this is also connected to why i can’t stand when people act like new york is exclusively for people In It To Win It, At The Top, Aiming Big, etc.
because huge parts of what makes the city so attractive to those kinds of people rests on the labor of people not in that category. your organic grocery store is staffed by low-wage cashiers. the city that never sleeps can stay up 24/7 thanks to nocturnal bodega owners and overnight transit workers. those who decide to raise children here and don’t opt for private school — or hell, even those who do — can thank those in the distinctly unglamorous profession of teaching, yes, but also those doing the even more deeply unglamorous work of cooking school lunches and cleaning kids’ bathrooms after hours for, like, educating their children while they Live The Dream.
i just don’t understand the level of myopia it takes to be like “new york is only for people like me and my friends, everyone else should leave” and also be a human who does literally anything ever in new york. how do you take a cab and continue to believe the person driving it is Not Meant For New York? jackass.
