There's nothing harder than leaving behind a place you love whose decline into madness and decay has broken your heart.
There's much to comment on here, but I'll pull out the comparison to the 70s and 80s. My impression, admittedly based entirely on Hollywood, is that during that period NYC had a lot of crime, but was also a lot of fun. It's the era that bred men like your superintendent. It was a dangerous city, but a free city, and that superposition of grime and crime with irrepressible independence and joi de vivre was what gave NYC its unique, rough charm.
By contrast, a decade of soys and karens has utterly gutted NYC as a fun place, while their ineffectual enabling of the underclass has deliberately cultivated a zombie horde. All the dirt and ugliness of the 70s, along with the 1984 technetronic control grid. A joyless anarchotyranny. Much worse than the 70s I'd think - certainly the current situation is utterly lacking in any sort of charm or romance.
I can't help but wonder Giuliani and Bloomberg were partially responsible. Broken windows policy, indoor smoking band, etc. turned NYC into a safer, cleaner, but more sterile and corporate environment. Once the political pendulum shifted left, the spirit of the city had been damaged sufficiently that there was nothing to stand in the way of the crushing conformity of the woke mind virus. A certain degree of recalcitrant corruption, a reflexive fuck you attitude, may make a city a spicier place to live, but also makes it that much harder to impose tyranny since such a culture produces social friction instinctively.
Well said, John. You just summarized Vanishing New York by Jeremiah Ross. Anthony Bourdain embodied the story arc of a rough, charming city that was neutered and sanitized.
All without once stepping foot inside the city limits. Although, given the prominent placement of NYC in the media landscape, that New Yorker mental map of the world as perceived by New Yorkers is to a certain degree superimposed on all of us ;)
"I can't help but wonder Giuliani and Bloomberg were partially responsible."
By Giuliani's 2nd term, NYC had become a safe space for young suburbanites to come live out their televised fantasies, mostly vocally fried Carrie & Mirandas hoping to play Sex in the City, but then also some Friends and Seinfelds too.
I left 10 yrs ago because as someone who grew up there in the 70s/80s, the place and its people seemed so sterile and cookie cutter (and just about all my fave spots had been converted into glass condos w banks in their lobbies).
I think you made a great point—I'd like to think that real Old School New Yawkers wouldn't have become obedient slaves to the zeitgeist, but now that a large chunk of new New Yorkers are just your generic screen addict that could exist anywhere, they were ripe for a mass-psychosis mental takeover.
I had a similar experience moving out of the South Bay Area then visiting family living there a few years later. Everything that made it magical is gone, but the spirit is advertised as if it still lives on - like a megacorp changing all the ingredients to HFCS and soypaste, but keeping the same packaging.
And then gradually reducing the package contents, until you're left with a few drops and crumbs of toxic sludge where there used to be a full and nutritious meal.
Yes, the whole New York Tough ad campaign pushed by Cuomo during 2020…SO fake, like a hollow ad campaign, just like you described!! Totally Corporatized. I am heartbroken by how nyc has lost its grit, its independence, its authenticity. I called it home for over 20 years but had to leave due to vaccine mandates. Never comply!!
The techniques of the Marxist Left are far more effective than a hot war, just what the CCP wants, a rotten society but all the buildings and infrastructure intact.
I am a native NYer who left about a decade ago, but all my family and most of my friends still live there, and I just need to say:
The most shocking depressing infuriating aspect in all of this for me is how ideologically brainwashed my friends are, how angry they get when you step on one of their media-generated taboos, how they remind me of Ned Flanders anytime he sees a cross, except now it's just hearing the words "Black" or "Trans" and they immediately genuflect and begin praying to their new idols.
I am in my early 50s and my friends and I spent at least 20 years living downtown (late 80s to mid 00s) and maybe discussed politics 2 hrs total, we checked all the countercultural boxes, we had no dogma and very few sacred beliefs (and these are intelligent accomplished people that I love).
Even if I live to be 1000 I will never not be in shock as to how the brainwashing blob got to my people, I can only surmise that the social pressures are too strong to resist. (And also they have been gradually culturally conditioned to believe in their bones that anyone remotely conservative is a Nazi bigot, so there is never a reason to see another side of any issue.)
The last 5ish years really have been like living in Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
Amen. For years I had taken for granted that my friends were intelligent, curious, rational people until 2020 revealed otherwise. Actually, it probably started earlier than 2020, however, the 2020 mask mandates ironically revealed more than they covered.
It's not just New Yorkers, but I get your point. I've lived in New York, Berlin and Toronto. Big cities that used to be so fun and free in the 90s to early 2000s. Now I'm in a small town enjoying country life. Most - not all- of my city friends have adopted the woke mind virus you speak of. I think it goes with the high density living for educated white collar people. I can't relate anymore, and have nothing to talk about of any value. It used to be art, ideas, dreams... not it's talking points. I have way more fun with smalltown dudes who play hockey and fish on weekends and still read books.
A superb summation of the cultural rot alongside the intentional anarcho-tyranny. SADS to see. It's likely there won't be a reprieve this time with a political shift as there was in the 1990s when Giuliani took out the trash. Once all the sane people depart the masochistic torture they're funding with taxes, the cycle will simply continue. The billionaires will be immune as they jump from Maybach to Central Park view Penthouse to Maybach to Michelin bistro back to Maybach to private helicopter etc. After a certain point (perhaps fast approaching) there will be little sympathy for victims who choose to stay in such a hellscape. Learning curves need to sharpen so these cities go bankrupt again. Wise move Comrade. Greener pastures await wherever you go. Your daughter will one day thank you. Godspeed.
