Azzazzel wrote:
New York moves fast. Nobody there slows down. Be careful where you go at night especially since you don't know where the good and bad parts of it are. The problem with New York City, and most cities for that matter, is that the good ones are surrounded by the bad and viceversa. It's such a big place. Also, the cops there are a**holes.
Some notes about New York City and New Yorkers:
- New Yorkers aren't necessarily intrinsically impolite. It's just that when we're walking from one place to another, we're in a rush; we don't have time to be courteous.
- I'm not sure where in Belgium you're from, but you're probably correct that New York City's neighborhoods have the potential to be rougher than what you've seen. Unless you know otherwise, trust your sense: if an area seems sketchy or dangerous, it may well be. Be somewhere else when this happens.
- Plan your route. Make a point to know where you're going before you go out the door.
- When someone drifts around Times Square, Grand Central Station, Herald Square, Gramercy Park, Sunset Park, or wherever, wearing a grubby pair of sneakers and an unwashed look, that someone is judged a bum. Otherwise, that someone is judged as a potential mark.
- NYPD officers (and cops in general) frequently don't see the best side of people while on the job. They frequently see the worst side. Some cops may not be nice people to begin with, but they're still human, and when humans twist far enough we become bent.
- If you don't know anyone there, you're on your own. Live this, and embrace this, or else the place (not necessarily the people) will eat you alive and turn you into someone you wouldn't want to be.
Oh, and:
- Most vehicles will do their best to stop if you walk in their path. Yellow cabs won't; they'd prefer to swerve, but if you end up as a hood ornament nonetheless, oh well.