For me THE CITY will always be New York, were I grew up, but have not been back for years.

 

After being away so long, I sometimes forget the magic of completely unexpected things (good and bad) happening at any time.

 

The blimp crashing into the building right in front of me....

The llamas tied to a parking meter...

The street magic, and dancing.

The street artists.

The street Music....

The different and often unknown foods at every turn...

 

I need to visit again in the summer, and wander.… Be a kid again, for a while.

 

 

I've only been in New York once.  My brother and I were there for a photography convention at the Javits Convention Center about 25 years ago.  We were demonstrating a computer program for sorting out slides for stock photo agencies.  We had rented a computer and two printers.

We were at our table and I was about to plug in the computer in the floor plug when I was stopped.  I was not allowed to do that.  I had to hire a union guy to plug the three devices into the plugs on the floor at $20.00 a plug.  And when the convention was over another $60.00 to have a union guy unplug them.

I've never been back.

Noel

Several visits but one that sticks out was in 1986 , dinner at this restaurant : https://ny.eater.com/2013/9/11/6547477/windows-on-the-world-new-yorks-sky-high-restaurant

I’ve been to NYC twice on 24hr layovers during the Christmas holidays.

First time was exciting because I’d never been there and was interested in seeing Time Square at night, Central Park, etc. 

I can say in all honesty that I’ve never been anywhere that was so dirty (especially underground in the tube), had so many rude people, felt unsafe when walking around, and listening to drivers honking there horns all the time.

Yeah I guess you could say it was neat to see once, but 24hrs in that city was more than enough for me. The second visit the following Christmas, also on a 24hr layover, was pretty much the same as the first.

I’ll be doing it again this Christmas Eve as I have another 24hr layover enroute to Paris. Considering how much worse the city has gotten over the past year or so, I’m not sure I’ll even leave the hotel until it’s time to go back to JFK.

I can see why it’s one of those cities that unless your really loaded, have a driver, and someone to run errands like grocery shopping, and can live either in a gated community in the outskirts or an exclusive high rise condo/apartment, it would be a tough place to live for people in the upper middle class and below.

Having said that, even if I had 50 millions dollars and could afford to insulate myself from the madness that lies beneath, I still wouldn’t want to live there. 

I used to be a city snob. Chicago, Manchester, Hamburg, Osaka etc. weren't even real cities compared to their respective number one counterparts. But I gradually changed. Right now the only city criteria for me is having a sidewalk, a traffic signal and a crossing for pedestrians, and maybe a McDonald's. Any place that has those already qualifies as being a city.

I still love the hustle and bustle of megacities, but beyond a certain point, 20, 30, 40 million people in a single urban area, it doesn't seem to matter anymore.

Some places I've never been to but that are still high up on my list though are Sao Paulo, Chongqing, Guangzhou, Kolkata, Mumbai and Rangoon (Yangon). Chongqing is by some measures considered to actually be the largest city in the World, but there doesn't seem to be any one size fits all measure. 

I'm very glad I made it to Jakarta a couple of years ago, and was able to walk around so much and use their BRT metro system. The Big Durian as its affectionately known, kind of like The Big Apple. 

Being in a very large city where you're forced to stay alert and have a 360 degree radar due to the crowds, motor scooters, construction work etc. is tiring but also incredibly fun for me. I guess kind of being forced to fully be in tune with the present moment.

 

I once, unfortunately, had the "opportunity" to work in Manhattan. God, how I hated it. Going there after spending 15 years in San Francisco was the culture shock of a lifetime. Once I left there I never went back. After all, everyone knows that San Francisco is "THE CITY". I'd like to post some pictures of  my most memorable moments there but the censors would probably delete them. Carol Doda lives.

Edited November 9, 20214 yr by W2DR
kant spel

I was there only one time with my sister and brother-in-law in 1995.  We were on a one week "Fall colors tour" started in Boston for 2 nights then to Portland. Maine for an over night, and finally coming down to the Town of Harrison, NY to spend 3 days with his family.  Harrison is in upstate New York.  We decided one day to take the train into the City.  Could not persuade any of the family to join us.  The train pulled into Grand Central Station and I was amazed.  Bustling and busy (it was a weekday).  From there we walked over to a subway station and took the train to the Staten Island ferry.  I think it was only 50 cents round trip.  No graffiti on the trains and didn't feel uncomfortable!

Took the subway and got off in SoHo (South of Houston) and walked through the Art district and then walked over to Little Italy for lunch. The trip ended in Washington D.C with a one day stopover and visit to the Smithsonian.

I don't think I need to see New York City again!

12 hours ago, johnbow72 said:

Several visits but one that sticks out was in 1986 , dinner at this restaurant : https://ny.eater.com/2013/9/11/6547477/windows-on-the-world-new-yorks-sky-high-restaurant

A not too unusual class trip for children in the city was to the World Trade Center. I remember windows on the world, and I also remember the floor-to-ceiling glass windows and people standing 6 to 10 feet away from them on their tippy toes trying to see down but unwilling to get too close.

There would always be somebody trying to push a family member or a friend closer, usually to squeals or screams of Terror.

I also remember the elevators in the building had to move so fast to get up and down in a reasonable amount of time that they would squish all of the air in the shaft, and when the elevator doors opened there would be this cyclonic wind that would halfway blow you out of the door.

