| Author | Message | ||
     mem Citizen Username: Mem Post Number: 6107 Registered: 5-2001  |
I was born and raised in Maplewood with multiple family members and friends moving in and out of Manhattan (not those boroughs - please - it's easier to get in and out of Manhattan from here). And I have close friends who were born and raised IN Manhattan. A true born Manhattanite wouldn't even read this thread. They couldn't care less about all this pontification, they live to get out of there, whether it's for a day, a weekend or even having the dream of having any funds left to move the hell out and be able to live 30 minutes away here in relative paradise. End of story. | ||
| The Notorious S.L.K. Citizen Username: Scrotisloknows Post Number: 1339 Registered: 10-2005 |
Hey, you wanna catch the attention of NYers that moved to Maplewood? Sprinkle some crack vials and dirty syringes on a corner in the middle of town. That would surely remind them why they left "THE" place to live...  I remember stepping over these items many times in the LES back in the day. Now it is all 5 star restaurants, high rents and posuer (sp) wanna be's in their silly bowling shoe-looking sneakers... Straw is right, when the LES becomes a tourist attraction you know NYC has sissied out... -SLK | ||
| The Notorious S.L.K. Citizen Username: Scrotisloknows Post Number: 1340 Registered: 10-2005 |
Case- OMG it can't be true...is CBs officially closed down now? My heart weeps...you know how many stage dives I did in that place at the Sunday matinee Hardcore shows? I have scars from there I am proud of... You can put the closing of CBs right up there with the WTC being gone...another reminder why NYC is not the same as it use to be... -SLK | ||
| Bajou Citizen Username: Bajou Post Number: 111 Registered: 2-2006 |
I am in the city every day and have done the commute thing for 16 years. I have no previous alliances or special bonds since I am neither from NJ nor from NY (Austria, Europe). As far as I am concerned and from what I have seen the quality of life in NY sucks. Apartments (if you want to call those shoeboxes even apartments) are completely overpriced, roaches and rats are everywhere, it's noisy as hell and it stinks to high heaven. So you have access to all that NY nightlife has to offer, but get real, you still mostly frequented the same two or three bars where all your friends are and don't give me that bologna that you need Broadway (most people go twice year). I would never have wanted to live in the city since the day I arrived in America and much rather commute home and hang in my or my friend’s backyard and enjoy the peace and quiet. By the way all you true New Yorkers wouldn't be able to enjoy most of the amenities Manhattan (the real city) has to offer if it wouldn't be for all the schmucks that commute from all the surrounding borrows and NJ. | ||
| Mr. Big Poppa Citizen Username: Big_poppa Post Number: 598 Registered: 7-2004  |
roaches and rats are everywhere Bajou, you obviously speak from ignorance. You may work there, but you have not lived there. Thanks for playing. | ||
| Case Citizen Username: Case Post Number: 1452 Registered: 2-2005 |
I'm sorry - I had heard a rumor, but then wound up in a restaurant near there... walked past and CBGB's is GONE. The gallery is still there, but it hardly works by itself. Even though I haven't been there in 10 years, I was still really sad to see it go. | ||
| Tom Reingold Supporter Username: Noglider Post Number: 13918 Registered: 1-2003  |
I grew up on the upper west side. I get wistful when I visit, which I do a fair bit, since my mother and sister still live there. It's nicer there than when I grew up. I moved to Boston for college when I was 17. After two years, I quit college and stayed in Boston another year. I always loved touring Manhattan and bringing visitors around. I love being a tourguide. Jean Shepherd said, "New Yorkers are born all over the world." I loved people who moved to New York. At age 22, I briefly had a busboy job at The Saloon a sort-of chic restaurant at 63rd and Broadway. A waitress who had moved somewhere from Middle America heard I was born there and gently "touched" me because she was so thrilled that I was a native New Yorker. At age 20, I moved back to New York to continue college. I lived in Washington Heights, in a tiny, airless apartment. The neighborhood wasn't so nice, the shopping sucked, and the commute was very trying. At age 25, I married, and we couldn't find a suitable apartment, so we occupied the studio apartment together and almost killed each other. We moved to Edison, NJ, and I felt like I was breathing. It enabled me to buy my first car, at age 26. I guess you could say I moved to NJ to spawn, though I wasn't conscious of it. But it is instinctual, isn't it? After divorcing at age 38, I asked myself, "what the hell am I doing in Edison?" I realized what a hellhole it was. It was safe and quiet, but the scenery was sinfully drab, and driving every damned place was really stupid. I used to be a bicycle and mass transit advocate! With our upcoming marriage in 2003, my current wife and I shopped around for places to live in NJ. Since I was not legally able to leave NJ, we only looked at NJ towns. We chose Maplewood for a variety of reasons. Oddly enough, the fact that it has sidewalks on virtually every street was one of the top criteria. I also liked the fact that most kids walk to school. It meant that they can walk to each other's homes. This is the first good looking place I have lived in. I get such a sense calm relief when I approach the greenery of the town. We may end up moving back to Manhattan when the nest is empty. My wife is keener on that idea than I am, but I owe it to her, since she moved out to NJ to be with us. And I'll probably like it more than last time. | ||
