The Radical Differences Between the Cities in the City

By: Sammy Quarrato

New York City has been known for being the largest city in the nation with more than 8 million inhabitants and tens of millions of tourists everywhere and growing within each year.

What some people don’t realize that the 5 boroughs are so different from each other, even at their borders with each other.

For example, I lived in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn for most of my life.

The neighborhood is known for it being more of a quiet and retirement area for people who are usually of Italian, Polish, Greek, or Irish descent.

Now, it’s known for having a growing Arabic population for the past 10 years.

Due to that, other neighborhoods and even boroughs are affected, such as many people from Bay Ridge deciding to move to Staten Island or other neighborhoods in Brooklyn such as Dyker Heights and Red Hook.

To those who moved to either of those areas, there’s some differences in the transportation, alone.

Staten Island only has one train that goes one straight line, it is almost impossible at times to live in Staten Island and not have a car, especially when it begins to snow.

Compare it to where I live, now, the Upper East Side where a Cappuccino and Bacon Egg and Cheese in some cafe’s are the price of a full meal in all the other boroughs.

To me and other people who are moving to Manhattan which isn’t many due to the high prices, it’s a big adjustment because we can’t just walk into a random place and get something without worrying about the price of every single thing that we put our hands on.

I was already in that mindset but that was dialed to 100 when I moved because I’m still a Brooklyn Boy, by heart.

The lifestyle that works in all boroughs, no matter if it’s cheap or expensive to live there is moderation.

When you save for the sake of saving when you could use that money to improve the quality of your everyday life or just overall live like a normal person which is going out once in a while or just as simple as getting better quality furniture.

Or when you spend every time you get a paycheck on the newest iPhone or getting the most expensive sneakers because you want to showboat your money off to everyone either to impress them or make them jealous.

Both of those are a problem because you’re trading one thing for another when in fact you can have a decent life by just being fiscally responsible.

Sure, when you’re in Manhattan and are young, you want to go out every Friday and spend the night, you guessed it, spending.

Or when you’re in an isolated area of Staten Island or Queens you’re used to just being bored in life whenever you’re not working, attending school, or house cleaning.

Almost all of us go through both phases but we eventually realize overtime, no matter the borough, moderation applies to them all.

So, when you move from borough to borough or even when you’re just visiting one, just remember that you should know what’s an investment in your life and what’s just a waste of your time and money.

I know that this is more than it seems to meet the naked eye but the majority of Americans live paycheck to paycheck, nowadays, not being able to afford missing not even one.

We know the government as of late, especially since the 80’s hasn’t been serving the American people as well as they should of in this issue with our generation believing that we’ll be doing worse than our parents.

Just do yourself a favor and rely on yourself as much as possible, because most people won’t care for your situation because they’re most likely worried about theirs.