pour some sugar on (this)

sometimes when i walk into the street, the distinctly yellow cabs of ny, the lumbering hip-joint double-length busses, and the elegantly iconic chrysler building make me say ‘holy shit, i live in the greatest city in the world’ (now i will read your mind… ) a. 'pottymouth', b. (insert envy here), c. 'no, boston/no, dc/no, philly' (but this post isn’t about you, is it? and you’re mistaken anyway, none of those are THE city), or d. ‘what’s the big deal about ny?’

i used to pick, ‘d’ but i don’t want to influence your choice.



let me tell you one thing that i’ve been grappling with. it is this: ny may well be the epicenter of leverage-all-current-and-much-future-income-for-daily-living. here though, there’s something to be said for the inevitability of exorbitant spending. do you know what rent costs here? i’ll get to that more later…

the ny dream is fundamentally different than the american dream of the south/plains/west. generically, there is no allowance for the acquisition of assets, nor is there interest in the idea. what i’m seeing is that the dream of my grandparents (sign up for a mortgage for a tiny house and pay it off a la rapide) is foreign here (remember that chinatown is local). i’m talking about grown-ass men and women with dual income in the hun-g’s renting- RENTING! a small apartment. the ny family has mastered cash-flow accounting. the game here is not played as advocated by the rich dad or the plumber next door. despite the ideals of my upbringing, it surprises me that this approach works just as well if it’s what you know/are comfortable with/gives you what you want (an on-the-books-impoverished, rich life in the city).

obviously ny isn’t all wealth and pomp. given the margin between the typical salary and the cost to breathe ny air and drink bloomberg’s water, you could argue that many of america’s poorest are my neighbors. they rely on you for sustenance, and i’m quite confident that if they gave two shits about you, they’d say ‘thanks’. but they’re entitled to it because of what they do for a living… live in ny with low-paying jobs or chronic pain or whatever. the ny middle class dream has these tenets: union job, pension, and perpetual bail-out.

i’m learning a lot from this city. here’s another freebie: how to walk to my own soundtrack (earbuds+pandora) … amazing how well the urban environment pairs with artists ranging from norah jones to def leppard. hell, there’s even a cowboy that plays in times square in his undies.