 What is your most unpopular opinion about New York City? Yeah, we just came across a thread on the internet. Andrew, this is not a thread full of popular opinions, like not liking Times Square or, you know, bemoaning the difficulty of, you know, JFK traveling in and out. We're talking about unpopular opinions that possibly even your own friends and your own friend group might disagree with. Yeah, who knows? You might resonate more with these than you think, so please hit that like button to check out other episodes of the Hot Pop Boys. As we get into it, there was a number of responses and they're very interesting. I think it helps you learn about your city. So it is a fun way to think about things, right? Because every city has its pros and cons in New York, of course, is just like any other city. And you know, every city has like group thing, you know, like, oh, you're from this city. You should like this thing. We're from Seattle. You should like salmon. An unpopular opinion in Seattle would be to not like salmon. Yeah, first off, let me just share my unpopular opinions. I think the chopped cheese sandwich is not that good. I think it's overrated. I'm not saying it's horrible, but I just don't like it. I like the turkey egg and cheese over the bacon egg and cheese. Even with American cheese. Just my opinion, guys. I prefer Brooklyn drill wrap over Bronx drill wrap. I think it's better. I think it sounds better. I think they use like lower voices and they rap slower. I there there's definitely a style difference. And then also, I don't think any cheap food, no matter how hype it is, is worth waiting an hour in line for. Even the four dollar meat box from Wafeng meat box. An hour for it. No, no, not an hour. I think for me, some unpopular opinions that a lot of people would probably disagree with is that I literally think the only S tier form of transportation in New York City is the electric scooter. Wow. I'm not saying there's other ones that aren't good tier, maybe even great tier, but the only S tier form of transportation is the electric scooter. Shout out to you scooters. Everybody should get one. But I know, you know, some people have. Well, the city better start making some parking lots and parking garages for all these scooters. David, if everybody's going to ride them, just fold it up like a youth scooter. I think another unpopular opinion, at least for people who come from the outside, is that when you're playing pick a basketball, Andrew, you do not get continuation on and one or foul. And one is essentially a useless call. Nobody acknowledges it doesn't mean anything unless you make the shot and it's just a flex. And if you call foul and you make the bucket, you get no continuation on it. Yeah, that is a controversial thing from people from the outside. That is interesting on why you don't get the continuation because in the NBA, you would. But anyways, guys, we don't play in the NBA. So, David, let's get into the list. Oh, I got one more. I actually like the Trader Joe's and the targets that are popping up everywhere, everywhere, because I did not like shopping at weird regional food stores like key foods that had a bunch of brands I didn't recognize. They were probably just tax shelters for some sort of illegal business. Dude, you're such a transplant. And the first unpopular opinion that a lot of people had on Reddit was that the mid-tier food in New York City price-wise, like the price range that's considered the middle, not low-tier food, not high-tier food, the middle-tier food in New York City is not very good. All right. So we got to point out some restaurants that might fall under the mid-tier. We're not talking about Chipotle and we're not talking about Wafung. And those would fall into low tier. Yeah, not the cheap eats. We get it when the entrees or you can eat a meal for under probably 13 bucks, 12 bucks, right? That would be considered. You know, anything that Yelp classifies as a one dollar sign on the classification range would be one. You know, you're talking about spots whose entrees at a dinnertime range from what, 18 to 40 bucks, maybe. Right. Yeah. I mean, I think that the middle class food in New York struggles because it's the middle class doesn't make up actually a big portion, at least of Manhattan of other boroughs. I think it's different, but literally there's just not a lot of middle class people, a lot of stuff caters to people in the low range, in the high range. Other cities might be different because their distribution income wise, demographic wise is the bulk distributions in the middle. Here's the reason why I think there's some truth to it is because there's still a lot of working class people who need to eat food. And so there's a lot of cheap food that is ran by those people and also a lot of working class people go to those spots. Right. So it has to be cheap price wise. But then a lot of people in New York, when they want to go out, out