Advertisement
If you have a new account but are having problems posting or verifying your account, please email us on hello@boards.ie for help. Thanks :)
Hello all! Please ensure that you are posting a new thread or question in the appropriate forum. The Feedback forum is overwhelmed with questions that are having to be moved elsewhere. If you need help to verify your account contact hello@boards.ie

Living in New York?

Options
24567

Comments

  • Options
    #32
    clairefontaine
    Closed Accounts Posts: 4,390 ✭✭✭clairefontaine


    When you look at the craigslist rentals for NYC, you'll see. Rest of the country not a rental twilight zone like NYC.


  • Options
    #33
    ProudDUB
    Registered Users Posts: 11,569 ✭✭✭✭ProudDUB


    seachto7 wrote: »
    Feck, this thread doesn't make the "American Dream" very appealing...

    Well, you are talking about one of the most famous and expensive cities, in the entire world, not just America. Just like other mega famous, mega cities like London, or Paris, if you want a decent quality of life in a decent house/apt, to live in a good neighbourhood, and to be relatively close to the centre of things, you'd want to be earning a fairly decent amount of money.

    But there is a lot more to America than just New York. It's a wonderful, wonderful city, but the cost of living there can put a lot of people off. So can the sacrifices that you have to make if you want to live and work in Manhattan, such as not being able to have a car, or living in a tiny shoebox apt, or not having a back garden. But as I said, there is lot more to New York than Manhattan, and there is a lot more to America than just New York.


  • Options
    #34
    iusedtoknow
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,698 ✭✭✭iusedtoknow


    seachto7 wrote: »
    Feck, this thread doesn't make the "American Dream" very appealing...

    Anyway, the american dream is a myth :)

    People here work hard, the 1% get very lucky, usually off the back of either their family wealth or luck (bill gates for example)

    Quality of life out here is good, but not perfect - there are cheaper places but then you lose certain cultural/entertainment options.


  • Options
    #35
    clairefontaine
    Closed Accounts Posts: 4,390 ✭✭✭clairefontaine


    America is opportunities, not guarantees.

    NYC has been gentrified and up marketed in the last 20 years. You can't find cheap tenements anymore.

    The American dream can take a few generations, it doesn't always happen first go.


  • Options
    #36
    NYC2013
    Registered Users Posts: 48 ✭NYC2013


    I seem to be in the minority but I don't find it too bad at all in New York, although I did live in Sydney before I came here. New York is cheaper than Sydney for rent, public transport, gigs, sports events, food, holidays back to Ireland, movie tickets, gyms, clothes, fuel, and eating out. The only things I find here to be very expensive here is health insurance and phone plans. Alcohol is cheaper in Sydney as well but they also have like 20 slot machines in every pub to try and take your money.


  • Advertisement
  • Options
    #37
    cena
    Registered Users Posts: 9,972 ✭✭✭cena


    My cousin has a million dollar house in Brooklyn And she finds it hard living. She has three small kids as well. She is very up in her job on 5thave.


  • Options
    #38
    ProudDUB
    Registered Users Posts: 11,569 ✭✭✭✭ProudDUB


    The American Dream is just a cliche. If you go there expecting to live the dream, on streets paved with gold yada yada yada, you are probably going to wind up disappointed. But that being said, there are variables in place that can lead to wealth creation that don't exist here. The rates of income tax in the US are very low compared to here. So if you go over there willing to work your ass off, you generally get to hang on to a much bigger chunk of your money than you do here. Unions are not as common and companies tend to promote based on merit, not length of services. If you are a hard working, go getter, you can really get ahead a lot quicker than you can here.

    But on the flip side, social welfare does not exit to a degree that it does here. If you are an unemployed young person just out of school/college, a single mother, or you lose your job, or you get sick and you have no health insurance, there is no where near the safety net & government support that there is here. So you can go from a nice middle class existence to the poor house very quickly.


  • Options
    #39
    pgmcpq
    Registered Users Posts: 1,852 ✭✭✭pgmcpq


    To chip in my tuppence here.

    20 years ago 50k would have been a pretty comfortable income here. Today it would be tight - doable but tight. But lot's of 20-something work in my (software) field here for 70-80k and seem to be doing ok. 90k would e a comfortable income.

    It is to be expected that the perspective on what is affordable for the new arrival and the long time resident differ.

