[throwayyy479087]

I see a LOT of people moving to NYC for this reason. Not Midtown or the Financial District, mind you - the UES, UWS, Williamsburg, etc. I did it. I don't commute but am so much happier here than with more space in suburbia.

[Terretta]

> Not Midtown or the Financial District, mind you...

Ha!

Imagine if, as in EU cities, one could live above one's shops and workplaces, with no car needed -- and no transit as part of the daily routine!

Very few places in USA is this feasible at scale, NYC being one of the few. Even there, when I preferred to walk (no transit) to work which required me to live in Midtown, I was looked at like I was nuts -- why wouldn't you live in Brooklyn or Upper West Side or Chelsea or East Village?

Because my aim was to not spend life on a commute.

Love that you don't commute, shows it's possible. It's also possible to have one of those Midtown or Financial District jobs and not commute at all day-to-day. Then when you want a different neighborhood for variety, use transit.

PS. Side benefit in a town where square meter residential space is so limited: no home office necessary, you can just "step into your office" downstairs or across the street.

PPS. If you're one of the "avoid Midtown" folks but like to wander around and browse food, check out the pedestrian corridor called "6 1/2 Ave" very Harry Potter style. The southern end starts at ~ 50th and runs up to ~ 56th. There is an Asian street food concourse between 50th and 51st that's new, another food hall at 52nd, and an amazing French bistro up between 53rd and 54th. The food halls essentially let you try food cart experience year round or in the rain.

[kibwen]

Same perspective here. Even as a rural-boy-turned-inveterate-urbanite, I'm happy that people who don't want to live in the city are decreasingly forced to live in the city due to their jobs. There are plenty of people out there like me who were looking to escape to the city but who were stymied by all the people living in the city who wanted to escape to the country. I just prefer density and walkability/bikeability.

[bombcar]

I think the more people are living where they want to and not where they're forced to the happier people will be in general.

Especially as the "city" fills up with "city people" they hopefully will stop voting so strongly against "city".

[Ancapistani]

> Especially as the "city" fills up with "city people" they hopefully will stop voting so strongly against "city".

It'll be interesting to see if the obverse is true.

My suspicion is that the US will continue to self-select along political and social lines, as it seems to have been doing since ~2000.

[bombcar]

I was more referring to "NIMBYism" or suburbification than purely political parties; both deep red and deep blue "cities" vote heavily NIMBY when they get the chance, and some of that may be that many of the people living in said cities wish they could live more suburbanly or more rurally, and try to make the city as much as such.