and actually have a nice dinner, they want to spend the money. And a lot of people in New York obviously have the money. Right. Also, I think the presence of the bowl spots and the office, you know, like lunch foods, that kind of like eats into the premium fast casual section, eats into your middle tier food range. True. I mean, a lot of fast casual spots, you could spend easily 16, 18 bucks, but you get a lot of food. Yeah. Somebody said, I think that the teenagers that rule the streets on the ATVs, dirt bikes or even regular bikes are cool. I got to disagree with this. I'm OK with the groups of kids with the big wheelie bikes that do the do the wheelies down the street on the regular bicycles. I think those are cool because generally those are younger kids. They're not doing anything. Sometimes they get in the way of the street, but you know, they're not really and I'm not a fan of the ATVs in the motorbikes. OK, I think that I could see it both ways because as a scooter rider, I'm not competing with the ATVs because they're very seldomly in the bike lane. And they are illegal. They're illegal. I would say, though, it is cool to feel like you're in a Hype Williams music video coming to life. It literally feels like you're in California, love with Tupac and Dr. Dre, but just sometimes in the streets of uptown. Well, this is why it's an unpopular opinion, because you don't have to agree with it. Yeah. I mean, you know, sometimes it's cool to feel like you're part of the Rough Riders, even though actually you're just watching the Rough Riders on the side of you. What do you think about people blasting music in general, Andrew? In the summertime, a lot of Dominicans, maybe or whoever, they got speakers that face outwards to blast their song to the streets. Hey, it's not just the Dominicans, man. I like I like to hear people's music. I like it. I like to walk down the street. And as I walk down the block, I hear two or three different songs. Right. Sometimes somebody at somebody with an old school, 80s style boombox on the shoulder, like Radio Raheem. No, because you walk into different radio stations as you walk down the block because like the cars are parked and they're blasting the music. So you pass by this car. They're playing like Lama, Lama, Lama, Lama, Lama, Lama, Lama, Lama. Is it is it boring, though, when it's just Lama? Like if it could it be another song? Hey, man, sometimes it was it was whoop-dee. Tossed out of a booty, you know, pop smoke. Yeah, whatever. This summer, Andrew, for positivity reasons, I hope that it's all my life by Dirk and J. I heard that. I heard that blasted out the window once. This is a very, very unpopular opinion. I would say that this one is like heavily debated on both sides. Andrew, this guy said most of the city is pretty safe relative to another city, for example, like Philly. It's New York City is much safer than it was during the 1990s. However, there is a lot more transplants that do not have the street smarts necessary to navigate the city. And to be fair, there's a lot more mentally ill people on the street. So while there is less organized crime, there are also more transplants subject to crime. Yeah, I think that when it comes to there is more money in New York City. There is a lot of people coming from money where they have like nice things. There's more gadgets that you can get robbed for AirPod Max. Yeah, I've seen a lot. I heard a lot of stories of people just getting their AirPod Max headphones that are retail for what, four fifty five hundred dollars just snatched off their head. All right, so that's tough. But I do think that there is also a lot of mentally ill, homeless people roaming the streets right now. But you have to and I guess people are saying that a lot of the transplants aren't trained for this. Like they're not alert enough. Their street smart levels are not as developed right in past years, maybe 15 years ago when you were moving to New York City, you would have to mentally prepare yourself to move. Right, you would talk to a bunch of people. People would tell you a bunch of horror stories and you would get ready. Right. But now that transplants are softer because they just think it's La La Land and there's just a bunch of memes and hipsters. Let us know what you think in the comment section below. This certainly Andrew sparks like, you know, threads of like a hundred people arguing back and forth. But certainly, like you said, like when you have a macro statistic like crime, not all crime is the same, right? Right, right, right. There's different types of crime. I mean, obviously violent crimes, robberies assaults. And also who is the crime happening to, right? If it's happening to like a lady on the street versus two people who signed up for that life that are in that world together, right? Exactly. Somebody said, this is really unpopular. I miss seeing people in cool outfits, smoke cigarettes openly on the streets