Question's in the title I've never been to the US and I've only seen New York through movies. I'd appreciate if someone could help me capture the atmosphere of the place. What is it like living there? If there are any favourite restaurants, bars, favourite food, do tell me. What are the local favourites? Things only those who live there would know? What's a typical day in New York like for a local? Which areas are the ones to avoid and the ones to go to? I've obviously heard of names like Brooklyn, the Bronx, Manhattan, Queens - only I haven't a clue what all these are... cities, mini states, candyland made of fluffy marshmallows... Essentially I quite literally know nothing and haven't a clue where to begin.
I haven't been to NY for a while so I won't be any good on specifics, but in general... It's a lot like any other city, but it goes on for longer than I expected. Like, I'm used to cities of 3 or 4 million people... NY is just like that, but bigger. I know, that sounds like I'm being a smart-ass, but I really mean it. It's not magical, it's not a whole new world, it's just a big city. It's got a lot of mystique built up and there are people who live there who seem to think it's somehow unique, but... they should probably travel more.
I'm no expert on NY, but Brooklyn, Bronx, Queens, Manhattan are four of the five boroughs that NY is divided into. The fifth is Staten Island. If I were to research NY, I'd start there and do some research on each of the boroughs specifically. The accents are unique and there's a lot of pride and rivalry between boroughs. Find out what makes them different. The median income difference could tell you quite a lot about the socioeconomic dynamics. Then you can choose the one you want to focus on and go deeper. I've been a couple times, and it didn't feel like some magical place that it's made out to be in songs and movies. Like @BayView said, it's just a really big city. It's different from Phoenix (where I live) in that it's really dense and the buildings are much taller.
Going just by the photos, it looks like a flashier, more animated version of Hong Kong, except with more space. Tall buildings, speeding traffic, flashing lights everywhere. NY looks like it's got a million more screens than HK and on street level I am kinda imagining something similar to London's Oxford Circus with the crowds and traffic and grand buildings as well as something a little like Hong Kong with all the competing signs and maybe shops less posh than the London ones. More like wall-less little holes that house gadgets each worth a dollar... (this is really Hong Kong superimposed onto what I think America might be like...) Staten Island - will look into it. Thanks for giving me a place to start @Spencer1990 I essentially had a dream that I went to New York and got there without any purpose, without booking any hotel, without anyone to see - without anything - and that sense of absolute excitement as I got on a bus at sunset looking for a hotel for the night lol. And I kinda imagined it a little like when my European husband went to Hong Kong for the first time, the way he craned his neck and looked right up into the sky like he's gonna fall over backwards, because he's never seen buildings that tall. I'm kinda hoping to capture all that, and I feel I definitely need to mention specifics of New York to be effective.
I've never lived there but I used to visit a half dozen times a year when I lived in Rhode Island and was only a 90 minute train ride away. It's very old, very large, and very cool. And it's the publishing capital of the world, so you have to verrrrrry careful about writing about it because there are 40-50 million people in the tri-state area that will bite your head off if you try to pass yourself of as a NYC expert. The main thing I take away from NYC is that is a collection of very diverse neighborhoods. One minute you're in the restaurant heaven of Hell's Kitchen and the next you're being assaulted by the touristy glitz of Times Square. Or you can be neck deep in the bohemia of The Village only to cross Houston Street and be surrounded by the street fashion scene of SoHo. And that's just the island of Manhattan. Queens, Brooklyn, Staten Island, and the Bronx are a different deal. I don't know much about those. But the NYC depicted in most movies and books is usually Manhattan.
I spent a week in NYC on two occasions about ten years ago. It's a very diverse place, and I mean diverse in every regard. When I visited we stayed in the Bronx (but visited all of the boroughs) and what I remember the most is the diversity of smells walking even a few blocks. So many smells. Baked food, smells from the soup kitchen down the street, garbage, sewage, car oil, floral smells, rotting wood, more food, everything. Dozens and dozens of smells simultaneously. NYC really is a jungle. That is seriously the best way to describe it. In Manhattan, buildings reaching into the sky, always people walking everywhere, thousands and thousands of people walking city blocks during the day. As someone coming from a much smaller city, the sheer number of people simply walking was breathtaking at the time. Thousands of shops, groceries stores, food carts, restaurants, and businesses you've never heard of. Lots of homeless people. Street vendors selling knock-off or stolen watches from a black leather trenchcoat, vendors who you can haggle with and buy that Movado for $10. Black Pentecostal churches that speak in tongues with thousands of members present in the congregation. Neighborhoods that are sketchy and run down. Trashed piled in the street in bags like a mountain outside skyscrapers. Diversity of neighborhoods. You can start in a obviously bad area and six to eight city blocks later it's a very rich, very clean area. You could spend hours walking the blocks of New York just observing and never be bored.