Great post, Yuri--godspeed. This brings up memories of my great escape from San Francisco. (I landed in another place almost as bad, but that's a story for another time...) The day before we moved, there was a pants-less drug addict passed out right in front of our door, which I figured was a sign. But there is much sadness in leaving these once-great cities, because they do still have elements of greatness. And other, saner areas come with tradeoffs: chances are they're less exciting, more provincial, and more generic, with less of an insane concentration of talent and uniqueness. Good luck getting world-class bagels wherever you're going. I miss the incredible Bay Area food and general spectacle I encountered daily; everything else feels a little boring. I mourn the great cities and despise that the Communists have overtaken them. You're doing the right thing, but there will probably be a mourning and adjustment period, especially since you have such deep roots there. But do continue the exodus and let us expand colonies of freedom! Keep us posted!
The cities have such immense potential, but are squandered by its ruling class. We shall see whether they can rebound. Hope for the best but prepare for the worst, in this case by escaping. The burbs have much better food now than they did a decade ago.
True. But I grew up despising boring suburbs. In the late 90s/early 2000s there was a shift when a lot of businesses moved into cities, and it was so exciting to commute in there daily and not have to traverse a ring road highway to a boring suburban office park and eat lunch at the gross-smelling corporate cafeteria. Now there is an exodus from cities: really sad IMHO. There are pockets of coolness elsewhere, and being built, but there is no replicating the great metropolises. It WOULD be fun to help build a little insurrectionist community--keep an eye on the Free State NH movement, for instance. They appear to be having fun and success.
I think they purposely destroy the cities in cycles. boom n bust. Once the bust comes they buy everything up cheap. Get their tax breaks and let the boom begin! Rinse and repeat.
I hear this point, but I differ on the tradeoff. What may have been provincial once, can become dynamic and creative in the future. Today, nothing is more provincial--in the traditional sense of narrow-mindedness--than the cosmopolitan global citizen of a major city. That they are open to different cuisines of food is superficial only. They stand and build on foundations of wet diarrhea (yes, we are well past sand these days).
Yes, some places, like generic rural Americana, may be a bit provincial. What with their consumption of too much TV, use of social media and/or their terrible diets. But by and large the inhabitants of such places keep most of their integrity, and are closer to the dirt if you will; so they are different, and in the end, more holy. Those of us who are close to the dirt, but also live the interior life, should be called to join with our brothers and sisters in such places and help build them up. Nothing sounds more exciting to me than that!
We surely shouldn't build lives around "excitement" alone. Exciting things are great, but any excitement should be concordant with, and derive from, an inner joy that comes from a learned faith and hope in the transcendent, and His creative mission for all of us.
Many superficially provincial locales have much to offer. I grew up in the suburbs of Dallas in the 80's and 90's. We had many expats from Europe, Asia and domestic ones from New York. Their families provided a refuge, and a healthy challenge, to the Bush-Republican culture of Baptists and Banker-Episcopalians (and Marry Poppins Catholics). As did the traditional Texan who lived in or moved to the area to exploit entrepreneurial opportunity, giving it all a capitalist, industrious feel. But the Bush-Republicans were short on grace and mercy; and a fair bit judgmental of the superficial and not the deeper things.
Today I'm in Houston, where you can find a piece of any community you might want - FUPAZ, third world ex-pat (and illegal migrant) neighborhoods, old-school Rodeo Houstonians (which are not nearly as nauseating as Dallas faux-Cowboy types; and I don't mean the football team), and lots of orthodox Christian and Catholic communities. It's overall a mess and a result almost exclusively of the marriage of authentic, freewheeling capitalism in in oil and gas industry (by its heritage settlers), and post-1965 third world immigration. It works, for now, because most immigrants from Mexico or Latin America bring Christian faith with them and the economy gives them a chance for material betterment. But such is not a perfect foundation for myriad reasons.
But my sight and heart are set on South Texas--the real one, not San Antonio--which is the place where some of the oldest Europeans settled and lived. They came on land grants from Spain in 1750 and later, and settled the Texas-side of the Rio Grande and intermarried with the 'Indios'. Those families are still there, having lived under all 6 flags. It's quite provincial in many ways, such as in certain political "traditions" (i.e. nepotism and caudillo-style bribery); but damn does it have an interesting people and a lot of salt of the Earth piousness. I take far more tidbits of wisdom and character from a conversation with a working class "Valley" primo down there, than from a FUPAZ resident in my very liberal, upscale central Houston neighborhood. The "RGV" teaches its children the hard lessons of life, and a resourcefulness that comes from a life of near-poverty or modest middle class living.
Basically, having standards and rejecting global citizenship is not narrow-minded. True "global citizenship", the kind that builds societies and allows them to flourish among themselves-- persons among persons and nations among nations--comes in my view through submission to Christ and his Church. We should accept no substitute.
There is still much true in the idea that cities can seem less closed, parochial or provincial. I like to think conceptually, and I acknowledge the talent that comes together from great cities. I think of Paris of the twelfth century for example; from which we had a great example of the High Middle Ages and a true separation of the West from the rest. But the native talent of our great cities has been destroying itself through allegiance to all these false ideologies; themselves something of the logical end of Enlightenment-era thinking, with Man measuring all things, using his own unmoored reason to create a world of his own imagination.
