One of the purposes of our annual “Reasons to Love New York” issue (December 22–29) is to inspire readers to play along and reflect on their own personal reasons. In advance of publication, we solicited readers to send some in to nymag.com, and we included a bunch of them in the magazine. Here are more that have come in since:
Because of that crazy man who owns the Doughnut Plant. I love that guy.
Because our mayor works for $1 a year.
Because people get emotional if you offer up your seat in the subway.
Because of Fairway in the late afternoon. Central Park in the morning. Times Square at 4 a.m. Hudson River Park nearing sunset. Downtown on Friday night. Koreatown. Michael Musto. Union Square.
Because Bleecker Street is still alive seven nights a week.
Because we have managed to thrive and flourish as a cultural mecca even though we are adjacent to New Jersey.
Because it is too easy to hate it.
Because no matter how many rats I see in the subway, how many cold faces brush past me each morning, how long my crosstown commute is, or how much I fork over in rent each month to walk up six flights of stairs into an apartment the size of my cubicle, all I have to do is look up and around me at the majestic skyline and I know that this is the most amazing place in the world.
Because where else will you find people walking the streets with the clothes and hairstyles that the rest of America and the world will be wearing two years from now.
Because any city that requires a 24-hour post office is extraordinary in the most absurd of ways. But still extraordinary.
Because of the view from the Manhattan-bound lanes of the RFK/Triborough Bridge at dusk. It will never fail to remind me of all the nights spent coming back from the airport and trying to pinpoint my apartment in the sea of beckoning lights.
Because Ed Norton winked at me on Columbus Avenue.
Because we got Coney Island.
Note
In mid-January, Menupages.com, nymag.com’s sibling site, will be relaunched, with an updated look and more user-friendly features, including cool new maps, to help you quickly find the restaurant you want in the neighborhood of your choice. It will also feature food-inspired illustrations by French artist Serge Bloch (who also did the illustrations for “Where to Eat 2009,” in this issue).
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