| MichaelaM Citizen Username: Mayquene Post Number: 179 Registered: 1-2004  |
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/28/nyregion/28homicide.html?hp&ex=1146283200&en=b da64c7c2945b725&ei=5094&partner=homepage | ||
| Chris Prenovost Citizen Username: Chris_prenovost Post Number: 846 Registered: 7-2003 |
I have noticed a pattern of ex NY'ers. . . The first year after they move here, they complain about everything and anything. Chief complaints: the unavailability of 24 hour take-out. You'd think civilization had come to a grinding halt. In the second year, they gradually realize that there are serious, tangible advantages to living here, such as the ability to go shopping without wearing body armor. The possibility of parking your car and actually finding it where you left it four hours later. Intact. Going shopping without maxing out your credit cards. And schools where, if you apply yourself, you can actually learn something. Then they stop whining. | ||
| I'm Only Sleeping Citizen Username: Imonlysleeping Post Number: 163 Registered: 8-2005 |
I can't imagine anyone moving to Maplewood from New York unless they had already realized there are serious, tangible advantages to living here. And yes, the food thing is a hard adjustment. You have to realize that most people who live in New York eat takeout most nights (if not every night). Moving somewhere without good takeout options is hard at first. We had to learn a whole new way of living. We'd never bought a week's worth of groceries at once, or cooked more than once a week. We've gotten used to it, but after 11 years of ordering in most nights it was a very tough adjustment. | ||
| Case Citizen Username: Case Post Number: 1453 Registered: 2-2005 |
Today's forecast apparently calls for sunshine with heavy doses of drama! "Body armor"? | ||
| Chris Prenovost Citizen Username: Chris_prenovost Post Number: 849 Registered: 7-2003 |
What about the gunfire? And the sirens? Personally, that was my toughest adjustment. And finding a good meth dealer was sheer hell. | ||
| Tom Reingold Supporter Username: Noglider Post Number: 13922 Registered: 1-2003 |
Har har har. Have you ever noticed? Insulting a person's residence or place of upbringing is considered rude, unless it's New York. New York is safer than it's been in a very long time. The suburbs have more danger of being hit by a car than the city. Both places have advantages and disadvantages. I'm Only Sleeping writes a good perspective. We could write another one which describes moving from the suburbs to the city, where after a few years, the city dweller eventually becomes content and enjoys the city's advantages. | ||
| Chris Prenovost Citizen Username: Chris_prenovost Post Number: 851 Registered: 7-2003 |
Tom . . . must you ALWAYS be so reasonable and logical? Come on now . . . haw about a major, wild, foaming-at-the-mouth rant a la llama or GOP man? | ||
| Tom Reingold Supporter Username: Noglider Post Number: 13924 Registered: 1-2003 |
 Hey, I did get angry at those old jokes about crime. I had to endure them when crime in the city really was bad. I got mugged a few times as a kid. I would never wish that on anyone, yet still, I get annoyed when people overestimate the risks and think that rules of etiquette are lifted when the topic is New York. | ||
| I'm Only Sleeping Citizen Username: Imonlysleeping Post Number: 164 Registered: 8-2005 |
I grew up in a city (not NY) and lived in Manhattan for more than a decade. Never once did I hear gunfire (or buy meth, which is mostly a suburban, midwestern drug). Crime actually seems to be a much bigger issue in Maplewood than in Manhattan. | ||
| Bajou Citizen Username: Bajou Post Number: 113 Registered: 2-2006 |
