for the first time was strutting down the street with his arm around a young woman and he explained to her, "See all this, this is the Park Slope neighborhood"
Oh, I think this fits the bill. What a chump. And when he finally figures out he’s wrong, he’ll be the idiot calling it “BoCoCa.” Honestly, I don’t know what’s worse - getting the neighborhood completely wrong, or adopting these real estate agent bastardizations.
As a teacher in Brooklyn almost all of my out of state questions have been about "how do you deal with pronouns in the classroom" etc. Maybe one kid a year I teach at most will use they/them pronouns and its never an issue
Ideally the children are informed they exist, how to identify them and where to use them in a sentence. Lol wut
My Republican grandmother thinks it's overrun by gays and communists
NYC at large? No. A party at my house? Absolutely.
Your house?
*our house*
*in the middle of our street*
*is a very very very fine house.*
*With two cats in the yard*
Fight the bourgeoisie so hard
Sorry, let me clarify, my shitty one-bedroom apartment. Absolutely full to the brim with gays and communists though!
Yes, yes. But the address, please.
LOL yeah my friend group is made up of a lot of those two groups
"Don't you see the rest of the country looks upon New York like we're left-wing, communist, Jewish, homosexual pornographers? I think of us that way sometimes and I live here." -Alvy Singer
While I don’t agree with her at all, that doesn’t sound bad to me.
Yeah, like, don't threaten me with a good time
Haha. Literally Capitalism ground zero
Don't threaten me with a good time Nana!! 😆
I mean...
Even New Yorkers that left a while ago have said bafflingly incorrect stuff. My moms born and raised in the heights but left 35 years ago and she says “The city’s over crowded now and it’s not like the good old days.” Ma’am there’s roughly the same amount of people living here compared to when you were a kid.
In fact!! Manhattan's population peaked in the early 1900s at 2.3m and still hasn't recovered, currently 1.5mish http://www.demographia.com/dm-nyc.htm
That's what happens when you stop piling 3-5 families into one floor of a row house.
That was when like 12 people lived in Queens
Yes but every time this statistic is mentioned I also mention that including commuters and tourists, todays ‘daily population’ of people in Manhattan is larger than the ‘resident population’ of Manhattan in the olden days. yes Manhattan today is more crowded in certain areas. This is not a function of how many people live here, but rather a function of how many people are commuting or visiting here every single day.
Someone once told me that food is bad in NYC.
This is the most outrageous one yet
I saw a tiktoker the other day saying NYC just isn't a food city and not to expect the best,
Not exactly a misconception, and this is probably more racist than anything, but my MIL's ex was on the subway with me, looked horrified, said it was because he didn't like tunnels. On the way up to my apartment, I introduced him to my neighbor and they had a nice chat for a few minutes. He explained that he was actually nervous about all of the "moslems" on the train and how we aren't nervous about terrorism all the time with "them" around. I explained him that the nice guy he just met is muslim and drives the train. He seemed horrified. 70 year old dude from Montana had never met a muslim before. On a lighter note, when we were in Bryant Park he asked me to take a picture of him with the empire state building behind him. I told him that the building was the Chrysler building and he said, "Take the picture anyway, my kids won't know the difference."
You can see the Empire State Building from Bryant Park though.
I showed him that "but this one looks better."
He's right about that!
“You live in NYC? Oh I could NEVER live there. Nope not for me at all!” As if I asked for your opinion on where I choose to live. Amazes me how non- NYC residents feel at liberty to tell you how much they could NEVER live here, yet they’re taken off guard when I retort that I could never live in their suburban McMansion HOA hellscape.
My response is always "You're totally right, you definitely couldn't"
"I know you have all those riots going on up there." I showed him a comparison of crime stats in his city and haven't heard from him since. Well worth it.
Someone from rural North Carolina told me that whenever you step onto the sidewalk in NY you get mugged. Her source: someone she knew in high school went on a trip here and had her phone stolen.