    Everything is distorted by accommodation and health care. Putting those aside NY is not that expensive.

    But there are cheaper place to live that provide relatively easy access to NY, but it does change over the years. There has been a reversal of the "flight" from the city as crime rates have dropped amazingly pushing prices up.
    But places does exist - I'm more familiar with NJ - but would consider Jersey City, Bayonne. Both are less than 60 minutes to mid town. Want to find the cheap option - ask your local artist ! Still for many people sharing makes sense. I also lived in London during the 90s and despite my "professional":) job I could not afford an apartment solo. I could when I moved here - it was a bit of a dive, but served me well for three years. It always amuses me that NY based sitcoms always show people living in nice large apartments in Manhattan !

    Health care is a c**p shoot anywhere in the US. This is not a country to be ill in unless you have the cash, NY or elsewhere.


  • Options
    #40
    NoCrackHaving
    Registered Users Posts: 535 ✭✭✭NoCrackHaving


    pgmcpq wrote: »

    Everything is distorted by accommodation and health care. Putting those aside NY is not that expensive.

    This is massively true, outside of these two things I found New York far cheaper to live in than London and definately San Francisco (which I found so expensive to the point that I had to leave). Like I could buy a 12 inch pizza in my local neighbourhood place near Harlem for like $7 or $8. In San Francisco I was looking at $20 in the same sort of neighbourhood.


  • Options
    #41
    iusedtoknow
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,698 ✭✭✭iusedtoknow


    NoCrackHaving wrote: »
    This is massively true, outside of these two things I found New York far cheaper to live in than London and definately San Francisco (which I found so expensive to the point that I had to leave). Like I could buy a 12 inch pizza in my local neighbourhood place near Harlem for like $7 or $8. In San Francisco I was looking at $20 in the same sort of neighbourhood.

    TBH, I find the same thing about SF - outside of rent life is pretty cheap.

    PBR beer at my local is $2 or $3 a pint. I also have to disagree about food costs in general. We have a great pizza place just down the road from us that gets you a pie for $10, it feeds two of us pretty well. Sure, downtown, SOMA, Pac Heights and Nob hill ares are expensive, but North Beach (Little Italy) has some great pizza places for cheap.

    We live in the Sunset and close enough to Haight and the Mission- and have yet to feel gouged with prices.


  • Advertisement
  • Options
    #42
    Hazys
    Closed Accounts Posts: 7,510 ✭✭✭Hazys


    Same for Boston (the 3rd most expensive renters city) rent is expensive but eating out, drinks, clothes, etc are all very reasonable.

    Rent in Boston is driven up by a number of factors. The city center is small so apartments less than a 40 min commute of downtown are very expensive. Huge student population who pay whatever for the year and leave. Most apartments are pretty old so any newly renovated apartments are very expensive.

    My current 2 bed apartment which i rented 3 years ago at $1,800 a month, I'm moving out at the end of the month but if i wanted to stay it would be now $2,400 a month. 33% increase in 3 years.

    When i was looking for a new apartment, i initially was looking for a one bed but $1,500 a month wouldn't get you a shoe box within 30 mins of downtown. A bit annoying but at least Boston isn't the only rip off city in the US. Found a really nice 2 bed with a mate downtown in the end.


  • Options
    #43
    Amirani
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 12,521 Mod ✭✭✭✭Amirani


    When I lived in New York, I rented in Westchester County. Just a 30/40 minute commute to Grand Central if you get somewhere near Metro-North. Not nearly as expensive as NYC.


  • Options
    #44
    Ponster
    Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators Posts: 10,911 Mod ✭✭✭✭Ponster


    NiallSparky wrote: »
    When I lived in New York, I rented in Westchester County. Just a 30/40 minute commute to Grand Central if you get somewhere near Metro-North. Not nearly as expensive as NYC.

    And a wonderful part of the state it is too. Some towns though like White Plains are creeping up in value with more people being forced out of Manhattan. Still though, if I had to leave the city I'd move to Westchester though it's appeal may depend on your age and expectations.


  • Options
    #45
    clairefontaine
    Closed Accounts Posts: 4,390 ✭✭✭clairefontaine


    Alot of Irish in Yonkers.


  • Options
    #46
    NoCrackHaving
    Registered Users Posts: 535 ✭✭✭NoCrackHaving


    Ponster wrote: »
    And a wonderful part of the state it is too. Some towns though like White Plains are creeping up in value with more people being forced out of Manhattan. Still though, if I had to leave the city I'd move to Westchester though it's appeal may depend on your age and expectations.