of New York City. You don't see it anymore after the pandemic because people are worried about COVID and things like that. Now it's all vaping and weed and it looks lame to me. This I think this is actually a funny opinion. I think like as an unpopular opinion, I kind of agree. Like cigarettes, not condoning cigarettes. I'm just saying that they make for better photo. You look cool. You talking about that James. Horrible for you leather jacket horrible for you, but they look good. Do you think it looks less cool when people are blowing elf bars? Dude, they listen, man. Yo, the amount of bars that you see on the street in 2023 is insane. You know, if you want to go see and combustion cigarettes, though, go to K town at night. You still see him. Somebody said there's a lot more unhoused people and illegal immigrants than any other time before in NYC's history. Like I said, I'm not from here, but like, what do you think of that? Yeah, well, I mean, even politically, there's like the sanctuary state. I don't know if this person's like really saying it's like a really bad thing. Obviously, it does complicate things. So I guess depending on where you fall in the spectrum, that's your opinion. But overall, yeah, I guess, you know, I haven't lived in New York City for so many years. So but I could see how it'd be true. Somebody said, why does it feel like the streets of Bangladesh or Guangxi, China? When somebody who doesn't speak English is always speeding 70 miles per hour on the sidewalk in an electric bike in a door dash bag. Yo, by the way, this is a funny comment. It's a little bit messed up, not my comment. I'm just reading it, but I did laugh when I read it. But it's a little mean. How about this as an unpopular opinion? I think all the Uber drivers or Uber Eats drivers who are constantly talking on their phone, like I want to know what they're talking about. Like their conversations are so long. They are talking to, I don't know if it's people in the motherland or their other friends, definitely a lot of what's happened. They're just on the phone all the time. What if DoorDash just gave these people like earbuds or some air pods or, you know, whatever, like a different alternative to air pods was because I will say this, there's nothing more dangerous than somebody with one hand on the e-bike and the phone up to their ear. That is a little bit dangerous. No, no, I see what you're saying. Somebody said certain blue collar foods like sub sandwiches are actually much better in surrounding cities like Boston and Philly than New York City. I guess this is unpopular. But but but because New York generally has such good food, but I could see there being certain foods that that are not the best in New York. And you know what this person said? New York tries to make everything so artisanal and hyper authentic that sometimes I just like the American subs like Jersey Mike style. And I find that those are better in Boston and Philly. I can't. I don't, you know, David, when we go to Boston or Philly, I'm not just eating just sandwiches all day. So it's hard for me to say, but yes, it does make sense. I could see there being some truth to this, Andrew, because sometimes I see the sub sandwiches in New Jersey and I'm like, OK, you know, the great authentic or like half authentic things are good too. But sometimes the I guess the hyper westernized American version is tasty as well. Like I said, Jersey Mike's somebody said, yeah, you can get good Tex-Mex food in New York City now in yellow roads. But why does it have to cost 400 percent of what it cost in San Antonio? Yeah, you mean they're talking about like just Americanized ethnic food in New York, basically Americanized ethnic foods are actually at a premium in New York because people are not used to having Americanized anything. They're used to a New York style or a hyper authentic version. Yeah, that's true. I would almost say the authentic food, the authentic traditional ethnic food in New York is even cheaper priced than the Americanized one. But that might also be because of who's cooking it and who owns the business. Yeah, you know what? The weird thing is, Andrew, I would agree with people. If your taste buds love Americana things like a turkey cheddar sandwich from the great American bagel company, those recipes are actually hard to find in New York. You got to go to Jersey or Philly or Boston to find those. Somebody said the grid system that organizes Manhattan is decent, but ultimately still worse than many cities in Barcelona or like Europe, like Barcelona or even potentially Asia. So somebody said, even though America New York is well organized for an American city, it pales in comparison to Europe. Probably, I mean, I think New York is like the size of like so many cities out there because it's just a gigantic city. So yeah, I don't know. I don't know how much it costs to change the New York infrastructure, but at least you have a subway. Do