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New Yorkers consider relocating post coronavirus

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Re: New Yorkers consider relocating post coronavirus

#41
post #32
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because Seattle's a pretty great city to live in? You can still easily find rent below $1500/month for a 1 bedroom on Capitol Hill, it isn't too insane. Editing to add Seattle has world-class rock climbing, mountaineering, and hiking under an hour's drive from downtown, and if you aren't doing that you're probably missing out on half the joy of living here.

> "Because Seattle's a pretty great city to live in?" I feel like thats a minority opinion. The weather is terrible, the food is terrible, service at restaurants (or pretty much service in general) is terrible. A huge portion of the city shuts down at night. Where NYC is a city that doesn't sleep, Seattle sleeps. There are drug needles in the streets, and I routinely see homeless people defecating on sidewalks. I eve…

> Where NYC is a city that doesn't sleep, Seattle sleeps

Are there any other US cities that don't sleep?

Re: New Yorkers consider relocating post coronavirus

#43
Long-term NYC resident here (I haven't hit my decade yet, so I'll avoid calling myself a New Yorker to dodge any ire).

I've heard rumblings from a lot of people about moving out, mostly from people who haven't really set down roots here - which makes sense. The appeal of New York is largely all the stuff to do, and without being able to do stuff you're just stuck in a very small space that you pay a lot of money for.

Most of the people I hear this from expect social-distancing type measures to continue for quite some time, so especially those with small children/etc. are really thinking about whether they can do this for another year.

Interestingly I haven't really met anyone considering leaving the city because of the virus itself (i.e. because of concern due to population density), only those really feeling the lifestyle restrictions. They're responsible and social distancing, etc. so the thought of continuing that lifestyle without significantly more living space is getting to them.

Re: New Yorkers consider relocating post coronavirus

#44
post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "Because Seattle's a pretty great city to live in?" I feel like thats a minority opinion. The weather is terrible, the food is terrible, service at restaurants (or pretty much service in general) is terrible. A huge portion of the city shuts down at night. Where NYC is a city that doesn't sleep, Seattle sleeps. There are drug needles in the streets, and I routinely see homeless people defecating on sidewalks. I eve…

> Where NYC is a city that doesn't sleep, Seattle sleeps Are there any other US cities that don't sleep?

I'd argue Las Vegas.

Re: New Yorkers consider relocating post coronavirus

#45
post #32
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because Seattle's a pretty great city to live in? You can still easily find rent below $1500/month for a 1 bedroom on Capitol Hill, it isn't too insane. Editing to add Seattle has world-class rock climbing, mountaineering, and hiking under an hour's drive from downtown, and if you aren't doing that you're probably missing out on half the joy of living here.

> "Because Seattle's a pretty great city to live in?" I feel like thats a minority opinion. The weather is terrible, the food is terrible, service at restaurants (or pretty much service in general) is terrible. A huge portion of the city shuts down at night. Where NYC is a city that doesn't sleep, Seattle sleeps. There are drug needles in the streets, and I routinely see homeless people defecating on sidewalks. I eve…

I'm a native New Yorker with all the chauvinism that comes with it, but I didn't find Seattle that bad! The weather is no worse than New York's brutal humidity in the summer. The food isn't that bad. Sure the Asian food is thoroughly mediocre compared to New York's, but that's mostly cause New York has great Asian food. The seafood is wonderful too. Service wasn't that bad either—I suspect that's very subjective. Sure, Seattle does shut down at night but how many cities realistically have an all night culture? Even New York's "city that never sleeps" is super exaggerated. There's only a handful of places that stay open past 2-3 am (Gammeeok, Veselka, Coppelia, Great NY Noodletown, Wonjo if you want a few). The homeless does seem to be a problem, albeit I'd say the homeless in Seattle are a little less grungy (heh) then New York's.

Re: New Yorkers consider relocating post coronavirus

#46
post #33
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I lived in Chicago and paid $1500/mo for a 1500 sq/ft loft in River North, AC, dishwasher, in-unit laundry. The rents here are insane compared to other places.

How long ago was this? For a smaller place (900sqft for a 2 or 3 bedroom) they're asking $3200 in logan square. Right arround the corner (western/armitage) they're asking $1800 for a studio.

If you’re in a trendy neighborhood in new construction, sure. There are plenty of neighborhoods where you can. Get $1.6/sqft

Chicago rents have been increasing but nowhere near west coast or east coast prices

Re: New Yorkers consider relocating post coronavirus

#47
post #16
post #14

I'm considering relocating from Seattle purely based on the fact that we can make WFH commonplace. Why pay insane rents to physically be in a location I can work remotely?

Because Seattle's a pretty great city to live in? You can still easily find rent below $1500/month for a 1 bedroom on Capitol Hill, it isn't too insane. Editing to add Seattle has world-class rock climbing, mountaineering, and hiking under an hour's drive from downtown, and if you aren't doing that you're probably missing out on half the joy of living here.

$1500/month is absolutely insane for one bedroom lol

My apartment is $850 and that gets me 2 bedrooms, 1200sqft. In a definitely not as large city mind you, but $1500 is insanely expensive for one bedroom.

Re: New Yorkers consider relocating post coronavirus

#48
post #40

Densely urban ... obese[1][2] and sedentary ... contagion free. Choose two. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obesity_in_the_United_States [2] https://www1.nyc.gov/site/doh/health/health-topics/obesity.p...

Alright -- I choose densely urban and contagion free

Re: New Yorkers consider relocating post coronavirus

#50

I think the aftermath of coronavirus is really going to be larger that most people are anticipating when it comes to work and migration patterns: 1. In the past 25 years there has been a huge re-migration back to cores of major cities. I think that is going to stop. 2. Suburbs and exurbs I think will become way more popular. The normal limiting factor on those locations is the commute, but I think so many more compan…

Disagreement on #2 and #3:

#2: Suburbs/exurbs are completely unsustainable. I'd predict that after this is over, local food sources will figure prominently on people's minds. We might see a return to smaller satellite cities if zoning changes to a saner mixed zoning approach. (You don't want big box stores. You do want smaller stores embedded in the local community. I'm not sure there's the political will to go there, because small stores can't afford making lots of campaign donations)

#3 depends highly on how long we'll be distancing. At some point, habits will be formed, and cities will be less appealing. Combine that with likely increased WFH, and way too high rent in cities, and migration might be tempting. I'd hope the satellite cities are smart enough to densify accordingly (because urban sprawl is unsustainable, but again, many interests aligned against that).

Independent point #4 - the importance of communities you're actually part of is currently driven home. I think the desire to be close to family/friends/social groups might increase. (There's the counter argument of our new habits of video socializing, but it's fundamentally less appealing than knowing people who have your back are living close to you)

A lot of these patterns hinges ultimately on how willing companies will be to continue WFH. There's also the interesting question what happens with lots of useless office space if we do move to large-scale WFH on a persistent basis.

In general, I'd expect lots of higher-order effects ricocheting through society for a long time to come :)

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