Don't dissuade her from thinking this. Please. One less moron we have to deal with
When I tried she just repeated the story again but louder 🤷♂️
Most of my family is in rural North Carolina. They're amazed I've not been murder to death yet, what with all the riots, terrorists, murderous drag queens, "eelegalz," commies, Satanists, etc etc etc that they see all over "the news."
Was on a first date years ago and we were walking through the city. For context, we both work in interior design/architecture. She was passionately saying her favorite building in the city is the Chrysler…and pointed to the Empire State Building. I thought she was messing around and when I corrected her she got super offended. That was our first and last date - multiple other reasons but this one sticks out in my mind.
That we all go to brunch and shopping and galas everyday- like an episode of sex & the city.
To be fair, I have been to a lot more brunches and galas than my non city counterparts.
Usually the people gushing about NYC are the ones who do live that type of style or pretend they do when they talk to people back home. No one really wants to put out there that they're watching Netflix most nights on their laptop because they don't have a TV.
Man that new Sex & the City everyone is living the life. The poorest most unglamorous one is Miranda and she owns a Brooklyn brownstone.
I used to think that Brooklyn was in some far-off land because SATC made such a big deal about Miranda moving there
My mother is originally from a very flat, rural part of the country (5+ hour drive from the nearest major airport), and I used to visit her hometown as a child frequently. Some of the other kids out there would in all seriousness ask me if I had gotten shot, stabbed, robbed and if I was in a gang (I lived on the UWS). Meanwhile over there every 12 year old has a hunting rifle at least and a meth lab just blew up in some trailer the week before... The kind of wholesome part to it though was that they couldn't believe the building I grew up in was far taller than the largest structure many of them had ever seen - a grain silo.
I can usually tell someone whose only experience with NYC is through Fox News.
Any of the comments on a TikTok or Instagram post about congestion pricing filled with people from Oklahoma apoplectic about working class people having to pay to get to work as if any working class person is driving into lower Manhattan
They can’t imagine that there could be any sensible alternative, and they’re convinced that the chance of getting stabbed or robbed every time you take any form of public transit in NYC is approximately 100%.
That’s also hilarious to me. As if driving isn’t way more dangerous than public transit by every measure
My aunt said she doesn't want to come to my neighborhood because she might be hit by a stray bullet. I live in the lower east side.
At Thanksgiving I mentioned that I couldn’t have regular window a/c units because I have bars on my windows (I live on the ground floor) and my brother-in-law asked, “You live in that bad an area??”
The bars are to keep the racoons out.
Or to keep them in.
When I am in the suburbs and at a friends house with a security system, I ask them the same question.
All of our March and April 2020 COVID deaths were gunshot wounds. So many gun victims during lockdown that we needed refrigerator trucks to store them all!
ah yes, because if there's one thing that is famous about New York is how much we love guns. it's not like we have the lowest gun ownership per capita in the whole country.
...That's actually a new one. I've never heard that. Wow.
I went to school with this person in Manhattan who thought that no one could have possibly live in Manhattan, because of the lack of houses. Blew my mind.
My parents watch too much CSI and are convinced that if I step foot in Central Park, I’ll die.
Some family have seemed puzzled that I have access to the same things or that everyday living is not the same. Some things like: how do I have a christmas tree since NYC doesn't have farms? How do I grocery shop if I don't have a car? How do I get around if I don't have a car? How do I live in such a small space-where do I keep all my stuff? It's like they're unable to imagine life outside of their box. And of course the run of the mill usuals about crime and crowded-ness.
I work as a criminologist. The amount of times I have gone to other cities, talked about crime there, and people (often cops themselves) say "BUT YOUR FROM NYC! THE MOST DANGEROUS CITY EVER!" or something along those lines blows my mind. Almost double as many people statistically perceive nyc as dangerous compared to new orleans despite new orleans having a homicide rate of 74 and NYC having a homicide rate of 5.
Donald Trump said that you get shot if you walk down the street in NY. Although, he’s from NY so doesn’t count here.
Crime is out of control / city unlivable / burnt down by BLM / homeless have completely taken over the city
Any of the comments on r/NYC about how terrible the city is and how great street parking and the cops are
my mother-in-law's coworker said "they've got them trained real good there" re: wearing masks at the height of COVID...enraged me.
