The Neighborhood

so now you have an idea about my apartment (not that anyone is actually reading these except for my daughter Katie, but maybe someday someone will show some interest after I've become famous), it's time you got an idea about the neighborhood in which I have chosen to live.

Manhattan is a pretty interesting place.  There are places where tourists go (like Midtown so they can see EVERYTHING) and there are places where tourists avoid (mainly because there's nothing to see).  I live in the latter.  If you look at a map of Manhattan, look at Central Park (if you can't find Central Park on a map of Manhattan, you need to learn how to read a map).  Look in the upper left corner of the park, draw a line toward the Hudson, and that's my neighborhood.  You'll see that it's just south of "Harlem" and north of the "Upper West Side".  It's south of Columbia University, but north of the "cool" stuff on the UWS.  It really is in "no man's land".  And I love it.

Because within walking distance (more on this in a minute) of my house, I have several bodegas (most of which I don't go into), a grocery store, three or four liquor stores, a couple of Subways, a Malaysian restaurant, an Italian restaurant, a Mexican restaurant, a Thai restaurant, a Chinese restaurant, a diner, a couple of Indian restaurants, and probably lots of other restaurants I haven't ventured into (yet).  There's a Subway, a McDonald's, and a KFC.  Pretty much anything one's palette would want is in my neighborhood and it's not too expensive to eat at any of them.  So, yes, I am not hurting for places to eat.

There are a couple of hardware stores, an appliance store, don't forget Sal&Carmine's pizza place, a couple of drug stores, a mattress store, a couple of dive bars (and Smoke, a really decent jazz club) some interior decorating stores (not needed).  I'm sure there are some doctors, shrinks, and dentists, but I haven't seen any of them in my neighborhood.  There's a Catholic parish here, too, that's known as one of the most progressive in the city.  And my subway stop is at 103 and Broadway, which is about 30 yards from my door.

Yep, everything I could ever need (except maybe a couple of decent mens' clothing stores) is right here.  All within a few blocks.  I don't have to walk more than 10 blocks in either direction to find anything I may need to live here.  And 10 blocks isn't that big of a deal, folks.  Manhattan has "short blocks" when you're walking up or down an avenue (like Broadway) and it has "long blocks" when you're walking between avenues.  20 'short blocks' equates to one mile.  One long block is the same as three or four short blocks.  So it's not odd to walk a lot, especially when you don't have a car.

It's been an adjustment, not having a car.  Living in the suburbs (and it's the same here for people that live in the suburbs) means driving a car EVERYWHERE.  Living in the city means driving a car NOWHERE.  People do have cars here, but they use them to get out of town.  If I want to get out of town, I have a couple of options.  Ride a train or go with someone and I've done both (including taking a cab to the airport).  But I must admit, I don't miss not driving everywhere and I love relying on my own initiative to get to where I need.  No GPS, no asking for directions at a gas station, no relying on a car to do what needs to be done.

It's a great neighborhood, it really is.  It's very diverse as well (because of the location).  I would even venture to guess that we European Americans are the minority in my neighborhood.  There are lots of Hispanic Americans, African Americans, and Other Americans that make it an exciting place to live.  I would even venture to imagine that lots of the 200 languages spoken in this city are spoken here.  And that's very exciting.  And intimidating, too.

One of these days, I'll not be intimidated by where I live and begin to make a difference in my neighborhood.  I'm learning that it does take a little time, though.  And I've got all the time in the world.