Nix New York City 2003

NIX NYC is documentation of a changing life. I was living in Gramercy in the early 2000s. I had successfully transitioned from being a hungry (but not starving) artist to being a freelance communications consultant and trainer. My client list was filled with recognizable household names, and my client base was growing. All of that changed after September 11th.

Companies had stopped spending money on training prior to Y2K. When 1999 passed without a computer catastrophe, companies started hiring full-time web teams. Almost all at once, several large clients pulled the rug out from under me, and I ended up struggling to make ends meet.

apartment full of stuff — Last days in my NYC apartment.

apartment with less stuff — Last days in my NYC apartment.

“Just take any job to stay in the city,” an acquaintance advised.

It was fair advice. However, from my perspective, that suggestion came from a person who was clearly unhappy and drinking a lot. Still, I had a choice to make: take any job to stay in NYC or sell everything and travel.

I wanted to travel more than I wanted to be a New York City resident, but my idea of becoming a traveling storyteller seemed pretty far out there.

The hashtag #Vanlife didn’t exist yet, because there was no such thing as Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Kickstarter, or Patreon.

Unsure about what to do, I conducted an informal poll on nyc.craigslist.org by driving people to my website and having them fill out a form over the course of one weekend. Strangers are very frank, and many people answered my question: “should I stay or go?”

View the poll results, and check out stuff that got sold.