Good society has to be built from the bottom-up, by flourishing families. Our small towns and communities in America may never achieve anything like Anglo-Irish-Italian New York, but the humble Hispanics of South Texas, and many similar heritage communities, will one day have something special (and really, on a modest level, they already do). I see it as the duty of the capable to practice holiness by going to help them do it. Take less for a greater reward.
Hopefully you can move to an area where the nuisance of Nazi supporting, mask-wearing nincompoops is far less dense.
Thankfully, I live in a demoralized but spacious locale. Sure, the useful idiots are all around, but I can easily avoid them by staying on my property. I drag logs out of the woods to my woodshed, slice them up and split/stack them for later use.
Nobody can come up my long driveway without an alarm sounding inside the house and then the 100lb bulldog starts barking.
The scariest thing to the demoralized and their pet victims is a self-sufficient person who can swing an axe all day to make firewood.
(Also, the FUPAZ wymyn get moist at the sight and loudly proclaim anti-male nonsense to hide their secret attraction,)
Here, the rich jerkoffs live right on the water and seldom venture out away from Starbucks and wine stores to "brave the Trumpers" they believe are hiding behind every tree.
It's a paradise.
Of course, there aren't any "Ultra MAGA republicans" ten minutes away from the coast but that's how they see it nonetheless. Fine. Stay the fuck away from me.
Hopefully you can be in a place where Yulia can go play in the yard until it's too dark and the dinner bell is ringing. Being outside and immersed in actual nature is best for kids. They see things only vaguely or rarely described in textbooks at SKOOL, and are then able to draw their own conclusions about the nature of all things.
Eat or be eaten, fight or die. The struggle to survive still goes on around us and right at our feet in the natural world. A child happening upon ants dragging a fat a furry spider away from their nest while pulling legs off of said spider teaches them more than an entire year of hearing tainted natural history from a Kommissar in the re-education kamp/programming facility.
Once you know, you can't really UNKnow that reality and as a parent you've won.
I applaud your move and wish you, the missus and baby all the best in a place ANYWHERE BUT NYC.
Also, anywhere BUT a Karenland FUPAZ.
Good luck, heat with wood, raise hens for eggs and grow veggies on your own land.
Eat well, sleep well.
Get some rest, because our depraved ruling class is going to drive us right into a nuclear holocaust.
Yes, nature is the best teacher. None of our hens are confused about their gender, and tomato seeds still grow tomato plants. This is why they are hell bent on destroying nature, making us scared of animals, and convincing humans that carbon is poison. Upside down world.
Having made several long moves (Pennsylvania-Florida-Arizona) over the course of my lifetime I can understand the bittersweet feelings you may be experiencing. Leaving someplace with so many good memories and friends is tough. BUT...CHANGE IS EXCITING!! AND HEALTHY!! You and Mrs. Bezmenov and Baby Yulia (and it sounds like extended family is also going?) will settle in and build wonderful lives in your new state. They are lucky to have you. Be well. Safe travels. Many blessings.
I love your writing and appreciate your sentiments. This is particularly brilliant: "NYC is like a cruise ship: you pay high prices tiny apartments because endless entertainment awaits on deck 24/7."
I'm new to your Substack, but I'm really enjoying it so far ;)
My husband and I (and our four kids) lived in NYC from late 2014 until 2020. We loved our time in New York. We feel like we caught some of the city's best years. We saw countless theater and music performances. I ran at Brooklyn Bridge Park several times per week and it kept me sane.
We flew to CA in May 2020, where we had a house (which had been a vacation rental for years) and where we had a yard. When we left Brooklyn, it never occurred to us that we wouldn't return (except to pack everything and move). During the summer we enrolled our kids in schools in CA "just in case" and we eventually gave up our Brooklyn apartment(in September).
Our four kids (aged 18 to 12 in 2020) were in four different NYC public schools and each took the subway by themselves. Our car-less life there worked. Until it didn't. Summer of 2020, it became clear that our NY life, which was precariously balanced on the requirement that our kids could ride the subway by themselves, didn't work anymore.
We all missed NYC, but we reminded ourselves that the city that we missed didn't exist anymore. We did our best to reintegrate into Northern CA.
Then Emperor Newsom made California intolerable. All summer the schools had said "hybrid hybrid hybrid" for fall but then announced at the last minute that schools would be remote only. Our oldest went off to college (which was pretty terrible, too), but our other three never got to meet their teachers or classmates. Within two months, our three excellent students were failing in school.
To make a long story short, we cut our losses, put the CA house on the market, and took the plunge: we relocated to Dallas. We have been in TX for over two years now and are grateful that we made the move. No, it's not as exciting as NYC. And it doesn't have the natural beauty of CA. But Texas has a big dose of "normal," which we were in desperate need of.
Best wishes to you in your search for greener pastures! Change is good!
Blessed are the meek, and the poor in spirit. Good for y’all. Dallas ain’t perfect, and can be quite materialistic, but you will definitely find good people there if you avoid the more leftist enclaves. And Texas is generally not very naturally beautiful, but it has its spots, and you can create beauty in other ways.
Good luck to your family! Lots of great homeschooling options in Dallas too. Might as well go full Monty into the crunchy-rebel conservative life… ;)
Born and raised in the NYC Metro. Lived everywhere except the Bronx and Staten Island. Worked in Manhattan for 15 year after college. After 15 years of the NYC subways, Metro North and the LIRR, I was done. Left in the late 90's before it got bad. Moved to the SF Bay Area. Left kicking and screaming after four years of living in paradise. Moved to the Philly 'burbs and never looked back. (I'm far enough west of the city that the Karens are mostly held at bay.)
