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Comment by steveBK123 | Hacker News Reader

Yes, also the typical career cycle in HCOL areas is you are 22 and live in a dumpy apartment with roommates but close to work. You maybe couple up with someone by 30 and get a nicer place a bit further, but still within a 20-40min transit commute. Finally you maybe decide to start a family by 40, and move out to somewhere 40-60min commute, if not further.

Each step is just a small increment worse. But when you go from remote back to the worst level, it's jarring.

Objectively, transit has also gotten worse in some cities (NYC, DC) since COVID and still not recovered. So we are also returning to something worse than where we left it!

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> Yes, also the typical career cycle in HCOL areas is you are 22 and live in a dumpy apartment with roommates but close to work. You maybe couple up with someone by 30 and get a nicer place a bit further, but still within a 20-40min transit commute. Finally you maybe decide to start a family by 40, and move out to somewhere 40-60min commute, if not further.

I found this to be a depressing quality of life trajectory my coworkers were on when I worked in NYC. It was fun in my 20s without kids, but after that, it seems miserable.

Yup. The few that stayed in the city were funded in one way or another..

Of all the people in my grad school class who got jobs in NYC finance after graduation, I can think of maybe one couple who stayed in the city after getting married/having kids.

the brevity with which you describe the life trajectory for millions if not tens of millions of people is ... sigh.

Commutatio longa, vita brevis

Ego similis cervisiam

In what way is transit worse in NYC and DC? Are trains and buses running on a sparser schedule today in these two cities than they were before COVID?

In the case of the LIRR:

https://gothamist.com/news/lirr-riders-still-miffed-over-jam...

https://nypost.com/2023/03/06/hell-on-wheels-bklyn-shuttles-...

Well DC I know they had some serious train defects that took trains/lines out of service for repairs for some time and caused capacity reductions.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/transportation/2022/09/22/met...

NYC they are running fewer trains so even if overall ridership is down, the trains are as crowded or more crowded than ever. Further in NYC due to homeless/migrant population growth falling through the cracks, the subway ends up being the shelter of last resort. Finally violent crime on the subway increased substantially over covid, and while down is still not at 2019 levels. So while waiting longer for a train, you are more likely to be dealing with a general sense of crime/disorder/etc.

Like DC apparently, Boston has had some serious long-deferred maintenance. The commuter rail at least also has a reduced schedule and no longer has an express train from further out--so I'm a good 2 hours door to door if I use transit to go (rarely) into my city office. Driving is more flexible but it's just as slow at rush hour.

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