 Is New York City really falling apart or is it just the media and could it be getting better and worse at the same time? Yeah, we got to talk about it because the New York Times just dropped an article. Is New York better off than it was seven years ago? New Yorkers say no. They surveyed 6,600 New Yorkers and a lot of people are saying that whatever's happening in New York is a good allegory for what is happening in every major metropolitan city across America. So we're going to break it down for you guys today. The nuances, the truth, the lies of it all. Make sure you like, subscribe, turn on your notifications, check out SmileLotsauce, SmileLotsauce.com. Yeah, this is going viral right now, Andrew. We're talking about multiple YouTube videos. We're talking about viral news, bad news, good news, mostly bad news. We're talking about a thousand podcasts talking about is New York falling apart? Yes or no? What's the easy answer? Yeah, I think that it definitely has its downsides. But I also think that if enough people say it's in really bad shape, then hopefully there's some change. Yeah, I will say this. I think that the short long story short and we're going to get into the nuances guys. The upsides are as good as they've ever been. The downsides are certainly worse than they were seven years ago. But here's the thing, people are living more in their isolated fish bowls than ever. What world of New York do you live in? Do you live? Are you a regular person that rides a subway and uses a street and rides in the bike lane and uses the subway to go far distances? Yeah, do you spend time in Brooklyn? Do you only spend time in this part of Manhattan or your neighborhood? Or do you only go to Equinox in these high end restaurants? Or do you go to your local deli in Bodega? You know what it is? New York, Andrew, New York City is a very, very big game map. And it's always been very diverse, right? But let's talk about these YouTubers right now. Andrew Cash Jordan is coming out with a video every day titled NYC is finished, my honest thoughts. The NYC subway just got worse. And these are getting up to like a million views. Now is some of this and I think his videos are really well done. Is there some fear mongering because it does get clicks and it is kind of true. So you can pretty much sell it. Obviously, there's a lot of other YouTube videos and YouTube channels that are like, oh, yo, like I'm interviewing this migrant person or I'm interviewing this person and everything seems to be negative, negative, negative. Is YouTube news channels becoming just too negative? Well, I'll tell you this, dopamine is derived in the brain, Andrew, when good news is even much better than you thought or bad news is much worse than you thought. It creates excitement in the brain. The excitement is linked to dopamine. So actually it's not, it doesn't have to do whether the content of the news is good or bad. It has to do with the extremity of the news and the clickbait ability of the headline. But regardless, I would say most people who have lived in New York for several years that I've spoken to or that I've heard from a lot of them say, oh, it's a little bit worse than seven years ago for sure. It's for sure worse than seven years ago, but is it best worse than 17 or 27 years ago? Probably not. Andrew Schultz recently went on the value attainment podcast and he said, maybe it's just because I'm living in my bubble, but for me, it's unchanged. He kind of went out and said, I don't really think it's that different as the media makes it out to be. Right, right. Interesting. So of course, we are going to get into the whole nuances of it all because Andrew, you know what's lost in either New York's fine or New York's horrible? Is guess what? The answer is variable on a couple of factors. Of course, there's more high rise luxury buildings than there's ever been. There's everybody talking about the gentrification, you know, sort of the old days where everybody's getting a coffee and a pizza and a bagel. They're kind of going away, right? So I guess in the sense of that, you know, all the meme pages about all the transplant kids, influencer kids, that element is real. Yeah. So in a way, not that that is a sign of wealth, but obviously more luxury buildings does mean that it's getting better. Not that that's better for some people, but I guess it's getting nicer. Right, right, right. But then people are saying on the subway, I'm seeing crazier and crazier things and it seems like little infractions. Nobody cares anymore. You can just sell anything you want on the subway. People are like, obviously somebody just shot somebody on the subway I think it happened like two times. I guess, I guess, why did New York Times pick seven years, David? Is it because seven years was like when Trump got elected or whatever it was? Bloomberg was in office. Bloomberg, yeah. Bloomberg was considered a pretty productive mayor of New York City from what I've heard. Obviously I wasn't really in New York that where we weren't living too long in New York at that time. So but apparently that, yeah, those times were pretty good, right? Because obviously that would be 2015. And I will agree. I will agree. It's definitely worse than it was seven years ago. We were here seven years ago, but there is a lot like better stuff too. There's better companies and like products and it's like easier to shop because there's Trader Joe's everywhere. But yes, for sure. I believe more than seven years ago, Andrew, you can see somebody openly using hard drugs more obviously, like out in public. Anyway, guys, some people were saying that this is what every major metropolitan center is going through right now. It seems like everything over the past seven years and this is not my language, Andrew. I'm just pulling this from some articles, Andrew. The third worldification of large American cities. I mean, I can't deny. I definitely see some of that here. Like the amount of tents was is more than seven years ago. The obviously the amount of people on e-bikes and bikes coming down the wrong way at you when I'm on the bike lane going the correct way. And then there's people flying at me. There's definitely more of that than there was seven years