To absolutely HATE New York

[GreetingsFromVenus]

Dreamed of going there for many years. Thought it would be amazing. Everyone seems to think it is.

Here now and I hate it. Extortionate prices, rude ignorant locals, so many aggressive beggars. mentally ill people shouting in the street. loads of homeless people. The subway stations are disgusting and feel very menacing compared to London.

I find it really depressing actually and feel that the way Hollywood has portrayed New York is all smoke and mirrors. It is nothing special at all IMO. In fact it has a LOT of social issues and it made me feel quite sick to be spending $100 just for a mid range meal for 2 (no dessert) while there were people asking for food outside.

Central Park - pffttt!

Cannot wait to get home next week and will never complain about London prices again!

Anyone else felt the same?

New York might seem relentlessly urban compared to cities like London that don’t have the same density. I don’t really worry about a city being too urban. It’s kind of the point.
I find it odd that so many don’t see the beauty of the New York . The canyons that stretch for miles, Central Park is an awe inspiring sight from above with the scale of the surrounding buildings. Also, to say there is no interesting architecture is just real ignorance.

Walked over Brooklyn Bridge- it was windy and dirty.

A bridge over a mile long spanning open water was windy?

Say it ain't so.

Complaining that it was too windy on Brooklyn Bridge is very Mariah Carey style behaviour!

I do think there’s a business opportunity here that I might zero in on - New York tourist resort.

It would be about the size of a large John Lewis and would of course have all the main stuff (statue of Liberty, Empire State) all together to save all that pesky walking around a city. Of course it would have no poor people hanging around spoiling the holiday spirit, and would feature waxworks of popular New York fiction like friends and sex and the city, and I would plant trees every few feet to stop it looking too urban.

It would serve only the finest Nescafé gold and everything would be paid for in pounds not those stupid dollars. And (of course) there would be no rude nasty yucky AMERICANS there!!!

The perfect New York holiday for people who don’t actually want to go to New York.

Seriously though, it does come across a bit like some people are expecting somewhere to be beautiful and friendly because they’re on holiday. I get at a resort people fall over themselves to facilitate you having a good time, but that’s their job! A resort is a place you literally go for a holiday and they depend on you coming back.

New York is a city where people live, work, struggle etc. It’s not nearly packaged to be palatable to a holidaymaker and that’s part of why you would go there. Expecting people to be super friendly and sweet and everything to be spruced up and clean because you’re on holiday is just daft. I mean how many Londoners are happy to stop and have a lovely chat about Buckingham palace when they’re sitting on the tube on the way to work on a Thursday morning?

Realistically if you live in London you don’t care that it’s some American person’s holiday - you’re just getting through the day!

Pmsl at windy on Brooklyn bridge comment.

I’m intrigued by the number of people regularly getting accosted by beggars and homeless people. I’m not saying it didn’t happen, just that I didn’t have that experience at all. Maybe I don’t look like a tourist

@DillDanding

Pmsl at windy on Brooklyn bridge comment.

yes. Although the complaint that New York City was just so horribly urban is also pmsl territory.

@Kanaloa So what you're saying is we go to Vegas, nick the New York New York Casino, bring it back, zhuzh it up a bit and plonk it in the middle of boring Central Park?

I'm on it. I've got a ski mask and some delta points. We Uber at Dawn. I'll bring bagels, you bring the Gold Blend.

Even before Covid it was really, really hard to evict people in NYC. One of my neighbours in my old building didn't pay rent for A YEAR and the landlord still couldn't evict them. We have really good tenant protections.

Thanks for that info allfurcoatnoknickers. Noted!

elp30 I remember the reports about Hurricane Katrina and the number of individuals who took in people who had been made homeless. It was hugely impressive.

princessnutella What a fantastic way of writing about what it feels like to visit somewhere in reality, not just via photos/films/books/paintings etc. That's not knocking indirect experiences. I find seeing the real thing actually makes the indirect experience more exciting as you compare it with your preconceptions.

[quote allfurcoatnoknickers]@Kanaloa So what you're saying is we go to Vegas, nick the New York New York Casino, bring it back, zhuzh it up a bit and plonk it in the middle of boring Central Park?

I'm on it. I've got a ski mask and some delta points. We Uber at Dawn. I'll bring bagels, you bring the Gold Blend. [/quote]
Bagels? BAGELS? Please keep your nasty American food in America.

The New York tourist resort will serve cucumber sandwiches and Nescafé gold. This is the states, we’re not all going to be sipping bodega coffee from the gutters that the rats run down for $75 a sip.

But yes that’s the basic idea. Except it won’t be in Central Park, it will be in Hyde park. I mean why go all the way to scrubby dirty New York when you can be in beautiful wonderful absolutely perfect London? I call New-New York tourist resort for the discerning British traveler. Possibly I’ll have a Harrods there as well, it’s still under construction.

@Kanaloa you're right. I was far to ambitious.

