Mexico City is Cooler than New York.

You might find this surprising, but Mexico City really is cooler than NYC. Objectively speaking, Mexico City is categorically way better. Here’s why:

1) The subway. Ridiculously efficient and cheap. We’ve taken the subway a bunch at off hours on the weekend, and we’ve never waited more than ONE MINUTE. Seriously. It’s out of control efficient. It’s spanking clean, doesn’t have funky smells or leaks, and the transfers from one line to another are not crazy maze-like walking tours. And did I mention CHEAP—it’s 20 cents, in dollars. 2 bucks NYC? According to our trusty guidebook, its’ the cheapest subway in the world, with 175 stations, 200 km of lines, and takes 5 million passengers a day (3rd behind Tokyo and Moscow).

2) It’s hip. Can you say Park Slope? Yeah. That’s what I’m talking about. Cafés, smoothie places, bookstore/restaurants, and yes, they even have hipsters here.

3) Open Space: the parks here are nuts. All over the place are trees and parks and people hanging out and making out. There’s the biggest Plaza in the world too. The city was built on top of the Aztec capital, so there are ruins popping out here and there. Mexican’s are also really into about grandiose monuments.

4) Museum Crazyness: walking around the Zocalo (the main plaza). DIEGO RIVERA has murals there that will knock your socks off. The Anthropology Musuem is famed for being possibly the best in the world, and I concur. Even the post office is totally out of control. According to lisa, the architecture is incredible. I don’t know anything about that stuff, but I’ll take her word for it.

5) Friendly. People here are super friendly. You can ask folks for directions or whatever and they’ll go waaaayyy out of their way to help you out.

6) There are yummy vegetarian restaurants.

7) It’s relatively cheap. When compared to NYC. Our hotel is 25$ a night, is spacious, and is in a cool area. I imagine that buying a condo here would be actually possible. Also, the peso is 10 to the dollar, which makes conversions easy.

8) The weather is amazing. It’s always beautiful here. It’s 7,300 feet up, so it doesn’t get too hot during the day, and at night it’s sweater time. Perfect for me.


Ok, so you may be asking, well, what about all the bad things about Mexico City? Ok, first, let’s look at crime. NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani and his team was actually hired (for $4.3 million) to cut down crime. According to the reputable Frommers guide website (whatever) “By 2002, Mexico City had reduced crime rates to 50% of 1994 levels, with only .02% related to visitors to the city”
Regarding pollution, I haven’t noticed. And remember, I’m that nosy environmentalist. The city now has an elaborate auto emissions scheme; cars have to be tested twice a year. And people are always asking about getting sick from the food—well, whatever. Obviously, it’s not a good idea to buy it off the street. I’m telling you, it feels like NYC, only better. The food is great and safe.

So really, what’s holding anyone back from living here? I have no idea. It’s rad. I was checking out places for sale today as we walked around. It is a Spanish speaking country, so you’d have to learn Spanish—but whatever, that’s fun and we should all speak several languages anyway, hello globalization.

In fact, I’m kind of angry with myself for not coming here sooner. I can’t believe I ever even considered living in NYC!