Sunday, March 5, 2023

Why I Love New York

 RHYS BOWEN: Until I started writing a mystery series set in New York in the year 1901, I never really noticed the city around me. I visited, took taxis, ate, had meetings, saw shows, shopped and left again.

Now that New York is the place I write about, my senses are fine-tuned. In an apparently modern city of skyscrapers and speed, so much of that turn-of-the-century New York still exists. It is exciting to walk along Canal Street into the Lower East Side, and see streets still cobbled with the old granite blocks, tenements that would have housed immigrant families, corners on which gangs would have lurked.



I don’t even need to recreate the past in my mind. It is always recreating itself. Take the Feast of San Genaro, held in mid September on Mulberry Street in Little Italy. San Genaro, you may remember is the patron saint of Naples—the one whose blood liquefies on his feast day every year. Booths line the already narrow street, selling food and trinkets and clothing. There is even a freak show—fifty cents to see the world’s smallest woman or the snake lady! Good smells compete—huge sizzling curled snakes of sausage, frying onions, shrimps and clams, spaghetti and meatballs. The noise level is overwhelming as a tide of pedestrians shuffles forward, talking in all the tongues of the globe while brass bands and singers court the diners at the sidewalk cafes.

This is exactly how it would have been in 1901. My heroine, Molly Murphy, would have fought her way along this street, shopping at the pushcarts and booths, hearing a polyglot of languages spoken around her, watching out for pick pockets and feeling the life of the city energizing her. Perhaps it is a little cleaner underfoot these days. Litter is confined to fast food wrappers--no horse droppings or slops tossed down from tenements.

Since I’ve been an observer of New York, I’ve had a chance to detail what I like about it. Here are my top ten reasons for liking the city:

 

1.         It is a true city where living, working, eating, shopping all take place on the same block. In other cities the commercial areas are dead after working hours. Not so New York. It lives twenty four hours a day.

2.         Life is not confined to buildings. It spills out onto sidewalks and into parks. At the first sign of spring, tables and umbrellas come out onto sidewalks, people take their food into parks. They sit outside the public library playing chess. There are impromptu jazz bands and barbershop quartets in the subway at Grand Central and outdoor concerts in Central Park.

3.         It is a city of artwork. There are mosaics in the subway stations—my favorite is the Alice in Wonderland motif at 50th Street. Look up and you’ll see Egyptian temples, art deco medallions, Greek columns and marble frescos, sometimes eight or ten floors above ground level. For whom were the art deco goddesses and marble pediments intended? Certainly not the pedestrians who walk below and never look up as they hurry to the nearest subway. Not always the inhabitants of buildings opposite as some of them face blank walls. I like to think of them as a little offering to the gods above.

4.         It is a city of good smells. Every block has at least one good aroma wafting out of a café, or from a sidewalk cart—roasting coffee, frying onions, curry, sesame oil, baking bread. Luckily New Yorkers have to walk so much or they’d all be fat.

5.         New York is a city of dogs. They are not much in evidence during the day, unless one encounters a dog walker, being dragged down Fifth Avenue by six or seven of her charges. But early evening, the dogs come out, each with his accompanying human, whom he often resembles in stature and walk. Interestingly enough, there are more big dogs than small. You would have thought that dachshunds and yorkies would have been ideal for city life, but I see more golden retrievers and labs and standard poodles, even Afghan hounds. New Yorkers are well trained too. Not a speck of poop in sight on the sidewalks.

6.         It is a city of cheap eats and cheap shops. There are coffee shops all over where two dollars will buy an egg roll and coffee for breakfast. Even sushi bars offer two for one on weeknights. And T shirts with the famous I love NY slogan on them are now two for ten dollars. Of course I also saw a T shirt for three hundred dollars in Bloomies, so I have to say also that New York is…

7.         …a city of contrasts. On the bus old ladies from the upper East Side wearing tired looking furs and smelling of face powder and moth balls sit next to young men in baggy pants, gang colors and caps worn backward. Sometimes they look at each other and smile.

The hot dog cart on the street is only a few steps away from the most pretentious tea salon in the universe. Their tea menu is twelve pages long. When I ask for a Darjeeling, I am directed to a page full of Darjeelings and a First Flush, Robertson Estate is recommended. I am so tempted to take a sip, look indignant and exclaim, “You’ve brought me a second flush, you imposter!”

