# St. German and others, is this a joke? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [October 4, 2012, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/st-german-and-others-is-this-a-joke/636639 "2012-10-04T00:21:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![LavenderBlue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e95f7d/32.png) [@LavenderBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LavenderBlue)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2012, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/st-german-and-others-is-this-a-joke/636639/41 "2012-10-04T20:23:05Z")
I make no judgements about the OP. I happen to be a native New Yorker and will always love and adore NYC. So I fully understand why someone would do everything they can to stay here. If schools were not a consideration I would gladly move back home. Since four people have already pm’ed me about my post about legitimate work at home jobs (and my real life name is out here anyway), here’s most of the pm I sent people who asked: I make very good money from my work at home jobs. \*\*Online survey companies that pay cash: \*\* opinionoutpost (you can cash out in ten dollar increments and they pay instantly via paypal) valued opinions (need to get to twenty bucks for a payout) ithinkpanel (need to get to $35 to get paid but they still pay) tinsy pay but immediate: [https://www.mturk.com/mturk/welcome](https://www.mturk.com/mturk/welcome) \*\*Answer phones for ten bucks an hour: \*\* [http://www.westathome.com/](http://www.westathome.com/) > **[Home](https://liveops.com/)** > > VirtualFlex: Delivering better CX outcomes with contact center services that can scale during high-traffic periods. **More job leads (I found three companies I work for a decent hourly wage listed at these places):** > **[Work From Home Jobs by Rat Race Rebellion](https://ratracerebellion.com/)** > > Work from home jobs, side gigs & savings! > **[Work at Home Job Listings - WAHM.com](https://www.wahm.com/jobs.html)** > > Work at home jobs from around the web in one place, updated daily. [http://www.workplacelikehome.com/](http://www.workplacelikehome.com/) ---
**Author:** ![MeanOldLady](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/meanoldlady/32/10737_2.png) [@MeanOldLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeanOldLady)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2012, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/st-german-and-others-is-this-a-joke/636639/42 "2012-10-04T20:46:28Z")
> [@Living\_Well\_Is\_Best\_Revenge](#): > > You acted like a total bitch in that thread. If that’s how you are in real life, no wonder you can’t get a job. You know, Miss has never pinged my bitchdar before, but she’s sending my crazydar into overdrive right now. My guess (or hope, rather) is she’s not a bad egg, but is stressed to high heaven and is flipping out on people. Or maybe I just haven’t been paying attention, whatever. In any case, Miss… Dude, chill. ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2012, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/st-german-and-others-is-this-a-joke/636639/43 "2012-10-04T21:46:53Z")
> [@Bob Ducca](#): > > True, but we don’t know what she gets for that money. She could probably get into a roommate situation someplace else for $200 per month. Savings are savings, regardless of the value of what she’s paying for. If she can’t afford it, she can’t afford it. In NYC 650 would be with a roommate. $200 would be with 10 roommates in a 2 bedroom apt. 650 with one roommate, which is, I think, is what she said, is a good deal. (depending on neighborhood, but it would have to be a horrible neighborhood for that to be bad) ---
**Author:** ![Ostrya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/35a633/32.png) [@Ostrya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ostrya)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2012, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/st-german-and-others-is-this-a-joke/636639/44 "2012-10-04T21:49:44Z")
> [@Living\_Well\_Is\_Best\_Revenge](#): > > I think she was hoping someone would offer and that would get the ball rolling. But no one “bit” most likely due to her crappy attitude. I don’t think this is at all fair. We can’t know that she had any intention whatsoever of collecting any money from people. Furthermore she has adamantly denied it. She may have overreacted, that is true. But in all due respect, she is going through a lot of pressure right now. How about giving her some slack right now instead of trying to push her buttons? ] I know button pushing and stick poking is the norm around here, esp in the pit. Doesn’t make it any less assholish, though. ---
**Author:** ![Gleena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b3f665/32.png) [@Gleena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gleena)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2012, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/st-german-and-others-is-this-a-joke/636639/45 "2012-10-04T22:39:55Z")
Glad I’m not the only one who’s Mississippi upbringing comes right back out when I’m pissed. You did it so well I go my accent back talking to a co-worker just now. ---
**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2012, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/st-german-and-others-is-this-a-joke/636639/46 "2012-10-05T03:46:29Z")
> [@Zebra](#): > > What makes people think that moving from NYC would be a good idea? > > Yes, it is cheaper to live other places but are there jobs there? What do those jobs pay? > > She even stated in her OP that she may move but as a real last resort. From New York magazine: [Where the Urban Dream Life Is Going Cheap](http://nymag.com/realestate/features/49491/) > [@](#): > > New York is all about what could be,” says David Cloyd, a 34-year-old musician who moved to the city from Austin ten years ago. “You know: The potential. The possibilities.” He’s echoing, of course, the aspirational mantra that’s lured a million hopeful dreamers to New York before him. And in exchange for this promise of limitless possibility, this tantalizing what-could-be, New York requires of these dreamers that they pursue two simultaneous lives: the romantic, invigorating, spectacular life you imagine for yourself, and the expensive, often dispiriting, intermittently grueling day-to-day life you have to lead in order to keep