you think it is weird, though, that the streets run east and west and north and south and they're constantly stopping every single direction? Whereas like other cities, you know, how they more organized things like in pairs around like a roundabout and just the whole structural flow of the traffic is way different. I don't know. I'm not a civil engineer. Someone said this is unpopular because it's supporting the NYPD. But I don't mind that cops park on the sidewalk in front of their precincts. It's true in in the precincts in Manhattan or in a lot of cities, Andrew, a lot of boroughs of New York City, the police are parked like on the sidewalk. Yeah, I mean, I think I could see that. Yeah, because I mean, and it's funny to have an opinion and that be considered unpopular to be like, yeah, I want to see more police around because obviously there's like a lot of like a negative connotation tied in with the police. But yeah, I'm OK with them parking around. Why not? Somebody said too many people got dogs during the pandemic and now they just leave their poop everywhere. Dogs are ruining New York City. This is true. Now, I do have to blame people who live in high rise buildings, right? Where there's a lot of people who can own and afford dogs. And they now there's just way more dogs in New York City. If you would you say that there's exponentially a larger volume because I remember I remember being in New York six years ago. There was not this much dog poop on the sidewalk. No, there's so much little dogs, medium sized dogs, creamy poop, stale poop, hard poop is all over there, bro. Somebody said NYC is not as diverse as it claims to be. If you walk through any trendy neighborhood, you will see a lot of different races, but they will just be hanging out with each other exclusively in small groups. This actually made me laugh. I think that that just means that New York is there. There is a part of New York that is literally melting together. And then there's another part of New York that's more like a salad where there are separate parts, but close to each other like a stained glass. Right? Yeah, like like two groups of different types of people will be next to each other. Maybe they're not actually mixing, but they're at the same bar. Yeah, I would actually compare it a lot to the United Nations. You know how everybody's in that big hall together as a bunch of ambassadors? Not everybody's best friends, but everybody's there in the hall together and they can, you know, talk with each other occasionally, but it's not always friendly. But yeah, it varies group to group. It's definitely not the same diversity that you see in the Bay Area where like everybody's like on some like chill, like weed smoking, like Oakland, chill vibe, dude. Somebody said Staten Island is going to be the next big boom town. I heard real estate wise because they still have the space to build houses out there. So we got some friends who are trying to do some real estate out in Staten Island. That makes sense. I think this is a weird hot take. Andrew, that Teslas make people OK with longer car commutes because you could put an iPad in the Tesla. You got the open, you know, that what is that called, the skyline ceiling? Autopilot makes it also easier to ride, drive and do other things. Yeah, true. And I think a lot of people just like enjoy their drive more if they get a certain type of car, you know, EVs. You don't care about long commutes anymore because you're not paying for gas anyway. True. Somebody said NYC is great for introverted and anxious people because you could just put headphones on and be around the city all day. And literally, nobody is going to talk to you. I agree. I agree. As much as the city is great for extroverts, people who want to meet a lot of people, you can just tune other people out. They'll mind their business for the most part. And then you just see a bunch of things all day. Oh, I got an interesting hot take on this hot take, Andrew. A lot of people in America think that, you know, the country life is for the quiet people and the city life is for people who want to talk a lot. But in Asia, a lot of people just have to live in the city regardless of whether they have the personality for it because there's nowhere else to live. So, you know what I'm saying? Like in America, you got a lot of options. You want to live in a hybrid suburb that kind of feels urban, a country suburb or you can live in the city. But in other countries, you just have to live in the city because you have nowhere else to go. So it's not going to be personality based. True. Somebody said pizza and bagels in New York City can be terrible. On my hot take is that the pizza in New York is better than the bagels in New York. Oh, I don't really like now. I'm not the biggest bagel person, period. But I think it's easier to find a good slice of pizza, an actual good slice of pizza. Now, it might be five bucks and five fifty. But