8.         It is a city of haste. Everything in New York is done quickly. People leap from sidewalks to snare cabs. They run down subway steps. They inch out into traffic and anticipate the Walk sign by a good two seconds. In  Bryant Park outside the library men play chess at breakneck speed. Knight to bishop two-ding, and the timer bell is slapped, Queen to rook four-ding. The whole game is over in five minutes. A crowd of men stands around, watching.

9.         It is also a city of quiet corners in which time stands still. There is a fair being held in a churchyard with home baked cookies and crocheted potholders. I once got locked, by mistake, in Gramercy park, which is the only private square in the city when I had stayed at the Gramercy Park hotel and gone there to regroup in the calm of nature. In Central Park proud moms and darker skinned nannies watch light skinned children play in the sand or climb the rocks. It is easy to get lost in Central Park, easy to forget that you are in a city at all.

10.  And most surprisingly for one who has visited New York for the past thirty years---it is a city of friendly people. These days people chat as they wait for buses. They see tourists puzzling over maps and ask if they need help. Bus drivers actually call out the name of streets intelligibly and answer questions when asked. A minor miracle has occurred—the one good by-product of a 9/11 that touched every New York life and forged and strengthened it with fire.

I only wish I'd been there to experience the time when my book was on that billboard in Times Square!


 

So are you a fan of New York? What do you like about it? Hate about it?

51 comments:

  1. New York is indeed all those things, Rhys, and, while I am not a fan of the frenetic pace and the crowds, I love the theater in New York. Of course, there are many towns and cities that host theaters, but nothing is quite like Broadway . . . .

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    1. Rhys: oh yes, Broadway. Spoiled for choice every time I’m there. And a single person can usually get in to sold out shows on the day!

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  2. I am a fan! I lived there for two years long, long ago, but it still resonates with me: I got to see two operas at the Met, a concert at Carnegie Hall, and I walked to the Metropolitan Museum of Art many times. (It still was free then. ) Like
    wise Central Park was an easy walk.
    I worked across the street from the main library and used to go over and browse on my lunch hour or after work. And I loved the subways. And what I noticed was that, in Midtown (affordable in the area where we rented, which I found out later was called, Hell,'s Kitchen), about every four square blocks made a village: shoe repair, dress shops, cafes and restaurants, used books, art shops, five and dimes. whatever. Not to mention corner kiosks selling knishes. So yummy. A nd bookstores like Brentano's, where you might spot a movie star. Also a walkable distance. It sounds like it still is a magical place.

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    1. Rhys: you’re so tight about a series of villages!

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  3. Thanks for today's tour, Rhys, as I don't know the city well at all. I've been maybe ten times. Now that travel is seeming a bit safer, I should go back.

    Have you ever been tempted to live there? And do you have a favorite boutique hotel?

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    1. Rhys: no!!! I am not a city person. I like looking out at mountains sand having lovely walks in nature. But I do enjoy a few days there occasionally

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  4. I grew up thirty-five miles outside the city. My father moved to Manhattan from the rural South in 1936. My parents met there just after the war and always adored it. My father worked there and commuted. I am the only one in a birth family of seven who not only never worked or lived there but avoided it always. I am rarely claustrophobic but I am overwhelmed whenever I am surrounded by concrete. (I pity the trees.) I have visited many times over the years for work projects or gatherings but have always been relieved to leave. I am aware this is a sadly provincial attitude. My husband grew up in Queens and loves to spend time the city. I prefer to visit it in films and books.

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    1. I feel the same way about cities! I live a quiet life, and it's so noisy all night in a city, any city.

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    2. Rhys: I agree about cities. I lived in Central London for 3 years and while I enjoyed a lot about it I had to escape to the country regularly

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  5. It's all that and more. For it's one of contrasts and hope.
    The privledged and those who make a good wage can afford posh neighborhoods, those on the lower rung of prosperity rely on rent controlled and subsidized housing or live in surrounding suburbs using mass transit to access the City for work and play.
    Hope springs eternal in the City that never streets. Industrious folks can and do climb the ladder to carve out a brighter future for themselves and their families. Those less fortunate have a robust social service network that sometimes fails them but most always helps the best it can.

    It is the sum of its parts that makes NYC one of the greatest urban centers in the world.



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    1. Rhys: what thoughtful comments! So true

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  6. thanks for that Rhys, now I'm dying to go back!