New Yorkers pride themselves on getting little sleep. They work hard and they socialize. Everything they do is compacted. You go here, then you go there, then you go here. Look for the bags. Look at how they talk about themselves and their busy schedules. Living in New York (to them) makes them special. Nevermind that they are paying up the kazoo for a little shit hole of an apartment, often times with three or four room mates. New York men are effeminate. All the jocks are on the west coast. New York women are tough. Although, every once in a while you'll stumble upon the most beautiful girl you'll ever see- often times in Soho. Staten Island is more quiet. Brooklyn has turned hipster. You have Colombia and NYU. Everybody should know about the cloisters. The Hamptons are where the biggest assholes of the world live. Speaking of which, if you step foot on Wall Street, and look around you, you can feel the soul sucking evil chill through your bones- this is where America receives it's screwing (outside D.C of course). Central Park is pretty cliche at this point but still really breath taking. The bridges are cool. So are the Brooklyn and Bronx gardens. Also, the zoos and the aquarium. Definitely consider Brighton Beach (where the Russians are) and Coney Island. That's back to Brooklyn. Queens is not considered so interesting, but there's a lot of terrific food there. Many of the times I've stayed in Manhattan, I've driven to Queens for food! Manhattan is your tourist trap. Although Grand Central is pretty cool. That's what the Connecticut and upstate assholes use to get home after a hard day's work of screwing the economy. Last, but not least. The posters who said New York is like any other city, just bigger- I suspect they're simply jealous. New York does have a special feel to it, there's something in the air, it's an excitement. Probably largely due to the unbelievable assortment of sounds. That being said, there is nothing more oppressive than not being able to see sunlight because of massive buildings. Nothing more gross than seeing black gunk all over the streets, and smelling the garbage and the sewage and seeing the rats. Often times while in New York I have had the urge to part through the crowds ala Moses. There are people everywhere. And it's not like in the Matrix. There's so many tourists who don't even know which way is up on their iphone. It's slow molasses. If you write about Magnolia's cupcakes, everyone's going to know you're a tourist. Almost forgot. NYC is basically a grid. It's very easy to find where you're going. Finally, New Jersey sucks. Everyone from NY knows this.
London and Paris are a big deal, until you've been to New York. What New York lacks in charm and architecture, it more than makes up for in raw vitality. Great art galleries, museums, food... the Theatre District is amazing! And New Yorkers do have an attitude. They do not suffer idiots well, or tolerate lost tourists who seemingly can't find their way around on a grid of sequentially numbered streets!
I was there once one a move across the country. The one thing I have never forgotten was the size. I really don't know how people drive around and know where they're going. Another thing I remember, sadly, is all the guys trying to mess with me. I'm a magnet for swindlers and panhandlers and all. Every freaking block I was on. One guy even took hold of my luggage and tried to pass himself off as a worker who carries people's luggage. For a fee. He just reached down, grabbed my luggage, and asked where I was going. He couldn't have run off with it, so he wasn't doing that. But yeah. Those guys seemed to pick up on my inexperience with the city real fast. I was actually just admiring the cityscape and knew where to go, but they read me pretty fast. Fortunately, the city I was moving out of was pretty much the same thing, but way smaller. So I had a fine-tuned way of dealing with them all. You can search for videos on YouTube for everything New York. Start with "driving through NYC" for starters. Then "walking through NYC".
@Daniel - what you described sounds a lot like Hong Kong to me, minus the black trenchcoats. We just sell knock-offs and fake rolexes on foldable tables or mats on the floor @123456789 - you've given me so much to look up!! Thank you! Whenever I hear Central Park, I'm thinking of Central Perk from Friends... I also believe I shall have to write about Magnolia's cupcakes, because my character is definitely a tourist I'm thinking my experience of HK will actually rather help me here with the whole smells, noise, awful slow-moving crowds and the claustrophobia created by the skyscrapers. @Homer Potvin - my character will be a clueless tourist who's just landed in NYC without a plan, without even having booked a hotel. If I go with first person, I can be as clueless as I want, really so no, won't be passing myself off as an expert. I just hope the stuff my character will be amazed by and the stupid blunders she'll have will be typical enough of a NYC experience that someone from NYC might be like, "Oooh yeah."
I work in manhattan. The people are friendly for the most part, but self occupied. If they bump into you, they'll apologize, but if you fall down, nobody will help you up. Street vendors are everywhere, mostly serving bagels and ethnic food, usually run by ethnic minorities (Indians an muslims mostly.) It's split up into smaller parts, grouped by similar culture and business. For example, I work in the fashion district near 6th and 36th. It's mostly clothing and fabric stores with some other random things like my job thrown in. Everything is a grid and numbered. Broadway is the only notable exception, which cuts diagonally through the city. The difference in these small subareas can be abrupt. Walk one block out of Chinatown and your suddenly in little Italy. Traffic is not as bad as you'd think. Public transport is very efficient as are the police and traffic lights. The only real congestion happens around the tunnel and bridge. The NYPD are very proactive and dynamic. Sometimes I get off the bus and walk all the way to my job without seeing a single cop. Sometimes there are armies of them armed to the teeth. They tend to be on the cautious side. Recently there was a train accident. The police don't wait for an investigation, if there is the potential of a terror attack, they want to already be on the street. I've never seen as many machine guns as I did that day. Food is great everywhere. Chains don't do very well, but there are McDonald's and stuff. Pizza is a NYC staple and is taken very seriously. In fact, the price of a subway ticket and a slice of pizza are connected. I can't really give you much on social stuff since I actually live across the river in New Jersey. I'd be happy to answer any specific questions though.
I've only been there once for a visit, so I can only describe it in one phrase: "Fast. Very fast." It's a city constantly on the move. You're either going somewhere, or just left that somewhere and going elsewhere. Subway trains are the lifeblood of the city -- without which the city likely wouldn't have survived. When I rode, the car was packed, and I was usually standing up clinging onto an overhanging strap. You can rest in public, but no one will like you if you block their path. Believe me when I say that when they're moving, you don't want to stop them. You can buy cheap snacks at street corners -- I remember buying a hotdog from a vendor once.