Oh yeah.. and without sounding like a crazy person here, I just want to add that in New York City, while smoking has been banned in all public places such as pool halls, clubs, bars, peep shows, etc. The taxes on cigarettes are INSANE.
A pack of premium cigarettes (Marlboro, Camel, etc) costs around $7.50 per pack, which means a carton of 10 packs in NY costs over $75.00 here. In Aruba, I get cartons for $10, same US cigarettes too. Also, all cigarettes in NY have these rings on the cigarette that put it out if you don't smoke it within a 15-20 second interval, so they have us on fucking "hurry up and finish it!" timers (it was put into play to stop the amount of cigarettes that cause the whole 10 house fires that crackheads cause each year for leaving their cigarettes burning near their gas stoves after passing out from the crack).
But the kicker of the whole smoking ban shit here is that now, instead of having less waste and garbage in NYC, we have an overflow of trash from discarded cigarette butts EVERYWHERE. Go to any hot spot in NYC from Thurs-Sun and outside any bar, club, loungue or social spot you will see HUNDREDS of cigarette butts in the gutter, on the curb, on the sidewalks, on the side of the buildings, etc. It's fucking nuts. And there are places to throw them out at, but there aren't any ash trays to put them out at, so there have been in increase in fires caused by cigarettes that get tossed into these cigarette garbage cans.
Also, where the country has been going through a huge cooling real estate market, NYC never cools down, ever. Rent here is on avg around $1300-$1600 per month for a STUDIO (one room with bed/couch, kitchen, table, etc, and a bathroom). Most 1-bedroom apartments go for $2k-$3k a month now. If you buy your place, say a 1BR in an avg area, you're looking at spending about $250,000-$550,000, and then you have to pay monthly "maintainence fees" of almost $1,000 a month, AFTER you've purchased your apartment. It's only a good market right now for home sellers and building owners. Homes will sell for an avg price of $750,000 now, in any of the 4 other boros (Brooklyn, Queens, Bronx and Staten Island -- Manhattan doesn't really have houses).
Yep. That's NY for ya.
/rant. For real this time.