Sex and the City. Pinterest boards. Gossip Girls. The Yankees. Friends. Seinfeld. TikTok slideshows. Taylor Swift. New Yorker magazine covers. Jay Z.
These are all elements in the media that have grabbed Gen Z by the hand and have led them to an obsession with New York City (NYC). Since the very beginning of popular culture, NYC has been a destination on which filmmakers, artists, and writers have been fixated. I am a victim of this craze.
This past August, I spent 36 hours in NYC. I had been begging to go back to NYC since I read “Just Kids” by Patti Smith the previous January, an autobiography set in NYC highlighting the famous Chelsea Hotel. After the 10-hour car ride, we finally arrived in our 100-square-foot hotel room overlooking the scaffolding wrapped around the hotel across the street. An anticlimactic, but beautiful view. Even with this trip being a family vacation, I was still able to achieve some sort of independence, despite having to share a bathroom with my three other family members.
Walking the streets of NYC, I was met with conflicting worlds. On one hand, there was the wealth and glamor of Soho live million dollar apartments, luxury boutiques at every corner, and high-end restaurants on all 26 blocks of the neighborhood. A stalk contrast to Soho was Harlem with working class families, expensive groceries and unhoused people. The difference between these two lives led me to think, what is Gen Z’s obsession with NYC. Aside from the city’s “lights” attributed in almost any song associated with NYC, are the kids from the other 49 states being catfished? In my research on going to the city, specifically Manhattan, twice, I do not think so.
For a kid in the suburbs, like Grosse Pointe, a life spent in NYC seems fast-paced, making it attractive. The sheer amount of career and social opportunities in NYC can not compare with the nightlife, or career opportunities that Grosse Pointe offers- with restaurants closing at 9 p.m. and the few career-originated jobs available are for those in real estate or medicine, Grosse Pointe does not seem the most appealing to a 21-year-old. Not only do you get opportunities in the city, but you get a vast culture. Food, art, music, language-there are so much to learn from those with different backgrounds. It is a dirty city with infinite opportunity. I don’t think I have to go on about the essence of the city, considering it is somewhere most Gen Zers want to visit, no one has to be convinced.
What those considering living in NYC should consider is the economic side of the move. Rent is expensive. Just listen to the first few songs from “Rent” the musical and you will get the idea. Groceries are only getting more expensive. But as Carrie Bradshaw in Sex in the City said, “When I first moved to New York, sometimes I would buy Vogue instead of dinner. I felt it fed me more.” If you have your eyes set on something, you may do whatever you have to do to achieve it. If that means living in a rat-infested apartment, so be it.
I believe that Gen Z has been romanticizing life in NYC. They see the life they want and disregard the unpleasant side of it. They look at the photos of Central Park in winter, brownstone apartments, The Met in the Fall, and 5th Ave stores and drool the idea of walking those streets. With this mindset, those wanting to pack up their life and make the voyage may be disappointed when rent is $3,000+ a month and groceries are exponentially higher than in their hometown.
I love NYC, and I would be lucky to ever call it my home, as much as I would like to one day. To me, it is dangerous to romanticize a city as the end goal to success. Those of Gen Z must look past the craze of others, looking at TikToks and the Pinterest boards, to understand where they belong. In reality, the city is just as imperfect as the town you live in today. Someday you may find yourself chasing a dream, getting it, and realizing it isn’t what you wanted. Millions of movies can back me up on that.
