| Speaking as someone who voluntarily and intentionally relocated to NYC from a much smaller town in the Midwest, some of the reasons you've mentioned regarding why you hate NYC are some of the very same reasons why I love it! For myself, having come from a place where it sometimes seems as though everyone wants to nose in (and make unsolicited remarks on) my business, the impersonal nature of the place actually appeals to me -- especially since I've always been rather independent and introverted, thinking and preferring to live my life in a way that veers quite a bit from what a lot of people in suburban middle America might consider to be the norm. Here, most people don't give a rodent's backside what I do with my life as long as I'm not making too much noise and not interfering with their lives in any way. If I have the freedom to choose, I rather prefer being anonymous as opposed to being regarded and treated as though I'm not from this planet, as though there's something wrong with me.
Mind you, there are specific aspects of living here that I do not like -- such as the trashbags sitting on the sidewalk -- but I've also realized that most of the things I don't like about this place aren't specific to New York. Many of them seem to apply to Americans in general or to modern existence as a whole, such as the ever-increasing emphasis and deference to money rather than people, the quick fix rather than the effective solution, the subjective spin rather than the objective facts.
As far as the driving is concerned, well...why would someone want to drive in New York City? It's not as if we haven't got an effective transportation system -- even the mayor takes the subway! If not the subway, there are buses or cabs -- and even though I have a NY driver's license, I haven't ever been behind the wheel of a car here (all I needed was a vision test and they transferred my existing license to New York state). The way people drive in this town is insane -- although I've heard that Paris and Rome are far worse. Add in car theft and the hassle of finding a place to park...I sometimes suspect that people who live here and own cars are stupid, crazy, masochistic, or all three! |
