Whatevsies, Foster, the people have a right to know that last time you came back from London you were all best weekend of my liiiife and I'm in lurv with a girrrrll and ooh I recorded a Vimeo of me singing and strolling down the riverrrr and also you went to some market with fruits and veggies that you were all into but I'm more hazy on those specifics.
But don't deny your true feelings. All the Jay Z YouTubes in the world can't change the forces of nature.
Everything is higgly-piggly or whatever dumb word you have for it. We live on a grid. A grid.
Yeah -- every fucking corner in NY looks like every other fucking corner. I can ID my location in London within two seconds, but New York remains a mess of 90 degree angles to me.
Not a WEEK, not a fricking WEEK passes without some by-numbers article in the NYT or elsewhere stating that Berlin is hip. These articles are usually written by people who don't even speak German and wouldn't know what the actually scene here is like if it bit them on the arsch. Often the jist of these articles is: "Berlin! It's just like New York with cheap rents! There are artists here! And internet startups!" as though that weren't the case in every bloody major city in the Western world.
I love this city, but it's ludicrous to say it's outstripping New York.
Londoners are some of the fakest people in the world. They look down their noses at anything American, especially the people but secretly they're jealous of it and us and try to imitate it in any way they can. It's so sad and pathetic when they try so hard to be cool only to come off so obviously contrived and pretentious, which is why their music, fashion, food, culture and, especially, their attitudes are ugly. The only Londoners I've ever met that were worth knowing love NYC and either already live there or visit frequently.
I mean, what was her point? That NYC has lost its edge b/c things actually work here? B/c natives and tourists can both get the most out of the city without being rude to each other? B/c as much as you try to pretend that it's expensive you can still enjoy a very full life without having to spend an arm and leg every night like you would in London? B/c if you were to wake up at 3 am there would always be something you could do and someplace you could go b/c it's literally the CITY THAT NEVER SLEEPS?! B/c our basic amenities are virtually unheard of in your most expensive new construction? Or is it b/c New Yorkers don't even have to try and they'll still always be cooler than you and that's what really pisses you off?
I know to each his own but, seriously, it's really hard to bitch about NYC when it has so much to offer to anyone and everyone. It seems that the edge that she's missing from NY is when you were risking your life each time you stepped outside your door. Who knew there were people out there that actually missed the crime. Sorry that NYC is still the coolest place to live and also the best vacation city in the world. London will never catch up so just get over it.
@hotpinklovesofa: I've lived in both London and New York. I don't agree with the author's opinions about New York losing its edge (whatever the hell that means) but I'd also move back to London in a heartbeat.
The idea that Londoners are in any way jealous of New Yorkers is just stupid. They don't fucking care about New York unless they're coming here for the killer exchange rate before Christmas. London will never "catch up"? London was there before New York, and will be there after New York. (Probably quite literally, what with global warming.)
In conclusion: London's awesome, as are Londoners.
@hotpinklovesofa: Yes, all 8 million of us are just sitting at home rubbing our hands together (while drinking warm beer and eating gruel, with our DISGUSTING TEETH), wondering how we can be as cool as you.
Calm down. Both cities are pretty amazing and actually very similar. But to tar 8 million people with the same brush is a bit fucking stupid.
@Lulu82: That's great so when are Brits going to stop being so astonished whenever they encounter an American in London that isn't obese, uneducated, rude, crude, unsophisticated, uncultured, and completely oblivious to current events? It's just as stupid to color all Americans stupid fat rednecks, treat them as such and then act surprised when you get a cold shoulder in return. We're all left with the impressions we are given by the majority of people we encounter on our travels. I don't actually mind the city itself, and I certainly wasn't referring to all 8 million of you but there's a level of phoniness and condesenscion there that is getting a little tiring.
This article was pretty ignorant, even by Gawker standards. I'm really no fan of London (just ask my wife who is sick of my bitching after I had to live there for more years than I want to remember) and some of the points raised were even fair (e.g. the pound being stupid-expensive). However, I can't be bothered to correct it all (I could, but I'm just too drunk at the moment) but raising that shithole Brooklyn as a counter-argument is unbelievable (don't bother comparing murder rates). You could do better (E-mail me and I'll tell you things that are relevant and not based on outdated PBS repeats). And NY has baseball?? The US doesn't have the monopoly on boring sports, think of cricket! And what about that travesty you call football? I'm going to stop now, I'm pretty irate and I'm going to have another drink to calm down (a gin sour, an American invention but you'd probably not know that).
Look, I think New York is great, but I think it has too many lazy parents (FFS 7 year olds in strollers?) and too many selfish people owning dogs who can't be happy living alone in those small NY apartments (FFS, I'm so sick of dog's barking and the smell of their piss in the morning).