You will find that your move will prove to bear fruit faster than you had imagined.
Always wanted to visit New York. Guess I can scratch it off my bucket list now, unfortunately. I can't even get in the country anymore because I'm a pureblood...
Oh, my precious Yuri...I understand more than you can imagine. I am a 3rd generation San Franciscan. I’m 59, so the memories I have growing up in SF are indescribable. Everything was wonderful, imaginative, funky, cosmopolitan, classy, yet so down to earth. There was a HUGE working middle class, and so many children! SF was like a small town, where you’d always run into someone you knew. The restaurants, bars, and entertainment was rivaled to none! There was so much historical beauty and so much to look forward to. I never thought I’d leave San Fransicko. I haven’t been there in years, and I’m miles away. I just want to remember it the way it was. I don’t think you’ll miss NYC. You’ll embrace your new home, honor what was, and be thankful you were able to experience that iconic city for the joy of what it was. May God the Father guide you (He already has), and bless the road you travel on the journey with your loved ones!
I came late to your comment, but felt compelled to reply because I am about your age and have similar memories of SF.
I never lived there, but my father was a native, my grandparents lived there often, and I spent a lot of time roaming the city during my younger years. It was a magical place to me.
Now I never go. Exactly like you, "I just want to remember it the way it was."
The last smart thing(s) Austin did was to build the Hwy 183 and Hwy 71 (Ben White) overpasses back around '95. Of course the Texas DOT had a lot to do with those projects.
Now everyone believes that building extra roads/lanes makes traffic worse. Never mind that MoPac (Loop 1) was a clear 10 minute trip from North of town to downtown all day long back in the 70s and most of the 80s. I'd like to see some careful analysis of these traffic studies that reach those (more roads don't help) conclusions. I bet they hold up as well as the anti-nuclear "studies" do.
Every single spending proposal offered to the voters (Propositions) is passed. No amount of spending is too much or too wasteful.
An opportunity to participate in expansion of the South Texas Nuclear Plant in 2009, along with San Antonio and Houston was declined because it had a worst case cost of $.12/KWHr. But every source of electricity they've spent money on since was priced higher from the outset, no uncertainty about it.
Including paying $110M per year to a wood burning plant in Nagadoches just to be available. Contracted at that price for 20 years. Any electricity purchased would have been at $.15 - $.16/KWHr, over and above the $110M/year, but none ever was. More than $100M a year down a rat hole. The city finally paid $640M to buy the wood burning plant outright, just to get out of the ridiculous contract. I guess that's showing sense of a sort....
The State legislature reins in some of Austin's stupidity.
The state leg passed a bill banning bag bans. But the Austin area HEB (major regional grocery chain) still won't give you a bag. Target, Walmart, any HEB outside Austin has bags, but not the ones in Austin. I can only assume there's one self-righteous HEB manager in charge of the Austin HEBs.
In 2021, the state leg. told Austin (and the rest of Texas), "No, you cannot ban natural gas fired appliances." Austin tried in 2021. I guess we may still get screwed by the Feds, but at least were shielded from the idiots on the Austin City Council.
It seems like the whole city is being run by real estate money. Real estate agent/broker is kind of where you land when you're reasonably together, but don't really have any other useful skills/education, as far as I can tell. But, hey, they're running the capital of Texas.
My sister and I are laughing since you sound like us two when we get going on Austin. I did visit Georgetown recently but given the development level, the end is near. Sigh...
On a related note, one of the most surreal things I've ever seen was driving through the SF tenderloin at night a few years ago. Someone should set up a tour bus route called "The John Carpenter Experience".
I used to frequent NYC in the late 70’s into the 80’s. It was a fun place. I can’t imagine going there now.
I recently move from a much smaller urban area to 10 acres in the country. A refreshing change! The post offices takes from 12:30 to 1:00 for lunch break. So do the banks and pharmacies. Embrace the quirks of the new environment, it’s part of the choice/change!
I escaped in February, 2021 from inside the DMZ to FL. I hope you're getting far enough away from the Blue Nazi Commies - NJ is, in many ways, even worse than NYC. Good luck.
Thank you for this tribute to the fine and wonderful place that was. I enjoyed my formative years in New York City's glorious '60s & '70s. You highlighted many causes of the rot. Yet, the root cause is a software bug in the human mind that internalizes media messages as true reality. As "you" warned us many decades ago, evil will take advantage of this bug. Evil foisted TDS and the other delusions upon good souls who lost their way. I mourn this loss every day.
There's nothing harder than leaving behind a place you love whose decline into madness and decay has broken your heart.
There's much to comment on here, but I'll pull out the comparison to the 70s and 80s. My impression, admittedly based entirely on Hollywood, is that during that period NYC had a lot of crime, but was also a lot of fun. It's the era that bred men like your superintendent. It was a dangerous city, but a free city, and that superposition of grime and crime with irrepressible independence and joi de vivre was what gave NYC its unique, rough charm.
By contrast, a decade of soys and karens has utterly gutted NYC as a fun place, while their ineffectual enabling of the underclass has deliberately cultivated a zombie horde. All the dirt and ugliness of the 70s, along with the 1984 technetronic control grid. A joyless anarchotyranny. Much worse than the 70s I'd think - certainly the current situation is utterly lacking in any sort of charm or romance.
