the temptation to leave new york.

Everybody seems to be doing it...or so they say.

And here I am – paying $1,600 for a one-bedroom apartment in Brooklyn while my doppelganger is probably paying a third of that for a duplex in Charlotte.

Am I a simp or nah?

There has been so much talk about how New York is dead either temporarily or forever. I don’t believe the City is dead. It’s the City!

But temporarily? Sure. The one thing that gentrification was never able to destroy was New York’s summers. But COVID did. And with that removal, the culture of New York was not allowed to shine as it usually does. And without culture, what is New York?

That is why I have been tempted to leave New York.

Having an expensive box to live in sounded OK when I was able to safely watch The Best Man in Prospect Park.

Sharing the sidewalk with rats sounded OK when I was able to safely enjoy a charcuterie board inside a bistro.

Dealing with racist white hipsters in a Bushwick coffeehouse was OK when I was able to catch up with my people over drinks and disco music at Lover’s Rock.

But these are unsafe times. So, I’m only dealing with an expensive box, even angrier rats and more hostile hipsters...with no balanced upside. So, again, without culture, what is New York?

As of now, it’s a place of limbo where I continue to go back-and-forth as to whether I need to stay here.

Technically, I’ve almost accomplished the primary goal for being here. And the secondary goals can be attained here as well, but they’re not attached to New York. At all.

But what I said above was that I was tempted. Therefore, I’m gonna stay here. I’ll wait it out. Because if New York is anything – it's the City that has proven to rise above any dark hour, day, or season. And I've proven to be the same.