StreetcredMusic; Why I Left New York City. Part V

  So many of the creative and talented women friends I've gained through this blog, doing shows, making videos and a film, are now gone. Like in, they left NYC. In most cases priced out, by the cost of housing.

  I asked a few of them if they would like to write about it here.
Some do, and I will be posting their words. Some will post their name, others want to do it anonymously, here's the latest in the series...

Elle:
 How many times have we talked about this Pete? OK, here goes.
 Unless you have a trust fund, being in New York in your 20s can feel more like surviving than living.

...Yes to free/cheap theatre! also great ethnic food. If you take housing out of the equation, NYC can actually be really affordable, and even more interesting than the full-priced variety.

When I arrived from Canada, nothing was irrevocable; everything was within reach. Just around every corner lay something curious and interesting, something I had never before seen or done or known about. I could go to a party and meet someone who called himself Mr. Emotional Appeal and ran The Emotional Appeal Institute or Tina Onassis Blandford or a Florida cracker who was then a regular on what they called the Big C.

In fact it was difficult in the extreme for me to understand those young women for whom New York was not simply an ephemeral Estoril but a real place, girls who bought toasters and installed new cabinets in their apartments and committed themselves to some reasonable furniture. I never bought any furniture in New York. For a year or so I lived in other people’s apartments;

Yeah, I played all the venues that don't pay artists. I was a fool. That's one of your pet peeves, and a great one to pass on, cuz it only delays the inevitable.

So, the cost of rent wore me out. A centrally located apartment, ground level one subway stop from Grand Central, if you didn't mind the smell of the trash cans in Summer...went from $1700 a month to $2300 a month in 2 years. Bye Bye. So I'm off to Montreal (Oh, did I mention Health Care) and I'll soon be able to get 100 bucks when I perform.  

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Elle, is a woman who became a friend of mine after we met at a Keren Botoro show on the upper west side. She left NYC, August 2018. 

See the other articles in this series:: HERE!

Follow me:: Pete Carma