(Miss Cheapist looks forward to free, open courts in suburb V)
Final thoughts on the suburban urban life. Please read previous entry, "Soul Deadening Suburbs?" for more context.
1) How many particle wood "designy" pieces of furniture can you buy?
Walmart has secured market share with the cheapist Religious Right in the exurbs of America. Target extends its reach into the urban market of Bravo watchers and dirty hipsters, into the outer boroughs of New York, thereby revitalizing the "inner city" with economic development, and good, cheap taste. Whenever Miss Cheapist goes to Target in downtown Brooklyn, there are lines of people roped around the store, often hidden behind carts of merchandise, eager to purchase. How many 12-packs of paper product can be squeezed into a NYC apartment? How many Issac Mizrahi trenchcoats can a person own? How ironic that the greatest retail excitement in the city seems to be the latest opening of a multinational chain store, typically found in the suburbs. Although it is usually cheaper to do this type of business outside of the city, urbanites have embraced big-box shopping, and as a result, the stores are multiplying by the day. There is no sweeter sight than sitting in Union Square, looking up at Filene's Basement, DSW and Forever 21. The city has become so expensive that discount shopping has become leisure and an aesthetic experience all at the same time.
2) Why does everyone in NYC own a Hummer?
What happened to living in a walkable city? Who are these war mongers driving their vehicles without apology, surging into crosswalks, unable to control the power of their V-8 engines, taking their kids to soccer at Asphalt Green and buying organic at Fairway? If these owners want a large car, they should live in the suburbs and have their own garage. Stop taking up street parking and wasting your time finding it. Isn't that cheaper?
3)"Our kind of People"
New York City has been declared in past years one of the U.S.'s most segregated cities, especially at the level of public schooling. Many may ask how that can be possible, given the high number of minorities who work in restaurants, ride the subway and serve as tastemakers for the My-Space generation. Miss Cheapist could provide nothing better than, "the city has become a place of haves and have nots," but she does know that if people want to create enclaves of people just like them, they don't need to live in a doorman building, or buy a brownstone with their friends in the hood. They can just move to the suburbs.
4)Tennis anyone?
Miss Cheapist is not an athletic person, but she occasionally plays tennis, just to keep her calves slim. After April, it is nearly impossible to play. Not only has the price of a public tennis pass doubled in price over the last few years, but it is nearly impossible to get a court without a long wait, and sideways glances from regulars who want to turn the city's parks into private racquet clubs. Yet in every sweaty inch of the city, you see people exercising, jogging, playing touch football, birdwatching, and mountain-biking. At any given time, these experiences have the risk of some unpleasant urban interruption, usually from someone unable to share space. Some would argue exercise is the only way to leave our small apartments and meet people in this cold metropolis. But if they want to be outside and exercise so much, isn't it less hostile and cheaper to do so outside of the city?
1) How many particle wood "designy" pieces of furniture can you buy?
Walmart has secured market share with the cheapist Religious Right in the exurbs of America. Target extends its reach into the urban market of Bravo watchers and dirty hipsters, into the outer boroughs of New York, thereby revitalizing the "inner city" with economic development, and good, cheap taste. Whenever Miss Cheapist goes to Target in downtown Brooklyn, there are lines of people roped around the store, often hidden behind carts of merchandise, eager to purchase. How many 12-packs of paper product can be squeezed into a NYC apartment? How many Issac Mizrahi trenchcoats can a person own? How ironic that the greatest retail excitement in the city seems to be the latest opening of a multinational chain store, typically found in the suburbs. Although it is usually cheaper to do this type of business outside of the city, urbanites have embraced big-box shopping, and as a result, the stores are multiplying by the day. There is no sweeter sight than sitting in Union Square, looking up at Filene's Basement, DSW and Forever 21. The city has become so expensive that discount shopping has become leisure and an aesthetic experience all at the same time.
2) Why does everyone in NYC own a Hummer?
What happened to living in a walkable city? Who are these war mongers driving their vehicles without apology, surging into crosswalks, unable to control the power of their V-8 engines, taking their kids to soccer at Asphalt Green and buying organic at Fairway? If these owners want a large car, they should live in the suburbs and have their own garage. Stop taking up street parking and wasting your time finding it. Isn't that cheaper?
3)"Our kind of People"
New York City has been declared in past years one of the U.S.'s most segregated cities, especially at the level of public schooling. Many may ask how that can be possible, given the high number of minorities who work in restaurants, ride the subway and serve as tastemakers for the My-Space generation. Miss Cheapist could provide nothing better than, "the city has become a place of haves and have nots," but she does know that if people want to create enclaves of people just like them, they don't need to live in a doorman building, or buy a brownstone with their friends in the hood. They can just move to the suburbs.
4)Tennis anyone?
Miss Cheapist is not an athletic person, but she occasionally plays tennis, just to keep her calves slim. After April, it is nearly impossible to play. Not only has the price of a public tennis pass doubled in price over the last few years, but it is nearly impossible to get a court without a long wait, and sideways glances from regulars who want to turn the city's parks into private racquet clubs. Yet in every sweaty inch of the city, you see people exercising, jogging, playing touch football, birdwatching, and mountain-biking. At any given time, these experiences have the risk of some unpleasant urban interruption, usually from someone unable to share space. Some would argue exercise is the only way to leave our small apartments and meet people in this cold metropolis. But if they want to be outside and exercise so much, isn't it less hostile and cheaper to do so outside of the city?
Yet it's a free world.
Of course Miss Cheapist is not advocating a move to the suburbs. However, the life we cherish in the city is not sustainable (or pleasant) if everyone retreats into their own private enclaves, secured merely by the ability to buy a particular lifestyle. Beyond the cache of saying you live in a place that used to be cool when it was "grittier," or enjoying the new Bloomberg antisepticism, there seems no point in being a part of a city, if public life and its counterparts, access and conservation, are not a part of ones intentions.
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