new york i never

I never got to go to Coney Island while Astroland was open. It’s a shithole now, but I still wanted to check it out.

I never ran into any shady types when I lived in Peter Cooper Village.

I got to go to Yankee stadium one time, which I was happy about, because even though I don’t like the Yankees, or baseball for that matter, it is closing to be dismantled and at least I got to see it from the inside instead of just from driving or riding by on the train on my way to somewhere else.

Point is, there is a New York that I never knew and one that I only slightly know now, but both seem to be disappearing. By all accounts, the really old New York was kind of dangerous and sucky anyway and even the locals weren’t too sad to see it go. But there is a thing I detest about these locals and their resistance to anything and everything change oriented. There is something I would like to tell them, and here it is: get over it.

The best thing about New York is that it’s huge. Huge in all aspects. It is like a living, breathing thing that is constantly changing and adapting. Some changes are good, some are sad, some are downright awful. The awful ones, I think, are pretty much the same awful ones that I hate about my home area; the homogenization of everything. No more mom and pops, no more tried and true go-tos and institutions that I once loved and frequented. They have become touristy and annoying. That I’ll give them, these native New Yorkers, because seeing your hometown vanilla out like that is very disconcerting.

But what bothers me is that a contingent of “old New Yorkers” seem to feel as though everyone is an intruder and anyone who was not birthed here, has no right to enjoy the place. I come from an extremely touristy area and I totally get the whole “they-don’t-belong-here” thing. Tourists, I admit, I find very hard to embrace. People who move to live for a job, new opportunity, or a change of pace, I can somewhat accept.

It does drive me nuts when people say they are from California, just because they got a drivers license, which I'm sure is a sentiment echoed by the natives here. But I won’t begrudge anyone the chance to learn the area, bring something new and interesting to it and enjoy themselves. It seems that many New Yorkers are not so gracious. It’s kind of lame, actually.

So as one person who is here now, may be here for a while, and kind of likes this corner of the planet, I say to the natives, deal with me. I am respectful, interested, take pains to learn the history and I’m not going anywhere soon. If you don’t like it, you leave, and take your bullshit with you.