I long ago got over my desire to move to New York City, but oh, when I was younger, I really wanted to move to the big city to become a writer, to live where a lot of my favorite TV shows were set, to get out of my hometown and live among the skyscrapers. As I got older I realized that there are other big cities, I live close enough to visit a lot, and New York is way too freakin' expensive.
I thought of that after reading this piece in the New York Observer. Tom Acitelli says that The CW's Gossip Girl is dangerous because it gives a false impression to people from other states that New York City is affordable.
When I first saw the headline I thought he was going to say it's dangerous because of sex and drugs and immoral behavior. But, no, it's the real estate he's talking about.
It should be noted that this piece is for the real estate section of the NYO, not the television section. Acitelli writes:
As it stands now, Gossip Girl is spreading throughout the United States a disjunctive, distorted, ultimately dangerous, view of what buys what in New York City right now, and the show's doing so mostly through its depiction of real estate. Like Friends in the 1990's and Sex and the City earlier this decade, Gossip Girl is giving the impression to Suzy in Nebraska and Mandy in Alabama (and Clay from Texas) that real estate in New York is as affordable as anywhere and that poor in New York means living in a $2 million Williamsburg loft.
I would point out that on Friends, Rachel and Monica's apartment was rent-controlled and once belonged to Monica's grandmother and they were living there a bit on the sly (if you remember the episode where Joey danced with the super, he was going to report them until Joey offered to dance with him).
As for Sex and the City and Gossip Girl, I consider these fantasies of New York City anyway. Everyone is pretty and they have the best jobs and clothes and one-liners ready for any occasion. The same way You've Got Mail is a fantasy version of New York. Gossip Girl is a trashy, fantasy soap opera, though I bet it does give teenage girls the wrong idea about a lot of things). I think Heroes gives the wrong impression of New York City too. It's always blowing up on that show.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
12-11-2007 @ 4:39PM
lucyfan62 said...
Pretty much everyone on GOSSIP GIRL is filthy rich AND lives with their parents, so I don't know why Mandy from Idaho would think she could pick up and move there on a whim. What an idiot! I think the show MEGA DISASTERS scared me off of ever wanting to live in New York because of two words - FAULT LINES! The place could be leveled by an earthquake at any minute! I don't even want to visit there now!
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12-11-2007 @ 4:40PM
Argus said...
I agree with this guy! And Moonlight is a dangerous show because it makes people unafraid of the vampire menace!
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12-11-2007 @ 4:54PM
Karen said...
How weird--yeah, the Williamsburg loft is potentially unreasonably chic-chi for the Humphreys, but the father IS a former rock star who now owns an art gallery, so I doubt he's, you know, starving. The Humphreys are meant to feel poor in relation to the UES world of the kids' classmates (and how are they affording to send their kids to that school, anyway? Again--clearly not poor), and they are, but they are not poor in absolute terms, and anyone who thinks they are is in for exactly the NYC real estate shock they deserve.
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12-11-2007 @ 4:57PM
Eric H said...
I haven't visited New York for years, out of fear of Mutant Turtles, and the Hundreds of Super Villians roaming the streets!
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12-11-2007 @ 4:59PM
beanspants said...
i hate to break it to new yorkers, but new york is as affordable as anywhere else.
it's only for the bourgouis upper middle class who live in Manhattan that it is more expensive.
what, you think the people who clean all those high rises and work on the subway and in restaurants make $100k a year? sure they do.
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12-11-2007 @ 5:11PM
James said...
Nope. And that's why there's New Jersey.
12-12-2007 @ 1:56PM
Karen said...
@James' comment about NJ is pretty much on the nose, but if you think there are parts of the outer boroughs that aren't as expensive as Manhattan, then you haven't been to Riverdale, Forest Hills, Brooklyn Heights, or a number of other nabes. Yeah, you can get an affordable apartment if you're willing to live in the vast far non-mass-transit areas of Queens, B'klyn, or the Bronx, but it will usually mean a two-hour commute and a combination of two or three buses and subway rides--if you're working in Manhattan--and that's hardly what most people sign on for when they move to NYC.
Me, I'm lucky enough to live in subsidized housing, in a huge place at about 1/3 of market rent 5 minutes walk from my job. But that's the only way I get to live the NYC dream offered by shows like "Friends." The only really realistic Manhattan apartment depiction I've ever seen was Anne Marie's tiny studio in "That Girl"--or the closet Lily lived in briefly on "HIMYM."
And @MLO, on parochial native New Yorkers not understanding anything outside their city--what on earth does that have to do with people from outside NYC having unrealistic expectations of living here? Just gratuitous NYC bashing?
12-11-2007 @ 5:18PM
MLO said...
New Yorkers are notoriously parochial in their thinking. Honestly, I've never met a native New Yorker who understood anything outside of New York.
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12-11-2007 @ 5:25PM
Eddie said...
New York is too expensive, huh?
Good thing we copied it, improved it, and moved it to the west coast.
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12-11-2007 @ 6:34PM
canderli said...
And the funny thing is that the "Williamsburgh" loft on Gossip Girl isn't even in Williamsburgh. The establishing shots are all of Dumbo, an even more expensive Brooklyn neighborhood. The outside shot of the Humphrey loft is my old building. I lived there 10 years ago when there was absolutely nothing in the neighborhood. No restaurants, no clubs, etc. You had to walk to Brooklyn Heights to get a newspaper or groceries. The space was plenty cheap then. Just poor creative types. Now, my old loft rents for about about $8-9K a month. Mandy from Alabama could have a mortgage on a hella big house for what I pay in monthly rent on a shabby but genteel flat in a so-so neighborhood in Brooklyn. She'd be wise to stay there.
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12-11-2007 @ 9:15PM
Franklin said...
The funny thing is, I've actually known a number of young women over the years who had the desire to move to NYC. (One is there and presently struggling financially.) They were all influenced, though most would not admit it, by any combination of Sex and the City, Friends and The Real World.
With young males, I wonder if those who watch Entourage are getting drawn to Los Angeles for similar deluded reasons.
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12-11-2007 @ 9:45PM
ac said...
Hey the reason I wont visit Tokyo is because of the constant Godzilla attacks. :D
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12-12-2007 @ 4:34AM
jordancda said...
At least HIMYM is doing the "real" New York some justice: three people sharing one apartment and one couple moving to "Dowistrepla"
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12-12-2007 @ 10:51AM
kevjohn said...
I don't watch this show; not my cup of tea. But everytime I flip by and hover here for a few moments I always notice a distinct lack of disparity in these versions of NYC. They always come off as lilywhite as Utah.
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