I'm just saying it's easier to find a good slice of pizza than it is to find a great. So do you disagree with this accusation that NY pizza's quality level has dropped? Listen, man, I don't even know what it takes to be a pizza snot. But I did eat a lot of pizza since being in New York. I think the pizza in New York is very solid. Right. Generally, there is a higher floor. But I would agree that there's a really big variance. You can like get bad things here, too, just because there's so much of it. I actually have a hot take, Andrew. I think that deli style foods are somewhat overrated because everybody in New York is missing the 1940s and the 50s and the 60s and the 70s. You know, all these great Jewish delis and the great diners and Greek delis and Greek diners. But obviously, that stuff is starting to go away. But the spots that remain, I don't know, they might get overrated. Oh, oh, you know what? Here's an I don't know if it's an unpopular opinion, but I don't like the new delis. Like I don't like brand new delis, bro. They're just and I'm not saying delis have to be dirty or like bodegas have to be dusty. I'm just saying I like to see it be a little age, like a little like some character. Yeah, at least like 10 to 15 years old, at least. You're saying if the owners own the Zaza shop next door and they create this great, legit deli there, you're just not getting. I just don't like the brand new clean deli. Just I just don't trust it. I think all that stuff, Andrew, all the old diners from the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 40s or whatever are being replaced by one right now, Andrew, taco spots. They're being replaced by Thai spots. There are so many Thai spots in the city now. Thai food. And they're being replaced by street food spinoffs from chefs that have left elite chef institutions like Eleven Madison Park or other gastronomic institutions. That is what I see overtaking it over time. Somebody said that any taco spot or Cajun seafood spot run by Fujinese are the absolute worst spots in the city, not my words. Another unpopular opinion, chains from overseas or modern chains can be so much better than the old NYC based chains. This one, I agree with you. Let's be specific here. What are we talking about? All right. So, for example, Andrew, in Chinatown, everybody used to literally make this argument like seven, eight years ago. Prosperity dumplings versus Vanessa's dumplings. Right. OK. And then Shu Zhao sort of cleaned up their act. You know, they came in. But if you really think about it, Sammy Wago from Taiwan is better than all of them. Do you see what I'm saying? The Taiwan based chain making Guotier is like, yeah, those were the cool debates for back then. Nowadays, I don't know if any of those ones hold a candle to Sammy Wago. Oh, OK. Think about it. Think about it. Andrew, back in the day, people used to argue about Parisi Italian sandwiches versus Pesillos. But nowadays, there's stuff like all Antico Vanillo that is better than all of them. Right. Right. Right. Well, there's a chain from Italy. Well, there is more international chains from those countries that are delivering the true traditional product from over there. And they have the money and they're importing ingredients into New York because they can afford now a flagship in New York. Oh, I got another one, Andrew. What? Hello, guys and Mamoon's falafel versus each other back in the day. Nowadays, you could go to Zuba from Egypt or Ankara, which is a chain from Ankara, Turkey. Wow. So think about it. That's the that's the old school one that was cool for the 80s and 90s. This is the new school one. I'm just saying and I actually think some of the modern chains, for example, do a good job. Andrew, upside pizza is open within the last two years. It's some of the best slices in the city. I like upside a lot. Yeah, it's great. Also, I think places like the Donut Pub, Andrew, that's from the 1960s. If they didn't reinvent and get this whole Apple store vibe in 2023, I don't know if it's still going to be successful. Yeah, it is true that local New York stuff, the competition has gotten more and more competitive for sure. Yeah, but there are new spots, for example, Andrew, you know, I don't like to shade things, but the new Italian subspot cutlets, not good. Somebody said the only the gray city bike is worth riding. Yes or no? No, you disagree with this. No, I think I think city bikes are great. Now, the analog ones, they're good for a short ride. If you're going up an incline, I'm sorry, your quads are going to burn. But even the old electric city bikes are still good too. So I love riding the gray ones, but I think city bike is good. I like city bike. I'm glad. I think city bike is good. Somebody said every neighborhood nowadays in 2023 is filled with a trust fund version of young people cosplaying what the neighborhood traditionally represented. So if you go to Greenwich Village, it's rich kids