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Comment by moron4hire | Hacker News Reader

Yeah, but you had to grow up in a constant cloud of pee smell .

It amazes me how much this doesn't seem to bother people. New York smells like pee. Everywhere. I've only been a few times, but it has always smelled like pee. I don't feel like "all three times I went, everywhere smelled like pee" really deserves anymore chances when no other place I have ever visited or lived has ever smelled like pee, with the exception of a dirty horse barn. Is all of New York a dirty horse barn?

Maybe New Yorkers just like it? I mean, it has to be that. Because nothing in New York is all that great, such that you'd put up with the constant smell of pee.

Certainly not the pizza.

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I'll have you know that Central Park smells like manure, not pee. The rest of the city smells like hot trash, but only in the summer ;)

Joking aside: NYC has a lot of smells, but human urine isn't actually one I pick up all that often (except for sometimes in the subway). As for why anybody would live here: it's one (maybe the most important) of the world's cultural nexuses, as well as the most thoroughly developed urban environment in the United States. Those are sufficient draws for many people.

I mean there are a billion reasons to live there, and I don't even live there anymore. Amazing museums, public transportations, entertainment, restaurants, and parks are some of the universal ones. If you're lucky enough to be well off you then gain access to some other amazing things, such as some top tier private schools.

Last time I hung out in Chelsea I was surprised at how tolerant the residents were of the trash stacked on the street in the heat of the summer. I was staying at a small “normal” place that I’m sure was a least 2 million dollars, and it was, just odd how this amount of trash everywhere was normal.

Still love to visit NYC though.

It's absurd how they tolerate that and pay the highest rent in the country for the privilege of having a swarm of rats scatter when they walk past the trash heap at night. No other city in the country just leaves waste in a pile unprotected on the side of the road like NYC. I don't understand why they don't at least have a god damn huge bin like any other first world city if it's going to be a pile of trash anyway on the sidewalk day in day out. It's downright medieval and I don't understand how it isn't a public health crisis having so many rats so close to eating and living.

Part of the problem is that Manhattan at least basically doesn't have alleys. BTW, if you think things are bad now, don't do any time traveling back to the 1970s/80s.

I don't have an alley where I live in LA, but we have bins at least

> it's one (maybe the most important) of the world's cultural nexuses

How does that translate into everyday living for people who don't have a job in culture creation (media, fashion etc.)?

For me: it means access to museums, performing arts, and just about any food I could ever want to try.

I don't know what to tell you lol it doesn't actually smell like pee. I lived there for over 20 years. Also NYC has amazing pizza, it sounds like you might just have really bad opinions.

See, I think this is just what New Yorkers tell the rest of the world to trick us into thinking New York is so great.

Like, Broadway. That's a big, inside joke, right?

Depending on how much energy you’re willing to invest in exploring and what your preferences are, it might take you a while to find the slice of NYC that’s appealing to you. Everyone’s different, but NYC definitely has something for everyone.

I’ve lived in NYC for almost seven years, and I’m just starting to feel comfortable. Not because I’ve changed too much, but because I now know what I like, what I don’t like, and how to seek out the former and avoid the latter.

It helps if you have friends who have already lived there for a long time, and who have similar interests, they’ll be able to short circuit you. Otherwise I’d recommend knowing yourself and researching, in that order.

The places that are most well known are the places with the biggest marketing budgets. (you mentioned Broadway). Most New Yorkers avoid those like the plague, fwiw. They’re built for people for whom money is not limiting factor to hedonism.

It didn't take my 7 years to feel comfortable in DC and DC doesn't constantly smell like pee.

That's valid, but of course everyone is different. It took me a while. Others get lucky and feel comfortable right away.

I wasn't meaning to imply that most people take as long as I do.

DC and NYC are geared towards different people, and that's OK. pg has written nice food for thought on this topic. http://www.paulgraham.com/cities.html

Good pizza, but if there is a bar in walking distance you will be smelling pee. All my visits come with that ripe smell. I get that in DTLA too. It's just what happens when you have people drinking and no public restroom infrastructure to speak of. Maybe you are noseblind, or it's been a few since you've been on the bar scene in manhattan, but the piss smell is very real especially during hot summer nights.

I mean, if you walk around you will maybe smell pee sometimes? But saying the city "smells like pee" kind of implies that it's pervasive, contrasted with "outside of bars, at night, you might spell pee" (something I've never experience by the way).

NYC smells bad and the trash situation in Manhattan is straight out of the middle ages. That being said, I found New Orleans to have far worse smells. Something about how they do their trash there is even more degenerate than Manhattan. Imagine a little 5x5 alcove cut into the wall with a dumpster full of fried fish grease that hasn't been hosed out since Katrina. It was brutal. The entire city is a health code violation in any state but Louisiana. It straight up made me lightheaded sometimes in the french quarter, just putrid rank smells permeating the humid air with no breeze pushing it anywhere.

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