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Why I love New York City

Posted: August 19, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: blog | 14 Comments »

New York is infinite.

A human can only explore a place at a particular speed. The rate of change in New York exceeds the rate at which a person can possibly experience the city, and so it is impossible to run out of city to experience.

New York is a neighborhood.

At the same time, New York is a mosaic of wonderful little neighborhoods. What many visitors miss and all residents know is that you rarely have to walk more than a few blocks from home for any of life’s essentials, and enough people do the same that you find yourself saying hello.

New York is chaotic.

You are never the weirdest thing you see. The city will give you things to think about, and more. It is never boring, and you cannot take it for granted.

New York is opportunity.

Everyone comes through New York, eventually. Whatever food, material goods, or unexpcted experiences you look for can be found or made here, including Japanese Hotdogs, Cuban Chinese restaurants, salons only for curly-haired girls, and spontaneous art and even opera.

But what, no tech scene?

New York does have a thriving tech community full of wonderful people that I’m excited to work alongside for many years, but I fell in love with the city long before it belonged to us.

BTW, if you’ve seen Avengers or Batman, you know that no city is destroyed so beautifully as ours.

  • Red Bridge Studio

    “Everyone comes through New York, eventually.” My mother moved here and never left. To me the pace, food, and diversity that is NYC is normal. I wonder what it’s like for people who visit. As big as it is it does have a neighborhood vide. I amazed at the number of people “I run into,” in this big city. I spied David Beckham ( ok it was a silver statue), an actual friend, and two Jonas Brothers in span of two days and within a block of each other in the Flat Iron. 

  • http://twitter.com/chadfowler Chad Fowler

    I especially like “New York is infinite”. I live in DC near the Smithsonian. They saw the Smithsonian alone is similarly infinite. I think those who say it just aren’t running fast enough though :)

    • http://www.hilarymason.com Hilary Mason

      That sounds like a challenge! :)

  • http://twitter.com/chrisdary Chris Dary

    So true: “You are never the weirdest thing you see.”

    One of the best pieces of advice I got when moving here: “Don’t worry too much about how you look. You’ll never be the worst dressed person on the street, but you’ll never be the best dressed person, either.” Things like that make it really easy to be yourself.

  • Natalie Masse Hooper

    Very well written, it makes me want to live in NYC even more but sadly, it’s not a possibility right now (I am European and have no idea how both me and my partner could get work permits in USA, though we would like to). We’re doing the next best thing we can do, which is heading to NYC soon for a little holiday, so any recommendations for a couple of geeks? Cafes, venues, spaces, shops museums etc

  • http://twitter.com/jimhirshfield JimHirshfield

    Nice perspective…very refreshing, thanks for cheering me up.

    As for those movies – saw them both, and one thing that stood out as disturbing in both of them was the destruction on NYC. :-(

  • http://sanforddickert.com Sanford Dickert

    Completely agree. Long live Dinastina China!

  • http://www.venturevoice.com gregory

    Great summary of what makes NYC great. Have you read EB White’s essay Here is New York (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1892145022/ref=nosim/0sil8)? It’s my favorite ode to NYC, written in 1949 but most of it feels like it could have been written today. I give a copy of it to anyone I know who moves to New York.

    • http://www.hilarymason.com Hilary Mason

      I love EB White’s essay.

  • http://twitter.com/LSMiranda Luis Scott

    well said!

  • http://giffconstable.com giffc

    +1

  • http://twitter.com/kellan kellan

    Salons only for curly-haired *people*, they also cut boys’ hair, I know :)

  • http://twitter.com/clydemosst MOSST

    Planning on taking a trip to NY next year. Can’t wait. :)

  • Jeff Schmitz

    Hilary I have one word for you..Chicago

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