Common wisdom says that large cities are impersonal and cold. I haven’t found that to be true. Living in NYC they have been the nicest people I have met.
I have lived in Idaho, Oregon, Connecticut, and now NYC. In all of those places NYC has been the friendliest and kindest. Let me give you some examples. I am not great with directions even with a GPS. Often when I am driving it is apparent I am lost and in unfamiliar areas. NYC drivers have let me in and helped me when I have made mistakes in traffic.
When I have been on foot people have similarly been kind. People have helped me find many places and been friendly with small talk and engaging on public transportation. It is a pleasure to use public transportation when people are friendly. In the other places I’ve lived this hasn’t been the case. I like talking to strangers, and in NYC you have lots of opportunities for that.
More importantly, where I currently live in the apartment people are friendly and in the 8 years I have lived here some of them have become friends. That never happened anywhere else. I wonder if it was because of Covid or because people are nicer here? Or maybe I was just lucky?
I have friends who have lived in other large cities and they don’t care about these social niceties. It is understandable why people can feel overwhelmed with just doing their job and surviving that they don’t care about the other aspects of their lives. However, it isn’t helpful and ultimately it makes them unhappy. I wonder why people choose to be unhappy. It is a mystery to me.
Next to living in NYC, I liked living in Connecticut the best. I lived in a smaller town and people were friendly there but not as friendly as NYC. If you are friendly and kind, people generally respond to that. As Edith Ann said “and that’s the truth.”