Why do many books set in New York assume other people know the city? in Thoughts, wishes and things

I’ve started avoiding books set in New York now. Yes, actively avoiding!

This is because I’m getting tired of so many authors assuming that people either a) know about the local stuff they’re talking about in their story or b) care enough to find out and look it up.

It’s one thing to add a bit of local color into your story. It’s another to assume the reader knows about the difficulties of getting from downtown or wherever into Manhattan. Or for that matter that they’ll even know about whatever bridge or tunnel it is that people need to take to go to the airport.

This is the sort of thing they could and should work into the story (e.g. “He knew at this time of day that it would be virtually impossible to get an Uber there, so he opted for the subway…”). That would be fine. But suddenly throwing bridges and tunnels at us at the last minute during an action scene while assuming we’re somehow already familiar with them... No. Just no.

Only a small percentage of the world’s population lives in New York. Only a small percentage of the U.S. population lives in New York for that matter. There are far more people living outside of New York than inside of it.

Sure, most people have heard of New York. That’s not at all the same thing as knowing about the different neighborhoods, or how long it takes to get from A to B, or knowing about the bridge or tunnel or whatever.

I’m sure this is a case of just a handful of writers doing it, not all of them. I’m sure a lot of writers are more considerate of their readers. But I’ve been burned enough times that for now, I’ll just avoid books set in New York. And just as the majority of the population does not live in New York, it seems like the majority of the books written are not set in New York, so it’s not really much of a hardship I’m imposing on myself.