My Love Affair With New York City

My love affair with New York City goes back as long as I can remember. Although I am a New Yorker -- born and bred -- I spent the majority of my childhood in Queens. But Manhattan was where I wanted to be. I can still smell the chestnuts when I would come out of the subway to go to Rockefeller Center. I remember the chaos/boredom of sitting in my father's car waiting for him to return from working at a job on the Upper East Side. I remember driving over the 59th Street bridge -- and it did look exactly like the intro to the tv show Taxi. I loved my City then, and I love it even more now.

For a long time, I've wanted to chronicle all of the neighborhoods in which I've had the opportunity to work or experience in some way. Each one has made a indelible imprint on my life. Actually, it's not exactly the neighborhood that has made the imprint -- it is the set of unique experiences I had in those neighborhoods that did that.

This may bore my few readers and by the time I'm done, it might get monotonous for them but this blog is actually for me, so here goes:

Battery Park City -- I loved this neighborhood long before people actually realized it was a neighborhood. Working there when I was 17 gave me my first independent experiences in New York City. I worked for the organization that managed the site and one of my monotonous jobs was to organize the photo library for the site. There is so much that can be learned from a few thousand photos. Anyway, I worked down there for three years and during that time my favorite place to be was in South Cove park. It was this beautiful haven that overlooked the harbor -- probably one of the most peaceful spots in all of New York City. At least, it was back then. It's crazy how a public park can give someone so much joy and contentment. The aesthetic of sea grasses combined with a little viewing bridge that mimicked the crown of the Statue of Liberty makes it one of my top 10 places in New York City.

Battery Park City is next to the World Trade Center site. And, yes, I walked through the World Trade Center every day on the way to and from work. I, too, felt at home in those towers and cried from the depths of my soul when the they fell in 20o1 -- more then 10 years after I left my job downtown. They were my towers in my City and then they were gone.

Upper West Side (West 80s) -- During my last year of high school, I was selected to participate in an internship program at which I worked at a place of business four days a week and on the fifth attended an enrichment seminar (I'll cover where I worked when I get to Hell's Kitchen). I had basically finished all of my high school requirements in my Junior year, so I had my Senior year available to take part in a cool program like this. Well, during that time, I was introduced to a college guidance program called Options based out of the Goddard Riverside Community Center in the West 80s. I fell in love with this neighborhood. I wanted to live in one of the beautiful houses on one of the blocks I walked down to get to Options. The houses were like the Huxtable's house on the Cosby show (that show was on the air at the time) -- and I wanted to live there. Well, fast forward 20 years, and I'm not there yet. Not sure if I ever will be. Maybe I'll take a walk there again soon. I wonder if it still looks the same.

To be continued...