Secrets of the City

part of the reason I moved here after I graduated was that the money I had left would get me three months sublet in a slum in dinkytown here, whereas it would pay for a month’s rent in boston (or a month and a half, but what good does that half month do?).

Sure enough, it took me three months to find a job, just as I was moving out of the sublet and onto someone’s couch.

I read that article this morning too, and all I can say is that I’ll never bitch about paying $600 a month for rent. Ever.

oh, and people on another board I frequent have been discussing this article (many actual new yorkers among them) and have come to the conclusion that these kids are just idiots.

no, honey, you don’t have to live on the LES. You can move to bushwick and pay 1/3 of that for rent. Yes, there are ’scary black people’ you probably didn’t see as many of in podunk whereeverthefuckyou’refromville, but if you’re not an idiot you’ll be safe. You wanted to live in new york, now suck it up and live within your means like everyone else that lives there.

I mean, fuck, if you’d give up your douchehat hipster shit you could probably afford to live over by park slope. But nooooo, you just have to live in manhattan.

actually now that I think of what my friend in bushwick pays (less than me, btw), it’s probably like 1/4 or less than what a closet on the LES costs.

I love Manhattan and if I were twenty-something again, I’d so sacrifice to live there – just for the experience. As it is, I have relatives and friends who live in Manhattan so no need to suffer.

My crazy couple of years at the U felt like that – 3 roommates, 1 bedroom, drink pool so that we had cash for other stuff. This was also the time when HH’s were accompanied with food so a cheap beer or shitty glass of wine bought access to the HH spread.

I turned down a job just last year to move to NYC for double the salary. But even double the salary my quality of life would of gone down dramatically. When I want a taste of NYC I can fly there once a month every month with a lot of money left over to actually live my life.

Hell, you could live in Astoria for a fraction of the cost. I have a lot of MN friends who did that. One friend paid approx the same that he paid when he lived in Dinkytown.

I like NYC enough but if I’m going to live there, I’m going to be making significantly more than I make now and if I’m there now, I am just visiting.
Also, you’d have to pay me a lot more to be that close to so many people from college who I hoped never to see again.

sidenote: I hate Drink with a passion but their happy hour buffet spreads are free and awesome.

i’ve never understood moving to a completely different state/city for a job…

i’ll live where i want to live and make my living where i want to live, not vice versa

Henry is a very smart man.

Here, if they do buy you a drink, which is rare, you have to suffer through flirtations. Its true, she said, adding, Its really cheesy.

Oh, the horror…

EagerOwl, I found that quote immensely hilarious as well…entitled much?

Ditto. Even though she admitted to flirting for free drinks, she acts all surprised and above it when they flirt back? What a dick.

She’s upset by flirting? She should never Ghat with me.

Of course, it’s possible she’s a former student of mine from when I was at Omaha, so I probably shouldn’t flirt with her anyway.

woah woah woah, astoria? c’mon, I’m saying people can still live in civilization and afford it, not bloody QUEENS.

Queens kicks ass! Boroughs, represent!

I’d suggest these kids get a second job, but I have a feeling that would interfere with their social lives.

broker 4 lyfe, son!

Hoboken is the answer. Really just take the PATH -etic train into Manhattan every morning.

To each their own, but I doubt I’d ever take any job that required me moving to NYC. I quite enjoy the nice balance I have between the cost of my social life (which can dominate sometimes because hookers ain’t cheap) and the cost of having a fairly spacious near-downtown condo.

A 10×10 room just to be able to live in NYC? Fuckthat.

IIRC, Marsh just lived the Hoboken-Manhattan experience.

If I were in my 20s and single, I’d go to New York and Make it Big. And never come back.

just like all those waiters and waitresses that moved to LA to be actors, right rat?

When I arrived in Manhattan from the Twin Cities in my early twenties I wondered every day why I didn’t just stay in Minnesota. The apartment I rented was a fifth of the size of the one I had in MN and three times as expensive. I eventually loved living in NYC, but I still didn’t turn down the chance to move back to Minneapolis when it came along.

In my experience, it’s possible to live in NYC like the kids in the article for a couple years, but that’s it — after that, people tend to start making money or give up and move away.

I’m 24 and selling all of my stuff and moving to Brooklyn on August 1. I just went their for vacation and stayed with a friend. Another friend told me he’s subletting his $900/mo apartment for two months and he could get me a job waiting tables.

I’ve wanted to move to NYC for two years. I’ve attempted several times to save money but things kept changing.

When I’m 30 I want to look back on my 20s and smile and say, “I might be broke as hell, but I did it.”

So I’m selling everything, packing up the necessities and doing it.