Dear Mr. Big: Well let's see, I see rats and mice every day in the subway and the roaches are never far. Why don't you walk past one of the lovely heaps of garbage that dot the quaint streets of NY and pick one of the bags up. The average building in NY exterminates twice a month and restaurants even more often so people in the city should really worry about that toxic exposure because it is an enormous cancer risk. http://www.oag.state.ny.us/environment/hospital95.html And then there is Robert Sullivan’s delightful and revolting "Rats", the most exhaustive, nauseating and pleasurable compendium of rat facts ever set down. Facts such as: Rat populations increase in times of war. New York City battled an epic rat infestation at the World Trade Center site after 9/11, and was obliged to fill the ruins with poison. A third of the world’s food supply is consumed or destroyed by rats. Rats have eaten cadavers in the New York City coroner’s office. Rats have attacked and killed homeless people sleeping on the streets of Manhattan. There are more rodents currently infected with plague in North America than there were in Europe at the time of the Black Death. Brown rats survived nuclear testing in the Pacific by staying deep down in their burrows. There have always been rats in the White House (* I found that soo funny) Department of Homeland Security, as part of its post-9/11 bioterror-alertness effort, catches rats and inspects their fleas to see if terrorists have released the Black Death in New York City. You are right, I do not nor have I ever lived in the city and that is by choice but I see what I see...and yes nice playing with you too.  | ||
| CM Townsend Citizen Username: Cm_townsend Post Number: 149 Registered: 2-2005 |
Case, It is the epitome of pretentiousness to state that Manhattan is the “center of the universe.” Oh, the irony is laughable. | ||
| GOP Man Citizen Username: Headsup Post Number: 342 Registered: 5-2005  |
right. all of us real Americans know that Kansas is the center of everything. | ||
| Bajou Citizen Username: Bajou Post Number: 115 Registered: 2-2006 |
What makes you think Amerika is the center of everything? | ||
| Mayor McCheese Supporter Username: Mayor_mccheese Post Number: 1244 Registered: 7-2004  |
NYC is like Thunderdome. Two men enter, one man leaves. Last night a cab driver told me to go f*ck myself. I just wanted a ride. | ||
| Bajou Citizen Username: Bajou Post Number: 116 Registered: 2-2006 |
Hey Mayor that pic of yours is doing something to me...LOL | ||
| crabby Citizen Username: Crabbyappleton Post Number: 571 Registered: 1-2004 |
Bajou- Your presumptions about all the apartments is craziness. The quality of life is great! But it's a mindset, bro, and if you don't got it, you'll never get it. True, many give it up after a while (kids, space etc), but many many don't. There are some great digs in NY, but seems like you just wanna see what you just wanna see. Have any friends in NY you could go visit? You think there are no rats here in Mwood? | ||
| bettyd Citizen Username: Badjtdso Post Number: 200 Registered: 12-2005 |
NYC is one of the greatest cities in the world, if not the greatest. No doubt about that. I have worked in NYC for almost 20 years and lived in Hoboken from 87-94, in my twenties and early thirties. I know it's not Manhattan, but close enough so give me a break. I loved hanging out in NYC and all the excitement. The restaurants, museums, Central Park, the bars and the nightclubs. Anyone remember the "Pyramid Club" or "The World" in the East Village? When they closed at 4 a.m. you could then head to "Save the Robots" for after hours activity. I can remember occasionally getting home at 7 a.m. There is nothing like that and my old roomates and I often reminisce about those days. We didn't save a cent because we ate out virtually every day-lunch and dinner. But I like the suburban life. It was a natural transition for me. I remember in the weeks before I got married and moved to S.O. my old roomates and I would go back to all our old NYC haunts for one last hurrah (I was 34 at the time). It felt strange and forced, and I looked around at the crowds and I realized my time there had passed. What I had once enjoyed and thought I could never live without had changed. Or I had changed. I think it was both. A new wave of 20 and thirty somethings had moved in and it was their time. Now when work ends I can't wait to get out. I still hang out after work on occasion, or go in on a weekend, and love it, but in a different way. My niece, now 23, lives in NYC and I was talking to her at Easter. She enjoys going to the club formerly known as the Limelight. I was there many a time in the late eighties/early 90's. Now I can keep up on the scene through her. I don't like the urban feel SO has been acquiring over the past few years and have written about it in other posts so I won't bore you again. I just wish it was cleaner and quieter and not yearning to be hip. | ||
| Wendyn Supporter Username: Wendyn Post Number: 3041 Registered: 9-2002  |
Ah, the Limelight. My buddy was busted for selling drugs there in the mid 90's. Good times, good times. | ||
| mem Citizen Username: Mem Post Number: 6112 Registered: 5-2001 |
Save the Robots! I miss that. | ||
| bettyd Citizen Username: Badjtdso Post Number: 202 Registered: 12-2005 |
Maybe we can turn the Shop Rite building into a "New York Style Nightclub" a la The World, Limelight or Save the Robots. Anyone remember the Baja on 72d and Columbus? | ||
| Bajou Citizen Username: Bajou Post Number: 121 Registered: 2-2006 |
