Life After Flushing
Before I moved from New York City in 1996 I lived in a section or neighborhood of the borough of Queens in New York City called Elmhurst; however, because of the zip code on my address the US post office placed me in an area called Flushing. I guess the US mail considers Elmhurst to be part of Flushing since the two neighborhoods are adjacent.
I was born and raised in New York City. I grew up in Brooklyn. I lived in every borough of New York City except Staten Island. I lived there for a large part of my life. I thought I would never leave. I even thought I would die there. I had thought about leaving but at the time I couldn't imagine moving and living elsewhere. I traveled to other places but none of them were anything like New York City with the possible exception of Hong Kong. Some friends and family had told me that I could never live anywhere else. They couldn't imagine living anywhere else. It had everything. Some of them said it would be crazy for me to live outside of New York City. They said I'd never survive outside of New York City.
But then circumstances took me to Boston. I lived there for about 9 years. It turned out that it wasn't all that different from New York City but there were some things that are different like the subway system not being availabe 24 hours or not having a good kosher deli that serves a great pastrami sandwich for example but those are minor inconveniences.
In 2005 I journeyed across the North American continent to go to Alaska, Juneau to be exact, a small town in the southeast panhandle. I've been in Juneau for over 3 years. I thought I would be commuting to work in a dogsled every day but that turned out to be not the case. People told me I was even crazier to go there but so far things have worked out fine.
Having lived outside of New York City for over 12 years proved all my New York friends who thought I couldn't do it wrong. There are some things that I do miss about New York City like my family, the various cuisines and food, 24 hour access to many things, the culture and a few others. What I don't miss about New York are the 6 times I got mugged (twice at gunpoint), the 3 times my family's home was burglarized, the uncounted times my car was broken into, the horrible traffic (actually Boston was worse) and just the hectic and stressful lifestyle that New York City demands (most New Yorkers have a love hate relationship with the city.) Ever since I came to Juneau I notice that I didn't have to stand in line as much.
I was born and raised in New York City. I grew up in Brooklyn. I lived in every borough of New York City except Staten Island. I lived there for a large part of my life. I thought I would never leave. I even thought I would die there. I had thought about leaving but at the time I couldn't imagine moving and living elsewhere. I traveled to other places but none of them were anything like New York City with the possible exception of Hong Kong. Some friends and family had told me that I could never live anywhere else. They couldn't imagine living anywhere else. It had everything. Some of them said it would be crazy for me to live outside of New York City. They said I'd never survive outside of New York City.
But then circumstances took me to Boston. I lived there for about 9 years. It turned out that it wasn't all that different from New York City but there were some things that are different like the subway system not being availabe 24 hours or not having a good kosher deli that serves a great pastrami sandwich for example but those are minor inconveniences.
In 2005 I journeyed across the North American continent to go to Alaska, Juneau to be exact, a small town in the southeast panhandle. I've been in Juneau for over 3 years. I thought I would be commuting to work in a dogsled every day but that turned out to be not the case. People told me I was even crazier to go there but so far things have worked out fine.
Having lived outside of New York City for over 12 years proved all my New York friends who thought I couldn't do it wrong. There are some things that I do miss about New York City like my family, the various cuisines and food, 24 hour access to many things, the culture and a few others. What I don't miss about New York are the 6 times I got mugged (twice at gunpoint), the 3 times my family's home was burglarized, the uncounted times my car was broken into, the horrible traffic (actually Boston was worse) and just the hectic and stressful lifestyle that New York City demands (most New Yorkers have a love hate relationship with the city.) Ever since I came to Juneau I notice that I didn't have to stand in line as much.
...ktlam...
April 26, 2009
1 comment:
I guess New York life gets habit-forming for some. The late Isaac Asimov grew up there, although he was born in Russia, moved away, but returned eventually, and somewhat immortalized a kind of NYC experience in The Caves of Steel. I've always had a love hate relationship with NYC, not that I ever lived there for long; spent a few summers there working. But my parents used to drive us in every weekend to see relatives and do Chinatown.
Traffic in both cities is horrendous. Never did any driving in NYC. Generally, Cambridge traffic is better than Boston during the day, but you could say the same of the other boroughs and Manhattan.
The overall arc of my life is opposite from yours. I lived in Princeton and other exurban-suburban places, never thinking I would like in a city. Well, where I live isn't like NYC or Manhattan, but it's more urban than I thought I'd like.
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