Whoa!!!I didn't realize so many of you had (or do) live in NYC...We use to live in Staten Island.....too funny....we were on Arden Av by Arthur Kill Rd.....I trained as a medic in Manhattan (St. Vincent's aka Vinny's) and worked Brooklyn North and South Districts as well as S.I.

Ah to hear of our old haunts....thanks for the memories.....

Having lived in both extremes (hermit style rural life to deep in the heart of Manhattan), I have to say I much prefer rural living. You give up some conveniences, but life is much less stressful, at least for me. I did enjoy a lot of my time in NYC, but I never got comfortable there. I would go back in a New York minute for one of those bagels or a slice of Grimaldi's finest. The commute thing really drug me down, and I've never been a fan of sardine can humanity on the stroll from the office to and in the subway, where you can't help be in constant physical contact with others.

What really goads me about urban living, though, are all the restrictions. I can't equip myself as I see fit, nor can I relax my guard whenever I feel like it. I don't feel nearly as in control of my life or my surroundings in the big city as I do out in the boonies. That is the sacrifice I am having an ever more difficult time accepting.

Also, in a rural community, I think you feel more significant. Your actions and decisions carry more impact on the community than they ever could in the city. As others indicate, you can get killed in the city and most everyone in it couldn't care less, whereas in a rural community it is going to effect almost everyone around you.

I work in Manhattan 3 days a week, but live in Bucks County PA.

I have found that, for me, this mix has given me a perspective on the Big Issues that is complex.

I can spend time in New York in my office and experience direct working interaction with:

Wasim - an Islamic former Pakistani (just became a citizen this year!) who speaks English, French, Bengali and Pashtun fluently.

Joanne - one of 14 children born in Jamaica, she sits across from me and plans her wedding obsessively.

Ayoung - sits next to me. She's from Korea, and uses Skype to video chat with her family "back home".

Daniel - a Russian national, who lives for 3 months at a time in the US & Japan.

Andrew - he's here from Wisconsin, which is, as far as I can tell, no less foreign compared to New York as the places some other folks are from.

James - a gay adult who has been living with his partner for longer than most people stay married.

John - a NY native who is getting closer and closer to his pilot's license.

The political views in the office are not as "liberal" as you might expect - in fact, I'm often surprised by the divergence from the expected.

As far as crime and "filth" - well, let me put it this way. Given a choice of walking through Central Park at 2:30 AM or walking through Gary, Indiana at 2:30 PM, I'll take Central Park ANY TIME. Also, you haven't experienced what emergency preparedness really is until you've been around a large-scale emergency response incident in NYC. If there's only 1 thing they learned from 9/11, it's how to respond and coordinate efforts.

As much as I love living in Bucks County, I do have to admit that it's occasionally frustrating to hear people spout off racist and ignorant statements about the people who live in cities. I'm especially annoyed by the statement that crime rates are lower in rural areas - I'm convinced that it's enforcement rates that are lower. I've been around too many incidents that would have put someone in jail in NYC that are willfully ignored when I'm in the country. Hell, I was recently on a call for an accident where some drunk rolled his truck with his 8 year old son in the front, and the cops called the drunk's brother to come get the kid while they hauled dad to jail - and the guy shows up in his car drunk as hell - and the cops just told him to go home and they'd drive the kid over later in a patrol car.

Anyway, all I'm saying is that you can say you don't like cities, and that's fine - but basing your opinion on what you see on TV or read in papers, rather than ongoing direct experience, is not only weak-minded, it's downright dangerous because it trains your mind to close off and not see what new interpretation of the situation around you might be best given current circumstances.

If you continually say X is true, and your logic for that assertion is based a tautology founded in your acceptance of mediated information that gives you a basis for your conclusion about X, you are succumbing to the dangers of acceptance of opinions and selected agenda-driven data point presented as actual facts.