I can't help but wonder Giuliani and Bloomberg were partially responsible. Broken windows policy, indoor smoking band, etc. turned NYC into a safer, cleaner, but more sterile and corporate environment. Once the political pendulum shifted left, the spirit of the city had been damaged sufficiently that there was nothing to stand in the way of the crushing conformity of the woke mind virus. A certain degree of recalcitrant corruption, a reflexive fuck you attitude, may make a city a spicier place to live, but also makes it that much harder to impose tyranny since such a culture produces social friction instinctively.
Well said, John. You just summarized Vanishing New York by Jeremiah Ross. Anthony Bourdain embodied the story arc of a rough, charming city that was neutered and sanitized.
All without once stepping foot inside the city limits. Although, given the prominent placement of NYC in the media landscape, that New Yorker mental map of the world as perceived by New Yorkers is to a certain degree superimposed on all of us ;)
"I can't help but wonder Giuliani and Bloomberg were partially responsible."
By Giuliani's 2nd term, NYC had become a safe space for young suburbanites to come live out their televised fantasies, mostly vocally fried Carrie & Mirandas hoping to play Sex in the City, but then also some Friends and Seinfelds too.
I left 10 yrs ago because as someone who grew up there in the 70s/80s, the place and its people seemed so sterile and cookie cutter (and just about all my fave spots had been converted into glass condos w banks in their lobbies).
I think you made a great point—I'd like to think that real Old School New Yawkers wouldn't have become obedient slaves to the zeitgeist, but now that a large chunk of new New Yorkers are just your generic screen addict that could exist anywhere, they were ripe for a mass-psychosis mental takeover.
I had a similar experience moving out of the South Bay Area then visiting family living there a few years later. Everything that made it magical is gone, but the spirit is advertised as if it still lives on - like a megacorp changing all the ingredients to HFCS and soypaste, but keeping the same packaging.
And then gradually reducing the package contents, until you're left with a few drops and crumbs of toxic sludge where there used to be a full and nutritious meal.
Yes, the whole New York Tough ad campaign pushed by Cuomo during 2020…SO fake, like a hollow ad campaign, just like you described!! Totally Corporatized. I am heartbroken by how nyc has lost its grit, its independence, its authenticity. I called it home for over 20 years but had to leave due to vaccine mandates. Never comply!!
The techniques of the Marxist Left are far more effective than a hot war, just what the CCP wants, a rotten society but all the buildings and infrastructure intact.
Like a Potemkin Village.
Nothing would surprise me
I am a native NYer who left about a decade ago, but all my family and most of my friends still live there, and I just need to say:
The most shocking depressing infuriating aspect in all of this for me is how ideologically brainwashed my friends are, how angry they get when you step on one of their media-generated taboos, how they remind me of Ned Flanders anytime he sees a cross, except now it's just hearing the words "Black" or "Trans" and they immediately genuflect and begin praying to their new idols.
I am in my early 50s and my friends and I spent at least 20 years living downtown (late 80s to mid 00s) and maybe discussed politics 2 hrs total, we checked all the countercultural boxes, we had no dogma and very few sacred beliefs (and these are intelligent accomplished people that I love).
Even if I live to be 1000 I will never not be in shock as to how the brainwashing blob got to my people, I can only surmise that the social pressures are too strong to resist. (And also they have been gradually culturally conditioned to believe in their bones that anyone remotely conservative is a Nazi bigot, so there is never a reason to see another side of any issue.)
The last 5ish years really have been like living in Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
Amen. For years I had taken for granted that my friends were intelligent, curious, rational people until 2020 revealed otherwise. Actually, it probably started earlier than 2020, however, the 2020 mask mandates ironically revealed more than they covered.
Time for a lot of us to find new friends.
It's not just New Yorkers, but I get your point. I've lived in New York, Berlin and Toronto. Big cities that used to be so fun and free in the 90s to early 2000s. Now I'm in a small town enjoying country life. Most - not all- of my city friends have adopted the woke mind virus you speak of. I think it goes with the high density living for educated white collar people. I can't relate anymore, and have nothing to talk about of any value. It used to be art, ideas, dreams... not it's talking points. I have way more fun with smalltown dudes who play hockey and fish on weekends and still read books.
I noticed this too. A complete brainwash of fellow NYers. It's almost like a Stockholm Syndrome.
A superb summation of the cultural rot alongside the intentional anarcho-tyranny. SADS to see. It's likely there won't be a reprieve this time with a political shift as there was in the 1990s when Giuliani took out the trash. Once all the sane people depart the masochistic torture they're funding with taxes, the cycle will simply continue. The billionaires will be immune as they jump from Maybach to Central Park view Penthouse to Maybach to Michelin bistro back to Maybach to private helicopter etc. After a certain point (perhaps fast approaching) there will be little sympathy for victims who choose to stay in such a hellscape. Learning curves need to sharpen so these cities go bankrupt again. Wise move Comrade. Greener pastures await wherever you go. Your daughter will one day thank you. Godspeed.
Great post, Yuri--godspeed. This brings up memories of my great escape from San Francisco. (I landed in another place almost as bad, but that's a story for another time...) The day before we moved, there was a pants-less drug addict passed out right in front of our door, which I figured was a sign. But there is much sadness in leaving these once-great cities, because they do still have elements of greatness. And other, saner areas come with tradeoffs: chances are they're less exciting, more provincial, and more generic, with less of an insane concentration of talent and uniqueness. Good luck getting world-class bagels wherever you're going. I miss the incredible Bay Area food and general spectacle I encountered daily; everything else feels a little boring. I mourn the great cities and despise that the Communists have overtaken them. You're doing the right thing, but there will probably be a mourning and adjustment period, especially since you have such deep roots there. But do continue the exodus and let us expand colonies of freedom! Keep us posted!
