members of the barrio today we'll compare life in new york city to the surrounding
suburbs from somebody who's lived in both places me you don't want to miss this let's
start with a definition of suburb it's usually deployed to describe residential communities
outside central urban areas as new york is the largest city in the country we also have the
most outlying suburban areas central and northern new jersey westchester county new york the hudson
valley even parts of connecticut long island that is a lot of people and there's a reason
they call it the tri-state area things get even murkier if we start to include
the areas that border long island in queens or let's say riverdale in the bronx which
basically looked like suburbs but we're not even going to get into that i spent most of my life
living in fairlawn new jersey a sleepy commuter town about 20 minutes from the george washington
bridge in manhattan did anyone else's parents put plastic on the couch too i'm just curious
housing this is one of the biggest differences between life in new york city and the suburbs
approximately 2 million of the three and a half million residences in new york city
are rented that means about two-thirds of new yorkers rent their homes and that's the starkest
difference in my opinion is that most people who live in the surrounding areas are homeowners
i know lately that the cost of buying a home in the suburbs has skyrocketed but you still get
way more for your money as far as space is concerned in the suburbs than you'd ever get
in new york city the median resale price for a manhattan apartment in the second quarter of 2021
hit just under 1 million many people's only chance of ever being a homeowner is to leave the city
as far as housing costs are concerned in the city it's more about how safe is your neighborhood how
trendy is it how many bars and restaurants are there how connected is it to the subway the size
of apartments in new york city isn't necessarily going to be the biggest factor to how expensive it
is i know this because i spent nine years in the village and the average apartment there is tiny
and very expensive and in the suburbs we're looking at different factors like how good the
school system is and on the whole suburbs tend to have better public schools than new york city does
another factor for a suburban community is how far away is it from new york city does it have direct
train line access even within a town being closer to the train station is going to make that house
a lot more valuable and then of course we look at space because in the suburbs the size of your
house does matter a lot you're paying more for a bigger house pretty simple maintenance i have
friends who are new homeowners and they have complained to me about sneaky little
maintenance costs that they never thought about before they actually own their own spot
now compare that to me in brooklyn right now and just last week my stove wasn't working really well
i got the owner on the phone within 10 minutes and we were working through how we were going to fix
it got a repair guy to come i didn't spend a penny on that because when you're renting a spot almost
all the maintenance issues are the responsibility of the landlord so you have a lot less things to
worry about and you also have a lot less space to worry about when you own a home you've got
to maintain that backyard you've got to mow the front lawn or you've got to pay a landscaper to
do so so there's extra responsibilities with being a homeowner in the suburbs traditionally speaking
families tend to prefer the suburbs and the logic is single people meet in the city get married have
kids and then move away now it doesn't always work like that you have more space where i grew up in
new jersey i could go to the backyard and have a catch with my twin brother being a parent in the
city you constantly have to supervise your kids especially the smaller ones you can't just let
them run to the backyard you've got to accompany them to a park for example in new york your space
is public in the suburbs your space is private you get a lot less noise as well where i grew up
in jersey i've been the loudest thing i would ever hear after midnight would be a car alarm going off
in new york city don't get me started you're not going to have those annoying neighbors running up
and down the stairs at all hours of the night although then again you can have kids for that
but as someone who doesn't have kids i don't know all of the unique challenges that you would face
living in new york city so for some of those parents watching tell me in the comments what
those challenges are because i'm curious so there is a cost of living difference between the suburbs
and the city and you'll see it most drastically in restaurants and bars because they pay higher
rent as far as supermarkets are concerned i don't think the differences are as high as you
would expect we just did a video about the cost of living in new york city and if you're curious
what i pay for a lot of my everyday expenses go check that out crime crime rates are higher in big
cities that is simply an undeniable fact if you want to live in an area with a lower crime rate
you should move to the suburbs and for all of my complaints about growing up
in the suburbs of new jersey my biggest fear as a kid walking around by myself was i don't
know getting hit by a car things that people wouldn't bat an eyelid at in new york city
would get the police called in a suburb for example the other day i saw out my window a guy
was walking down the middle of the street talking loudly to himself he looked very mentally unstable
i don't think anybody called the cops here if that same guy did that where i grew up there probably
would have been five police calls made within a few minutes and it's also about noise littering
small quality of life things you just get used to it cars this is the classic suburb versus
city debate although we can also make it a los angeles versus new york city debate almost every
single person i know who lives in a suburb has a car normally multiple cars in fact i've seen it
where every single person in one household has their own car this is what i miss least about
living in suburban new jersey was having to rely on my car for almost everything the most desirable
parts of new york city are that way because of their walkability in my case within three minutes
i can walk to the subway i can walk to my gym i can walk to the nearest deli in fact i can walk to
two or three delis i can walk to ten restaurants very close to where i live where i lived in new
jersey to go to the gym was about a 15 or 20 minute drive the grocery store was about a 10
minute drive to get to 10 restaurants i don't even know how long it would have taken to do
that on the flip side you're also exposed to the elements living in new york city without a car
to brutal cold and wind to the heat and the humidity living in new jersey i could just hop
in my climate controlled automobile put on the air conditioner put on the heating go park somewhere
and be exposed outside for a maximum of the time it would take me to walk through a parking lot the
weather is absolutely a bigger factor in new york city when you're walking everywhere i am curious
though for my suburban viewers out there what's it been like not commuting as much do you enjoy
it more and you want to get back to your office in new york city diversity i don't know how it
is today but where i grew up in new jersey most of the kids in my school more or less looked like me
my town was very jewish and italian there's no question that if you live in new york city
you will be exposed to a lot more diversity and it's not just skin color but it's also origin
new york city has people here from every country in the world as well as all 50 states hands down
you will get a lot more culture in new york city and things to do one of the things i miss least
about living in suburban new jersey was all the retail chains that is something you are
constantly exposed to are big retail outlets new york city there are so many small locally owned
businesses and while suburban new jersey has plenty of amazing italian food pizza and bagels
new york city's culinary scene absolutely blows it away although quick aside i have never had a
better bagel in new york city than the bagels i had growing up in new jersey and i'm gonna prove
it to you all in an upcoming video stay tuned now comparing new york city's vast culinary scene to
the surrounding suburbs it's it's just not fair to do so and if you followed my channel we have
explored in depth the tons of different places and countries that you can eat from in this great city
it's also the amount of live music venues here the amount of culture the city has with its museums
and other attractions there's also always something new here the rent is so high that
a lot of businesses don't survive now it's a pro of new york city and it's a con of new york city
because a lot of your favorite businesses won't be there 10 years from now if you live in an area
with a lot of chains odds are those corporations won't have a problem keeping them afloat for the
long run new york city is also one of the world's biggest tourist destinations so there is no
shortage of attractions for your children and if you're an adult there's no shortage of nightlife
nightlife that runs very late or should i say very early into the morning hours if you're single
there's way more options for dating there's way more single people and there's way more diversity
within that dating pool heck my friend the other day met a girl off of tinder
from south sudan not south brunswick i'm not saying one is better than the other because even
if you live in a suburb of new york city you are still in proximity to the greatest city on earth
my question for you all out there is what do you prefer and i'm really curious about those
who left new york city to a surrounding suburb do you regret the decision why or why not i want
to see all of your comments down below guys thank you so much for watching as always till next time