Members of the extended mothernyc family have flown the coop in recent years, ending up in various cities from New Orleans to Berlin. Have you left New York City and relocated in a
place that gives you more of the New York experience than Gotham does of late? Are you thinking of leaving and want to chat with someone who did?

[This message was edited by Chi Chi on 03-14-01 at .]

Yes, we do think about leaving, although the idea of leaving absolutely is scary too. There is some lovely decay still left, but not much. Where are the pawn shops? I remember when dogs were allowed everywhere, for instance, which is important for Pilar, to be allowed. There was a great dog from East 7th Street, who used to be all over the place on his own. His name was Hank. Does anyone remember him? He was coolness itself. Where are the cities which have both grime and grace?

we just finished a week of covering a music festival here in beautiful warm miami, we had the best time of our lives but happy that something so magical is over now. We always miss the new york life when we are far and we especially miss the stinky meat district area where we use to walk to florent after staying out all nite at jackie 60, stay the way you are NYC we'll be back soon.

The thought of being a NYC expatriate has crossed my mind many times as of late. I too was at the Winter Music Conference in March in sunny Miami, and I had some of the best club experiences I have EVER had in my life. Powerhouse DJs and clubgoers from the around the world brought back many fond memories for me of the NYC club scene in the late 80s when I first moved here. In particular at Miami's Club Space and Crow Bar, I was surrounded by a glamorous, friendly, diverse, international jet-set crowd and I felt like I was in Ibiza or Milan ... it was FABULOUS. I read with sadness Lady Bunny's comments about the decreasing glamour here in NYC, citing that as one of her reasons for stopping Wigstock, but I was forced to agree with her. The hardcore glamour personfified at spaces like Mother and Club USA (does anyone remember that place??) seems to be vanishing, and though I try hard to represent myself and will continue to, I feel as though Europe may be the only alternative left for this kind of experience, in particular London, Berlin, Paris and Milan. I have no immediate plans to leave NYC, I still hope things can change and turn around. But I have heard the call of Europe ....

Though not a seasoned world traveler or New Yorker, I have lived in San Diego, Los Angeles, the Central Coast of CA, Paris FR, Mexico City, and many other parts of the U.S. as a traveling IT whore. It's still New York. It's still the capital of the World. I still feel like I'm in Peoria when I leave Manhattan. Don't you wonderful people dare desert me for some mirage. Stay and make it better.

Everyone knows I've had my own negative views of New York of late, but Miami? Miami? Are you mad?

I'm sorry, but Miami will never be more, when all is said and done, than a white thong half glimpsed under see-through white pants on a J-Lo bimbo butt with a Donatella head. One bookstore, no fishheads (cute goths and vampyres though.) End of story.

I agree. Having haunted Miami when Collins Ave was filled with blue haired ladies, and there were stores everywhere selling the most gorge lawn ornaments (especially what seemed to be a thousand varieties of the black jockey holding the lamp), I say, "Another city ruined!"
The Delano INDEED!

Yikes! I didn't mean to imply that I PREFERRED Miami to New York, simply that I enjoyed its club scene, and it WAS a lot of fun. There is an element of sleaze and hedonism in the city's nightlife that reminded me of how things used to be here. Even Iggy Pop agrees on that. Of course, I was there during the Winter Music Conference when all the best and brightest DJs and clubgoers from around the world converge on the city, so undoubtedly I experienced the creme de la creme. Under ordinary circumstances I'm sure it isn't all that, but for the week that I was there - - truth be told - - it far surpassed NYC's barely-breathing, comatose and downtrodden club scene by miles! So sorry!

That having been said, outside of the clubs and the close proximity of the beach, Miami has nothing culturally to offer that NYC does: the opera, the ballet, the theatre scene, the art museums, the cultural diversity, etc. Also I was decidedly uncomfortable at times being smack dab in the middle of a hip-hop meat market, though I must admit I found the endless barrage of hoochie mammas working their Ninth Avenue streetwalker effects somewhat amusing. But I would never consider actually living there. In fact there is no place I'd rather live in the US than here. But Miami was a pleasant change of pace.

Europe, on the other hand, is a completely different story and have often thought of living there. But for now I have no real desire to abandon my city when it needs us the most, and especially with the upcoming change of administrations. There is hope.

oh honey, didn't mean to jump down your throat - you are certainly welcome to your opinion and certainly don't need to apologize for it. I guess I was just surprised, that's all.

I guess another thing I really hate about Fla. is the overt racism. In South Beach every time Johnny went down to DJ he would be wined and dined and put up somewhere like the Delano (or in happier times, The Raleigh) - the star treatment, right? But then at least once on every visit he'd be stopped and asked for I.D. just for walking down the street late at night. They once held him for an hour because he didn't have I.D. AT THE BEACH at sunset. And that's just a touch of "mud" as the white supremists so delicately call it - can you imagine being black there?

You mean Daddy isn't a black woman? I'm cornfused.

Daddy held for not having ID - appalling! I'm slightly surprised that this occurred in Miami, which apart from Key West is the only section of the state I've ever given a second thought to. The rest of Florida I've always dismissed as a frightening swamp of racist rednecks, Bible Belters, Disney theme parks and Republicans. And now the whole state is damned in my mind for the next 3 1/2 years for handing the presidency to George W. Bush. But Miami, with its heavy hispanic, black and gay populations, always seemed a different story - but I guess not. Sadly my mother just moved to Florida less than two months ago ... she sold the house I grew up in in Denver, Colorado and moved to a sleepy little town on the Gulf Coast called Tarpon Springs near Clearwater (ugh!), ignoring my impassioned pleas go east to the Miami/South Beach area (at least there I'd have something to do when visiting her besides lay around the house watching talk shows). I've put off visiting her there until the fall. I have another (dark-skinned black) friend who travels occasionally to Boca Raton on business. He is a highly-paid, successful and high-ranking executive in the international firm he works for, which has offices in Boca, and they arranged for him to have a condo there in an expensive development for when he is in town. Always he was harrassed by the groundskeepers and security there until they were all told explicitly by a higher up to be nice and furnished with my friend's name and likeness to avoid confusion. Now things are fine, but naturally it still gives him the creeps and he tries to avoid going there.

I'm kind of with Lux on this one. I love South Beach. I really do. I happen to love a white thong, half glimpsed under see-through white pants on a J-Lo bimbo butt with a Donatella head. And I love the Guido Meat Heads in baseball caps that follow them like sea gulls around a dead fish. It's hot!

Yes, I was harassed by the police twice for not carrying an ID. (And yes, one time was at the beach at Five PM, rediculious! I had on a bathing suit!) The cops are pigs, so are the girls! So are the guys actually.

What's not to like?

at least you can get good rice and beans in Miami

madonna: "vogue. I dont know where that came from" huh? you dont know where "vogue" came from? What the fuck are you talking about? This was in her gross-me-out period around 1995. Apparantly she had amnesia.

But snippage, you can get good rice & beans in Jackson Heights.