    As you say, nice area but very much a place for families to an extent. If I was young single person in 20s/early 30s I wouldn't be jumping at living there.


  • Options
    #47
    whitey1
    Registered Users Posts: 358 ✭✭whitey1


    A lot of Irish people want to go home at least once a year...which costs min $3k. When it comes to how you spend your disposable income, that needs to be factored in.


  • Options
    #48
    iusedtoknow
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,698 ✭✭✭iusedtoknow


    whitey1 wrote: »
    A lot of Irish people want to go home at least once a year...which costs min $3k. When it comes to how you spend your disposable income, that needs to be factored in.

    3k in total I am assuming (drinks, food, more drinks)...I got "home" from SF in two days notice for $840 with Delta


  • Options
    #49
    emeraldstar
    Registered Users Posts: 5,383 ✭✭✭emeraldstar


    whitey1 wrote: »
    A lot of Irish people want to go home at least once a year...which costs min $3k.

    :confused:


  • Options
    #50
    SHOVELLER
    Registered Users Posts: 1,638 ✭✭✭SHOVELLER


    clairefontaine wrote: »
    Alot of Irish in Yonkers.

    I would like to think anyone going over would have a bit more ambition than staying there.


  • Options
    #51
    Ponster
    Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators Posts: 10,911 Mod ✭✭✭✭Ponster


    SHOVELLER wrote: »
    I would like to think anyone going over would have a bit more ambition than staying there.

    That's not been my experience. I've been asked several times why I choose to live in Brooklyn rather than with the "rest of the Irish" in Yonkers. Those asking were generally in their 20's and seemed amused by my decision to not live as one guy put it "with my own people".

    Not trying to describe all those who live in Westchester but my feeling is that if you come over here, and are illegal, it's easier to get by with a larger support network perhaps ?


  • Advertisement
  • Options
    #52
    SHOVELLER
    Registered Users Posts: 1,638 ✭✭✭SHOVELLER


    Ponster wrote: »
    That's not been my experience. I've been asked several times why I choose to live in Brooklyn rather than with the "rest of the Irish" in Yonkers. Those asking were generally in their 20's and seemed amused by my decision to not live as one guy put it "with my own people".

    Not trying to describe all those who live in Westchester but my feeling is that if you come over here, and are illegal, it's easier to get by with a larger support network perhaps ?

    Easier yes but you dont have to live there.

    You are going to a new country so why move to Woodside or Woodlawn where you will get exactly everything you wanted to leave behind.


  • Options
    #53
    ProudDUB
    Registered Users Posts: 11,569 ✭✭✭✭ProudDUB


    SHOVELLER wrote: »
    Easier yes but you dont have to live there.

    You are going to a new country so why move to Woodside or Woodlawn where you will get exactly everything you wanted to leave behind.

    That is a bizarre statement. Not everyone who moves to the US, wants to leave anything or everything behind them. Some people enjoy having familiar things and people from home around them on a daily basis. It makes them still feel connected to home and less homesick. Some people prefer to dive right in, and experience everything that a brand new culture can offer 110%. Some people are somewhere in the middle. They can pick and choose what new things, people and places they want to live with and amongst. They are the lucky ones, as most others have it dictated to them by their jobs or family or personal circumstances. But whatever it is, every one is different, and that difference should be respected.


  • Options
    #54
    SHOVELLER
    Registered Users Posts: 1,638 ✭✭✭SHOVELLER


    ProudDUB wrote: »
    That is a bizarre statement. Not everyone who moves to the US, wants to leave anything or everything behind them. Some people enjoy having familiar things and people from home around them on a daily basis. It makes them still feel connected to home and less homesick. Some people prefer to dive right in, and experience everything that a brand new culture can offer 110%. Some people are somewhere in the middle. They can pick and choose what new things, people and places they want to live with and amongst. They are the lucky ones, as most others have it dictated to them by their jobs or family or personal circumstances. But whatever it is, every one is different, and that difference should be respected.

    Maybe bizarre to you but the support network is not its all cracked up to be.


