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| Compared to tar and cement?? HA! |
And also because a negative connotation of its faded past continues to stubbornly cling to its name, in spite of the fact that it has been rated among the top American cities for safe, affordable and clean living many times over in the recent past, once even coming in at numero uno!
That said, the picture above is just a hint of the difference between __________ and Cement City, also known as "New York City, the capitol of the world!"
Yeah, right....but only if you have the capital of Donald Trump to afford living in the land of sky-high buildings/taxes, absurdly expensive rents (even in the poorest sections of the five miserable boroughs) incessant nerve-shattering noise of the "city that never sleeps" (or bathes...don't even think of using the famous NYC mass transit system in summertime without a gas mask; a haz-mat suit is also recommended) and home to some of the most corrupt politicians ever to exist in modern America, including and especially the state capitol, the infamous Albany, NY.
I am a "native New Yorker" (or New Yawker, if you will) so I am qualified and allowed to not sing the praises of an overcrowded, crime-ridden, noisy, rude and filthy city that I have come to loathe late in life (not that I EVER "loved" it.) And I am not alone, that's for sure. Most native New Yorkers find it almost impossible to leave their "home town" in spite of all the negatives that come with the miserable territory. But not this NNY 'cause in my head, I am "already gone" ("and now you'll have to eat your lunch all by yourself!" ~ Eagles.)
Food prices? Out of sight on the scale of affordability. Public transportation, bridge tolls? Forever going up-up-and-away! The afore-mentioned rents? By far, the 'cheapest' (and poorest) borough for rents is The Bronx. Try $950.00 per month for an "old fashioned apartment just one block away from the world-famous Bronx Zoo" ~ well, that's where I was born and raised, and back then, even the $32.00 monthly rent was too much for what we got in exchange, especially the lack of heat on frigid winter mornings. And what a quaint way of describing an old dump of a building ~ "old fashioned, just one block away from the (uber-expensive) Bronx Zoo." Aww, now that just warms the cockles of me heart!
And now that the past and current mayors have virtually destroyed every last open space in order to build-build-build (= taxes, taxes, taxes!) not to mention turning Manhattan into a warped version of Disneyland, and a new mayor on the horizon (most likely the one who enabled the current mayor to steal a third term) this place is doomed.
Sorry, Billy Joel, but I have serious doubts if I will ever again be in a "New York state of mind." The very thought of it gives me a powerful case of the skeeves (an Italian derivative of a word that translates to disgusting.)
"Some folks like to get away, take a holiday from the neighborhood..."
Yup, but this time the "holiday" is going to be permanent, thank every spirit in the sky.
And so ends another POSTCARD FROM ______________? and my new home!