The cities have such immense potential, but are squandered by its ruling class. We shall see whether they can rebound. Hope for the best but prepare for the worst, in this case by escaping. The burbs have much better food now than they did a decade ago.
True. But I grew up despising boring suburbs. In the late 90s/early 2000s there was a shift when a lot of businesses moved into cities, and it was so exciting to commute in there daily and not have to traverse a ring road highway to a boring suburban office park and eat lunch at the gross-smelling corporate cafeteria. Now there is an exodus from cities: really sad IMHO. There are pockets of coolness elsewhere, and being built, but there is no replicating the great metropolises. It WOULD be fun to help build a little insurrectionist community--keep an eye on the Free State NH movement, for instance. They appear to be having fun and success.
I think they purposely destroy the cities in cycles. boom n bust. Once the bust comes they buy everything up cheap. Get their tax breaks and let the boom begin! Rinse and repeat.
I hear this point, but I differ on the tradeoff. What may have been provincial once, can become dynamic and creative in the future. Today, nothing is more provincial--in the traditional sense of narrow-mindedness--than the cosmopolitan global citizen of a major city. That they are open to different cuisines of food is superficial only. They stand and build on foundations of wet diarrhea (yes, we are well past sand these days).
Yes, some places, like generic rural Americana, may be a bit provincial. What with their consumption of too much TV, use of social media and/or their terrible diets. But by and large the inhabitants of such places keep most of their integrity, and are closer to the dirt if you will; so they are different, and in the end, more holy. Those of us who are close to the dirt, but also live the interior life, should be called to join with our brothers and sisters in such places and help build them up. Nothing sounds more exciting to me than that!
We surely shouldn't build lives around "excitement" alone. Exciting things are great, but any excitement should be concordant with, and derive from, an inner joy that comes from a learned faith and hope in the transcendent, and His creative mission for all of us.
Many superficially provincial locales have much to offer. I grew up in the suburbs of Dallas in the 80's and 90's. We had many expats from Europe, Asia and domestic ones from New York. Their families provided a refuge, and a healthy challenge, to the Bush-Republican culture of Baptists and Banker-Episcopalians (and Marry Poppins Catholics). As did the traditional Texan who lived in or moved to the area to exploit entrepreneurial opportunity, giving it all a capitalist, industrious feel. But the Bush-Republicans were short on grace and mercy; and a fair bit judgmental of the superficial and not the deeper things.
Today I'm in Houston, where you can find a piece of any community you might want - FUPAZ, third world ex-pat (and illegal migrant) neighborhoods, old-school Rodeo Houstonians (which are not nearly as nauseating as Dallas faux-Cowboy types; and I don't mean the football team), and lots of orthodox Christian and Catholic communities. It's overall a mess and a result almost exclusively of the marriage of authentic, freewheeling capitalism in in oil and gas industry (by its heritage settlers), and post-1965 third world immigration. It works, for now, because most immigrants from Mexico or Latin America bring Christian faith with them and the economy gives them a chance for material betterment. But such is not a perfect foundation for myriad reasons.
But my sight and heart are set on South Texas--the real one, not San Antonio--which is the place where some of the oldest Europeans settled and lived. They came on land grants from Spain in 1750 and later, and settled the Texas-side of the Rio Grande and intermarried with the 'Indios'. Those families are still there, having lived under all 6 flags. It's quite provincial in many ways, such as in certain political "traditions" (i.e. nepotism and caudillo-style bribery); but damn does it have an interesting people and a lot of salt of the Earth piousness. I take far more tidbits of wisdom and character from a conversation with a working class "Valley" primo down there, than from a FUPAZ resident in my very liberal, upscale central Houston neighborhood. The "RGV" teaches its children the hard lessons of life, and a resourcefulness that comes from a life of near-poverty or modest middle class living.
Basically, having standards and rejecting global citizenship is not narrow-minded. True "global citizenship", the kind that builds societies and allows them to flourish among themselves-- persons among persons and nations among nations--comes in my view through submission to Christ and his Church. We should accept no substitute.
There is still much true in the idea that cities can seem less closed, parochial or provincial. I like to think conceptually, and I acknowledge the talent that comes together from great cities. I think of Paris of the twelfth century for example; from which we had a great example of the High Middle Ages and a true separation of the West from the rest. But the native talent of our great cities has been destroying itself through allegiance to all these false ideologies; themselves something of the logical end of Enlightenment-era thinking, with Man measuring all things, using his own unmoored reason to create a world of his own imagination.
Good society has to be built from the bottom-up, by flourishing families. Our small towns and communities in America may never achieve anything like Anglo-Irish-Italian New York, but the humble Hispanics of South Texas, and many similar heritage communities, will one day have something special (and really, on a modest level, they already do). I see it as the duty of the capable to practice holiness by going to help them do it. Take less for a greater reward.
Please what ever you do, do not "grace" any generic general rural Americana area with your presence. We don't want people like you here.
It’s like you didn’t even read my comment. Did you stop after one line? And clearly, you don’t know me. If you did, you would not attack me.
