It’s Not You, It’s NYC: 10 Reasons Traveling To New York City Isn’t For You
Not all trips end up like falling in love at first sight. Some can leave you bitter, sad, and disappointed because they didn’t meet your high expectations. New York City can be one of those cities – attracting you with its flashing lights, bustling streets, and quirky, cool people, while also harboring things you’ll hate for a lifetime. Could NYC be your dream city? If you don’t mind with the things listed below, then it could be true love.
1. Steaming Hot Trash
New York City has 8.4 million residents and the way trash is managed in this city has been complicated since the 19th century. New York first considered disposing its trash in the ocean which was illegal but oh well. Later on, they used dozens of landfills and incinerators, including the historic ex-dumpsite, Staten island to handle the trash. Nowadays, 85% of the city’s garbage weighing over 10,000 tons is exported to landfills located outside the state. There are even places in NYC all made from the trash that filled the ocean. These piles of rotten food, plastic cups, used undies, dog piss, unfinished fraps, and whatever is in that junk will always be a part of the city.
2. There’s Just Too Many People
NYC won’t be (I heart) NYC without the crowd. Watching different faces rushing to different places makes bumping into someone not a coincidence anymore. The city’s schools are even feeling the big bulk with 44% of the total 575 school buildings complaining about the severe overcrowding. Moreover, startups complain and leave the co-working and incubating locations due to overcrowded work spaces that take away the privacy and office culture they want to develop. The subway suffers too and blames the 113% increase in delays since December 2013 on overcrowding. Even without the waves of tourists, NYC is still filled up. Let’s not even talk about Times Square!.
3. Noooooise
How does NYC sound like? Well, it’s just like any other busy city having their daily music composed of dog barks, car horns, catcalls, construction, air-conditioners, the loud chit-chats, loud sex, shoe heels, phone calls, lost tourists asking for directions, parties, people trying to sell something, and just any random person talking to themselves. Noise, together with the usual noise complaints, will always be a part of New York City so much so that they have even measured every bit from the top noisiest neighborhoods to the most common complaint types received.
4. That Bipolar Weather
Spring and fall in New York? Yeah, it happens but these seasons just come and go like an annual shark week. So basically, the weather is either extremely hot or extremely cold in this city. Expect your day to be served sizzling hot with the complementary unique scent of New York (imagine numbers 1 and 2 combined), then here comes your favorite seasons passing by like a dream until you wake up and realize that it’s dark and raining. Later on it’s already snowing, then freezing, and the news tells you to better stay indoors (as usual). Oh well.
5. Sky-high Prices
New York’s real estate is comparable to its skyscrapers and that, my friend, is the root of all your price complaints. The average daily hotel room rate is about $281 and the average cost for dinner in a restaurant is $43 per person. And it’s not just because these hotels use the best sheets or the best spices to flavor your food, but for the sole reason of New York’s expensive real estate. Add the entertainment and transportation expenses, going around the Big Apple can already cost you a big fat $500 per day.
6. Overrated
How many songs about New York City have you already thought about while reading this? The number of all the existing New York songs is comparable to the level of the city’s Overratedness. Sing “it’s a concrete jungle where dreams are made of” – if you can afford the expenses. Sing “like any true love, it drives you crazy” – if you’re willing to dive in and try your best to survive. Sorry to say this but just like any other city you meet, New York in reality is not a perfect wonderland better than the rest of the cities around the world. In any time you can be singing, “New York, I love you but you’re freaking me out” and that’s normal.
7. That Smell
It’s in the dense city air. It’s in the thin floor cracks. There’s a distinct smell that you’ll encounter wherever you go. Perspiring bodies inside the subway, piss, stinky sewers, black trash bags, rats, barbecue, manhole steam, hobos, car seats, horse poop, hot dogs, weed, pizza, raw fish, burning rubber, onions, and cigarettes. You know New York is a melting pot of cultures as well as a melting pot of different aromas.
8. Skyscrapers
What is New York without its iconic skyscrapers? But then if you prefer living in a city that balances natural green spaces and man-made structures, New York won’t be good enough for you. New York is all about its skyscrapers. It’s even getting to the point that some parts of the city are said to be losing light and air, but New York won’t stop from creating these 1000-foot or higher towers.
9. You Hate New York Style Pizza
How could you not like a huge, hand-tossed thin-crust dough covered with a thin layer of tomato sauce and topped with mozzarella cheese and other kinds of madness? New York Style Pizza is a favorite street snack but it’s normal to know that it has haters too.
10. Pests
From rats to roaches to bed bugs. Your visit to New York won’t be complete without meeting its little creepy crawling friends.
