A little over a year ago, the pandemic consumed NYC and what was normal for so many of us changed. My nights which used to be filled with going out into the fun city and its many bars changed in a period of weeks. Instead, this post is all about my experiences and my opinions, it could be as accurate or inaccurate as you’d like it to be.
People tend to stereotype New Yorkers as being rude, brash, and the unapologetic type; that’s not entirely accurate. The pandemic showed me what I consider to be the true side of the modern day New Yorker and a side most of you would not suspect unless you had lived in the city throughout the pandemic. It is often the toughest of times that reveal who we really are. So let’s get started….
The story of two New Yorks.
You can look at this map here around election voting results and see the way NYC votes. Unfortunately, the map does leave out Long Island since it is not considered one of the five boroughs. When you live in the city and go out, you realize that there are indeed two different NYCs.
One can be considered the trendy neighborhoods in almost all of Manhattan along with some of Brooklyn and Queens. These places attract the twenty or thirty-something from outside of the city that is looking to have the fun experience, party hard, and live an experience closer to Friends in a city that never sleeps. I’d say that some of these people are the types who post on the NYC reddit and likely voted for Yang over Adams who eventually became mayor. These are the kinds of people who are ultra left-wing and pro big-government.
Then you have the working class New Yorkers you find in the outer boroughs who are actually locals to the city. A group I also want to lump in here are the black and Hispanic minority groups who are also locals and in fear of gentrification of their neighborhoods. Unlike the blue collar Long Island and Staten Island, the minority groups who live closer to the city have to fear gentrification taking over their neighborhoods.
One dividing issue between these two groups? The jab mandates. When De Blasio pushed for the jab in order for anyone to go to the gym or eat indoors, the yuppie and Williamsburg crowd cheered and asked for even more mandates. Meanwhile, the latter crowd was entire against it due to it potentially harming their business and also their own personal beliefs.
For most of you who come to NYC to live the city life, you will largely deal with the former in your workplace and out partying than the latter. Given that my experience has largely been with the former, I will mainly be speaking about them as opposed to the latter.
While I will be talking about the former, man do I love the latter much more.
I used to buy into the whole Long Island being loaded with racist rednecks and Staten Island being angry whites stereotype that runs afoul in Manhattan. After the pandemic and the way it has played out, I have so much more respect for actual New Yorkers who were born and raised here as opposed to the yuppie or millennial who decides to move to Manhattan (often on daddy’s money) to party it up and live the Friends lifestyle. It is these so called “racists” and “blue collar” in NYC that have the guts to stand up against insane laws that get passed. Meanwhile, the yuppies are there to turn NYC into another San Francisco with homeless tents everywhere because they are way too out of touch with reality.
New Yorkers are a very complaint bunch, especially in Manhattan.
At this point, I am going to consider people who live in the city because they wanted to experience city life despite not being in the state to be New Yorkers. I have learned during the pandemic that New Yorkers are a very compliant bunch, more so than anywhere else in the country. Unlike people in other states who might oppose whatever government does, New Yorkers will just go along with it. If you impose any mandates or anything gets passed by government, New Yorkers will go along with it. My thoughts are that they do not really have the time with all of the hustle and bustle in the city to really care.
Manhattan has a very fake tough guy demeanor to it.
More bark, not a lot of bite. Sure, the more working class areas with higher minority populations as well as places like Long Island and Staten Island are loaded with genuinely tough people. Meanwhile, Manhattan is full of the loud mouth social justice warrior who won’t do shit once shit hits the fan. I see the typical Manhattanite as being a PC Principal from South Park that cannot fight.
But depending on how you look at it, they are maliciously compliant in some ways.
The amount of people who told me about using fake proof of jab cards to get into places is staggering, particularly amongst the younger crowds. I am not for this at all and to any readers doing this, know that this is seriously illegal and you can get into a lot of trouble for it. During the pandemic, I noticed similar things with underground parties and mass gatherings as nightclubs and bars closed. Now with these proof of jabs, New Yorkers are using fake cards while not actually saying that they find the whole thing ridiculous.
They will virtue signal like none other.
I describe the typical New Yorker living in the spots everyone hears about as being trendy as the type that will show off what a good caring person he is on social media and in front of others but be highly prejudiced towards anyone not like him. A good example of this is Williamsburg, the hipster Mecca of North America. If you want to know and experience what the worst of progressive culture looks like East of the Mississippi, go to Williamsburg. Spoiled self-righteous virtue signalers who look down on anyone not like them, this is Williamsburg in a nutshell. No surprise that a lot of San Franciscans end up there.
Jab mandates to save humanity? Oh yeah sure! All in bro!
Actually taking care of the countless homeless on the street? Uh…not my problem dude.
When the going gets tough, they run away, more like we unfortunately.
After being in the city for almost six years, I have decided to leave. During the pandemic, NYC saw an exodus. Fortunately, I don’t plan to vote like a New Yorker in the place I do end up settling into. I cannot say the same for most New Yorkers who flood to red states and red areas, only to try and vote more AOCs into office. While not as bad as Californians, New Yorkers are truly somewhat on the same boat.