Hopefully you can move to an area where the nuisance of Nazi supporting, mask-wearing nincompoops is far less dense.
Thankfully, I live in a demoralized but spacious locale. Sure, the useful idiots are all around, but I can easily avoid them by staying on my property. I drag logs out of the woods to my woodshed, slice them up and split/stack them for later use.
Nobody can come up my long driveway without an alarm sounding inside the house and then the 100lb bulldog starts barking.
The scariest thing to the demoralized and their pet victims is a self-sufficient person who can swing an axe all day to make firewood.
(Also, the FUPAZ wymyn get moist at the sight and loudly proclaim anti-male nonsense to hide their secret attraction,)
Here, the rich jerkoffs live right on the water and seldom venture out away from Starbucks and wine stores to "brave the Trumpers" they believe are hiding behind every tree.
It's a paradise.
Of course, there aren't any "Ultra MAGA republicans" ten minutes away from the coast but that's how they see it nonetheless. Fine. Stay the fuck away from me.
Hopefully you can be in a place where Yulia can go play in the yard until it's too dark and the dinner bell is ringing. Being outside and immersed in actual nature is best for kids. They see things only vaguely or rarely described in textbooks at SKOOL, and are then able to draw their own conclusions about the nature of all things.
Eat or be eaten, fight or die. The struggle to survive still goes on around us and right at our feet in the natural world. A child happening upon ants dragging a fat a furry spider away from their nest while pulling legs off of said spider teaches them more than an entire year of hearing tainted natural history from a Kommissar in the re-education kamp/programming facility.
Once you know, you can't really UNKnow that reality and as a parent you've won.
I applaud your move and wish you, the missus and baby all the best in a place ANYWHERE BUT NYC.
Also, anywhere BUT a Karenland FUPAZ.
Good luck, heat with wood, raise hens for eggs and grow veggies on your own land.
Eat well, sleep well.
Get some rest, because our depraved ruling class is going to drive us right into a nuclear holocaust.
Yes, nature is the best teacher. None of our hens are confused about their gender, and tomato seeds still grow tomato plants. This is why they are hell bent on destroying nature, making us scared of animals, and convincing humans that carbon is poison. Upside down world.
Having made several long moves (Pennsylvania-Florida-Arizona) over the course of my lifetime I can understand the bittersweet feelings you may be experiencing. Leaving someplace with so many good memories and friends is tough. BUT...CHANGE IS EXCITING!! AND HEALTHY!! You and Mrs. Bezmenov and Baby Yulia (and it sounds like extended family is also going?) will settle in and build wonderful lives in your new state. They are lucky to have you. Be well. Safe travels. Many blessings.
I love your writing and appreciate your sentiments. This is particularly brilliant: "NYC is like a cruise ship: you pay high prices tiny apartments because endless entertainment awaits on deck 24/7."
Dear Yuri,
I'm new to your Substack, but I'm really enjoying it so far ;)
My husband and I (and our four kids) lived in NYC from late 2014 until 2020. We loved our time in New York. We feel like we caught some of the city's best years. We saw countless theater and music performances. I ran at Brooklyn Bridge Park several times per week and it kept me sane.
We flew to CA in May 2020, where we had a house (which had been a vacation rental for years) and where we had a yard. When we left Brooklyn, it never occurred to us that we wouldn't return (except to pack everything and move). During the summer we enrolled our kids in schools in CA "just in case" and we eventually gave up our Brooklyn apartment(in September).
Our four kids (aged 18 to 12 in 2020) were in four different NYC public schools and each took the subway by themselves. Our car-less life there worked. Until it didn't. Summer of 2020, it became clear that our NY life, which was precariously balanced on the requirement that our kids could ride the subway by themselves, didn't work anymore.
We all missed NYC, but we reminded ourselves that the city that we missed didn't exist anymore. We did our best to reintegrate into Northern CA.
Then Emperor Newsom made California intolerable. All summer the schools had said "hybrid hybrid hybrid" for fall but then announced at the last minute that schools would be remote only. Our oldest went off to college (which was pretty terrible, too), but our other three never got to meet their teachers or classmates. Within two months, our three excellent students were failing in school.
To make a long story short, we cut our losses, put the CA house on the market, and took the plunge: we relocated to Dallas. We have been in TX for over two years now and are grateful that we made the move. No, it's not as exciting as NYC. And it doesn't have the natural beauty of CA. But Texas has a big dose of "normal," which we were in desperate need of.
Best wishes to you in your search for greener pastures! Change is good!
Heather Libson
Your kids are lucky to have you as parents! NY and CA are anti child, glad you’ve found normalcy in TX.
We even joined a church! Becoming the normal folks that we used to sneer at ;)
Blessed are the meek, and the poor in spirit. Good for y’all. Dallas ain’t perfect, and can be quite materialistic, but you will definitely find good people there if you avoid the more leftist enclaves. And Texas is generally not very naturally beautiful, but it has its spots, and you can create beauty in other ways.
Good luck to your family! Lots of great homeschooling options in Dallas too. Might as well go full Monty into the crunchy-rebel conservative life… ;)
Born and raised in the NYC Metro. Lived everywhere except the Bronx and Staten Island. Worked in Manhattan for 15 year after college. After 15 years of the NYC subways, Metro North and the LIRR, I was done. Left in the late 90's before it got bad. Moved to the SF Bay Area. Left kicking and screaming after four years of living in paradise. Moved to the Philly 'burbs and never looked back. (I'm far enough west of the city that the Karens are mostly held at bay.)
