jesus christ, how are these "people" so scared of everything? so scared of having to interact with your community?
I went as a fat cracker australian tourist and it was this easy:
land domestic flight
catch train to brooklyn, ride train like normal person while literally carrying suitcases and backpack
stumble into random building in darkness to find accomodation
wake up, google closest atm/bank
withdraw literally hundreds of dollars on the street because you need to carry cash in your shithole country
put cash in wallet like a normal person
buy bagel
get drunk
wear small day backpack for 5 days straight to carry water and snax
buy deli sandwich
buy the guy next to me a beer at WWE raw in MSG because he was cool and didn't smell (particularly notable for wrestling fans)
get drunk
ride subway a few more times
give unhoused dude a 20 because i was actually forced to carry cash
leave
As a Jew, I can confirm this. While I was smart enough to keep quiet about my Jewish heritage growing up, I was still very much an outcast in high school and I remember talking with an uncle's neighbor about how I would love to live in NYC and he mentioned that cities are for "freaks and elitists" (Not only am I smart enough to know 'elitst' is codword for something else, but you're NOT being an elitist by looking down on nonconformists) and "we'll teach you how to be a real man here in the country."
One of these days I'm going to GTFO and live somewhere with my fellow weirdos, and I don't care if I'm broke in the process.
I've visited New York and Long Island before, but outside of Hawai'i. In my experience, the sense of community there is as good as it gets in the US.
It's a shame property values are so high there, because I would have gotten myself a 1-bedroom apartment there the NANOSECOND I graduated college instead of wasting half of my 20s rotting in a conservative rural/suburban shithole.