Why I Left New York.
What do you do when the place you’ve called home becomes unrecognizable? The longer I lived in New York; the more I noticed the state I once loved was changing for the worst. I am all for change but only when that change is moving in a positive direction. This hasn’t been the case with New York. The place I’ve made some my fondest memories had become a place strange to me.
New York was already an expensive place to live, even in upstate New York the cost of living is outrageous. Especially when you are trying to raise a family. You couple that with rampant drug abuse, corrupt politicians, lack of opportunity and it’s hard to find reasons to stay. The beauty of the mountains didn’t outweigh the mountain of problems that came with living in New York.
As much as my distaste for New York grew; I stayed mainly because most of my family was in New York and there was part of me that hoped New York could be redeemed but then something happened, and I realized it was time to leave.
Toward the end of November of 2020, I began to show symptoms of COVID-19. I had recently travelled out of state, and I worked at a place that put me in close proximity to those who may have had COVID, so it wasn’t out of the realm of possibility I could catch it. I decided to get tested to be sure. I went down to a local urgent care and requested a COVID-19 test. The Doctor swabbed my nose and sure enough, my test came back positive. I was informed that I would have to quarantine for 14-days as per CDC Guidelines at the time. Fortunately, I lived in a house where I could safely quarantine away from my family in an isolated room with a separate bathroom.
During my time in quarantine, I received a call from NYS Contact Tracers. They started asking me pretty standard questions regarding my symptoms, which I had no issues answering, that is, until they started asking for the names and birthdates of everyone in my household. Now, I am aware why they would ask but I didn’t believe it was any of their business, especially since I was doing everything feasibly possible to mitigate the risk of exposing the rest of my family to the virus. So, I declined to share that information with the contact tracer.
What I wasn’t expecting was the contact tracer to aggressively keep pushing for the names of my household. I repeatedly declined to disclose my family’s identity. You would think, they would have respected my right to privacy but they didn’t. The woman on the other end of the line proceeded to threaten to call the cops on me if I did not provide her with the information. She said, “If you don’t provide us the names; we will have the police get them for us.” I was stunned by what I was hearing and I honestly thought she was bluffing so I ended the call.
What happened next was one of the catalyst that led my family I to leave New York. The woman followed through on her threat to call the police. The police showed up at our home. My wife and mother-in-law answered the door. The officer shared they were called by NYS Contact Tracers to gather the information from their original request. Reluctantly, my family provided the names and the officer went on his way.
This event shook my family up. Now, the officer who answered the door was kind but it didn’t change the fact that NYS Contact Tracers sent the police to our home and the police went along with it. This was something you’d expect to happen if you were living in Nazi Germany but not the United States of America. Now, if this were a one off incident, It still would have been unsettling but it wasn’t. I came to discover others who had also had negative experiences with the contact tracers. I shared this story via TikTok and my video amassed nearly 30,000 views. After sharing, I had people commenting their interactions with the contact tracers.
One user shared: I was threatened by the health department too. I was told to “stay home or else” in a text from a health department worker.
The same individual went on to share how the health department contacted her children’s pediatrician and he stopped seeing them as patients.
Another user wrote: We were threatened too. I told them to send the cops no problem. They can come to the front gate, after that, it’s trespassing. I never got called again.
Several other users shared they were asked obtrusive questions they didn’t feel comfortable answering. What we experienced wasn’t an isolated incident, but an incident that was similar to others. All I could think about after this occurred was that I never wanted my family to be in a situation where this could potentially happen again, and I had zero faith New York State wouldn’t cross that line.
We, like many New Yorkers set our eyes on the South. We already had family that made the move years ago and they shared how things were pretty much normal, which was a stark contrast to life in New York.
It became clear to my family and I the New York we we’re living in was not the New York we once knew and loved. We had already been struggling to be able to make ends meet, between the taxes and the overall cost living; we recognized living in NY was unsustainable. The incident with the contact tracers was just the final nail in the coffin of an already tumultuous relationship with NYS.
We also believed God’s hand was guiding us away from New York to a place we can raise our daughter with peace of mind and as fate would have it, all the pieces lined up for my family and I to make the move down South. After many hours of prayer, we knew God was leading us down South. We found a beautiful neighborhood to build the home of our dreams. And I, by the grace of God, managed to pass one of the most challenging exams of my life. Passing this exam earned me a certification that opened a career opportunity we had been praying for. It also just so happed that several family members who we’re also disenchanted by New York decided they were moving too.
Everything lined up for our family to leave and we did just that. We left New York and started a new adventure down South. I can’t sit here and say I don’t miss New York. There are days where I miss the cascading mountains and fall foliage. There are days where I really just want a New York bagel and authentic New York Pizza. There are certainly days where I find myself missing the friends and family who are still in ?New York but I know in my heart-of-hearts this was the right move for our family.
I don’t know if things will get better in New York. My prayer is they do. My prayer is that enough people wake up and change the way New York State is Governed. I don’t know if New York can be redeemed but what I do know is I will follow God and protect my family from being casualties of New York’s insane Covid-19 policies, skyrocketing cost of living and poor quality of life.
Maybe you should too?
It could only be a matter of time before they show up to your door.