You will find that your move will prove to bear fruit faster than you had imagined.
Always wanted to visit New York. Guess I can scratch it off my bucket list now, unfortunately. I can't even get in the country anymore because I'm a pureblood...
New Amsterdam has nothing on the original Amsterdam. Upgrading will save you the money and time of seeing this crumbling city firsthand.
Just come through Mexico. You'll get spending money and a free hotel room, too.
Oh, my precious Yuri...I understand more than you can imagine. I am a 3rd generation San Franciscan. I’m 59, so the memories I have growing up in SF are indescribable. Everything was wonderful, imaginative, funky, cosmopolitan, classy, yet so down to earth. There was a HUGE working middle class, and so many children! SF was like a small town, where you’d always run into someone you knew. The restaurants, bars, and entertainment was rivaled to none! There was so much historical beauty and so much to look forward to. I never thought I’d leave San Fransicko. I haven’t been there in years, and I’m miles away. I just want to remember it the way it was. I don’t think you’ll miss NYC. You’ll embrace your new home, honor what was, and be thankful you were able to experience that iconic city for the joy of what it was. May God the Father guide you (He already has), and bless the road you travel on the journey with your loved ones!
Your commentary is wonderful!
I came late to your comment, but felt compelled to reply because I am about your age and have similar memories of SF.
I never lived there, but my father was a native, my grandparents lived there often, and I spent a lot of time roaming the city during my younger years. It was a magical place to me.
Now I never go. Exactly like you, "I just want to remember it the way it was."
💔…gotcha!
Oops, "my grandparents lived there,".
Great summary. Not sure where your headed but hope it's not Austin. They have formally lost their minds and might as well be NYC/SF/LA.
Check out my how to Texas two step post. Unlike the other cities, austin is in a red state and the surrounding areas seem to be non demoralized.
The last smart thing(s) Austin did was to build the Hwy 183 and Hwy 71 (Ben White) overpasses back around '95. Of course the Texas DOT had a lot to do with those projects.
Now everyone believes that building extra roads/lanes makes traffic worse. Never mind that MoPac (Loop 1) was a clear 10 minute trip from North of town to downtown all day long back in the 70s and most of the 80s. I'd like to see some careful analysis of these traffic studies that reach those (more roads don't help) conclusions. I bet they hold up as well as the anti-nuclear "studies" do.
Every single spending proposal offered to the voters (Propositions) is passed. No amount of spending is too much or too wasteful.
An opportunity to participate in expansion of the South Texas Nuclear Plant in 2009, along with San Antonio and Houston was declined because it had a worst case cost of $.12/KWHr. But every source of electricity they've spent money on since was priced higher from the outset, no uncertainty about it.
Including paying $110M per year to a wood burning plant in Nagadoches just to be available. Contracted at that price for 20 years. Any electricity purchased would have been at $.15 - $.16/KWHr, over and above the $110M/year, but none ever was. More than $100M a year down a rat hole. The city finally paid $640M to buy the wood burning plant outright, just to get out of the ridiculous contract. I guess that's showing sense of a sort....
The State legislature reins in some of Austin's stupidity.
The state leg passed a bill banning bag bans. But the Austin area HEB (major regional grocery chain) still won't give you a bag. Target, Walmart, any HEB outside Austin has bags, but not the ones in Austin. I can only assume there's one self-righteous HEB manager in charge of the Austin HEBs.
In 2021, the state leg. told Austin (and the rest of Texas), "No, you cannot ban natural gas fired appliances." Austin tried in 2021. I guess we may still get screwed by the Feds, but at least were shielded from the idiots on the Austin City Council.
It seems like the whole city is being run by real estate money. Real estate agent/broker is kind of where you land when you're reasonably together, but don't really have any other useful skills/education, as far as I can tell. But, hey, they're running the capital of Texas.
My sister and I are laughing since you sound like us two when we get going on Austin. I did visit Georgetown recently but given the development level, the end is near. Sigh...
Just left Georgetown after 4 years. Development plus Californian invasion has made it unbearable.
On a related note, one of the most surreal things I've ever seen was driving through the SF tenderloin at night a few years ago. Someone should set up a tour bus route called "The John Carpenter Experience".
Congratulations on your escape!
Yuri FUPAZ DMZ expeditions. The LA version already exists and it’s fascinating, highly recommend: https://www.lahoodlifetours.com/product/l-a-hood-life-tour/
Oh. I'd pay for a "The John Carpenter Experience" double-decker bus tour through NYC. Must include bullet-proof vests and helmets though.
Wow!
I used to frequent NYC in the late 70’s into the 80’s. It was a fun place. I can’t imagine going there now.
I recently move from a much smaller urban area to 10 acres in the country. A refreshing change! The post offices takes from 12:30 to 1:00 for lunch break. So do the banks and pharmacies. Embrace the quirks of the new environment, it’s part of the choice/change!
I escaped in February, 2021 from inside the DMZ to FL. I hope you're getting far enough away from the Blue Nazi Commies - NJ is, in many ways, even worse than NYC. Good luck.
Thank you for this tribute to the fine and wonderful place that was. I enjoyed my formative years in New York City's glorious '60s & '70s. You highlighted many causes of the rot. Yet, the root cause is a software bug in the human mind that internalizes media messages as true reality. As "you" warned us many decades ago, evil will take advantage of this bug. Evil foisted TDS and the other delusions upon good souls who lost their way. I mourn this loss every day.