Ask HN: What sucks about where you live?

#1

Post by mrstrawberry » Tue, Sep 25, 2018, 4:52 PM UTC

I'll start. Here's what sucks about NYC:

1) Home

- Apartments are expensive. Can get 4x more space in Chicago for same price.

- Difficult to shop for home. Wanted a desk for my bedroom. None of the stores in the city, included Target, offered reasonable-priced desks that could fit. Had to buy online, which came with own issues.

2) Services

- Services are expensive. Want to get your hair dyed blond from someone you saw on Instagram? It's $600 and they ruin your hair.

3) Food

- Groceries are expensive and inconvenient. Get delivery or Whole Foods and pay 30-70% over Trader Joe's price. Or you need to walk/Uber to Trader Joe's, wait in line, then walk/Uber back. Local bodegas? Usually bad quality and high prices (eg watermelon is $25).

- Restaurants are expensive. Entree's in Manhattan are usually $25-35.

- Food isn't uniquely great. I recently went to a well-rated David Chang restaurant in Chelsea. Meh.

- Grocery delivery is usually done by foot. Sometimes this is great, sometimes it leads to food being delivered hours late, warm, and gross. This happens across platforms.

4) Transportation

- Can't have a car in Manhattan. Parking is $600/month in my building. Btw, the doorman gets 50%, so $300/month (yay!).

- Car rentals are quite expensive in the city. Want to rent a van to go camping? That's even worse.

- Uber and Lyft is extremely slow in the city. I generally prefer taxi's since drivers understand how to get around faster. They're also priced competitively.

5) Airport

- Traffic between airports is quite bad. Usually about an hour. Makes me jealous of the 20 min SFO commute.

6) Healthcare

- Want to book a doctor or therapist? Go to Zocdoc, enter your insurance, try to book - they call you in a day saying they're booked or don't take your insurance. Great healthcare providers are tough to find.

Re: Ask HN: What sucks about where you live?

#2

Post by bufferoverflow » Tue, Sep 25, 2018, 5:16 PM UTC

You forgot the environment. NYC is full of garbage, not enough parks, and the rivers are so dirty, you're not allowed to swim in them. It's noisy and full of stress.

That's why I moved to Hawaii and never looked back. Working remotely is a lot of fun, and is just healthier, both environment-wise and mentally.

Re: Ask HN: What sucks about where you live?

#3

Post by uber1geek » Tue, Sep 25, 2018, 5:16 PM UTC

I grew up in Srinagar, Kashmir, which is a really beautiful place - even though there’s a really good chance you’ll freeze to death here or get struck by a bullet.

Learning from life with each passing day. Thank God for sapience.

Re: Ask HN: What sucks about where you live?

#4

Post by jherdman » Tue, Sep 25, 2018, 5:20 PM UTC

I'm in Toronto.

1) Housing. It's definitely not as bad as other "world class" cities, but it's bad enough that multiple parents are having to help their children buy homes.

2) Opportunity is too good. "Why not move?", you may ask. Well, there's only so many cities in Canada that are on the scale of Toronto for opportunities. Vancouver is one, but it's even more costly. Other cities just don't come close for job opportunities.

3) Our new Premier is a dip shit and actively ruining our province.

4) Access to outdoor amenities isn't so hot. There's some things, but you really have to drive 3-4 hours for the great stuff.

5) Transit is painfully underfunded. We need more of everything, and we need it 10 years ago.

6) City planning seems totally absent. We have 100k people moving here year over year. Entire new neighbourhoods are popping up almost over night, but there's zero planning in place. A prime example is Liberty Village. Getting in out is a nightmare. There are families growing up here without a new school to be found. There are no parks either.

I'm sure there's more. These are the first that come to mind.

Re: Ask HN: What sucks about where you live?

#5

Post by grenoire » Tue, Sep 25, 2018, 5:21 PM UTC

Amsterdam is altogether great alongside the Netherlands, but its ever-increasing popularity among tourists is making it less and less bearable to live it. It's overly crowded and the housing market is facing serious troubles due to certain overly-liberal government policies and amount of expats coming in for newfound startups.

Still 10/10 though!

Re: Ask HN: What sucks about where you live?

#6

Post by uber1geek » Tue, Sep 25, 2018, 5:23 PM UTC

bufferoverflow wrote: post #2

You forgot the environment. NYC is full of garbage, not enough parks, and the rivers are so dirty, you're not allowed to swim in them. It's noisy and full of stress. That's why I moved to Hawaii and never looked back. Working remotely is a lot of fun, and is just healthier, both environment-wise and mentally.

and the Rats.

Re: Ask HN: What sucks about where you live?

#7

Post by JoshMnem » Tue, Sep 25, 2018, 5:25 PM UTC

San Francisco Bay Area: housing prices. BART could be improved.

Re: Ask HN: What sucks about where you live?

#8

Post by instaheat » Tue, Sep 25, 2018, 5:25 PM UTC

Dallas/Ft. Worth

Since DFW is so spread out, many suburbs don't have public transportation or limited transportation. I cannot take a bus door to door to my office. I would have to drive to a "park and ride" location to begin my commute. There are no bus stops/lines near my home.

I suppose this would be a welcome change for someone living in NYC. Everywhere takes 15-30 minutes to get to. We don't measure distance in miles, everything is measured in how long it takes to get there. As an example, you can drive for 12 HOURS(!!) and still be in Texas.

Weather:

It's HOT in the Summer. Extremely hot. I'm used to it by now though and it does not bother me.

I am struggling to find other things to complain about.. I like it here but have lived here for a long time and crave change. I want to move to Southern California but know that I would be taking on state income taxes (Texas doesn't have any) and more expensive housing. Why do that to myself..?

Re: Ask HN: What sucks about where you live?

#9

Post by existencebox » Tue, Sep 25, 2018, 5:26 PM UTC

Seattle:

- Traffic is terrible, combined with subpar public transit compared to north-eastern cities.

- housing is far more expensive than it's worth, if you don't want to spend upwards of 500k-1m your commute will be at least an hour.

- Culture is lacking. Fewer good music and performance acts than in the NorthEast, or even what I saw when I was in colorado. Less alt scenes than I was used to (unless you're in a select handful of very strongly represented subcultures)

- Strong cultural/personality friction for someone who grew up in Philadelphia. Things that are acceptable/expected here are unacceptable there, and visa versa. (E.g. talking to someone you don't know in a supermarket, driving habits)

- COL in general seems pricy (e.g. 20$ work lunches considered "normal" and 6$ beers at restaraunts) but that could very well just be inflation since I left the east.

To avoid sounding 200% a pessimist, I would be remiss to say that what I _do_ get is 2000% more nature than I ever got back east. The longer I've lived here the more I've questioned whether the tradeoff is worth it, but thus far it's kept me going. Great skiing too, if you go north a bit, comparable with vermont more or less.

Re: Ask HN: What sucks about where you live?

#10

Post by abfan1127 » Tue, Sep 25, 2018, 5:26 PM UTC

I live in a small town outside of Phoenix, AZ. I really like where I live. We have a cool small town feel, but only a 20 min drive to big city amenities. Other than 120deg summers (which I much prefer over snow), its pretty awesome. Sounds like you should relocate :)