This past summer, I was super excited to start my new life in Germany.  Even so, it was really hard for me to leave New York City (this song by R.E.M. still brings tears to my eyes). For all the ways New York is a huge pain in the ass, it is also an amazing place to live your life. After throwing my heart and soul into the city for six years, I couldn’t resist writing a final ode to New York before I left.

Recently, I read a final ode of sorts by Lisa Whiteman, another Brooklynite in the process of leaving New York behind. I can’t help but share some of her thoughts here, so similar to mine, but far more eloquently expressed.

The Good

• Enormously cluttered independent businesses squeezed into narrow street-level buildings. They’re not especially comfortable or easy to navigate, but they’re the opposite of the bland, predictable, and impersonal franchise experience…
• A diverse immigrant population, and the food and culture that goes with it. Knowing that it’s only a short subway ride to neighborhoods where only Russian is spoken and people wear expensive fur coats on the broken-down boardwalk.
• The lack of rules, even when they’re good for you. One thing that bothers me about the U.S. in general is all the hand-holding that goes on here. I like that New York not only doesn’t hold your hand, but it kind of gives your hand a little slap if you stick it out there too helplessly. It forces you to toughen up a little…
• The tacit space rules. Even if the city itself doesn’t seem to have a lot of official regulations, there are plenty of unspoken social rules that the majority of people more or less follow: let people off the train before you get on, don’t stop suddenly on the sidewalk (because someone might crash into you), don’t carry a giant umbrella, take your backpack off on crowded trains, etc. — basically, don’t be a space-taker. Whenever someone fails to obey the space rules, there seems to be kind of a collective frustration among the space-conscious, as if to say, You can wear a garbage bag for a skirt or subject me to your gravelly rendition of Stand by Me, but for the love of God, don’t carry a giant umbrella.
• The subway — being able to meet friends anywhere in the city with little notice, having no need for designated drivers, being able to read on the way to work, close contact with a large mixture of people (this isn’t always pleasant, of course, but it keeps you human), and (some) subway musicians.
• Not having a clue what current gas prices are, or makes and models of automobiles.

And the Bad

• Oppressive city noise.
• Wearing through my shoes, as well as not being able to wear even slightly uncomfortable shoes without significant pain.
• The C and G trains.
• Carrying everything I need for the day on my back.
• Never being completely out of earshot.
• Terrorist threats.
• The Brooklyn Target.

Truer words were never written.  Good and bad, truth be told, if you look closely, you will probably find a little piece of my heart still in Brooklyn, somewhere between Gorilla Coffee and Prospect Park.

P.S. Best of luck to you, Lisa, in your next adventures!