Why New Yorkers Can't Have Nice Things
If you have known me over the last couple of years you have heard me say "New Yorkers can't have nice things". The reason this comes up is because the things that work in the rest of the United States don't work here. Here is the list of things that are awesome everywhere but here:
Target
Wal-Mart (so much so we don't even have one)
Public Bathrooms
Minimum wage workers being decent
Nice cars
Clean streets
National fast-food chains
National family restaurants (Red Lobsters, Applebee’s etc)
Home gyms
Big dogs
Public schools
Federally funded anything
Live on social security
Smiles
Being nice
I could go on and on and I know this sounds like a negative piece but it isn't. New York can't have these things because it is unique. It doesn't fit into the business models of big box retailers where people can drive up with cars. It doesn't fit into municipal areas where a new shopping area can be built on the outside of town where old man Johnson had his farm. In New York for some thing new to come, something old has to go. We are a fixed city. Manhattan can't get bigger or expand. New York is an experiment of scale - it’s the ultimate reality show where we find out if 20 million people can work on an island that's 2 miles wide 10 miles long. (Yes I know about the other boroughs but I'm talking about working)
There is desperation here. Desperation for the poor to survive and a stranger desperation for the rich to survive. We don't have time for nice or smiles - the person behind you is right up your ass and the person behind them needs their coffee now. Speed and efficiency have more value than "good morning sir, nice weather we're having”. All the New Yorker is thinking is "what the fuck is wrong with this guy what do they want from me? take that bullshit to Oklahoma. Get me my coffee and get the hell out of the way".
We can't have nice things because we don't expect them or know what to do with them. We expect the good times to be fleeting and for someone to try and take them away. I'm getting mine before it's gone. We act that way in stores, we act that way on the street and we act that way because we have to.
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