I'm conflicted about NYC. It's still probably the greatest city in the world and it continues to attract some of the smartest, coolest people from every corner of the globe. When I visit, I have it good in terms of friends and knowing where to go. It definitely has a lot of energy, good and bad.
Brooklyn for a while there was looking like the village in the '60s in terms of young artists swarming in, it's still cool but really expensive and gentrified. My former stepmother, who is only slightly older than me, lived in the village through the 1980s and '90s. Myself and my brother and sisters could go and stay with her anytime and it was a lot of fun. She lived on Bleecker and Morton, between 6th and 7th, in the '80s and on west 4th and west 12th in the '90s.
In the mid '90s, I lived for a time with a GF on 14th and B, in Stuyvesant town. Really nice rent-controlled apartment that she was sub-leasing somehow. She was working as a model and making good $$, me not so much.
During that stretch in NY, I had a car and a big dog. I drove everywhere, at least at night, and could always find parking in Stuy town.
One reason that I don't love the place anymore has more to do with me than NYC, i.e. I am not all that driven of a person. I wish it was different and when I was younger I had a lot more ambition but I've made peace w/ it and have a good life in CA. One good friend in NY, whom I used to work for in the nightclub and restaurant business in L.A., is out there tearing NY a new ass hole, so to speak. He co-owns several restaurants and hotels with other big swells, including The Waverly Inn w/ Graydon Carter, (editor of VF magazine). It is the perfect place for someone like him, the possibilities are truly endless.
Everyone's opinion about various places can have a lot more to do with them than the place. I see that here with rednecks hating CA., etc... I have to remember that my biases color my views as well. Go to NY and tear it up, if you have it in you!