Beneath the center, there was a whole world of what seemed like miles and miles of stores and restaurants, that us kids would run through on the weekends, exploring.

In fact there are several underground areas of the city, filled with stores and restaurants, that as kids we would wander through, especially to the penny arcades that were open then.

All the different foods and lights and colors!

I remember a movie theater we found as kids that played specialized movies that allowed the audience to choose the direction of the film by pressing a button on the seat.

And there was always the fascinating explorations of Chinatown, or Little Italy oh, and of course the different foods......

I used to wonder what horrible grudge Chinatown had against ducks, because they were hung from just about every restaurant window, like a mafia warning of doom to a rival (duck) gang....

I used to haunt a place, long gone now, called The Museum of Holography, where you could go in and there would be things like a microscope floating in mid-air in 3D that you could actually put your eyes up to and see things inside. Or a telescope that wasn't actually there, but you could still put your eye to it and see the stars.

Or maybe bicycle riding with your friends through Central Park on the weekends, when they closed it to motor traffic, and people were out playing music and eating hot dogs and roller skating, while the tourists rode by on the antique horse-drawn carriages..

The gigantic bookstores with up to five floors of books, they were so huge they actually needed elevators. I used to practically live in those places sometimes when I was a kid.

The bicycle rickshaws downtown, and the lights of 42nd street and all the movie theaters and shops..

Interestingly, some here seem to have seen mostly the bad, and yes, there is a lot of bad if you're looking for it, but there's also a lot to wonder about and explore and enjoy. Its kind of a shame that some who visited there missed the opportunity to see more of the good things.

Edited November 9, 20214 yr by HiFlyer

Many years ago I would take my "Employee of the Week" on an expenses paid trip from Jacksonville, FL to Newark/NYC for a two day adventure. This was back in the days of People Express when one-way tickets were $35.

In all honesty, this mostly was an excuse for me to fly!

Hi HiFlyer,

I guess you New Yorkers will always find someone from your hometown somewhere in the World. I just walked past this sign in Munich, Germany today, and it made me think of this topic.

I definitely miss bagels and pizza as well. I only lived in New York (Spanish Harlem near the Upper East Side) for a short time, about 3 months, but I really loved it. My apartment there was actually so quiet, surprisingly. Just a basketball court like 18 stories beneath me, so only a bit of noise in the daytime. The street was way off to the other side of the building though. Plus tons of little grocery stores and food places nearby. If you're lucky, you can have a really great life in the city.

Edited November 10, 20214 yr by Antipodeslonghaul
testing image posting, added text afterwards

For 39 years, I have lived in upstate NY, just a 3.5 hour drive from the city, and in all that time, I have only been into the city proper once. My wife and I spent 5 days there in 2016, seeing the sights and visiting some of her relatives who live in Queens.

We found a relatively affordable hotel on the upper west side just a few blocks from the Natural History Museum. Did the standard “tourist” stops - the Empire State Building, Times Square, Rockefeller Center etc, and as a Pastrami lover, I had to visit Katz’s Deli.

We got around exclusively on the subway, and while it was “OK”, it was nothing like the London Underground - (a city I have visited 6 times and love).

Now, I have been “near” the city many many times. There was a period in my aviation career where I was commuting down to Teterboro airport on an almost weekly basis to work on company aircraft based there, but I never had occasion to cross the Hudson into Manhattan on those trips.

Though I enjoy living in a semi-rural part of NYS, I certainly have nothing against large cities. I grew up in Southern California - but the ambiance of the west coast is completely different than the east.

I have spent quite a bit of time in other large cities here in the northeast - in particular Philadelphia and Boston, and enjoyed it, but for some reason, NYC just is not my cup of tea.

Edited November 10, 20214 yr by JRBarrett

1 hour ago, Antipodeslonghaul said:

Hi HiFlyer,

I guess you New Yorkers will always find someone from your hometown somewhere in the World. I just walked past this sign in Munich, Germany today, and it made me think of this topic.

I definitely miss bagels and pizza as well. I only lived in New York (Spanish Harlem near the Upper East Side) for a short time, about 3 months, but I really loved it. My apartment there was actually so quiet, surprisingly. Just a basketball court like 18 stories beneath me, so only a bit of noise in the daytime. The street was way off to the other side of the building though. Plus tons of little grocery stores and food places nearby. If you're lucky, you can have a really great life in the city.

So many places with outrageously weird pizzas..... You could find pizza with pretty much just about anything on them.....

And gyros.... REAL gyros on that rotating spindle instead of the frozen, prepackaged stuff they serve in other places..

I always worried about possibly of getting fat/plump, but I also walked so much there that anything I ate was pretty much burned off by the end of the day.

Still, there were so many things to try, and iconic restaurants' to visit. It was pretty much impossible to get bored, unless you were already just bored with life in general.

I want to get to Zabars deli, so bad.....

And Katz's.....

 

Edited November 10, 20214 yr by HiFlyer

The only thing I never had in New York City was an egg cream.  It contained no egg and no cream!  New York pizza is the best!🍕

 

On 11/9/2021 at 5:22 AM, W2DR said:

After all, everyone knows that San Francisco is "THE CITY".

Herb Caen's Baghdad By The Bay,

Noel

And Don Sherwood's Playground In Paradise. God, 1955 was such a great year to be alive.....Doug