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Comment by CSMastermind | Hacker News Reader

When I lived in NYC I paid huge amounts of money in taxes and as far as I can tell got very little for my money.

Until they can start using their enormous existing budget wisely I don't see any reason they should be given more money.

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I agree NYC is not wisely spending its $100 billion per year, but I think the congestion tax makes sense as a way of pricing in externalities. As a non-car-owner in lower Manhattan I dislike passenger cars -- they make it much less safe for me to bike around, and less pleasant for me to walk around. I think most people here benefit if we have way fewer large vehicles in the city, so the limited spots should be reserved for people who get immense economic value from them, like truckers or movers, not random people from the suburbs who want to have dinner in the city.

> as far as I can tell got very little for my money

You literally lived in the greatest city in the history of world civilization.

Sorry it didn't work out for you.

Most of the things people like about NYC were either:

1) Built at least 100 years ago. De-facto relics of a government and society that no longer exists.

2) Things built by the people in spite, not because, of its public policy and government.

If anything, what interests me about NYC is “why isn’t worse?”. There is something amazing about NYC: how a city and civilization can be so successful in the face of government incompetence and public policy failures at every level.

Tokyo is pretty nice

You seriously think NYC is the greatest city in the history of world civilization? Or is it sarcasm? I am asking this as NYC resident.

If your definition of greatest is "total GDP" then it is the greatest in the world. That said, I would agree that Tokyo and maybe even London are much finer examples of cities.

As my sister says (lives around Prospect Park with kids) — if you don’t gaslight yourself that it’s the best city in the world while paying such premiums to live here, you’ll get depressed in a second.

But I agree, I’m scratching my head whenever I hear that statement. It’s definitely the best city in USA though, as there are about 3 real cities in the country.

Of course I do. Ask any person living in New York, they'll tell you the same thing.

Unless you happen to ask the large fraction of people who knowingly moved there to make big bucks for some number of years before getting out. They will all tell you it sucks, the government sucks, you suck for not realizing that and that they're masterminding their exit to the suburbs of Phoenix or Miami or whatever. These people make up a sizable minority of the NYC population at any given time.

Well yeah sure, but obviously people who fail at living in New York don't count.

I regret to say: I’ve lived here long enough to believe you genuinely mean it when you say that.

Is there a song called "Cleveland, Cleveland" that says if you can make it in Cleveland you can make it anywhere?

Oh, you mean the half-century old song New York New York by Frank Sinatra? One written for a musical depicting golden days of 1945? Nice one, I love it.

You are correct that 80 years ago New York was also the greatest city in the history of world civilization. Quite a run isn't it?

It surely was in 1945, no doubt about it.

Where else have you lived?

I live in nyc today and whenever I hear people say that , it turns out they mean “New York City is the greatest city in the world of New York City and Waterloo, Wisconsin.”

And even then , I’ve seen photos of Waterloo… looks like the air is nice and breathable there. And apparently you can afford to rent a place on a normal salary.

You don’t have to agree but at least try and get out of your bubble. You don’t even know enough different people in New York City itself to support that claim, apparently.

I mean it's not hard to figure out.

Here's an easy test. Think of the city you currently live in. Ask people where you live if they think this city you're living in is better than New York. They'll have a lot to say about it.

If you ask people in New York if the place you live is better than New York they'll say "Huh, where is that?"

Such metric would just indicate that respondents are unaware of other cities, no? Majority of new yorkers never lived in good cities. I guess many just repeat 100 years old notion that NYC is the best city in the world and just never doubt it.

I mean… yeah; I think we agree there. That’s kinda my point: people here whom I know to claim New York City is the greatest city in the world don’t actually know a lot about the world.

I've literally been to 80+ countries and have spent time in every U.S. city of significant size. If you can't look at the world and figure out the obvious fact that New York is the greatest and most significant city that has existed since we climbed down out of the trees I'm not sure what's going to convince you.

The odds of you calling yourself "native new yorker" and having never actually lived anywhere else are virtually 100%

I can just ask everyone I know in New Orleans around me who moved from New York.

how do you reconcile this theory with the existence of the Mets?

The quality of bacon, egg, and cheese breakfast sandwiches is sufficiently high to offset the Mets.

Ehh not the best weather and they haven’t invented the trash can or dumpster yet. You can get good food everywhere these days. And as the years go by I am less and less interested in drinking till 4:30 am especially at todays bar prices.

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