New York City is America's unhappiest town

[garbon]

Everything's in Manhattan and Brooklyn. Does that mean the other boroughs are reasonably priced, or just that the people there don't have internet? 

Most prices are lower as you move further from Manhattan.

[Admiral Yi]

I guess you get used to it.  The few times I did that (stayed at a hotel on "The Island" and went to the Big East Tourney in Madison Square Garden) seemed like an ordeal, though.

So is staring at the back of someone's head on a commuter train.

[alfred russel]

There is also the pay differential...When I graduated from accounting school in the midwest, our career services office gave us the starting salaries that were being offered by the big firms. They were:

NYC: $70s
Chicago: mid $50s
Atlanta: $46

That is just one job, at one point in time, but it at least compares people that all have the same educational experience, doing the same work, for the same people.

[Admiral Yi]

I'm surprised Chicago was that close to Atlanta.

[Ideologue]

The Pilgrims didn't pay 2000$/month for a cockroach infested basement in Brooklyn, I'm sure.

True, but I've picked up a vibe from CdM and Ide that indicates they may not be willing to make a dangerous multi month journey on a rickety rat infested boat in order to become farmers in a land where they will have to build their own houses and the natives sometimes try to kill them.

Look, if I could go to New York and take any piece of land I saw because the original inhabitants were dying in droves due to a combination of my superior firepower and resistance to my own smallpox, sure, I might consider it; likewise if I could move to Asia, obey only the laws I felt applied to me and trade opium for silver and blowjobs, I would be mightily tempted.  But the times change, buster.  There is no center and no frontier.  The whole Earth is owned by someone else already.

[LaCroix]

must be the noise. outside noise should never filter into the bedroom.

[Ideologue]

must be the noise. outside noise should never filter into the bedroom.

[LaCroix]

it's like a ticking clock - impossible to tune out, evokes rage 

[Ideologue]

I taste purple.  The slendermen are coming.  It never rains on my plains in Spain.

[garbon]

Is LaCroix back on the opening thread topic?

[Eddie Teach]

must be the noise. outside noise should never filter into the bedroom.

I believe he's responding to the OP. However, garbon assures us that his apartment is quiet as a library.

Also, a couple weeks ago I had bugs chirping very loudly outside my window all night. It was maddening.

[LaCroix]

Is LaCroix back on the opening thread topic?

yup. didn't know that was the source of confusion

Also, a couple weeks ago I had bugs chirping very loudly outside my window all night. It was maddening.

my apartment neighbor has a wind chime. it's awful and so utterly pointless. the most annoying noise for no reason at all

[alfred russel]

I'm surprised Chicago was that close to Atlanta.

Atlanta is kind of underrated imo has been booming the last 20 years. Lots of businesses have moved here and there are a lot of jobs for someone wanting to be in accounting for bigger businesses. Compared to Miami, I think the Atlanta salaries were actually higher even though Miami has a higher cost of living. The positions in Miami were probably more competitive too.

I sort of feel like the best days of Chicago may be behind it. It feels like it is slumping a bit.

[Eddie Teach]

Chicago is at heart an industrial town. It's done well not to go the way of Detroit.

[garbon]

I believe he's responding to the OP. However, garbon assures us that his apartment is quiet as a library.

Mine is surprisingly pretty quiet. While I live on a party street in NYUland, I face a quiet courtyard. Only here a bunch of noise if people are chatting in the hallway and/or having a roof party on a nearby building.

Oh and sometimes some doves coo on my fire escape.