that dream life alive. This is exhilarating. This is exhausting. This is what New York is all about. > > … > > Until last May, Cloyd and Herbeck were living in Sunset Park, in Brooklyn, and they were barely making it. They ate mac ’n’ cheese for dinner. They couldn’t afford to go out with their friends. They wanted a family, but “there was no room in our Brooklyn equation to have kids unless we put them in a closet,” Herbeck says. > > … > > And all of a sudden, they found they were staring at a very different what-could-be life: the one they’d be able to have if they were willing to leave New York. > > … > > In the end, it came down to a simple decision. “Do we want to move to an apartment that’s a lot less space for a whole lot more money, just to stay in New York City?” says Herbeck. “Or do we want to change our lives completely?” > > Welcome to Buffalo. > > … > > But the problem is, you can’t simply leave New York—you have to quit New York. You have to admit to yourself and the world that you’re packing it in, calling it a day, turning out the lights. You have to walk away from, as Joan Didion put it, “the sense, so peculiar to New York, that something extraordinary would happen any minute, any day, any month.” > > … > > But when I ask Eisenberg what she misses most about New York, she says, **“I don’t miss my old life in New York. I only miss the life in New York I know I never would have had.”** What they’ve done instead is construct a life in Buffalo that is, ironically, much closer to the New York life they once imagined for themselves than their actual New York life ever was, or ever would be. I’m not saying “move to Buffalo.” I’m saying “Go someplace where the _idea_ of New York is actually feasible.” ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2012, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/st-german-and-others-is-this-a-joke/636639/47 "2012-10-05T04:48:55Z")
> [@elmwood](#): > > I’m saying “Go someplace where the _idea_ of New York is actually feasible.” Like Philadelphia. ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2012, 11:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/st-german-and-others-is-this-a-joke/636639/48 "2012-10-05T11:24:53Z")
People forget that NJ is just across the river. Hoboken ain’t cheap, but what about Newark? I made it there for five years on a salary of $12-16K. I paid $475 for a 1 bedroom (no roommate). Right on the train line. 40 minutes from Manhattan. Plenty of poor folks have lived in NYC for generations. The difference, I think, is that they tend to have familial support. And government support. Neither of which the OP has. **Mississippienne** , good luck to you. ---
**Author:** ![pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pseudotriton_ruber_ruber)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2012, 12:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/st-german-and-others-is-this-a-joke/636639/49 "2012-10-05T12:08:03Z")
She’s in Queens, folks, not on Fifth Avenue. Queens is pretty much the equivalent of Hoboken, as far as rents go. ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2012, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/st-german-and-others-is-this-a-joke/636639/50 "2012-10-05T12:19:42Z")
> [@Anaamika](#): > > That doesn’t mean jacksquat. My join date says 2001 but I’ve actually been lurking since 1999. Cite? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2012, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/st-german-and-others-is-this-a-joke/636639/51 "2012-10-05T13:26:30Z")
> [@](#): > > Plenty of poor folks have lived in NYC for generations. The difference, I think, is that they tend to have familial support. And government support. Neither of which the OP has. Many either live in housing that is substandard compared to their peers elsewhere, extreme roommate settings (beds used in shifts, etc), or they’re from a family that is long established in the area, with property that was purchased back when it was affordable. Firemen and cops? Multigenerational residents, it’s easy to live in NYC when you, or your parents or grandparents, bought a house in one of the boroughs back when prices were comparable to Upstate cities. Jobs in my field pay the same in NYC as they do upstate, yet they’re always filled … by Downstate natives that don’t have to worry about housing costs. Luck, basically. Being in the right place at the right time. ---
**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2012, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/st-german-and-others-is-this-a-joke/636639/52 "2012-10-05T13:29:09Z")
> [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](#): > > She’s in Queens, folks, not on Fifth Avenue. Queens is pretty much the equivalent of Hoboken, as far as rents go. “Cheap” in Queens is still above the high end of the market in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, or Buffalo. ---
**Author:** ![Nzinga\_Seated](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b5ac83/32.png) [@Nzinga\_Seated](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nzinga_Seated)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2012, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/st-german-and-others-is-this-a-joke/636639/53 "2012-10-05T13:44:52Z")
> [@elmwood](#): > > “Cheap” in Queens is still above the high end of the market in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, or Buffalo. I don’t get this. She has found a space for 650. She isn’t the only person I know from NYC who have, with a roommate, found an apartment for under 900. No government help. If she is fine with a roommate, why would she move to Buffalo to look for an apartment when she has already found an apartment for 6 fucking 50? Where I live in Rochester, 650 is good rent. She would be silly to leave a city she loves to come to say, Rochester and get an apartment for comparable rent. Again, how far does this go? If I hit a road block and have trouble making my 500 dollar rent, do you suggest I move to Virginia? There are apartments in Virginia for 400. It would be bigger than what I have here, and I wouldn’t need a roommate. But I would never want to live in Virginia. It would seem really bizarre to me to choose to move to a city I don’t want to be in instead of figuring out what moves I can make to stay in a city I love. I regret that the Mississipienne was so rude in that other thread, because I really want to go hard in defending her on this part of her gripe. NYC is the kind of city I would move to if I didn’t have ties upstate, holding me here. If it was rougher, tougher, smaller, more cramped…doesn’t matter. My daughter and her father agree with me that we freaking LOVE that city’s vibe and would totally make crazy sacrifices to live there if we could. Since I was very young, I have gone there every chance I get, to soak in the energy of the place. I don’t knock anyone for loving the city and wanting to stay there. I can’t figure out why people feel the need to pretend that you either have to be on welfare or rich to live there. It simply isn’t true. I know tons of people who this isn’t true for, so I’m sincerely baffled why it is a trope I keep coming across. ---
