An October 28, 2009 Wall Street Journal editorial titled “Escape From New York” opened, “An old saying goes that the time to live in New York is when you’re young and poor, or old and rich—otherwise, you’re better off somewhere else.” The old and rich can afford to live in New York City; the young and poor get by with their parents’ help, or their friends’ help, or on social services.
The logic behind the “old saying” is well known, but the saying itself appears to be rarely used.
Google Books
Final Approaches: A Memoir
By G. C. Hensley
Auckland, NZ: Auckland University Press
2006
Pg. 40:
New York was a rather disagreeable place to visit but it was a great place to live. That is, if you were young and poor, as we were, or if you were old and rich.
Wall Street Journal
REVIEW & OUTLOOK
OCTOBER 28, 2009.
Escape From New York
A new study says taxes are driving people away.
An old saying goes that the time to live in New York is when you’re young and poor, or old and rich—otherwise, you’re better off somewhere else. That wisdom is getting an update this week from a study by the Empire Center for New York State Policy that shows middle-class people leaving the state in droves.
Above, a 1934 plaque from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem. Discarded as trash in 2006. Now a Popeyes fast food restaurant on Google Maps.
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Above, Big Apple Corner at 54th Street and Broadway in Manhattan. Google Maps. Stolen and missing, 2021-2024.
Above, John J. Fitz Gerald, from the Aug. 15, 1931, Binghamton (NY) Press, pg. 14.
Listen to Robert Emmerich introduce "The Big Apple," a hit song from 1937. Music written by Bob and performed by Tommy Dorsey's Clambake Seven with Bob on piano. Lyrics written by Buddy Bernier and sung by Edythe Wright. Audio provided by Dorothy Emmerich.
Also listen to a 1937 "The Big Apple" song by Ozzie Nelson and his Orchestra. See a 1929 photo of John J. Fitz Gerald and a 1931 photo of John J. Fitz Gerald.
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