What’s the worst that could happen? I run out of money and have to move home? I can think of worse things…

Oh, and I pay $510 for a one-bedroom in NE Minneapolis, I’m a server and a reporter (what I went to school for). I have loads of lovely friends and I don’t really ever go without because I know how to manage my time and money. I have lots to stay here for.

But I just want out for a few years. What’s so wrong with that?

Good for you, Toots!

Good on ya’, Toots. I agree about the experience, but the flip side is that you’ll do ok without having to be “broke as hell.”

My friends who picked up their MN lives and moved to Manhattan worked hard for years to build their business and it paid off for them. They now have a thriving business and are doing well.

Good on ya’, Toots. I agree about the experience, but the flip side is that you’ll do ok without having to be “broke as hell.”

My friends who picked up their MN lives and moved to Manhattan worked hard for years to build their business and it paid off for them. They now have a thriving business and are doing well.

oh just wait till you meet the TOTALLY RAD AWESOME NOT AT ALL PRETENTIOUS nyc hipsters WHO LOVE THEIR COKE AND PBR.
You’ll have a wonderful time in williamsburg.

I think living in NYC (especially Brooklyn) when you’re 24 will be incredibly fun, broke or not. I wouldn’t ever give up my 9 years living in NYC — but it took a lot of adjusting and was considerably better when I was no longer broke. That’s probably true anywhere, but it’s harder in NYC where everything is so expensive.

it’s a good thing you can always find creepy businessmen on craigslist who will support you financially in exchange for some bizarre favour.

I just want to move out of my mom’s basement.

Damn you, crushing student loan debt for a stupid undergrad degree!

I think living in NYC (especially Brooklyn) when you’re 24 will be incredibly fun, broke or not

When is being broke fun?

Like Puffy sez, Bix, mo’ money, mo’ problems.

The broke part isn’t the fun part. Brooklyn is fun. Especially when you’re 24 and maybe less likely to notice/fixate on the fact that you’re broke. Or at least that’s what it was like for me.

The key to living poor is not to have kids, or, if you must have kids, sell them to science for the big money.

in exchange for some bizarre favour.

Ew, the extra Anglo “u” makes it even creepier.

Or do as my birth parents did and sell them to the Irish! Although I don’t think it was for big money. Damn.

The Irish sold me to the Jews!

They’re crafty, the Irish.

craigslist nyc IS pretty creepy.

also, the way people forget that they’re poor in brooklyn is cocaine and casual sex until they finally sleep with someone crazy enough to trash their apartment and/or try to kill themselves and/or call the police for no good reason and/or you get the picture. then it’s not so much fun anymore.

As I get older, and having visited that clusterfuck of a city several times there is no way I would live there. It’s so impractical, dirty, loud, and polluted. Sure it’s hip and fun, but why waste several thousand dollars to live among the hip when you could be saving for a real life somewhere pleasant. Most of the hip will forget you and the money ain’t coming back.

Everyone needs to go check it out a few times, see the sights, but honestly I have no idea how you could live there full-time, once you are over 30 and unless you grew up somewhere on the east coast and are used to that lifestyle. I can’t imagine moving there now, to all that noise and garbage, and paying 3 times as much for everything.

I’ve never been to NYC. I live a sad and pathetic life.

Of course you’ll have a bad impression of New York if you only focus on the pimps and the C.H.U.D.s.

I’ve never been either, kc…but I’ve been to DC a couple of times…I’d live there.

Oh my stars, I agree with older mAN. I’m so old.

It just seems to me that any place loses it’s fun factor if I’m broke and especially if I’m hungry.

@Aliecat: I believe he prefers to be addressed as Diddy now. Although, I’m not sure. I’ve lost track of his various naming decrees. Regardless, I don’t buy that mo’ money = mo’ problems nor do I believe that Jay-Z has more than 35 problems.

Though, in all fairness, grilled C.H.U.D. is solylent awesome.

I’m going to go live in NYC myself… for about 8 hours on June 10.

Bix- he could make it so much easier on us pleebs if he just let us address him as Sir Douche of the Bag Clan.

When my brother and I were in our twenties and living off the land in Manhattan, we made being broke a sport: he rode his skateboard everywhere. Furniture was best if it was scavenged from rich people’s neighborhoods when they put it out on the street. Who could find the best cheap stuff? Free events?
Later, he and his wife left because they didn’t want to raise kids there. The heroin addict roommate was a drag too.

I have nothing against NYC. I’d live there…just not if I’m not rich.

nor do I believe that Jay-Z has more than 35 problems.

And I thought it was 99 problems?

Buying from the Chinese and selling to the Jews. Market makers as well.

So a guy from Boston spells favor with a “u?” That’s totally not pretentious.