ago. Yeah, right, right. Apparently the GPS apps, Andrew, on Door Dash or Uber Eats, they do not track if the food delivery guys are going the right way. Oh, they just tell them to go the quickest way? Well, I don't know. I mean, you can't get on ways is not going to tell you to go the wrong way. Yeah, but you might be using walking directions instead of because obviously that one there's no directionality there. Anyway, we have a list that breaks down. Everybody's general reactions, Andrew. Point number one, I this, these are people sort of defending New York, but also admitting that it's getting worse. This person said in generality all across America, manners and poor behavior around America are just rampant right now. New York is no exception to this. But I also think here's the thing, New York is a big city, very dense. So anything that happens here, any trend that is here is feels like bigger. You know, it's kind of like any time that there's a trend in any sort of big country that trend hits that country harder. Well, it's the city harder. Yeah. So it's just like if New York is suffering from everything else that all these other big cities are suffering from, then it's going to look even worse. Does it feel like New York is headed towards whatever is happening to San Francisco, where all the businesses are pulling out of the major retail zones? And it's just like, I don't know. So the way the paint, the pictures, but Andrew, you recently went to SF, is it overblown? I'm not going to let this city become like SF, man. SF is a different beast. Trust me. Trust me, David, New York City still holding strong. No, but I'm saying you just went to SF. Was it exaggerated? What is put out in the media about SF? Yes or no? I guess SF didn't look great. It wasn't terrible when I was there, but I also I didn't go to the worst parts of town. So point number two, Andrew, wealthy and low income people are going to have a completely different experience. And that it always was that way. But it feels like those experiences are becoming more and more disparate. Yeah, I agree. Right. The nicer restaurants are getting nicer and maybe there's some less options on the super cheap low end or or that people who live in certain neighborhoods, they're going to have to deal with the I mean, we got a friend who lives in Brooklyn, right? And he's always talking about how there's a shelter and a migrant center. And I'm not blaming it all on the migrants, but I'm just saying he's like bothered by it because it's like right across the street from him. You know, so it's like he's Dominican, by the way. Yeah, he's Dominican, by the way. Yes. He himself is a New Yorker, Dominican New Yorker, but he says he's like, damn, man, I hate living across the street from this blah, blah, blah. Right. Right. But obviously not everybody's going to have his experience to experience that downside. Other people are going to be Ubering everywhere and almost like barely feel it. Right. So like we said, I just think the upside is getting higher. The downside is getting lower. For example, Andrew, if you are a rich international, you get to enjoy percent Arabica coffee from Kyoto. That's a chain that's recently entered the New York market. Point number three, Andrew, the crime has always been more or less depending on the mayor, but I think that the real issue is that we're getting taxed and getting tickets for everything nowadays because the city needs to generate income. So a lot of people with cars, they feel pressed on because of the new like congestion taxes and they're like extra strict about like ticketing nowadays. Yeah. It's going to be interesting to see where the lack of cars in New York City takes New York in the next 10 years. I guess I'm interested. Right. Somebody's saying, but I'm seeing things that I never saw even in the 80s and 90s. For example, this is just people pointing out things that there's kids on the train selling candy, but the kids don't go to school. Well, how do they know that these kids don't go to school or how do they know they're selling candy? I guess on the subway train during school hours. Yeah. I believe it. I believe it. Yeah. I don't know. But I mean, kids always sold candy. I, you know, when we were in New York, I want to say nine years ago, one of our earlier trips in New York, there was people selling candy on the street. Yeah. I don't know if they went to school or not. Maybe it was a weekend. I can't fully remember. But yeah, maybe, maybe that's a difference. I'm not sure. I'm sure there are some differences. Yes. Things, everything changes all the time. Somebody said, but locally people will still keep voting Democrats that are soft on crime continuously. And then somebody said, yeah, that's true. But that's because the right side engaged in culture wars based on identities and people in New York are very cultural. So now everybody's torn because the left, they might be softer on crime or at least that's the for sure. I would say that that's there's some truth to that. But on the right, people just can't bring themselves to vote for something they feel like has been racist against them. Yeah. I do. I do think it's really complicated. And I just think that I don't know. Hopefully there's a move towards moderation. Somebody said, no, it's not just the politicians. It's the cops on their phone doing personal business, FaceTiming, playing Candy Crush, et cetera. I gotta say something that you did not see seven years ago, the amount of police officers using their phones seemingly not seemingly not about police business, right? Well, what police business would they have on their phone? Are they detectives? Are they texting their this investigator about this? Like maybe they're sending updates. Dude, I always thought that you should not be allowed to use your personal phone while you're being a cop. You know what I mean? Like you should have a cop phone that can maybe have like maybe five different people closest to you, you know, in case your kids are in school or something like that, an emergency contact can make sense. But you should not be able to play Candy Crush while you're being a cop. You mean the emergency cop phone? You mean the walkie talkie? You mean their intercom system? That should be, I