Crabby: They are not presumptions I have friends and lots of coworkers who live in the city and have stayed here many a night myself. Which of my presumption is incorrect may I ask? The fact that it's pricey? 1 bedroom (itzy bitzy) on 39th and 2 on the 4th floor USD 3,400.00??? You can rent a nice house for that. You can rarely find a studio below USD 1,500 a month Or about the pest problem? That is actually the law in NYC if you are a landord you have to exterminate a minimum of once a month. By the way I am not saying that people shouldn't live in NYC. As I stated in my first quote I never wanted to live in NYC. | ||
| Factvsfiction Citizen Username: Factvsfiction Post Number: 78 Registered: 4-2006 |
Thank you all for all these great responses To them I make some brief replies: Unless your idea of a meaningful life is being able to get Nepalese cuisine at 3 a.m. this area truly is, as Dr. Pangloss has said " the best of all possible worlds". Those who have Manhattan-envy should always remember on that seminal TV show "Green Acres", Mr. Haney always got the best of city-slicker Mr. Douglas. I suggest that our new area NYC arrivals not buy any pigs from the Maplewood natives accordingly. People in our area should be very thankful that the NYC buyers arrive thinking of Manhattan apartment prices, thus ensuring we get a nice chunk of change on our starter homes for our next move-up or out purchases. According to my plumber, a true story. Was doing a service call several years back at the house of a newly arrived Manhattan couple. When he was writing it up both he and one of the spouses noticed deer in the backyard. Ex-Nyc spouse excused herself and went to the phone. Plumber overheard her asking information for the telephone # of the nearest zoo, as she had to report escaped animals. Plumber interrupted her call and explained it to her. I do think they are more rodents than animals though. | ||
| Bajou Citizen Username: Bajou Post Number: 122 Registered: 2-2006 |
Oh and yes there are plenty of rats in Maplewood/ South Orange but they don't live in my three bedroom carriage house(rent below USD 1,000). OK I am just pissed cause I am sitting here on efin Park and 42nd and I haven't seen the light of day. I want to go home to good old NJ and relax and have a glass of wine and a cig.. | ||
| Factvsfiction Citizen Username: Factvsfiction Post Number: 79 Registered: 4-2006 |
Tom- I have a copy of Jean Shepard's book "In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash", probably the best writing on Americana out there. | ||
| Tom Reingold Supporter Username: Noglider Post Number: 13934 Registered: 1-2003 |
I have that, and a couple of others of his, too. I liked him more when I was in high school, but I am still fond of his work. I listened to his nightly radio show starting when I was in sixth grade or so. | ||
| Alleygater Citizen Username: Alleygater Post Number: 1797 Registered: 10-2004 |
I love the city. I'm not sure what the big deal is. It's for some people it's not for others. | ||
| Case Citizen Username: Case Post Number: 1457 Registered: 2-2005 |
The Jean Shepard book is amazing - a bit dark when you compare it to that movie "A Christmas Story" but still great writing. If you want some good City humor, try some David Sedaris. | ||
| Factvsfiction Citizen Username: Factvsfiction Post Number: 91 Registered: 4-2006 |
Tom and Case- I understand that Jean Shepard died about 20 years or so ago. Also that his radio show tapes were destroyed or lost. Is that true? I would love to get a hold of them if they have been released or available in some form. Alleygater- We all love the city, its just some of us feel that some of the NYC newcomers are a bit of pretentious ducks (nice word used) for putting NJ down when they know full well why they are coming here. | ||
| Bajou Citizen Username: Bajou Post Number: 133 Registered: 2-2006 |
AMEN FACTS!!! All long time ago at my old job I heard a new coworker making fun of Jersey and a couple of days later I sat next to him on the train. He flashed a monthly ticket to Livingston. | ||
| Gregor Samsa Citizen Username: Oldsctls67 Post Number: 503 Registered: 11-2002  |
Sorry for the digression, I just started reading this thread today...Can someone please define "Urban Sensibility"? | ||
| Mr. Big Poppa Citizen Username: Big_poppa Post Number: 599 Registered: 7-2004 |
Bajou, You should go back to Europe. Your observations are so narrowminded. Just because you work there and know people who live in NYC makes you an expert? LOL You don't deserve to work in a great city like NYC. | ||
| Tom Reingold Supporter Username: Noglider Post Number: 13939 Registered: 1-2003 |
According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Shepherd, he died in 1999, which is about right, according to my memory. No mention of destroyed tapes. I remember hearing him make fun of Rt 22! | ||
| Factvsfiction Citizen Username: Factvsfiction Post Number: 95 Registered: 4-2006 |
Big Poppa- I would lighten up on Bajou, Vienna is one of the most sophisticated cities in the world, and puts NYC to shame in a few categories. Besides we all have the right to our opinions. You too. Tom- I hear that he was a great story-teller in addition to writer. A kind of father of the genre that has been used by everyone from Garrison Kiellor to David Attel. |
