I know there lots of people who are afraid of NYC, but most of them live in rural areas where the largest crowd they have ever seen has been at the State Fair. I lived in suburban Chicago until I was twelve when my family moved to Columbus, Ohio. I lived in Lincoln Park and worked in the Sears Tower in my twenties. Even after living in an urban area for a decade, I was still intimidated by the Big Apple. I was afraid I wouldn't know how to ride the subway. I was worried that I'd look like someone not from New York, that my clothes would scream "Tourist!" I was worried the people would be rude. I was afraid I'd get pickpocketed.
My family went to New York this week to visit colleges with Claire Adele. My well-traveled daughter loved Paris, London, San Francisco and Toyko. She hated Chicago because she thought it smelled like garbage. And yet, she had her heart set on going to college in New York City even though she had never been there. She thinks Chicago smells bad? She didn't know that the garbage in New York City is left in bags on the street to be picked up be sanitation workers in the middle of the night. In nicer neighborhoods, the garbage is neatly stacked up by the building superintendents and placed in color coordinating bags alongside the street. I should have taken a picture of the garbage on Park Avenue. It was double bagged with a clear bag on the outside. It was as if their garbage was designed by Paper Source or some upscale gift wrap and stationery store that I have never heard of.
We needed to make a trip to the City that Never Sleeps before we signed her up for four years and she would then discover that most of New York smells like garbage and urine, just like Chicago.
I had been dreading this trip. I was looking forward to the Washington, D.C. part, but not the NYC part. I was afraid of New York City not because of the smell, but because my uncle who lives in New Jersey made me terrified of it years ago. I was in New Jersey for work, and my aunt and uncle brought me into Manhattan for dinner.
"Don't make eye contact with anyone," he said. "Don't look at anyone." I didn't own a car at the time, and the only way I got around Chicago was via public transportation. I knew how to be aware of my surroundings, but I wasn't paranoid. I had encountered hundreds of people with mild to severe mental illness on busses and trains. We had a small coterie of homeless men who camped at the corner of Clark and Belden for years. Everyone in my neighborhood knew the "Spare Change" guy. Like the other vagabonds, Spare Change was harmless. The scary part of Chicago wasn't the occasional bipolar homeless guy, but the sociopath who raped and murdered a young woman in her apartment in my neighborhood. That was what scared the crap out of me.
(My roommate Kelli and I had a close encounter with a possible Jack the Ripper years ago. A guy with shaggy brown hair and a navy blazer pounded on our door telling us he needed to use our phone. When we looked through the peephole, he had his arms up on our door and his head down so we couldn't see his face. My spidey sense went into hyper-drive, and my heart was about to explode in terror.
"I don't think we let him in," Kelli said rather calmly as I was imagining the dangers lurking on the other side of the door.
"I don't think so either," I said as I calculated whether I should call the cops first or grab a knife for self-defense. We made it known that there were two of us there, and the guy left the building on his own after a minute when we didn't open the door.)
I digress.
New York smells horrible, but I loved it anyway. I am so shocked that it took me so long to want to visit it. It is just like Chicago, only bigger. The subway was fine--just like riding the El in Chicago. Everyone dresses however they want to dress, and no one seems to care or notice. The ninety-year-old woman at the MoMA guest desk was chatty and told us she loved Seattle. She told me I had a beautiful daughter and handsome son. We saw Come from Away again, and it was still brilliant. When we saw it a year and a half ago in Seattle, I told my son he was lucky to see a Broadway play before it got to Broadway. And now we saw it on Broadway.
I kind of hope my daughter goes to college here so I can visit at least once a year. I'll get tickets to shows, check out museums, and ride the subway.
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| 9/11 Memorial |
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| 9/11 Memorial |
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| Central Park -- Umpire Rock |
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| View from the Empire State Building |
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| Cannoli that came in a box with red and white twine |
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