@Kanaloa

Let's hope that the construction of the New New York Harrod's isn't made by the same crew who constructed the Marble Arch Mound!

Re Harrods @elp30 and @Kanaloa - DS went with DH for a long weekend in New York - Bought a very smart jacket from Bloomingdales which was originally $400 and was $65 and he wears it to this day - I do think NYC does shopping well. A niche point. DH still as a scarf he bought from there and he keeps the heart foundation badge they gave him on it ( his mother died from heart disease. ) But look forward to the NY Harrods ( or indeed not ) & would agree would keep those having done the Marble Arch Mound at a fair distance for any new dept. store.

I think it a great city as long as you do not think you are in Harry Met Sally. - there are those places but lots of different ones too.

If I am to be be honest I prefer London but equally NYC is brilliant in so many ways - architecture , restaurants , trips round the rivers , hotels , diversity of neighbourhoods - If I were to go again I would probably not trouble Times Square - but there are some very nice places - Opera -Theatre.

Oh and v quickly - went to Vegas once - interesting but happy I wasn't doing it on my own dollar - What is in Vegas should stay in Vegas not dropped on Central Park. ( Other opinions are available ) But I admire those who are prepared to uniform up and get helicopters

Well I’m home now and thoroughly enjoying my cup of Nescafé Gold!

I’m intrigued by the number of people regularly getting accosted by beggars and homeless people. I’m not saying it didn’t happen, just that I didn’t have that experience at all. Maybe I don’t look like a tourist

@BasketBlocks Have you been recently? As in the last few months? It beggared [pun intended] belief actually how many times were were approached. As DD and I were two women on our own it put us right on edge and probably coloured our whole experience. I’ve never felt so unsafe anywhere else in all my life. Didn’t expect the tonnes of bags of rubbish piled up in the streets either. Obviously the fallout of all the tourist $ they lost during the Covid lockdown has been immense. I only hope they have some recovery by Spring and more importantly they get their act together on the social issues that they’ve obviously massively dropped the ball on.

Has anyone on this thread pooh poohing my experience been there since Covid?

There were piles of rubbish piled up in the street when I spent 5 awful weeks there in 2018. I’m sure it’s got worse though.

@Kanaloa

I do think there’s a business opportunity here that I might zero in on - New York tourist resort.

It would be about the size of a large John Lewis and would of course have all the main stuff (statue of Liberty, Empire State) all together to save all that pesky walking around a city. Of course it would have no poor people hanging around spoiling the holiday spirit, and would feature waxworks of popular New York fiction like friends and sex and the city, and I would plant trees every few feet to stop it looking too urban.

It would serve only the finest Nescafé gold and everything would be paid for in pounds not those stupid dollars. And (of course) there would be no rude nasty yucky AMERICANS there!!!

The perfect New York holiday for people who don’t actually want to go to New York.

Thats the New York hotel in Vegas😃

Darn it. Why is everything I invent already invented by other people!

To be fair mine would be somewhere like the feted London so you wouldn’t have to experience any Americans at any time. Perhaps an edge in Vegas.

Anyway no I haven’t been during Covid - of course that will have affected any place you go right now. A lot of the things you’ve disliked though (expensive souvenirs, ‘rude’ people) won’t have been any different before. I’m sorry you had a rubbish holiday though. It’s annoying when that happens because as soon as you start to feel it’s disappointing it takes you out of that holiday mindset.

And I’m not sure Central Park would have been much more impressive pre-Covid unfortunately!

*But...Macy's is American Debenhams! It's not fancy at all. In fact, it's a bit shit. I wouldn't go to Debenhams and then moan you couldn't buy Chanel.

If you want fancy you want Bloomingdales (our John Lewis) or ever better Saks and Bergdorf's, even Nordstrom or Neiman Marcus (RIP). Neiman Marcus had a bar in the shoe department 😂. Pre-2020 I would have sent you to Barney's or Bendel's .
*
My God do I miss Bendel's. I still think occasionally about a eyewateringly expensive pair of gloves that I didn't buy in about 2005 on a jaunt over. It was the right call —I would have lost one immediately— but I still regret it.

Channel 5 right now New York worlds busiest city its following different businesses and stores and how they are fairing during covid

Garbage collectors are on $75,000!

I’ve never felt so unsafe anywhere else in all my life.

Sorry, I haven't RTFT, but I am also an NYC hater so couldn't resist clicking. Obviously I'll say YANBU. I found this comment of yours really interesting and it does suggest a big change as a result of Covid. I lived in NYC in the 00's and only once felt very unsafe - in Chelsea, in the small hours, because someone was following me - but I found San Francisco absolutely terrifying. I couldn't wait to leave. I also found it incredibly sad; lots of homeless teens. I wonder what it's like there now.

We got the train from New York to Washington for a day trip- early start and late finish but definitely worth it - for me it was the highlight of our 'New York' trip!