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  7. From Celia: I love New York! Perhaps I should be specific and say I love Manhattan as that was my first home on arrival in the USA. Thirty third and third 20th floor on the NE corner. Our tiny studio looked north with a clear view direct to the PANAM and Chrysler buildings. When Victor first arrived in 1967 helicopters were still in service from the PANAM building top but by the time we were married the service had ended so I never saw that sight. I took driving lessons and got my license while living there so driving in NYC has never held terrors for me. Go up Eighth at a steady 45 or so and you beat the lights for 20-30 blocks. I have lots of those little hacks. Need a loo? Public one’s were hard to find but dive into a hotel. Do NOT ask anyone where it is but head for the bar and comfort awaits. A tiny park off 5th. There’s a waterfall curtain streaming down the end wall, I sit here and the noise of traffic dies away behind the gentle flow of water. Drop by the Steuben gallery to see the most beautiful glass sculptures. These works of art are the gifts that US Presidents give to other heads of State. Let’s go downtown to Rhys Mollys’ home turf. Chinatown was my first eating out experience on arrival in 1969. A huge meal for two was$5. I’ve been up the Statue of Liberty into the crown but I think that’s no longer allowed. Visited Ellis Island, riden the Staten Island ferry, taken the Circle Line more times with visitors than I can count, eaten out in the Twin Towers lovely restaurant, enjoyed all the wonderful music made in all sorts of spaces. What a great way to start a Sunday, thank you Rhys. New York is all you said and so much more. This is my memory, I love living in Maine but I am a New Yorker at heart.

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    1. Rhys: wonderful, Celia. I know that little park! It really is a city of surprises, isn’t it? And the great views on the Staten Island ferry for free!

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  8. I’m not a city girl either. I visited NY once and was satisfied of the experience but I don’t intend to return.
    However I like reading books taking place in NY and I loved yesterday’s and today’s posts Rhys.
    I’m looking forward to read next Molly’s adventures .
    Danielle

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  9. My mother loved New York. She was born in the city in 1919 and lived there until the mid 1940's when she moved to the little, rural Connecticut town where my dad grew up. She had hundreds of stories about growing up in New York and living there during the depression. We spent part of every vacation there with my grandmother until I was in college. I have vivid memories of driving there from Connecticut, of looking out the window from Gram's bedroom at Christmas decorations strung across the road from every street light pole, of the opulent marble lobby in her shabby building, of walking across the GW Bridge and standing with one foot in NY and one in New Jersey, of the playground overlooking the Hudson River that our Great Aunt Fanny would walk us to when we were little, of the enormous tree and skaters in Rockefeller Center, of the Rockettes Christmas Show, of the Museum of Natural History and the car shows in Madison Square Garden, horseback riding with my friend in one of the big parks, and more.

    My memories are childhood memories because I have spent very little time there since. Having a bit of nostalgia here Rhys. Billy Joel's song NEW YORK STATE OF MIND always makes me think of my mother.

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    1. Rhys: horseback riding? Now that’s something I haven’t seen in NY!

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    2. Van Cortland Park, I think. I was probably 12 urs old so, 1959 or 1960.

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  10. I have been to NYC twice -- once was only a drive-through, the second time was on a business trip when we stayed at The Ritz and I shopped at Tiffany's just around the corner. That was sublime: what service (and all I bought was a mug, but it was handed to me with a smile and beautifully wrapped in the iconic box with a bow). A splendid memory. Some day, I'll go back and spend time there for restaurants, museums, and theatre.

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    1. Rhys: wow! That sound amazing

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  11. Small town girl here who has mountains in her blood--I can take large urban places in very small doses, although I appreciate the cultural and culinary adventures not available where I live. My Aunt Jo, born and bred in the hills, went to New York City with her younger sister to visit her sister's son (he was in med school there). Aunt Jo adored New York and said she'd move there in a heartbeat if she could afford it. Being able to walk out her door and have everything she needed in a block or two was very appealing to her!

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    1. Rhys: your aunt is right. You really can walk to everything you need

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  12. I am a New Yorker, born and bred and I love it for what you can get. I love that I want something at 1 in the morning, I can get it. Any time, any day, you can have it your way. I love that it is a walking town and no matter if you want the same street every day and every thing you see is different. The museums, the parks, the people, the office buildings, the holidays with all the decorations, it is an amazing city. There are downsides to the city but you have to make it your own. The one thing I like to do when friends visit, is take the Circle Line ride around the city and then head to Coney Island so they can see the other side. Head up to the Bronx to Yankee Stadium and then to Queens to see Shea Stadium, Arthur Ashe Stadium and the World's Fair Globe. And take the Staten Island ferry that goes by the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.
    What I hate about NY is the noise.

