The Schoolyear of Scott

Do not get me wrong – I love going to New York to visit my friends and family, and I visit a few times every year, but man, I cannot stand that city.  Please let me explain.

I was in New York City the past four days visiting friends from college after spending the night on Long Island Saturday with my Grandma.  I was sleeping on the sleep sofa of my friend’s, Dave and Dave (easily distinguishable for this post as DK and Ddubs), sofa.  Their apartment, which is actually surprisingly nice for a (relatively) cheap New York apartment, is on the sixth floor of a building that is next door to the Four Seasons Hotel in Midtown.  With a location like that, you would think that the normal New York “quirks” (you know, towers of trash bags on the sidewalks at night, trucks and buses honking at all hours of the night, etc.) wouldn’t be as prevalent.  I was wrong.

DK and Ddubs had some friends over to watch the Super Bowl Sunday night and then afterward DK and I took a cab to the bar Third and Long to hang out with my other friends, Diana and Kathryn.  After hanging out there for a few hours, and after having stuffed my face with both food and beverage at both the Super Bowl party and the bar, it was time for us to return home for some much needed sleep.  The sleep sofa was surprisingly comfortable, and just as I was engaged in some serious R.E.M., I was awoken.

Not by a honking bus.  Not by a drunk New Yorker screaming about Jeetah and AyeRod.

I was awoken by a Jackhammer.

Yes, some jackass decided to jackhammer the pavement on Madison Avenue before the sun came up.  I can only assume this was done early in the morning so that traffic flow was as minimally disrupted as possible, but I could really care less.  Maybe it wouldn’t have been so bad if the apartment I was in, like most NYC apartments, didn’t need a window Air Conditioning unit which necessitates an open window at all times, but in New York that is a luxury that you cannot be provided.  Unsurprisingly, this does not happen in Atlanta, Washington D.C., or any other city that I have stayed in for an extended period of time.  Needless to say, I did not fall back to sleep.

Another reason I don’t love New York is the bar scene.  Now I do not enjoy the fact that on a Saturday night nearly every bar you try to go to is as packed as can be, but that actually isn’t what I am talking about.  I don’t like the fact that on any given night, at any given bar, you are more often than not going to see people in their 60’s socializing with people in their 20’s.

Monday night, Diana, my friend Daniel, my friend/fake cousin/fake ex-fiance Emily Gold and myself went to Pig & Whistle for karaoke.  We didn’t get there until around midnight after spending over three hours at the winner of the World’s Worst Service at a Restaurant Award, Black Finn (which, by using the Johnnie Walker labeling system, we should have known would be vastly inferior to Blue Finn in Times Square) and, sure enough, there was a group of old people sitting at the bar.  Not only did they stay later than us (and we stayed late), but they insisted on singing Dean Martin songs, thereby preventing Daniel and I from performing more Outkast covers.  I sure hope my parents do not frequent these bars when they visit the city every few months!

Other thoughts about New York City:

• Ddubz, a fledgling investment banker, is forced to work over 12 hour days on top of the 90 minute subway he takes each way to his office.  That should be illegal.
• The television systems that were installed in each taxi is a great idea, however the three minute loop that is shown doesn’t take into account that fact that it takes over 10 minutes to get to anywhere that would necessitate taking a taxi.
• $10 for a six pack of Miller Light???  Please!

Lastly, I will leave you with this question:  In the United States, is there an airport that is dirtier than either LaGuardia or JFK?  Do they get a pass on paying janitors just because they are located in New York???

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 5th, 2009 at 2:05 pm and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.