Melt Down

I took the C train downtown the other day. I wanted to see if the doom and gloom dominating the news was playing out on Wall Street. I wanted to see if I could make the despair somehow more "real." Took me about 35 minutes. Not a depairing figure in sight. Lots of tourists (many of whom I obligingly photographed). No one pronouncing the end of time, not even the end of America. Just me and the tourists.

I understand that an upright New York Stock Exchange does'nt mean the economic melt down is a fantasy. I also understand that many people's savings have surged south. But I don't know anyone who's lifestyle has taken a radical change for the worse. Maybe Im just lucky. It's just that the "crisis" seems contained to CNN. What is real is the sense of impending disaster. I wait for the worst that is yet to come and am told it will be awful.

My greatest fear is that New York will again become the place I left 25 years ago. I won't list the urban ills that characterized the City of the 1980s, but I've already decided I won't leave. It's New York!! Where else can you find a McDonald's with a Chrystal Room and a pianist serenading guests. Or a free-wheeling dog fair, replete with dog mazes and contests and tons of dogs. I guess Im here to stay and, fortunately, Im not alone.

Autumn--Thank God

Sorry I've been absent. Literally and figuratively. It's funny. Out in the 'burbs, my home for more than twenty years, cocooning was something we did when winter set in with its heavy hand. I think the opposite may be true in the City. New York's heavy hand seems to reside somewhere in the humidity of July and August. Its not that the weather is unbearable--it's just unpleasant. So hunkering down, whether in an air conditioned apartment or movie theater, or, if you're lucky enough, in a summer retreat, seems to be the norm.

As I noted earlier, summer in the City is not without its pleasures. But those pleasures are so much more enjoyable in September. Things to watch out for now that cooler breezes have returned include:
Birds--Central Park is a birder's paradise. Spring and fall migrations fill the trees with countless visitors.
Street Fairs--Autumn is prime time for these feeding frenzy venues. At least that's how I view them. They also offer up notable crafts, cheap underwear and beautiful hand-made sweaters, but it's the zeppoli that turns my head.
Lincoln Center--Everything cultural returns and you'd be surprised how captivating opera can be. And ballet. And chamber music. And jazz.
Tourists--The absolute pleasure of watching others watch my city. They even watch the squirrels. And did I tell you about the parents, who patiently waited for the C train, while their children impatiently yelled "so where are the rats? You said there were rats!" I Love NY

PS.: Keep a lookout for my article on "Urban Nesters" in the fall issue of Empty Nest Magazine. www.emptynestmag.com

Back from Vacation

I just got back from the Canadian Rockies. They're beautiful, pristine and filled with wildlife. You'd think that for me, a person who loves to hike, search out animals, breathe in the pine scented air--that for me, a return to the City would be heavy with regret. But its not!!

The ease with which I hiked around mountains and lakes came from the miles and miles I cover daily in Manhattan. My patience in ferreting out elk and moose was honed birding in Central Park. The pine scented air? Well, that was especially nice, and can be sampled near the Great Lawn in an area called the Pinetum.

OK--New York is definitely not the Canadian Rockies. And in truth, I can't wait to get back. But would I trade it for my home on the Upper West Side? You can't get egg white omelets or bagels and nova in Banff and you can't catch an internationally acclaimed foreign film in Lake Louise. You can't make fun of the tourists in Jasper (you're one of them) and you can't argue politics with a cab driver in Kananaskas.

Vacationing in the Canadian Rockies was wonderful--and so is living in New York. I'm just incalculably lucky to be able to do both.

Summer in the Park

Did you ever feel like you were in a painting? I felt like that once in a Paris park--surrounded by beautiful flowers, beautiful children and a beautiful day. And I felt like that recently in New York. New York? Yes, in Central Park. It happened when my quiet Saturday evening stroll was overwhelmed by the sights of a hillside covered with thousands of runners in the Corporate Challenge, and, a bit closer, by a meandering Shakespeare troupe with its meandering audience, and by groups of picnickers with beautiful children chasing the resident waterfowl, and in the water, by a number of mallards paddling beneath the stare of a visiting egret. All framed by the graceful sweep of swaying, weeping willow trees. It was a painting and I was in it.

I'm not sure what percentage of New Yorkers leave on the weekends between July and August; I know it's not a majority, but, to my way of thinking, they've no idea what they're missing.

Welcome

As part of a growing trend of empty nesters to the Big Apple, I thought it would be interesting to open a dialogue with other transplants to see how we're all faring. How we've adjusted to the noise, the crowds, the pollution. To the fact that most New Yorkers go out for the evening at 10pm and that stores don't open til 11 the next morning. That the subways, though fast, require a hefty stairway climb and that parking garages cost almost as much as our apartments.

And, in spite of the negatives, how many times a day/week do we have our "I Love NY" moments. When we pass a high-end stroller with three of the most adorable pooches in it or happen onto an unexpected festival and parade--replete with exotic food and dancing and music. Or simply enjoy the very real pleasure of a leisurely walk home from a world-class movie, ballet or show on a balmy evening when the younger residents have headed East to the Hamptons. For me, New York is inarguably the best city in the world and I feel extraordinarily luck to be here. How about you?