Ah, where to begin. You know, I'm proud to be an American and I love this
country. The beauty of the land is awesome. It goes from mountains to
seashores, from forest to plains and from desert to rain forest. Many people
tout the specialness of the particular corner of the USA that they live in.
I can revel in them all. Most of us do and can. For some reason, this
seems not to be the case with my home, New York City. People say it's too
crowded,
too noisy, too expensive, too dangerous, too competitive, too ...... well, you
can
fill in your own word here. This common
attitude is dead wrong. New York City is a glorious place to live!
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What I love most about New York is the people. I dare say every racial and
ethnic
group is represented here. New Yorkers come in all flavors and from all walks
of life.
Some of us are poor, some rich, some even crazy. The point is, no matter who
you are,
you will fit in here. I love being able to walk down the street and meet all
kinds of
people. Doesn't matter what you think or feel, there'll be New Yorkers on all
possible
sides of the issue. And, I might point out, expressing their viewpoints in many
different
languages! Everybody fits in here.
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There are oases of green and quiet right in the heart of the City -- sometimes
in the most unexpected places. Just when you think that you are surrounded by
bleak stone and concrete, a "daffy" surprise leaps out at you. Or, perhaps,
the soft hiss and gurgle of a two story high waterfall in a pocket park that is
sandwiched between two high rises flashes a sunlit invitation to passersby. We
have oodles of parks and greenery. Many buildings have shallow flower
beds/bushes between their front walls and the sidewalk. One nearby block
plants corn and tomato plants around curbside trees. The varieties of fauna
are plentiful enough that there have been outdoor classes in Central Park to
demonstrate what grows there that is edible. I guess you could say that New
York is for the birds. Everyone knows about the pigeons, but we have all kinds
and types. Oh, yes, those geese land here too. There seem to be hundreds of
small wrens and teenier birds that live in the low bushes along the building
fronts on our street.
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One of my favorite places is the long walkway along the East River, on the
other side of the East/Harlem River Drive. It starts in the sixties and goes
way up into the hundreds. (20 blocks make a mile!) It includes the Carl
Schurtz Park, with Gracie Mansion (the Mayor lives here) inside its upper edge.
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