don't know. Yeah, I definitely think the police are not the average police officer is not that locked in. Right. Somebody said it's not just neglecting the roads with like potholes. It's actually the entire infrastructure from the water supply, the electricity, the sewers, the storm drains, all of which are falling apart or need to be ripped up and replaced with the more modern version. Because obviously, New York had infrastructure before a lot of major American cities. But some of that infrastructure, Andrew, if you just keep maintaining it from the old days, now actually functionally, you just have infrastructure from 100 years ago. Right. Now it's outdated. It's almost like it was really advanced 40, 50 years ago. It was still in good shape, but now it needed to get redone. So maybe New York is just suffering from being an old city. Yeah. You know what I noticed is that they spend a lot of money maintaining hyper old infrastructure because it just doesn't make sense to shut it down or the billions or trillions of dollars it would cost to completely replace it because you got to shut it down to replace it. Right. You can't like replace it while it's still like being used. Somebody said no, it's all those things are issues, but it's really about the transplants who just take and take and don't contribute or add anything to the city or the community. I find it hard to believe that you're going to blame it on the transplants who move here pay rent and spend money in the city. Yeah. I definitely think a lot of transplants don't contribute to the city. Maybe they just Uber around and go to other fancy shops. I think those people are pretty much worthless to the city, but I would say, I mean, blaming it on transplants seems like a cop out. Right. Somebody said, I blame all the Zaza shops. So this is basically people saying you obviously prior to marijuana becoming decriminalized Andrew, you actually could get a ticket for it if you were smoking it in the city and nowadays there's no tickets. Right. So yeah, you could smoke it openly. So yeah, I would say that that definitely is something that it is striking though from a smell perspective. Somebody said it's not perfect, but I still enjoy it here. It's still New York City. What are you going to do? Yeah. I still think that there's a hyper unique blend of like different cultures and high low art museums that are combined with the density and the no need to have a car that really you can't find anywhere else in the world or at least in America, maybe London would be the other place I would imagine that it has. And then somebody just said, no, at the end of the day, it's just stop the e-bikes going the wrong way. Everybody is just running through everybody's pedestrian sign nonstop all the time. Yeah, there is kind of a lack of, you know, even when I ride my scooter, I notice I really try to stop myself from cutting through people because I know it's rude and stopping in the crosswalk because I know what it's like to be a walker too. So it's like all of a sudden you can't just jump on a bike and then break all the laws and then be very, I guess, lack courtesy to people. Right, right, right. Absolutely. I would say that the courtesy aspect is something I certainly kind of for sure get down with like where people are like, man, what happened to common courtesy? What happened to manners? What happened to being polite? Yeah, ultimately, I'll say this, man, I just think that right now, like the upside is getting better, the downside is getting worse, but I can understand what people are saying, but I do think that it's overblown in the media, Andrew, because it makes money and the media needs SEO. The media needs clicks. So it's kind of like in this weird place where somebody's saying it's fine, they're right for their world that they live in. Somebody says it's falling apart. They're right because like there are incidents that are just like unbelievable, right? But also everything gets more reported on because people need more clicks. Yeah, I think that New York is getting a little bit worse, but maybe not proportionally any worse than any other big city that's old in America. But you're saying that the big cities around America seem to be getting worse. Yeah, because like everything's getting worse. So I think the general trend is that, listen, like people are getting lazy, people are doing more drugs, people are using social media to commit crimes, people are maybe the police are on social media too much to not locked in enough to stop the crimes. People are more lonely now. People are more depressed. These are all kind of like global trends, right? And it's all coming to hit New York City, but not necessarily that it's that New York City by itself is super crappy. It's just that there are a bunch of cities that are going to crap. So I think that as long as you have pride and you live here and you care and you're going to elect the right people and you stand on what you care for and you think about the more important issues, then I think it will turn a little bit. But we're in a fourth turning and you know, everything's worse. I don't know. That's my opinion. I don't think like New York is like the worst city worse than other cities. I'm looking for AI, man. I'm thinking AI is going to start to track people that are going the wrong way in the bike lane like super fast without their lights out. David, you want this to become a let me guess your Chinese or you're okay with with the Chinese. So you want this to become a surveillance state? You don't want to give people the freedom to break rules. Anyway, the funny thing is a lot of people who are saying like they believe in freedom for themselves, but maybe not for other people. It's a very situational. I think a lot of people they don't. It's sort of like free speech. A lot of people are like for it. But then when the other group says something they don't like, then all of a sudden they're against free speech. You guys let me know in the comments down below what is getting worse about New York and maybe what's getting better about New York. What is their hope for? And yeah, give me your thoughts. Thank you so much for watching this. Hit that like button. And until next time, we out. Peace.