who like the idea of being in a bohemian neighborhood that birth Bob Dylan or the LES is now full of the rich kid version of all the hip hop skaters. It is no longer the original group that that zone got known for. Yes, gentrification, but it's masked with hipsterness and subculture. Yeah, it's masked by people sort of replicating the subculture that pre existed there on that street. Somebody says NYC can be unacceptably dirty. I can be cool with dirty things, but literally New York City steps into the unacceptable zone way too often. Yeah, I do think I don't want to blame it on mentally ill people. But I definitely think that there's like a lot of trash. No, actually, actually, I just think there's a lot of people opening up trash bags right now. Now, whether it's the rats or people who are looking for cans to recycle right for money or mentally ill people or homeless on house people, there's just a lot of trash out on the street. You know what I would like to see? You know what I would like to see, Andrew? I would like to see the New York City government subcontract a water pressure washing company. Maybe you could use some organic soap or some sort of solution that's like 100 percent organic on the sidewalks. And then you just pressure wash everything every once in a while because I'm telling you the pressure wash. You might as well use modern technology. Somebody said native New Yorkers are getting pushed out of the city. Is this unpopular opinion, popular opinion? I mean, it's probably true to some extent. Yeah, I feel like most people agree that this is probably true to some extent because a lot of native New Yorkers, like for a lot of people to afford to live in the city, like you have sometimes you need that like the subsidized rent, right? Some sort of rent control right to help. And if that is dwindling, if there's less of that, then that means that there will be like less native New Yorkers, I guess. Yeah, I think the only thing that I would say to this is this is happening in like every major city in the world. You go to Dubai, Andrew, how many people are from Dubai? You go to Shanghai. How many people speak Shanghainese? You go to Guangzhou, Andrew, me and you went to Guangzhou one time. Like only like 40 percent of people even spoke Cantonese in the home of the Cantonese, right? Yeah, that's true. It goes to show you that's happening in a lot of major metropolitan zones. Somebody said native New Yorkers themselves sometimes only stay in one isolated section of the city. I would say that this is kind of true. It depends on who you are, Andrew. But I remember I ride my scooter around, like I said, to the first point. And I play basketball in a lot of different parks. One time I was talking to this Puerto Rican kid that was playing in like the East LES. And I asked him if he ever hooped in Chinatown. He by the he thought I was basically asking him if he had ever hooped in China. Like he was treating it like he was like, yo, man, I just go to Tompkins. I go to East LES. I don't go hooping in Chinatown. Sounds crazy. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, people got their flow, right? And you'd be surprised that unless you really go out of your way to explore the city or you have some type of job that makes you go to different parts of the city. A lot of people, they they can keep it pretty small. Right. You can kind of keep it parochial within even the Manhattan Game Map, let alone sort of the boroughs. Last but not least, Andrew, somebody says NYC just has the best and worst of everything. And it sort of just depends on what slices you interact with. And then you're positioning within those slices. Yes, I think that all the criticisms of New York are legitimate. I also think all the positives about New York are true, too. Right. So it's just it's just everything. It's everything everywhere, all at once. And you just have to take it for what it is. And then you just have to find out where you fit into it. Are the things that you like or the world that you operate in, is that more in the positive side of New York with the highlights in New York? Or are you only experiencing the negatives? The only experience of negatives, I think you move out. That's it. Right. If you are getting like outsized exposure to the bad slices and limited exposure to the good slices. Yeah, I just think if you fit into the culture of the city, it's worth it. But if you don't, definitely, I understand if you leave. I would say definitely New York is like a box of chocolates, but with like wildly, wildly varying chocolates. Like some of the chocolates don't even look like the other pieces of chocolate. Like you said, let us know in the comment section below. What are some of your unpopular opinions about New York City? Whether you just visited or you live here or you go there and you just visit two times a year and yeah, keep it civil. Until next time, we're the hot pop boys. We out. Peace.