Amy Derene

Big City, Bigger Expectations

New York City remains one of the world’s largest clichés.

The Big Apple. Tall Buildings. Rude People. Expensive. And yet, as the largest city in the United States, New York City must be doing something right. People flock to live here. Songs are written about it. Tourists aspire to visit. Natives never leave.

The romance of New York City has tried to be captured through every medium, but what about the realities of it?

A quarter of a million people move to New York City each year, but 48% of city residents are locals. As a prime destination for young transplants, it’s important to have realistic expectations, especially as a group wholly with entry level jobs. New York City, in all its iconic imagery, is in fact not just a walk in Central Park. After talking with several young NYC citizens, here is a guide to weed out the fantasies and the fallacies of everyday life in the city.

The juxtaposition of these two residents just might be the allure of the city. The city is home to every type of person, despite its hardships. It inspires people to work hard and find the abundance of opporunities that most likely attracted them to move in the first place. 

But the conditions of New York tend to become glamorized. The fibs for entertainment value's sake and the expectations that people believe often cross a blurry line. In actual New York, a waitressing salary is not enough to afford a giant Greenwich village apartment. Taking cabs everywhere is NOT actually the most convenient or affordable. And Brooklyn is no cheap joke either.

Cost of Living

On average, $60,000/year in income in New York City is equivalent to making less than $30,000/year in an average american household. The average income for a recent college graduate is around $45,000. Looking at these numbers alone, NYC would not seem like a desirable destination, even for those recent graduates looking to lead a very modest lifestyle.

Apartment Size/Rent

Rent in New York City is no joke. You can pay thousands of dollars for a small room, and even more thousands if that room is in a decent location. Though a well known fact that housing in NY is expensive, it tends to get underestimated by many young hopefuls. On average, a millennial can expect to pay between $1500 and $3000 a month in rent, largely depending on number of roommates, square footage, and cockroaches.

According to studies, you should not spend more than 30% of income on rent. Even making $60,000/year, ignoring taxes, this figure amounts to a monthly rent of $1500, the very low end of the rent spectrum. 

Dining Out

Limitless tabs at the local bar and coffeehouse portray the image of that fabulous adult lifestyle. Having a salaried job for the first time ever, it seems like there is always a reason to go celebrate. Getting drinks or lunch with coworkers is just part of the territory. With that mindset, extra rent isn't the only expense to account for in New York. Cocktails, mid-day pick me ups, and even nationalized food chains all charge hire prices in Manhattan. Both of the NY case studies admitted to getting caught up in the whirlwind of going out, but getting more caught up once their credit card bills started coming in. They both promise that they have as much fun in their apartments with a Keurig than pretending to be hipster enough for the few local coffee shops that still exist.

Cab Rides

The entirety How I Met Your Mother could be rewritten if Uber had been around during the show's airing. Unfortunately, even then the portrayal of taking cars over public transportation would be grossly inaccurate. Even ignoring the huge monetary loss associated with regularly taking cabs, the travel time alone would be longer than 22 minutes, or the length of a standard TV episode, to get almost anywhere. New York has one of the most efficient subway systems in the world and should be taken full advantage of.

Dating

But for all of this harships, there is one thing that New Yorkers do better than almost anyone: they date. In a city of 8 million people, there are many someones for everyone. 

Being young and single is what makes this city so magical, according to Case Study Number 2 (though admittedly it is also where most of his money goes).

After all, love is a powerful motivator for anybody looking to start a new life in a new city or bring excitement to an old life. Both millennials in NYC mentioned that every person in New York seems to be looking for the same things, so it is less lonely to be searching together.

Being in a city so large also means more freedom of sexuality. In Friends, Chandler's "quality" often gets mistaken as a sign of homosexuality. Always ashamed of his cross-dressing father, he could not BE any more offended. However, this is one of the cities, especially in this era, that being exploratory would likely be more welcome. That level of comfort just cannot be found in smaller towns where the status quo remains more prominent.

As the number one storyline in any show or movie, love clearly works as a big seller. Clearly this can't just be for sheet entertainment. People enjoy watching things they can relate to, and love is the most prominent sociological entity. These plotlines, though corny as they may be, give the viewers what they want, more than fancy apartments and perfect clothes. Case Study #1 notes that "every viewer wants his or her Rachel to get off the plane."