Yeah, he claims 99 problems for the street cred but more than likely he has somewhere between 30-35 problems.

i think it is more like 45. 22 of them related to his lack of boner.

Pizza.

Jay-Z has 99 problems but his moms ain’t one.

(Waits patiently for Jay-Z to show up on Mnspeak to yell at me.)

Violent Pizza

Living in NYC when you’re in your early twenties kind of feels like a long study abroad program. It’s so different from MN that it almost feels like you’ve left the country. Which really is kind of fun. I agree it’s impractical, expensive, polluted and loud. I also couldn’t see living there past age 30. That’s when I decided to move back to MN.

Fuck you man! You don’t know me!

Excellent.

alie, I totally love DC. And I could get a really good job there, if only my whole family didn’t live here, and almost all my friends, and the house that would never sell for a profit in this market is stopping me too.

But I love DC.

To illustrate Jay-Z’s point.

So a guy from Boston spells favor with a “u?” That’s totally not pretentious.

I am not from Boston.

Man, Jay Z is a touchy man.

The Rat went to NY in September strutted down Park Avenue. Went out that night to a black tie soiree. Diana Krall was the entertainment. Lucy Liu was there.

Can’t get that in this backwater.

Judge Smails: Oh Dr. Beeper, Bishop Pickering this is my niece Lacey Underall. Lacey’s mother sent her to us for the summer.
Dr. Beeper: Must be a nice change from dreary old Manhattan.
Lacey Underall: Yes, I was really getting tired of having fun all the time.

Madonna with meatballs!

Diana Krall? Isn’t that Elvis Costello’s husband?

Fuck you man! You don’t know me!

also:

Fuck you man! You don’t know me!

My theory is that anyone who says “You don’t know me,” you now know everything you need to know about them.

Closure on a previous mnspeak post.

Kurtis, I have no idea why that link is relevant. but since it contains the phrase, “there are many happy endings to online romance”, it’s ok with me.

You don’t know me! > Don’t you know who I am?!

I was too lazy to go back and find it, but the woman in the video posted a query on mnspeak about local dating sites.

NYC and in particular Williamsburg are so played. It’s all about Singapore, London or even Barcelona.

Just make sure you pick up a fixie as soon as you get over to the ‘burg. Oh, and a disdain for people who live elsewhere.

Wayno’s from Bakersfield, C-A!

“there are many happy endings to online romance”, it’s ok with me.

I retract my online dating site recommendation in that thread.

INdeed, I am.

Also, don’t forget ostberlin, saloth. scheisse ist hoppin’ these days.

Eh klar Wayno. Berlin ist immer geil., fahren wir alle hin!

I had a slightly different experience, because I moved from MSP to NYC for a relatively well-paying gig when I was 29. I lived there a few years, and then moved back (with very mixed feelings) for family/personal reasons. A couple of observations, on the various economic issues:

1. My cost of living was lower in NYC than in MSP. I didn’t need a car, I spent less on food, and beers and shows aren’t much more expensive there than they are here.

2. Rent on my studio apartment in the Financial District was approximately the same as the mortgage on my 3BR 1920s house in SE Mpls. IIRC, I could have snagged a nice 1BR in Park Slope for about the same amount.

3. I had to work a lot more in NYC than I do in MSP — but regardless if you broke it down annually or by the hour, I was much better paid. And because everyone I worked with was grinding out 10 hours a day, there was much more camaraderie than I found in MSP, when people hit the door at 6 o’clock.

My $.02.

Not to sound metro, but I like my hair.

You don’t sound metro, dude. You sound like a vaginal refresher.

I lived in MSP and NYC in my 20s and left NYC because it was too expensive… and have regretted it ever since. There’s more to life than money, and you can’t beat NYC. MSP is lame by comparison.

There’s more to life than money

Spoken like someone with money.

Seems lame to say that Minneapolis is lame compared to NYC – duh! You either like what Minneapolis has to offer or you don’t. But comparing it to a city that’s 8x larger is silly.

Did I ever tell you about the beautiful blonde 15-year old hooker from Mpls who propositioned me in Times Square? Oh yeah, I guess I did.

Isn’t living broke in NYC in your 20s kinda like living broke in college? You just don’t know any better, so you make do with what you have. I don’t know how I got by on so little money in college, but I did. If I’d started out in NYC, I wouldn’t know what I was missing.

That said, now that I’m 30 and comfortably in the financial situation I’m in, I wouldn’t give it up to move to NYC, because: Seems lame to say that Minneapolis is lame compared to NYC – duh! You either like what Minneapolis has to offer or you don’t. But comparing it to a city that’s 8x larger is silly.

There’s more to life than money

There are more important things than grades. Winning the caddy tournament, for instance, might look pretty good on a young fellow’s application.