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    1. Rhys: I agree on the noise, Dru. My one complaint is the city that never sleeps! Those fire trucks at 2am!

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  13. Excellent reasons, Rhys! NYC is such a treat most times, with something for everyone.

    Green as grass at age 22, I became a buyer for a local chain, and was sent to the City for 3-4 days every few weeks. Back then the smells weren't all wonderful, and Times Square was a seething mass of sleaze, with live and cinematic sex shows nearby. I usually took a cab from Midtown where I worked all day to my hotel, which was around the corner from Carnegie Hall. But one day I walked there, and had to pass all those XXX signs. Eye-opening. Pre-Giuliani, who is an idiot now, but he was once good for NYC.

    So many people told me they "hated" NY because the people were rude, similar to the complaints about Paris. But I never experienced that kind of treatment either place. My daughter was stunned when I had interesting conversations on the subway, and one conversation in a restaurant that got us an off-menu egg cream, and a table that very night at a restaurant that required reservations weeks in advance.

    Now I want to go back again, and in addition to visiting with a dear friend (who is so enchanted with the subway mosaics that he used to post one every week on Instagram), I want to find Patchin Place, eat in Chinatown, and do a million things I've not gotten to do on a previous visit. It's impossible to do everything the City offers in one lifetime!

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    1. So strange, isn’t it, Karen? He was good for New York! It became a safe, cleaner, friendly place

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    2. Hey, Karen and Edith, count me in!

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  14. A beautiful picture of a city I love and miss. I still visit the area because my kids live outside the city, but I don’t get into town very often. I feel the loss. Even of the more unsavory elements. The fabulous outshines the ugly. Thanks for the reminders.

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  15. Hank Phillippi RyanMarch 5, 2023 at 9:39 AM

    Rhys, you are absolutely brilliant! Thank you for this! I adore New York—every time I go I have to stop myself from gawking. It’s so constantly fast and there’s just absolutely everything all the time. And the traffic is beyond chaotic. But wow— anything can happen, and often does. And now you make me want to explore even more.

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  16. I love New York City. Love, love, love it. Growing up in CT, I was fortunate enough to live in between Boston and New York and both were just a train ride away. I spent many days with friends, stomping around both cities and I adore them.

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  17. I've never been to NYC. Rhys, they should hire you to head up their marketing because you've made this country mouse think she's really missing something.

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  18. We live in Seattle and were lucky enough to spend the entire fall in NYC. We lived in four different neighborhoods (using a home exchange) and loved each one, though they were all completely different. Every day we had to choose between so many activities. We could live there forever and still not see everything. We plan to go back yearly. Wonderful article!

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  19. I do love New York. I haven't been there since 1984, but I grew up in its shadow and lived in the city itself for three years in the late 1970s. It was glorious! Nothing prettier than snow in the city, or a summer party and impromptu concert in Central Park. Would have loved to have been beside you, Rhys, stuck in Grammercy Park. What a delightful experience! Thank you for the memories!

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    1. Rhys: Gramercy Park actually got scary as it got dark and the hotel porter forgot to come and let us out. Pedestrians hurry past when you call out to them. We thought we’d have to spend the night

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  20. This west coast gal is very untraveled so I only know New York from what I see in the news, see in film/TV and read in books. I imagine it to be huge when compared to my "big" city which is San Francisco. The thought of traveling underground makes me shiver. But I wouldn't mind visiting because there places I would like to see.

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  21. So many great reasons to love NYC... I went to college there and lived on the upper west side for nearly ten years so I'm still completely comfortable getting around. My kids are in Brooklyn now in an affordable neighborhood with lots of families their age and the grandkids are in the local public school which is VERY diverse. Living my dream. I'm hoping to teach at this year's Writers Digest annual conference in NY and have it as an excuse to stay in midtown. I do love NY.

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  22. I wasn't a fan of NYC until I stayed there for 2 weeks as a Red Cross volunteer in 2001 (originally assigned to 9/11, I ended up working the plane crash in Queens). It was then I came to realize how each city block is like its own little community, centered on a church or a pizza place. My dad once told me his grandfather and other relatives quarried and carved the stone curbs for the city, and maybe those granite cobbles?

