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Afternoon Addition: Is Albany a better place to live than NYC?
By
Brooks Brunson
Published Oct 14, 2022
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Sean Pavone/Shutterstuck
By
Brooks Brunson
Published Oct 14, 2022
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Programming note: We'll be combining Early Addition and Extra Extra intermittently throughout this fall, while James Ramsay takes his well-earned vacation days.
It's finally Friday in New York City, where the weather is supposedly great, or at least it looks that way from a window in Brooklyn. What's more NYC-esque than a lil rant about a rank of "best cities" and a neighborhood finally finding common ground over a shared disdain of rats?
- Albany's The Times Union, published a celebratory headline on Thursday: “Take that NYC! Albany ranked best place to live in NY.” To which I say, “Fine! We’ll take it!” This comes from U.S. News & World Report’s “Best Places to Live in the U.S. in 2022-2023,” which ranks Albany as the 21st “best place to live” nationally and as number one in New York State. Nationally, Huntsville, Ala. – a place I had not heard of until today – takes the top spot. My home state of South Carolina has a whopping *five* cities in the top 80, with notorious Myrtle Beach ranked the highest (?). Even The Times Union piece questions elements of the rankings: “locals might find some odd depictions of Albany in U.S. News' description.” But after reading their methodology, which puts emphasis on things like affordability, commute times, and crime rate … even the most die-hard New Yorkers must admit, NYC does not belong anywhere close to the top of this list.
- Also, NYC’s chronic rat problem probably doesn’t help its U.S. News ranking. But some Prospect Heights residents are using the issue to help unite the neighborhood. They’ve formed a committee to help combat the rat problem and “address the tensions growing between neighbors because of it.” (Read more about the city’s rodent infestation here.)
- A city plan to improve life for cyclists, bus riders, and pedestrians would add a bus lane and protected bike lane along Third Avenue on the Upper East Side.
- On Thursday, Lee Zeldin, New York’s GOP nominee for governor, said, if elected, he would declare a crime emergency through an executive order and suspend a number of recent criminal justice law changes.
- After many weeks of headlines about the matter, the FDA has officially declared a national shortage of the ADHD drug Adderall. An Insider piece outlines how one person called 40 pharmacies across NYC, and none were able to fill their prescription. There’s also a report which says people with ADHD are being forced to reduce their job responsibilities due to the shortage.
- Speaking of jobs, apparently there’s a trend where bosses demand that their employees work in the office, while they continue to work from the comfort of their own homes?!
- New York City schools Chancellor David Banks has faced harsh criticism after basically saying that children who work really hard deserve to get into a “high-choice school,” more so than other children, without considering factors that may be beyond the kids’ control.
- Here’s some advice about that “persistent slumber I feel like I’ve been in for the past few years, even when accounting for the pandemic. It’s not quite chronic depression, but I feel like I’ve lost my mojo.”
- Maybe the weirdest part of this review of a weekday dinner in Midtown: the hostess's insistence on putting the writer’s info on an iPad because the restaurant needs to “track all of our guests.”
- Sometimes, one is just truly over it:
Brooks Brunson
Brooks Brunson joined the Gothamist/WNYC newsroom as an editor in May 2022, after two and a half years at The New Yorker. She previously worked as an editor, digital producer, and reporter at The Post and Courier in South Carolina, her home state. She now lives in Brooklyn, where she enjoys going on long bike rides and hanging out with her cat, Curtis.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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