I moved from NYC to London and back to NYC in the past 3+ years. My biggest takeaway: nothing in London fucking works.
The subways don't just stop running at midnight(ish): they stop wherever the hell they are in the system, and kick you out, and you're in Islington and need to get back to Hoxton, and you're fucked.
It's New Years day, about 3pm, and you've crawled out of bed to find something to cure your hangover, but every fucking restaurant/cafe/coffee shop/market is closed, so you have to drag yourself to the McDonald's (of course) in Liverpool St. station because it's the only open establishment within five miles, except that apparently the clubs are apparently still open, because there are drunk chicks being dragged shoeless out of them, and other drunk chicks waiting in line to get in them, at 3:00PM.
The tube isn't air conditioned.
Nothing else is air conditioned, either; you can't get A/C in your apartment no matter what. And every summer it goes up to 90 degrees (sorry - 35), and everyone is stunned, like it's the first time it's _ever_ happened, but IT HAPPENS EVERY FUCKING SUMMER! GET A/C YOU FUCKING ASSHOLES!!! The only thing surprising about the heat in London is that the English are still surprised by it.
Compare: seamlessweb.com vs. deliverance.co.uk.
So finally you're so pissed that you decide to move back to New York, so you need to buy packing boxes, except where do you go? Nobody sells packing boxes. There's no FedEx store, no moving companies you can buy them from, no Kinko's, no Home Depot. I asked my coworker what she did when she needed packing boxes; she said "we just nick 'em from the back of Tesco's."
But they have very nice shaving cream, and bacon sandwiches. So there's that.
@Astigmatism: Are you another one of those Boots shaving cream converts?! It's like some secret underground club.
You can definitely buy packing boxes (I say, looking at my packing boxes). Post-Tube, you take an unlicensed minicab like everybody else! A/C, meh, deal for the two weeks of heat. It's not worth the price of installation.
But the drunks, good point. Shaun of the Dead every single night.
@Astigmatism: The Tubes actually run as far as the ends of the lines when they shut down for the night. This is why you see signs in the stations saying "last train to XXX at 0030" and so on.
New Year's Day is a public holiday here. I'm sure it's equally difficult to find certain things on July 4th and so on in New York.
Foster complains that our bars/clubs close early, and you're complaining that they close late. How can we win?
You can buy a/c units, no problem. We just don't bother, for the most part, because it's not hot enough for long enough to justify the expense. Newer buildings often have a/c built in, especially offices.
And packing boxes? Seriously? You're moaning that you have to identify a new brand/shop at which to buy boxes because you can't see your favourite American shop? Try the Post Office, for one, and I could name a hundred more, no doubt.
The only thing I'll agree with you on is the lack of a/c on the Tube. Absolute killer for 6 months of the year...
@gooneruk: New Year's Day Brunch is actually one of the larger restaurant services of the year; after New Year's Eve, Thanksgiving and Christmas. So yes, you can absolutely get something to eat on a national holiday in New York. Not so in any of the major European burgs I've found myself in during various holidays.
My wife and I had a 9 hour layover in London on our honeymoon from Miami to Athens, and the mere act of having to change airports from Gatwick to Heathrow was the biggest pain-in-the-ass experience us two rather seasoned travelers have ever endured..
All we ended up doing was taking the tube between the two airports, stopping for Noodles somewhere on the banks of the Thames, and grabbed a bottle of water. Somehow, when we got on the Athens flight, I noticed with only those three things purchased, we blew the equivalency of $110 US.
Oh, and guess how much they wanted to ride the Millennium Eye, the fancypants ferris wheel? Ohhh, only twenty five pounds, which is FIFTY FUCKING BUCKS .. PER PERSON... for ONE "Go" as they say.
Sorry, but I can spend a week in NYC and have awesome-ass international cuisine and ride the subway all over the whole city and barely notice the cost.
London. With their tube stop names like Blopfathom Upon Claxbury and Titsfuckerham Circus .. Fuck that place :p
@heywhat: You're not joking. These people have been trying to get a piece of me for years. I took out a few international copyrights when naming my loins, so they had to switch it up. Cheap bastards.
@NorthernLite: Everyone's just jealous because we got a head start on the recession. Sure, the past ten years have sucked, but we're used to being poor by now!
Anyone who has been to London recently knows how badly that city sucks. They imported all of our shitty fast food restaurants. Seriously, there is a Starbucks and a McDonald's on every corner. London is one of the few European cities that has no soul or culture of its own. On top of all of that, it's expensive as hell. Way more expensive than New York.
Oh, and they have hundred year old cobblestone streets which tore my knees and feet up. And when I asked for lemonade they gave me Sprite with a lemon in it. What the fuck is that all about? And when I dared to asked for sugar or ice for my shitty tea, they looked at me like I had asked them for a kidney. Suck it London!
