"Before It Was Cool" Officially Our Least Favorite New York Tic
There are certain tics that New Yorkers have that you don't really find in other cities—asking people what they pay for their apartments, for one—and there's one that we just. can't. take. anymore. It's the "I've been living in [insert gentrified/hipsterfied/whatever-fied neighborhood here] for 10 years—it's soooo annoying now! But I can't leave, because I pay $650 a month for my one-bedroom apartment, because the landlord is this little old lady who hasn't raised the rent since 1989."
We were reminded of this annoyingness when we stumbled across the interview with sex columnists Em & Lo, who took over the sex beat at New York magazine when Amy Sohn got too boring for words.
Anyway, when she's asked where she's lived in New York, Lo has this to say:
1 year: Fort Greene (before it was hip). Returned as an adult to an apartment which had a basketball court-sized living room, huge master bedroom, pea-sized second bedroom, and dish washer(!). I had a series of unusual, serial roommates: an ascetic coworker who liked to live on 99 cents a day, a young Brazilian woman who hated me, and a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist I found on Craig's List. 2 years: Bedford Ave near the bridge in Williamsburg (before it was too hip). An overpriced fourth-floor walk up in a dilapidated building. The previous tenant was a heroin addict who went on the run. The current tenants were mice- and squirrel-sized cockroaches. Shared it with a friend/coworker. At least we had the whole rooftop to ourselves (great for Fourth of July).
Here's the thing: Everyone in New York has lived in a shitty apartment. Everyone's lived in a marginal neighborhood, unless you have a trust fund or you're one of those trust fund kids who's embarrassed for being a trust fund kid. So from now on, please give the "I lived there before it was cool" thing a rest. And thus ends today's public service announcement.
