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Gerry Mak over at Lost At E Minor writes a post about being fed up with everything that is New York City, and I’m totally with him on it. While I still maintain the opinion that New York City is one of the best places to be in, over the years I have begun to think that living here is draining the life out of me — not in a physical way, but in a mental and creative way.

They consider $15 for a meal dirt cheap, and the fact that many people have little time to prepare their own food promotes an economy partially propped up by daytime restaurants slinging atrocious, unhealthy slop to the lunchtime masses, duped as they are by blogs extolling the culinary wonders available under Midtown and Soho sneeze-guards (if I ever eat another crappy banh mi, it’ll be too soon).

I guess I’m just wondering why it is that so many put up with the lifestyle that the Big Apple engenders. What I find most frustrating is that so many residents of Gotham, even if they’re from other places, can’t imagine that anywhere other than NYC could be as cool. Many of these same people, drawn by the city’s cultural diversity and dynamism, only take in culture passively, forgetting or unable to schedule time in for their own endeavors, leaving half-finished projects to languish in closets and in the backs of their heads, and throwing down hundreds of dollars a month just for the privilege of looking at stuff.

I don’t travel often, but I have traveled before, and the more places I visit, the more I begin to understand Gerry’s sentiments of New York City. This place is good, but there are places that are cheaper, better, and more interesting.