Much of NY is indeed expensive. But a "gated community for the rich"??!?!
Does this Mary Poppins chav have any idea how many awesome things there are to do on the cheap or for free in NYC?
Did she read a Time Out New York, ever in her life? The Voice?
Is she aware that you can see concerts every day in our bigger subway stations, gratis?
Has she ever has real Purto Rican food - an entire meal of salad, pernil, platanos, rice and a drink - on 8th Avenue for 6 bucks?
Has she ever walked the Esplanade from Battery Park to Chelsea?
Has she ever tasted a dumpling from Wo Hop while impaired at a very late hour?
It's true that CBGB's is over, and the Limelight is a mall. If you want edgy, go to LookAtThisFuckingHipster.com. You can smell them through the screen.
Ah, The Ugly American has competition. It's The Ugly Brit. Instead of loud and garish Hawaiian shirts, The Ugly Brit wears Burberry.
@BettyCrocker: Allow me to recommend Ram's Roti Shop, 1919 Church Av. in Crown Heights... Trinidad oldschool chicken curry roti is my crack when I'm in the city. Imagine chicken, pumpkin, potato, curry sauce, cinnamon on an enormous tortilla wrapped into a square. It's goddamned heaven for four bucks.
And when all else fails there's world class pizza for $1.25 . You think London's even got their shittiest of Cream Chippied Fishbeef Sandwiches (or whatever the fuck their food is called) for under £14?
08:11 AM
But don't deny your true feelings. All the Jay Z YouTubes in the world can't change the forces of nature.
05:25 AM
Yeah -- every fucking corner in NY looks like every other fucking corner. I can ID my location in London within two seconds, but New York remains a mess of 90 degree angles to me.
Booooooring!
03:23 AM
Not a WEEK, not a fricking WEEK passes without some by-numbers article in the NYT or elsewhere stating that Berlin is hip. These articles are usually written by people who don't even speak German and wouldn't know what the actually scene here is like if it bit them on the arsch. Often the jist of these articles is: "Berlin! It's just like New York with cheap rents! There are artists here! And internet startups!" as though that weren't the case in every bloody major city in the Western world.
I love this city, but it's ludicrous to say it's outstripping New York.
01:52 AM
01:25 AM
12:37 AM
I mean, what was her point? That NYC has lost its edge b/c things actually work here? B/c natives and tourists can both get the most out of the city without being rude to each other? B/c as much as you try to pretend that it's expensive you can still enjoy a very full life without having to spend an arm and leg every night like you would in London? B/c if you were to wake up at 3 am there would always be something you could do and someplace you could go b/c it's literally the CITY THAT NEVER SLEEPS?! B/c our basic amenities are virtually unheard of in your most expensive new construction? Or is it b/c New Yorkers don't even have to try and they'll still always be cooler than you and that's what really pisses you off?
I know to each his own but, seriously, it's really hard to bitch about NYC when it has so much to offer to anyone and everyone. It seems that the edge that she's missing from NY is when you were risking your life each time you stepped outside your door. Who knew there were people out there that actually missed the crime. Sorry that NYC is still the coolest place to live and also the best vacation city in the world. London will never catch up so just get over it.
05:09 AM
The idea that Londoners are in any way jealous of New Yorkers is just stupid. They don't fucking care about New York unless they're coming here for the killer exchange rate before Christmas. London will never "catch up"? London was there before New York, and will be there after New York. (Probably quite literally, what with global warming.)
In conclusion: London's awesome, as are Londoners.
05:46 AM
Calm down. Both cities are pretty amazing and actually very similar. But to tar 8 million people with the same brush is a bit fucking stupid.
07:56 AM
12:13 AM
Look, I think New York is great, but I think it has too many lazy parents (FFS 7 year olds in strollers?) and too many selfish people owning dogs who can't be happy living alone in those small NY apartments (FFS, I'm so sick of dog's barking and the smell of their piss in the morning).
In general, big cities suck.
01:16 AM
Ex...cuse me?
Brooklyn: Stand up.
11/22/09
11/22/09
The subways don't just stop running at midnight(ish): they stop wherever the hell they are in the system, and kick you out, and you're in Islington and need to get back to Hoxton, and you're fucked.
It's New Years day, about 3pm, and you've crawled out of bed to find something to cure your hangover, but every fucking restaurant/cafe/coffee shop/market is closed, so you have to drag yourself to the McDonald's (of course) in Liverpool St. station because it's the only open establishment within five miles, except that apparently the clubs are apparently still open, because there are drunk chicks being dragged shoeless out of them, and other drunk chicks waiting in line to get in them, at 3:00PM.
The tube isn't air conditioned.
