I just visited New York City for the first time for my aunt’s 50th birthday. I was really excited to go and see the iconic skyscrapers and huge LED billboards. I also heard that hot dogs, pizza, and bagels taste better in NY.
When I landed in NY, the first thing I noticed was the smell. It was a mix of trash, smoke, and drugs. I couldn’t walk around without having to cover my nose. Even in nicer areas like Madison Square Garden, it still smelled terrible. In Los Angeles, it only smells like this in the sketchy areas.
In NYC’s Chinatown, the streets and sidewalks were covered with trash. There were piles of trash bags on the sides of the roads. It smelled really bad. Unlike San Francisco’s Chinatown, where the sidewalks are always clean and there’s no trash.
The weather in NY is very humid. Even though it didn’t get hotter than 85º Fahrenheit (29º Celsius), it felt like 95ºF (35ºC) due to the humidity. Just stepping outside causes you to sweat. In contrast, SF is always cool and windy, even in the summer. The streets are very clean and there’s no smell when walking around.
The hot air in NYC combined with the smelly air discourages you from walking and makes you want to take a car instead.But travelling by car might actually be slower than walking. The traffic in NYC is awful. We took an Uber from the airport which took an hour and 45 minutes to drive 17 miles. Most of the time we were stuck in traffic and inched forward. I don’t think we drove more than 10 minutes without stopping. The traffic reminded me of Los Angeles and Manila, Philippines.
NYC is the most populated city in the United States with 8.3 million residents. The sidewalks are always crammed, making it hard to pass people, especially if you’re in a rush. Also, most locals don’t follow the traffic lights and just cross the road whenever. Many drivers are like this too and beat red lights. My cousins would cross the road when there were no cars approaching, even though our pedestrian light was still red. In LA and SF, pedestrians and drivers only go when it’s green.
NYC’s busy streets strongly reminded me of Manila. I found many similarities between the two: drivers and pedestrians follow their own rules, there are lots of motorcycles that try to squeeze themselves through traffic, it’s very humid, and the streets smell bad.
But one thing that’s great in NYC is its subway. It’s faster to walk from station to station than to drive. When you go underground into the platform, it instantly gets 10 times hotter and smellier. But the train has air conditioning, so it’s worth the wait.
The subway system is very easy to navigate. There are signs telling you which train goes where. Inside the train, there’s a sign telling you every stop for your specific train line. There’s also an announcement before each stop telling you what the next station is and where you can transfer trains. Even though NYC subways are known for being dirty and sketchy, I had a good experience and actually enjoyed riding it.
Another cool thing about NYC subways is the payment system. Unlike the subway in Japan where you buy a train card, NY subways use the OMNY (One Metro New York) system where you can tap your credit card directly to enter the platform. This is very efficient because many people keep their credit cards on their smartphones, so you can ride without taking out a separate card. If you’re in NY for a week or so, it’s cheaper than the old NYC MetroCard, which some still use. It’s only $3.00 per trip on the subway.
I really liked how easy it was to navigate NYC by subway. There’s no subway in SF or LA so you need a car to get around. For teens like me who can’t drive yet, the subway could easily allow me to explore the city and go to a school far from home.
Casual food spots in NYC are very small. At the popular Broad Nosh Bagels, the line took up all the space inside and continued into the street. It took 15 minutes to order, then another 20 to pick up. The bagels were good, but definitely not anything special, especially considering how long it took to get them. In Japan, even if eateries are small, there’s still some indoor seating. I walked with my cousins to Central Park to eat the bagels since there was no seating.
Central Park is the most visited park in the US. But there were a lot of things there that shocked me.
First, there were food stands and food trucks at almost every corner. Most sold the same things: hot dogs, pizza, and cut fruit in a cup. There were also many people sitting on the grass or having a picnic, which is rare in Silicon Valley. What shocked me most was that people were sunbathing in the park! There were women in bikinis and men in nothing but shorts laying on a towel on the grass as if they were on the beach or pool. I had never seen people sunbathing in a park before.
Overall, I would say NYC is definitely overhyped. While the skylines and buildings are pretty, I wouldn’t come back after experiencing it once. The food was average and almost all boba, dessert spots, and stores there can be found in California. The traffic makes it such a hassle to commute and the smell and weather are a big turn off.
I think New York is a place you visit once just to say you’ve been there. The main reason I enjoyed it was because I had family there. Besides checking it off your bucket list, there’s nothing special about NYC. If you want to visit a US city, scenic San Francisco is more worth it.
Audrey is a teen journalist and an opinion editor for her school newspaper in Silicon Valley. She writes about trends, pop culture, media, and her experience as a Filipino-American.