I grew up in Minnesota but have now lived in New York for 8 years. I almost took a job in Minneapolis a few weeks ago because I’ve always wondered what it would be like to live back home but at the last minute I couldnt do it.

I would have been giving up a lot to move to Minnesota — I like being able to go to Central Park and Barneys. I like being able to walk to the bodega and buy a French Vogue. I like the MoMA, and the Gagosian. I like being able to get good Korean in most neighborhoods. I like the subway and hate driving.

I’ve always liked the Twin Cities, and always thought I would move back, but now I don’t know. It doesn’t feel like a city to me anymore.

I make decent money but certainly not a ton, same goes for my husband. We do live in a tiny apartment but I’m pretty okay with that. We’re in the East Village, and its quirky and actually pretty affordable considering. I’m not sure when we’ll have the 100K needed for a down payment in this city, but in the meantime we save well over $1000 a month, travel a lot, and go out most nights.

Oh and I’m 30 and he’s 38.

It’s too bad. Sounds like you’d fit right into minnenapolis.

When I was in my 20s, I lived in connecticut for four years, equidistant between New York and Boston right off I95. I would hitch-hike first to one town one weekend, and then the other the following weekend. I got a good idea what each city was like without having to actually live there. Enough exposure to know that I wantd to move back here at my earliest convenience.

To be honest, I did get some attitude from some people, who will remain unnamed (*cough* Rex), about staying in Hoboken.

Kiki, are you still blogging?

kiki, sounds like you are the perfect fit for new york! you should stay there. After living in NYC, i can see why minneapolis doent seem like a city anymore. They are so different–that’s one of the things i like about minneapolis–is that it doesn’t feel like a huge city.

you can have central park, I’ll take the woods.

WTF is this, Green Acres? oldguy = Eddie Albert? kiki = Zsa Zsa?

Did anyone not go through this after college? I sure did and I had my own apartment in Yuptown. I must be totally inept to not have made $70,000 straight out of college to avoid the umcomfy sensations of being perpetually broke. Being in New York has nothing to do with it. I will be living there at some point in my life btw.

justpbob = Hank Kimball, county agent, promoting E85 and biodiesel?

Did anyone not go through this after college? I sure did and I had my own apartment in Yuptown. I must be totally inept to not have made $70,000 straight out of college to avoid the umcomfy sensations of being perpetually broke.

Ha, totally. I had to borrow money from my parents for the security deposit on the uptown apartment I shared with two friends, and only had $72 to my name when I got my first post-college paycheck. Over the next two years I saved enough money to buy a place and pay off a student loan. It’s a rags-to-handtowels story that still brings a tear to my eye.

That’s nothing! I had to sell my Norton Analogies to Half Price books for peanut butter. I ate beans and rice for two weeks after I moved here because I didn’t have a job. Oh, the sadness of our youte!

And I was in Minneapolis! Where is supposedly so cheap and everyone has a great engineering job!

Pffft.

I wanted to immerse myself in a different culture. To taste life in a lesser developed part of the world, eat new foods, learn a new language. So I moved into the city of Detroit. Am I a richer man for it? Who can say?

If I could take my curernt salary and make it in Omaha, I could have a 2,000 square feet of living space! I could go out to eat to Baker’s Square every night!!

There is a new bar opening next to the Local called the Barrio.
It’s a tequila bar with food. That should make us more like NYC or maybe East LA. I believe its being designed by Shea.

The Barrio? Hmmm.

I think Agave would have been a better name.

It’s going to be called Casa de G-rote by the time I’m through. This is exactly the type of place I’ve been waiting for. MASA just doesn’t quite cut it.

I hope grote has a high tolerance for Targetrons.

MASA just doesn’t quite cut it.
you don’t like $39 seafood burritos with bits of shell embedded in them?

Are you kidding? Tequila-Tamales-Targetrons??? My head is going to explode. Have you not read my skyway shoe survey? The Targetronettes on The Mall in the summer time are my favorite thing about working downtown, narrowly edging out the Central Library and Marshall’s.

Downtown Journal has the scoop!

Nicollet Mall
The former Dunn Bros on Nicollet Mall is getting stocked with stronger drinks: Barrio, a tequila bar and Latin street food restaurant, is opening at 925 Nicollet Mall on July 15.

Two of Barrios owners are the people behind Solera at 900 Hennepin Ave. and La Belle Vie at 510 Groveland Ave. The restaurant will feature a mezzanine level and an outdoor patio.

Latin street food? Ceasar Salad on a stick? The Romulus Burger?

I think a lot of people like the idea of proving to themselves they can survive like that. And where else would you rather do it, really?

I understand the appeal.

if you can make it there…

Barcelona is, indeed, where it is at.