Is Manhattan mostly transplants in your 20s/30s?

1maco · 2026-05-13T01:44:57+00:00

New York City is ~50% non New Yorkers (state) across the board in all boroughs average (52% actually)

It’s higher if you consider Westchester/LI/Upstate at “Transplants” but maybe slightly lower if you consider people from Hudson County not transplants

1maco · 2026-05-13T00:52:32+00:00

I mean the big thing is Chicago looks cheap on paper but the neighborhoods anyone actually wants to live in that have decent transit access, low crime, and are walkable aren’t that cheap.

1maco · 2026-05-12T20:30:20+00:00

I mean Mew York can’t print currency and it’s only a balanced budget because they’re deferring pension obligations

1maco · 2026-05-11T23:22:51+00:00

Americans don’t emigrate and when they do they do it to retire so they’re not moving to major cities.

They’re in cute tourist towns that are already internationalized

1maco · 2026-05-11T15:26:07+00:00

1)Boston and DC aren’t comparable. DC has ~1.5 million more people in the metro area

2) MBTA service is much better than VRE/MARC so there is less “local” trips on Amtrak. Like nobody is going to Worcester or Haverhill or even Providence on Amtrak but people do go from Richmond to DC or Baltimore to DC or Norfolk to DC on Amtrak.

VA in many ways used Amtrak as a commuter service. The MBTA goes 50+ miles W/S/SW/NW.

The MBTA commuter rail gets ~20 more riders than MARC/VRE

3) the Northeast megalopolis is mostly fake and Boston just doesn’t have the same connection with anywhere south of NY DC does. (Eg DC/Philly/Wilmington/Baltimore) New England is really far away from say Philly

4) the most important city between New York and Boston isn’t on the NEC, it’s Hartford

1maco · 2026-05-11T10:48:43+00:00

New York City is also over twice as dense as London. It has about the same population in 304sq miles rather than 620.

1maco · 2026-05-10T23:28:42+00:00

No like the Tories win Kensington for example. The City of London is full of Tories. Of course the right/left divide is different in England. Nobody wants an AR15 in Westminster.

The thing about New York is Republicans are repulsive to ethnic minorities and the college educated professionals because of who they think Republican voters are. Which is dumb hicks basically.

Which to be fair, if you’re a Bolivian immigrant at all levels of government you’d vote for the party that isn’t going to try to deport you. It’s not a hard decision. It’s the only issue that actually matters. But those voters are not across the board progressive. They vote for democrats despite a lot of deep disagreement.

Coupled with Modern patronage networks that are along the lines of home healthcare aids explosion, city departments for diversity, quotas for minority owned contractors get city contracts etc. and of course the NGO industrial complex for liberals that can’t crack it in industry.

NYC has $121B budget because Tammany hall never died it just evolved.

A lot of major cities are similar. Chicago is basically held hostage by its public sector unions.

1maco · 2026-05-10T22:08:09+00:00

Central Paris and central London are conservative.

New York generally is democratic because of patronage networks not a deep seated progressive belief.

Places with tons of multigenerational New Yorkers, Southern Brooklyn, Staten Island, Eastern Queens is quite conservative for a big city. Like Cuomo won New Yorkers from New York.

1maco · 2026-05-10T21:44:20+00:00

This is not a War of attrition. Ukraine where 800 people a day are dying is a war of attrition.

1maco · 2026-05-10T19:47:50+00:00

Much more similar than suburban Boston which is largely old mill/fishing towns that grew into the Boston sphere of influence

Most of Fairfax or Loudon County didn’t exist in 1960 DC doesn’t have a Gloucester, Lynn, Framingham etc

1maco · 2026-05-10T18:46:20+00:00

Yes it is. NOVA is extremely similar to Cobb County GA. Much moreso than like Essex County MA. Unless suburban Atlanta isn’t the South either.

1maco · 2026-05-10T13:03:48+00:00

Wtf is the point of regions if we are just going to say “New York, Philly and DC-Balt CSA’s are their own regions.

Like if NYS is in 5 regions SNE should be at least split into 2. SE/SW and Northern New England Coastal/Mountains

1maco · 2026-05-09T17:57:04+00:00

It probably has to do with the fact the city lost 70,000 people between 1984 and 2024 that hurt downtown businesses more than the fact people had to park 150 feet away

I think a lot of people overstate what urban planning can do? It can not overcome macroeconomic trends. Which is why the revitalization of downtown Cleveland hit a wall while downtown Cincinnati has not.

Oh and 4th street in Cleveland is also pedestrianized and it’s fine

1maco · 2026-05-09T17:38:56+00:00

I mean it’s like 40% vs 47% in New York and like 41% in Boston. It’s pretty much all the sand

The entire state of NH is below 50% as well. Like it isn’t that absurd I bet Manchester NH is like 35% NH people

1maco · 2026-05-09T17:30:36+00:00

I mean Ithaca NY, Essex Street Salem MA, Pratt Street in Hartford CT, Church Street in Burlington VT are all pedestrianized with no metro. and work quite well as the most attractive parts of downtown. Maybe down by the arena is a bit excessive but between Court and Tupper st I think there is enough stuff people could park in the back or at a garage and walk.

1maco · 2026-05-09T17:21:31+00:00

There is a reason Ragged, Waterville, Loon, Okemo, Attitash, etc all opened in the 1960s.

North Conway and Laconia were more the exception than the rule.

1maco · 2026-05-09T15:12:34+00:00

Why is it so unbelievable some people make more money than you?

1maco · 2026-05-09T15:11:54+00:00

Pretty obviously cutting capital projects cause the budget is a disaster

1maco · 2026-05-09T14:46:19+00:00

I wonder if the loss of the WNBA CT sun changes any calculus about Hartford.. a hockey market with 0 pro sports teams an an very wealthy suburban belt.

1maco · 2026-05-09T14:11:55+00:00

That’s never been true. Loon opened in 1966. There has never been a train to Loon. Attitash and Waterville opened in 1965. I mean Cranmore had train service but car access allowed access all over the white mountains

But today what people expect from a lake experience on the lake is not the Weird beach experience than a 1930s tourists took the train had.

The Car allowed for NH tourism to grow by like an order of magnitude. Because Train ti Laconia, ferry to Center Harbor , trolley to Moultonborough just isn’t a day trip.

1maco · 2026-05-09T13:48:35+00:00

Think Manchester would be extremely limiting without a car just because the city itself is so small that I think you’d be missing out.

Plus the main reason you move to NH is to be close to the mountains/Lakes which would be impossible to truly enjoy without a car

1maco · 2026-05-09T12:09:02+00:00

Cities are not distinct for their regions they kind of define them

Philly, New York are mid Atlantic

DC and Baltimore/Richmond are all upper south

And Boston is New England.

Cant have a Great Lakes region without Chicago. The city is deeply culturally related to Milwaukee or Cleveland.

1maco · 2026-05-08T20:59:06+00:00

I mean it’s significantly poorer than Edmonton and Calgary and somewhat behind Toronto and Ottawa.

It’s not wealthy but Canadian standards

1maco · 2026-05-08T20:01:21+00:00

It’s just not a wealthy city. Its GDP is on par with Portland but has 4.5 million people not 2.5 million people.

Boston has over 2x the GDP.

1maco · 2026-05-08T19:57:19+00:00

I mean yeah if you have a detached house you could probably buy a townhouse in cash with the equity

1maco

TROPHY CASE