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  23. Rhys, what wonderful descriptions! I love New York, although I don't know it as well as I'd like. It struck me that so many of the things you describe are also truie of London!

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  24. Right before everything shut down I went to NY. I was coming from Boston by train and I was meeting my nephew who was coming from Portland OR. It was my birthday and we went out
    to dinner at a small restaurant near our hotel. Unbeknownst to me, my nephew arranged for
    the waiters to bring dessert and sing Happy birthday to me. There were two men sitting at the
    next table who looked over at us, wished me a happy birthday and then started a conversation
    asking us where we were from, etc,
    Later in the week we went to a synagogue where we again had people there saying they hadn’t
    seen us there before and asking all about us. It was a wonderful experience to have so many
    strangers being so friendly to other strangers.
    Two weeks later everything shut down. The memory of that time in NY helped deal with the
    subsequent isolation of the shutdown.

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    1. Rhys: I’ve always found people are friendly there, st least since 8/11

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  25. When I was in college, my unspoken dream was to go to NYC and become a book editor. I had only, and still have only, been to New York once, and that was on my high school senior trip. I think I would have loved that life, but I went an entirely different direction from the single, working woman. I met my now husband, moved to his hometown, taught some, and had children. It's a life I've loved and I have no regrets, but there is this other Kathy in another universe who lives a life in the big city. Rhys, what a great and detailed description you've given of the many aspects of this city. And, to have your book featured at Times Square! How awesome is that! I really want to get to NYC and go to some shows. That would be wonderful.

    And, how I would have loved to have seen the Edward Hopper exhibition, Edward Hopper's New York, ending at the Whitney Museum today. That's one of the things I love most about big cities, the museums. When my husband was stationed at the Pentagon, I visited D.C. a lot (didn't live there with him because of kids still in school here), and I could spend all day in The National Gallery of Art. The special exhibitions were so great. And, I loved walking around D.C. I think I would have been most happy to live in my quiet smaller town and have an apartment in New York where I could come and go.

    Thanks, Rhys, for a fantastic post today.

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  26. Rhys, you've written a wonderful love letter to the city of New York. I can't think of anything else to add, except perhaps that I have so many lovely family memories there - taking the tiny Maine Millennial to see her grandfather announce the National Horse Show at Madison Square Garden, the girls seeing their first Broadway shows, the whole family at Radio City Music Hall for the Christmas extravaganza, and meals at German beerhalls, English pubs and Chinese restaurants.

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    1. Ah yes. I could write another whole article on the food. When my son was at drama school at AMDA I visited and he knew every cheap ethnic meal. Fabulous

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  27. I first saw New York when I was eight years old, and had left my newly acquired glasses at jome in Milwaukee. I thought it was this wonderful city with fuzzy edges!

    Fast forwasd nine years: now wearing contact lenses, I was a 17-year-old college freshman who spent her college years exploring the city. Then I seized every opportunity to come back. I discovered the opera at the Old Met, picked up the Sunday Times at newstands late on Saturday nights, carried coffee to work or to class in blue-and-white cups decorated with pictures of the parthenon. Drop me there and I'm a different person, instantly a New Yorker again. And like the song says, "New York's my home...."

    EllenK

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  28. Confession: I grew up near the city and have lived here my entire adult life. My family emigrated here, from various places, between the 1850s and the early 1900s and I have a wonderful archive of family materials. I'm writing my first full length historical mystery, set here. But I've heard some folks say NYC is overdone. I don't have another place in my heart -- this is it. Is there still room for me? I worry.

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  29. Rhys, well done! You have captured it. Life is never easy here, but it is never dull, either. There is always a surprise ready to capture your attention. The couple taking wedding photos at Coney Island? The tough looking street musicians- yes, leather vests over bare chests - but they were playing Mozart? The very best mosaic subway station IMHO - Museum of Natural History stop. Mind blowing. But Rhys? If you want to see working gas lamps - you must come to Brooklyn :-)

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  30. Those are ten wonderful reasons to love New York--and I do love it. I've never lived there, but I've been visiting family or friends there once a year for many, many years, even from Switzerland. It's a glorious place.

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  31. Rhys, you captured my hometown so beautifully that you brought tears to my eyes. When I see you next, I have to talk to you about Ladies Mile. Molly must shop there!

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  32. I would love to visit there but there are so many people although my son wants to take me then over to Washington state building after! peggy clayton

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