I live on the Upper East Side in the middle of a pretty block.
If you go west, all is clean and peaceful, doormen sweeping, hosing down the pavement. Seasonal flowers planted on each esplanade.
However, if you go east, it’s a whole other story.
Between jackhammers digging up the street, breaking pipes like it’s a way of life. Swarms of commuters, faces buried in their phones, pushing their way, without pause nor apology. The professional panhandlers, every few feet, begging and perfecting their wanton wails, even though we see them later, jumping into taxis.
A new guy has joined the team who, when you say no, screams…you hunky bitch…you white, rich bitch…you can’t give me nothin?
Me, with my Starbucks card still filled with birthday presents, I’m betting Don Rickles has more cash than I do.
How can you live there? I’m often asked. Aren’t you afraid?
Actually no. Do I need to be careful and watch my back, like in any jungle? Absolutely. Is it pleasant to be accosted that way, whether it’s about money or noise, rudeness or crowding, just trying to get down the street?
I hate it, grateful I can meander the other way where civility is not yet a thing of the past.
What can I say?
I love New York. It’s my home, even when she belongs in rehab.
SB
Wouldn’t suit me.
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You’re such a country boy. I guess one gets used to anything.
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In a world that too often makes us feel invisible, I welcome an occasional middle finger or rude comment, makes this girl feel alive. Country charm is nice, but city character is entertaining.
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There is such a thing as too much character. It truly is amazing how different the two blocks are. Like night and day. New York, with so many new high-rises going up, is beginning to look like Tokyo.
I’m not a country girl. This hunky bitch needs the noise on some level.
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Hahaha! Very true.
If there is a patch of free space look out because it doesn’t last long. We are constantly saying “Who are filling all of these spaces?”
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There’s a sickness to it. The noise alone is stunning let alone the 1000 new upper east side snotty neighbors I’ll soon have…ON THEIR PHONES. AYE
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Susannah, wherever one lives, there is the good, the bad, and the annoying. If I go east to go grocery shopping I’m treated to adults wearing pajama pants or overstretched yoga pants. Guys with teeth I could count on one hand follow me around. If I shop at the further store to the west it’s as though the Fashion Police have waved their magic wand.
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This really made me laugh, especially the teeth you can count on one hand. You’re so funny Skinny.
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The last one that followed me around had reddish dreadlocks, and with his darkish skin I though he might be mulatto. Upon closer inspection I discovered his pigment was due to dirt encrusted skin. If I had played my cards right he could have been mine.
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This is why we need our eyes checked on a regular basis…:)
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It does alter where you go. I wouldn’t go east unless I had to. To that panhandler I’d yell, “get a job!” Yeah, I’d fit in.
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I don’t succumb to panhandlers guilt I’m happy to say. It’s become such an obvious racket. A way of life. Sigh
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They probably have a better life than you!
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It would be interesting to do a survey since, I think like I said, much of it is a scam. An expose if you will.
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I say I envy you sometimes for all the culture and things around you, but I don’t think I could live there. I grew up in small towns too much. I like to visit New York, but that’s about it. 🙂
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I understand. It does get in your blood though, once you’re here. Oddly enough it’s always the place I feel safest. Go figure.
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I think you feel safe wherever you’re most comfortable. I feel much safer in any city in Korea than in Chicago, for instance.
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I understand.
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As I read your post, I was thinking that New York gets in your blood. You beat me to it with your comment above. John’s sister and her husband love the city and go any chance they get. They’d live there if they could. I just look at my mountains and sigh with pleasure.
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See, I don’t know any mountains but who knows, a romance could bloom if I met the right one…:)
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Much as I’d like to meet you, I’d advise you not to visit me. You’d fall in love with my mountains, and they’d love you right back.
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They sound very romantic, your mountains…:)
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They’re good looking!!
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The Gabor sisters of mountains…:)
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I try hard to remember that, out here where I live, “city” mean Indianapolis, 700K people big, but so small when compared to New York City. I cannot imagine so many people and that does not compare to like Hong Kong.
I knew a woman, older, who married and moved form the NY Italian section to Noblesville, IN – a thriving community of much less than 100K, out in the semi-rural area – and she lived outside it. She told me on her first night – in dead of winter – she got up in the middle of the night, her husband came to her because she was screaming. Her problem? She had opened the curtains and thought that everyone … was Dead.
Scott
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That’s quite a story.
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🙂
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I love New York and often wish I had taken up residence in the city years ago but didn’t think it was affordable. In retrospect, with all the money I’ve spent over the years on commuting, student housing for my kids, and hotels on occasion, I probably could could have paid off a condo by now.
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You just chose differently, that’s all.
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