Mythbustin’ NYC with Anna G.

Everyone, including native New Yorkers, looooooooove giving advice to people about living in New York.  Half the time, you’ll hear the same things over and over and over again.  But which of these oft-repeated pieces of advice or factoids are actually true?

1) Traffic! ONLY IN NEW YORK!  AMIRITE?!?
If you’ve lived in any sort of city whatsoever, traffic created by cars pretty much EVERYWHERE is bad.  It’s called living in 2010.  If ANYTHING, the worst place for car traffic is hands-down, Los Angeles.  New York, though, by far has much more pedestrian traffic, but compared to places like Florence, Italy, it’s not even that crazy. Sidestory: Ashley F. and I were once crossing the street in SoHo, trying to avoid traffic, but against the “walk” signal, and some guy decided it would be appropriate to exclaim in our direction: “Welcome to New York!”  I actually cannot think of anything more New York than ignoring the “walk/don’t walk” signal, so I have no idea what the fuck that guy was talking about.

2) You’re gonna get mugged
Here’s the thing about mugging– practically no matter where you live in an urban center, what you do, how you dress, what time of day it is, you have a good chance of getting mugged.  For some, it happens more than others, if it happens at all.  Basically, though, there is nothing you can do to prevent getting mugged.  Not in New York, not in Chicago, nowhere.  That’s just life people, it happens, and there’s absolutely nothing you can do about it no matter where you live.  Short answer: Yes, you’re gonna get mugged.  However, I’ve never known anyone anywhere in the span of my existence to get mugged or robbed as many times as I have.  So you’ve already got a leg up.

How AMAZING is this tagline?

3) The C.H.U.D.S: Fact or fiction?
Dude, I’m not really sure, to be honest.  They allegedly were real at one point, but then, like Guiliani systematically killed them all or something?  I don’t know.  What I do know is that I’m sure that there are people living in the subway, though whether or not they have some sort of Morlockian-type co-op down there seems a little far-fetched to me.

4) Brooklyn: it’s soooo far and craaaazyyy!
I guess this is something more that Manhattanites say.  I’m not sure exactly what the problem is here with them and Brooklyn, but it takes approximately 5 minutes on the L to get from First Avenue in the East Village to Bedford Avenue in Williamsburg.  Which, I know, I know, is crazyhipsterszomgblahhhh, but Brooklyn is much more than Bedford Avenue and Park Slope strollers.  And you know something?  I’ll take the Bedford Cheese Shop over thirtyfuckingfourth street any day of the week.

Any more to add?  Leave ’em in the comments!