Last night I returned from NYC having attempted to make a long weekend of it in the Big Apple. Well, because of a storm that hit the east coast on the 2 days that were travel days I ended up getting only 1.5 days in the city that never sleeps and I certainly started to feel that way myself after all the hours spent in airports. 🙂
But, regardless of the short time spent there, I found it interesting once again to check out the architectural, space, and overall quality of life differences between Seattle and New York City. Funny for us when we returned, we saw that the Seattle Times had just posted an article about going to NYC for a trip. Too bad it came too late for our trip, but we still had a good time and had a pretty clear idea of what we wanted to do there anyway. We saved money by staying at an apartment that could be rented out versus going to the more spendy option of a hotel.
In comparing the prices of food and beverages I’d have to say that Seattle is pretty comparable to NYC. In the neighborhood where we stayed there was a cool little winebar that we and our friends went to each evening to either start or end our evening activities. The prices charged for wine by the glass was about the same as you’d find in any downtown Seattle restaurant ranging anywhere from $8-16 per glass depending on the wine. Plates of shareable food were also similar in price and the quality of the goods were similar to many places that we frequent here at home. I’ll say that this is a good thing because most of my pals would say that I tend to have more expensive tastes than others when it comes to food but I’d also have to say back that most of us have about the same level of acquired tastes. What Seattle may lack in terms of fashion we more than make up in food.
That brings me to another topic: fashion. Clearly, NYC wins hands down on the number of fashionable people as seen on the streets than you’ll find here in Seattle and surrounding areas. I’d have to say that in the 19 years that I’ve lived here we’ve had a rise in the number of folks that put time and effort into their appearance and there is a bit less fleece than would have been seen 10 years ago but we’re a long ways behind other major metro areas of the USA when it comes to good looking fashions on the everyday person. A lot of people here will say that we dress for being practical but there were plenty of people in NYC that were dressed well and the clothing they had on was also practical for the weather – and it was a heck of a lot more cold and snowy there than it is here. Our trip was impacted by sleet on a couple of days and even then New Yorkers had us hands down on looking good while still getting to work or play in a nice looking outfit. Although I will admit that I had concerns about how hard the city would be on a person’s shoes over time with the sleet, snow and salt. Maybe that is why so many people obsess over shoes in NYC. Is it really possible the Carrie Bradshaw character of Sex in the City could have collected the vast array of shoes she had if they were being ruined by the weather? I certainly could see why she’d pay for cabs and not use the public transportation system if she was trying to save her Manolos from damage. One cool thing about going this time of year is that there are 50% off shoe sales all over the city – I got to look in one store but my friends weren’t really in a shopping mood so I unfortunately didn’t get to buy this time around…. but, boy, did I want to!
Of course, my partner, Michael also noted that women in the city would dress for going out as though the weather had no impact. We saw plenty of short skirts and open toed high heels in freezing weather and maybe that’s where the east coast gets the stereotyped hardened personality type – because a woman gets a little cranky when she’s cold. 🙂
Another one of our contributors to the blog here, Gerald Grinter, was also on this trip and he took a photo of the place where we stayed (I think) as well as the place next door. I’ll confer with him on getting a copy of that photo or have him post it so I can write a quick post in the next day or so comparing apartments and living conditions of NYC to Seattle.
Gerald…. post up those cell phone photos that you took, ok?