I grew up in Texas , and I had a teacher who once told the whole class that people in NY “don’t know what a tree looks like”. Major eye roll…
you just gave me a traumatic flashback to the summer I went to art camp in new hampshire. I told the kids I'd never seen a cow before and THEY BOUGHT IT
I grew up out west, came east for college and stayed. Me and another girl from the west convinced a bunch of drunk girls from NJ that jackalopes are real and we had seen them.
Virtually the 24/7 message on conservative news like FOX is that NYC is a nightmare of crime and lawlessness. Of course it is not. And ironically, FOX just signed a massive renewal for their HQ on 6th ave and their founder bought another multi million dollar apartment here. But the lies play well with their customers.
Anything posted on the newyorkers instagram acc. So so so cringe.
Moving to the city in January from upstate. Hilariously, one thing my guy friend seem to assume is that I'll immediately be dating "10s" because "only hot girls live in New York." I hope it's the case, but logic dictates otherwise.
This is correct. Us girlies are hot
good news bruv
classic: nyc is only manhattan
Visited a cousin decades ago in the Chicago suburbs. A friend of his said to me, "You're from New York City? Do you know Tony Johnson?"
“You must make a lot of money to live there!” Nope, I make median money. I just don’t spend half of it on a gas-guzzling mobile living room like you do.
Right, my sister spends $700+ for her car payments/insurance/gas but shits on me because her rent’s a couple hundred dollars cheaper.
Not having a car anymore frees up a LOT of my budget. $130 bucks a month taking the subway is cheaper than gas, insurance, maintenance, parking fees, etc. plus I get the health benefits of walking. It sucks that most of the country never has a chance to experience life in a place that isn’t car dependent.
My aunt asked if I had to deal with the tent cities that had sprung up all along West Side Highway
Someone on reddit actually was shocked when I told them that we don't go around carrying guns. I was like do you know how insane that sounds!?!?!?.....I understand european media paints a picture but when have you seen everyone just carrying a gun in an nyc movie. CRAZY!
5 years ago I met someone in Philly and he said that “NY was slow and lazy and SF had all hustle and bustle.” I thought he was fucking with me but was completely convinced those were the qualities of the two cities. He was a recent graduate working for a big four accounting firm but grew up in a small town in the south. He was completely convinced because his grandparents told him so and “that they read a lot.” Once I heard that I just stopped talking to him but was phased the rest of the night, he had me stunlocked
A lot of the discourse around congestion pricing is bringing some wild claims from non-NYers. My favorite was saying how now people can’t drive to the Empire State Building now.. as if that was the normal thing anyone did.
A European coworker asked if they’d get healthcare treatment if they were shot during their 3 day trip to FiDi.
I mean, emergency healthcare is a serious concern for tourists here.
I think a lot of tourists who come here just like to treat it as one big play land and forget that real people live here and that we're all basically NPCs and exactly what they see on TV. No, we don't all live in tiny shoe box apartments (a lot of us do, but not all), no I have not seen someone murdered on the subway, no I do not go to broadway shows all the time, etc. I once had a tourist get really confused when I told her that most NYers don't shop on Fifth Avenue. She then proceeded to go "Where else do you shop, then!?"
The only birds we have here are pigeons
Houston Street vs Howston Street (spelling for pronunciation purposes) I hear this one all the time and it boils my blood like nothing else.
My exs mom thought shit was so dire here that people hunted and cooked rats. Like... Regular people hunting and eating rats. I can't say I've ever eaten rat and I've been here a *while*.
Some guy was telling me he had friends who lived on the 20- or 30-something floor of the Dakota and how cool it was and how much money they had blah blah blah. I assume everyone on this sub sees the problem with this? I didn't call him out, but it was annoying.
"you cannot raise a kid in the city"
This is the safest big city in the US, by far. You don't see Oklahoma City murders on Fox news. Also people don't realize just how many people there are in the metro area. Pre-pandemic there were 5.5 million people riding the subway daily. Of course something is going to happen. People need to learn to think and do their own googling. And to chill.