**Author:** ![pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pseudotriton_ruber_ruber)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2012, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/st-german-and-others-is-this-a-joke/636639/54 "2012-10-05T15:27:37Z")
Plus, an appreciable difference between Syracuse and NYC, both places I’ve lived in, is that winter down here doesn’t start in late October and it ends before early May. This alone may be worth a hundred bucks a month. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2012, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/st-german-and-others-is-this-a-joke/636639/55 "2012-10-05T16:35:33Z")
> [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](#): > > Plus, an appreciable difference between Syracuse and NYC, both places I’ve lived in, is that winter down here doesn’t start in late October and it ends before early May. This alone may be worth a hundred bucks a month. This is why I decided to live in Albany - in between. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![LavenderBlue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e95f7d/32.png) [@LavenderBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LavenderBlue)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2012, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/st-german-and-others-is-this-a-joke/636639/56 "2012-10-05T16:48:49Z")
NYC is also full of cheap things to do. You don’t need a car to go anywhere. The subway is only four bucks round trip and it goes all over the city. The Staten Island ferry is even free. Get a copy of the Village Voice (also free) and you’ll find hundreds of listings for free or very low cost performances. Many major NYC museums don’t even ask for admission or have free days. Food costs aren’t necessarily that high either. There are dollar stores and cheap pizza everywhere. The schools are mediocre at best so it’s not particularly good if you have children but if you’re a single person Manhattan and the surrounding areas can be quite doable and fun on a very small budget. ---
**Author:** ![Nzinga\_Seated](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b5ac83/32.png) [@Nzinga\_Seated](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nzinga_Seated)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2012, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/st-german-and-others-is-this-a-joke/636639/57 "2012-10-05T17:22:19Z")
> [@LavenderBlue](#): > > NYC is also full of cheap things to do. You don’t need a car to go anywhere. The subway is only four bucks round trip and it goes all over the city. The Staten Island ferry is even free. Get a copy of the Village Voice (also free) and you’ll find hundreds of listings for free or very low cost performances. Many major NYC museums don’t even ask for admission or have free days. > > Food costs aren’t necessarily that high either. There are dollar stores and cheap pizza everywhere. The schools are mediocre at best so it’s not particularly good if you have children but if you’re a single person Manhattan and the surrounding areas can be quite doable and fun on a very small budget. Quoting this in full, because it bears repeating. In Rochester, the public transit system sucks donkey balls. A car is a must. Entertainment is scarce and costly and all but shut down at sun down. As for schools, if your child is into the arts, the school situation improves greatly. ---
**Author:** ![lisacurl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/41988e/32.png) [@lisacurl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lisacurl)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2012, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/st-german-and-others-is-this-a-joke/636639/58 "2012-10-05T21:16:39Z")
> [@elmwood](#): > > “Cheap” in Queens is still above the high end of the market in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, or Buffalo. She’s paying $650 a month with one roommate. I’d be paying about the same in a similar situation here in Baton Rouge. ---
**Author:** ![Spud](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spud/32/347_2.png) [@Spud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spud)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2012, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/st-german-and-others-is-this-a-joke/636639/59 "2012-10-05T22:32:35Z")
> [@lisacurl](#): > > She’s paying $650 a month with one roommate. I’d be paying about the same in a similar situation here in Baton Rouge. Which is $1300/Month… My mortgage on a 4 BR house on 1/2 acre in the Midwest is way less. The point people are trying to make is that there are cheaper places to live if one makes the choice to live there instead of in NYC. Clearly she isn’t willing to make that change… so she has to take some responsibility for her situation. I would bet that people working retail part time here are making about the same as she is in NYC, but it goes much further here. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2012, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/st-german-and-others-is-this-a-joke/636639/60 "2012-10-05T22:39:56Z")
I’ve just gotta butt in to ask Missy if she’s spent much time in Rochester. They’ve got [Dinosaur Barbeque](http://www.dinosaurbarbque.com/locations/rochester/), but other than that, there’s a lot of boring in the greater metro area. I’d stay in NYC one way or another. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/st-german-and-others-is-this-a-joke/636639.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/st-german-and-others-is-this-a-joke/636639.md?page=4)