  • Options
    #55
    NoCrackHaving
    Registered Users Posts: 535 ✭✭✭NoCrackHaving


    Ponster wrote: »
    That's not been my experience. I've been asked several times why I choose to live in Brooklyn rather than with the "rest of the Irish" in Yonkers. Those asking were generally in their 20's and seemed amused by my decision to not live as one guy put it "with my own people".

    Not trying to describe all those who live in Westchester but my feeling is that if you come over here, and are illegal, it's easier to get by with a larger support network perhaps ?

    I think there's still an element of working class/blue collar attached to Irish immigrants to the US. The idea that Irish people can emigrate as skilled professionals-ie engineers/IT/scientists etc. is seen as a bit 'out there', as in it's not what's seen as your typical Irish migrant to New York say who would have becoem a construction worker/bar worker/cop etc.


  • Options
    #56
    clairefontaine
    Closed Accounts Posts: 4,390 ✭✭✭clairefontaine


    NoCrackHaving wrote: »
    I think there's still an element of working class/blue collar attached to Irish immigrants to the US. The idea that Irish people can emigrate as skilled professionals-ie engineers/IT/scientists etc. is seen as a bit 'out there', as in it's not what's seen as your typical Irish migrant to New York say who would have becoem a construction worker/bar worker/cop etc.

    Also and oddly, out in Woodside, a certain constituency of Irish, the ones where where gigantic gold hoop earrings and have so me serious potty mouths.

    People also assume if you emigrated it must be because you are dirt poor. They don't think of emigrants as professionals. Even the term immigrant still has connotations.

    However, NYC is a very welcoming city. No one cares where you come from. What matters is that you are there now. It can be terribly lonely too at times, often natives mifh be at home and realise they know no one for a 20 block radius and millions of people. It might be a good idea to have some community but don't let it takeover our life or stop you from fully integrating.


  • Options
    #57
    iusedtoknow
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,698 ✭✭✭iusedtoknow


    NoCrackHaving wrote: »
    I think there's still an element of working class/blue collar attached to Irish immigrants to the US. The idea that Irish people can emigrate as skilled professionals-ie engineers/IT/scientists etc. is seen as a bit 'out there', as in it's not what's seen as your typical Irish migrant to New York say who would have becoem a construction worker/bar worker/cop etc.

    Hmm, I have never come across this attitude that it's unusual for an Irish professional to be working here.

    In my company there are 8 Irish people that have been here for between 6 months and 10 years. I know there must be some brickies etc around, but most of the irish I meet are working either in finance or in silicon valley companies.

    Maybe that attitude is an east-coast thing


  • Options
    #58
    clairefontaine
    Closed Accounts Posts: 4,390 ✭✭✭clairefontaine


    iusedtoknow wrote: »
    Hmm, I have never come across this attitude that it's unusual for an Irish professional to be working here.

    In my company there are 8 Irish people that have been here for between 6 months and 10 years. I know there must be some brickies etc around, but most of the irish I meet are working either in finance or in silicon valley companies.

    Maybe that attitude is an east-coast thing

    I think it is an east coat thing - history sticks.


  • Options
    #59
    pgmcpq
    Registered Users Posts: 1,852 ✭✭✭pgmcpq


    clairefontaine wrote: »
    I think it is an east coat thing - history sticks.

    Going back to the early 90s almost all the Irish I knew living in NY were illegal and working construction. People lived where work could be found and where there were friendly business that would cash checks. (Think Black 47 :)).

    Legal and not working construction, I was an oddity - actually I can think of only two other from back them. So people stayed within their community - same as the Irish in London in the 1950/60s.

    These were all guys who left Ireland without ever experiencing tigers or bubbles. Post 9/11 when living illegally became impossible and many of the 1980 arrivals now had kids, they left - some back to Ireland - many to Oz, a few to the west coast.

    So it may look very different today - but there were reasons for it.


  • Options
    #60
    ProudDUB
    Registered Users Posts: 11,569 ✭✭✭✭ProudDUB


    SHOVELLER wrote: »
    Maybe bizarre to you but the support network is not its all cracked up to be.

    It may not have been for some, but it has been very important for a lot of other people, myself included. No one here is entitled to speak for anyone else, or make sweeping generalizations about their lives, or the choices that they make, because everyone is different.


  • Advertisement
  • Options
    #61
    MOR316
    Registered Users Posts: 2,206 ✭✭✭MOR316


    Didn't think there was much point in starting a new thread...

    Is it OK if I ask a question here? Or is it better to start a new thread?


Advertisement