Nothing else is air conditioned, either; you can't get A/C in your apartment no matter what. And every summer it goes up to 90 degrees (sorry - 35), and everyone is stunned, like it's the first time it's _ever_ happened, but IT HAPPENS EVERY FUCKING SUMMER! GET A/C YOU FUCKING ASSHOLES!!! The only thing surprising about the heat in London is that the English are still surprised by it.
Compare: seamlessweb.com vs. deliverance.co.uk.
So finally you're so pissed that you decide to move back to New York, so you need to buy packing boxes, except where do you go? Nobody sells packing boxes. There's no FedEx store, no moving companies you can buy them from, no Kinko's, no Home Depot. I asked my coworker what she did when she needed packing boxes; she said "we just nick 'em from the back of Tesco's."
But they have very nice shaving cream, and bacon sandwiches. So there's that.
05:35 AM
You can definitely buy packing boxes (I say, looking at my packing boxes). Post-Tube, you take an unlicensed minicab like everybody else! A/C, meh, deal for the two weeks of heat. It's not worth the price of installation.
But the drunks, good point. Shaun of the Dead every single night.
07:03 AM
New Year's Day is a public holiday here. I'm sure it's equally difficult to find certain things on July 4th and so on in New York.
Foster complains that our bars/clubs close early, and you're complaining that they close late. How can we win?
You can buy a/c units, no problem. We just don't bother, for the most part, because it's not hot enough for long enough to justify the expense. Newer buildings often have a/c built in, especially offices.
And packing boxes? Seriously? You're moaning that you have to identify a new brand/shop at which to buy boxes because you can't see your favourite American shop? Try the Post Office, for one, and I could name a hundred more, no doubt.
The only thing I'll agree with you on is the lack of a/c on the Tube. Absolute killer for 6 months of the year...
07:44 AM
11/22/09
11/22/09
All we ended up doing was taking the tube between the two airports, stopping for Noodles somewhere on the banks of the Thames, and grabbed a bottle of water. Somehow, when we got on the Athens flight, I noticed with only those three things purchased, we blew the equivalency of $110 US.
Oh, and guess how much they wanted to ride the Millennium Eye, the fancypants ferris wheel? Ohhh, only twenty five pounds, which is FIFTY FUCKING BUCKS .. PER PERSON... for ONE "Go" as they say.
Sorry, but I can spend a week in NYC and have awesome-ass international cuisine and ride the subway all over the whole city and barely notice the cost.
London. With their tube stop names like Blopfathom Upon Claxbury and Titsfuckerham Circus .. Fuck that place :p
12:02 AM
01:28 AM
@heywhat: You're not joking. These people have been trying to get a piece of me for years. I took out a few international copyrights when naming my loins, so they had to switch it up. Cheap bastards.
05:30 AM
07:08 AM
And if you're going to stop in the expensive areas for food, you're going to get screwed over. I doubt you eat round Times Square all that often...
And to get from Heathrow to Gatwick (via central London), that's a journey of Tube AND train, so it costs more. The two airports are way out of town.
11/22/09
11/22/09
11/22/09
11/22/09
01:32 AM
08:09 AM
11/22/09
Yes, it must be terrible when people who don't live in your area write nasty things about you.
Signed,
Michigan
11/22/09
Huh?
Signed,
Indiana
11/22/09
11/22/09
11/22/09
11/22/09
Oh, and they have hundred year old cobblestone streets which tore my knees and feet up. And when I asked for lemonade they gave me Sprite with a lemon in it. What the fuck is that all about? And when I dared to asked for sugar or ice for my shitty tea, they looked at me like I had asked them for a kidney. Suck it London!
11/22/09
05:52 AM
06:38 AM
11/22/09
Does this Mary Poppins chav have any idea how many awesome things there are to do on the cheap or for free in NYC?
Did she read a Time Out New York, ever in her life? The Voice?
Is she aware that you can see concerts every day in our bigger subway stations, gratis?
Has she ever has real Purto Rican food - an entire meal of salad, pernil, platanos, rice and a drink - on 8th Avenue for 6 bucks?
Has she ever walked the Esplanade from Battery Park to Chelsea?
Has she ever tasted a dumpling from Wo Hop while impaired at a very late hour?
It's true that CBGB's is over, and the Limelight is a mall. If you want edgy, go to LookAtThisFuckingHipster.com. You can smell them through the screen.
Ah, The Ugly American has competition. It's The Ugly Brit. Instead of loud and garish Hawaiian shirts, The Ugly Brit wears Burberry.
11/22/09
12:21 AM
And when all else fails there's world class pizza for $1.25 . You think London's even got their shittiest of Cream Chippied Fishbeef Sandwiches (or whatever the fuck their food is called) for under £14?