Ever since moving from the inner-city to the outskirts of the city, I've begun noticing just how crucial our environments are to our well-beings.
Look at Slavic cities, where it's endless stretches of dull apartment buildings that all look the same for miles. I remember watching some video that said that New York is the state with the lowest suicide rate, followed by Massachusetts and New Jersey. I think the correlation between all three of these states is the urban environments, where you're always closer to people.
Even if my old neighborhood was run-down and sketchy at times, I was always closer to people. The shouting of the football games held on the street was enough to make me feel "there." My new neighborhood is just too quiet. I thought that I would like that, but I guess what I actually like is a "quiet urban" similar to Tokyo or Seoul. "The grass is always greener on the other side." I guess that's why it's so important to keep expectations low for everything in life — you'll always end up happier if you don't expect to be happy at all.
I feel that New York City doesn't spend enough money on the streets. Even if it's just planting a few more trees on the sidewalks, anything would help our tired workforce to feel more alive. Wall Street and a lot of the Financial District still looks like an 18th century settlement where you'd see horses and carriages clopping around the cobblestone streets. There's nothing wrong with old — the architecture is beautiful, but at some point we have got to at least "modernize the old," like Stockholm. Every video I see of Stockholm feels so comfy and welcoming, like Christmas.
Elect me mayor guys
