EA - An EA's Guide to Visiting New York City by Alex R Kaplan

Welcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: An EA's Guide to Visiting New York City, published by Alex R Kaplan on July 19, 2023 on The Effective Altruism Forum.Note: We (The EA NYC Team) are posting this on the suggestion from this Forum post calling for more public guides for navigating EA hubs. This guide is not a representation of the views of everyone in the community.Read on for a basic overview of the EA community in New York City. Whether you are visiting, planning to attend EAGxNYC (applications still open!), have just moved here, or are considering moving, we hope this guide will provide some helpful context on our community. That said, please comment or message us if we're missing anything - there's a lot happening here and it's hard to capture it all!And if you are planning on being in or have just arrived in NYC, get in touch with us! We're here to help support and connect the NYC EA network. We think there's a really special community here and Rocky, Alex, and the whole team would be happy to help you find like-minded New Yorkers.OverviewAbove: map outlining NYC's five boroughs. Credit: Wikimedia CommonsNYC itselfNew York City comprises five boroughs: Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, and Staten Island. Each borough has its own character, as do the individual neighborhoods within the boroughs, but they are all part of New York City and are served by a united city government and public transit system. Manhattan is at the heart of the city, and is what most people think of when they think of New York City.There are also several areas immediately outside of the city that are very accessible by public transit, such as Jersey City, Hoboken, and New Jersey's suburbs, suburbs on Long Island (Nassau and Suffolk Counties), parts of the state of Connecticut, and suburbs in upstate New York (ie. Westchester, Putnam, and Dutchess Counties).Each of these areas is made up of many smaller neighborhoods, which vary dramatically in demographics, building styles, and activities.The EA community in NYC is very spread-out, and includes people in all of these areas and sometimes beyond.Of the five boroughs, Manhattan is the most densely populated, generally has the best accessibility, and usually has the most going on during the day (including anything from university research and co-working to tourism and EA NYC events). It will typically be the most expensive place to stay.Brooklyn (especially northwestern Brooklyn closer to Manhattan) and Queens (especially southwestern Queens closer to Manhattan) are also pretty centrally located and would allow access to co-working from cafes/libraries, more residential neighborhoods where some community members live, as well as more recreational options like dancing, performances, and bars.New Jersey (especially eastern New Jersey closer to Manhattan) can also provide more affordable living and decent access to Manhattan.Staten Island and the Bronx: EA NYC usually sees less representation from these boroughs, likely due to the greater geographical distance from events.A quick note on safetyMost New Yorkers consider the city very safe (to the point that our team almost forgot to mention this), and the data supports this.Overall, New York is a very safe city (despite what others would have you believe based on misconceptions rooted from 40 years ago). Being a major city that covers ~300 square miles, New York is not without any crime, but given its population, NYC has relatively low crime rates.Nevertheless some travelers reasonably ask us about safety. For visitors with less urban experience, any city may be a shock. And while New York is quite safe by US standards, it may not be as safe as some European or East Asian cities to which some visitors are accustomed. Most of this difference is attributable to crime in low-income areas unlikely to be seen by t...