Opinions posing as facts can form as a result of the pedagogy of the media's advertising-driven business, which seeks to maximize our reactivity while minimizing our ability to think rationally.

So, to get this back OT - a city is not a place where you are immediately stripped naked and thrown to a mob of angry minorities who will carve you up and toss your carcass into the river. Yes, there are restrictive laws about personal defensive items - I can argue from facts that these laws are too restrictive, I can argue that it's "every man for himself" when the SHTF in New York - but then when I experience "SHTF" moments in NY (Blackouts, Steam pipe explosions, building collapses), the facts keep knocking my opinions to bits. Here, at least, the authorities are ready.

For NYC, my EDC has been reduced to a small flashlight, some water, some dust masks, a pocket knife, small FAK and a radio. I keep an MRE in my desk drawer and $100 in my wallet. It's all good.

I cannot emphasize how the people in NYC can surprise you about how humane and civilized they can be. It seems very different from the NYC is saw growing up in person and watching the news (I grew up in a suburb about 35 miles from NYC). The blackout in 2003 saw New Yorkers behave and have fun. The bars were packed with people socializing and that's about it. I couldn't expect more. It was not the 1977 blackout, everything changed.

As far as minorities carving you up, I know the first patriiotic displays I saw on 9-11 were from minorities.

There are people we have and would rather not. There are people who will carve you up. But I would also not readily want to travel into some town, in an area of the U.S. in which I am an obvious stranger, be there when or after TSHTF and think I am going to be greeted with open arms by all. I know people will protect their friends and neighbors readily in many areas, but you'll find many New Yorkers that will readily take care of strangers.

You do have to kick yourself a lot to keep you from being to get the #^@& out of my way. You may have to fight to keep you sticking your neck out to help others, because they are total strangers.

You know, that is good to hear. My wife has been to NYC, and has plans to show it to me sometime in the next couple of years. You have made is sound a lot better to me...

If you are going to come to NYC, you are likely to want to see touristy things and places, whihc are all usuaully in our safer areas. So you are unlikely to get into areas that are not safe. Almost all of these are in areas that are very safe. It's the safest big city in the world, and it's got it's bad areas. So, it's safer areas are usually very safe.

I worked with a lot of guys from small towns when I was on tugs. As a rule, I was happier with them heading to Manhattan when given the chance that any place else. They got in more trouble and fights when let loose in smaller communities.

If and when you do come, just ask for advice. I'll be happy to give it.

Martin, a nice contrast in perspective to my post. Admittedly, mine is based on a childhood of relative freedom in a mostly wilderness environment, and I just don't appreciate many of the benefits of big city life because my values are different; not better or worse than anyone else's, just different.

I did have a lot of fun in New York when I worked there. There are a lot of things in New York City you will not find anywhere else, or only in the largest cities. A lot of what I experienced at first was novel, but when the novelty wore off, and the routine kicked in, there was still plenty there to keep me interested. I can tell you for sure I would rather be there than here in Florida right now.

Alas, methinks there's too much of Burt Gummer's spirit within me. Being 50 miles from the nearest airport, supermarket, or hosptital can be a real pain too. I guess I am just missing my old ways too much lately.

dont feel bad wildman800, my buddy taurus is actually phobic of cities or large places. I tease the hell out of the guy about it and he will most likely punch me in the face for posting this but he is ACTUALLY unable to live in a large city or he will go insane. There actually is a name for it but I dont remember what it is. Put him in the open country and you will find no happier man. Put him in downtown Toronto and he is like a cat in a cat carrier. The sounds of hundreds of people all talking at once or rush hour traffic and he literally gets flushed, panicky and needs to go somewhere quiet.

I torment him all the time about it.

I will GLADLY take a day off from work and show you around, there's a lot to see and I know the ins and outs. Keep that in mind. The offer is perpetual.

Hi Martinfocazio,

Just don't take your chickens onto the New York Subway,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9P6sG35f2U&feature=related