New York can be everything to everyone. It has quiet places a plenty. Respite from the constant hustle and bustle. Noise is everywhere but there are plenty of places to sit in quiet meditation.
For the lovers there is romance, you can re-enact your own romantic movie in one or two of the many sights and sounds that reflect the scenes in films of times gone by.
The city is dirty though, the streets littered and shabby. It has a huge rat problem caused by the quantity of refuse a town of 8.5 million souls produces. Left on the street for collection by an overstretched workforce the bags of rubbish are home to many large and unintimidated rodents. We have been startled many times by them. It isn’t the city’s fault, nor is it the governance. It is just too many people. In a very small area.
But some here make a living sifting through the rubbish to collect plastic bottles and cans to be recycled for a cash return. So recycling is happening. Just not quickly enough!
I have walked a 150 miles in this city (google tells me so). Through all the different boroughs. And each one tells a different story. Little Italy, the Meatpacking District, Wall Street, the Lower East Side, the Rockerfellas, Chelsea they all have much history and wealths of tales to tell. Whether they describe the various uprisings, the Mafia, or the hardships and trials of the immigrants they are all story’s well told and heard.
The New Yorkers are friendly and extremely courteous, most of the time. Always keen to assist. Always proud to be of service. I like that. It is a warmer and friendlier place than London. But you cannot compare the two. Each is unique. New York has a certain charm about it that I did not find in London. Maybe it is because of the million movie references, maybe it’s the newness of it. Young, in comparison, it has formed itself from the embers of civil war and its struggle for independance only recently in the grand scheme. And it is still evolving today.
I would say that, all things considered. The rats, the filth, the omnipresent danger, the noise, the busyness, the constant negotiation of dog mess, it is a city I have grown to love. I can understand why people stay. I can appreciate the pride they feel. But I can also happily move on knowing that I have lived it, even for just a short time. I feel I know it now. It is not common to have this opportunity to experience another way of life for so long. And I will cherish it.
What can I say?
