Since I haven't posted in a long time, let me fill you in on recent developments. I spent the last few months in New York at a summer internship with a small tech startup, Sulia. It was my first extended departure from Pittsburgh since I started my Ph.D. at Pitt, and I'll admit that was part of the appeal of the opportunity.
But I'm back in the 'burgh now.
The city impressed me in a lot of ways. I could've found a group of people interested in just about anything there... which, for my limited time there, amounted to coding, yoga, flirting, and a little drinking. Having such a huge market in a small area also lends itself to a bunch of businesses, websites, and apps, a result of shear ease in viral and word-of-mouth marketing and the ability to address specific needs of the NYC lifestyle yet still impact a large number of people. Quite a few New Yorkers are there offering their talent and creativity hoping others will find value in it. I didn't have time to explore them all, but I was impressed by the range of endeavors being pursued, even in the hopeless romance of street performance.
And so here's the downside of NYC. It's really hot and humid in the summer, and all the concrete doesn't help. I mean, it's like Chimera's breath hot, which surprised me given the latitude. Also, the city has only enough infrastructure to support its 9 million people or whatever as long as their interests remain diversified. As soon as everyone wants to be at the same place, there's not enough space, tickets, or whatever to accommodate them at all. And, of course, this happens in Pittsburgh too, except the result in the burgh is bit of discomfort and a poor vantage point whereas in NYC the result is severe discomfort, anger, no vantage point at all, and what is probably a serious threat to public safety.
Also, while I would have to give credit to the city for amount of support it gives to its infrastructure—e.g. their public transit is significantly expanding where Pittsburgh's is in constant decline—there are so many laws governing it. There were posted signs prohibiting the disposal of your garbage in a public garbage can... which left me to imagine people dropping their garbage bags next to public cans in order to avoid some removal fee at their apartment. I once overheard a guy at the gym extol Berlin as "New York without the dirt," and it brought me back to that sign and the general lack of perceived ownership for public space and infrastructure, not exclusive to NYC yet so acute expressed there. If it's the world's greatest city at the moment, its people don't want the responsibility that comes with that. Contrast that with Paris, a city that's collectively held a common vision for it's beauty, design, architecture, and lifestyle for centuries.
Lastly, for all the people pursuing some creative or entrepreneurial endeavor, there are 100,000 of them who are wastes of space... in your way when you're trying to get... anywhere, annoyed by your presence too, seemingly cynical, and trying to remain unaffected by it all. Moreover, despite the diversity, I still found a health pursuit of conformity and pop culture, which wasn't surprising and isn't much to complain about. But perhaps my secret hope in moving there for a few months was that, if anywhere, I'd find a girl or two there at least aware of or transcendent of the social forces acting upon her. ...Maybe I just needed more time in that, though.
...
So, as I reread this, I had hoped I would give equal verbiage to the positive and negative, but I seemed to have failed in that... the consequence of training my mind to spot and solve problems for going on eight years now.
In all, I still had a blast there, and I came away with a bittersweet mix of emotions. Three months was nowhere near enough time to really explore the city and its depth (Pittsburgh only takes like six months to get to know). I'd say the hype is a little exaggerated, but there's something about the town that, despite the dirt, the anger, ... and the rent, pulled in a little piece of me. Whether I'll go back at some point.... I don't know. But for now, I can say I'm glad to come back to Pittsburgh.
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