Rediscovering (My Love For) New York City

: Image via Wikipedia

OK. I have to admit it. New York and I, we’re having a major relationship crisis. I am no longer in love with my fair city. Born and raised here, lived away a loooonnng time, back again and now, after seven loooonnng years, I can’t wait to get out of here again.

Or am I?

Like many New Yorkers, (actually most I’d say), I like what I like and don’t like what I don’t like and don’t mind saying it. So right now, I’m in my don’t like mode. The fact that it’s kick-ass cold here right now certainly isn’t helping matters, but it isn’t the cause of my disgruntlement.

Take this picture to the left, for example. I needed something for this blog, so I turned to my trust Zemanta plug-in for inspiration. First moment I saw this picture of an apple on bridge or overpass overlooking the city, I knew it was the one. Why? Because my first thought was to push the d*mn apple off the bridge! Apple suicide (with a little help)! Yay!

No need to go into details about why I’m sick of my hometown. Let’s just say that for the moment, every negative cliche you’ve ever heard about New York I would agree with — and then some.

However, this post, believe it or not, is not about why I no longer love the Big Apple. It’s about my attempt (well, not attempt — that would imply an active effort), to recover the intense love I once, oh so very long ago, felt for this city.

Today, while researching details for one of my latest literary effort, I came across two blogs — and fell in love (with them, not the city). One is called the Masterpiece Next Door and the other is Walking Off the Big Apple.

Masterpiece is a compendium of photos and personal commentary on some of New York City’s most beautiful but ignored bits of architecture. This is architecture from a New Yorker’s point-of-view, honest, direct, often insightful and almost always witty. Unfortunately, “Michael,” our erstwhile tour guide and critic seems to have halted work on the blog. His last entry was nearly a year ago, February 2010. However, he has left us with a treasure trove of photos and information. His enthusiasm and knowledge of his subject are contagious. Good stuff for an unhappy New Yorker, like me.

If Michael’s Masterpiece Next Door rekindled a spark, then I’d have to say that Teri Tynes’ Walking Off the Big Apple fanned the spark into a flame (not a huge flame, mind you, but definitely a respectable one). Readers of the New York Times Blogroll will already be acquainted with Tynes’ marvelous blog. I’m not, so I wasn’t.

Again, like many New Yorkers, I’m a walker (no snide remarks about my last name, please). Long walks is how I enjoy my this city. (I hate walking in the cold, so love for this place is always short in the winter time.) But also, like many people, when I walk, I tend to visit the same places, take the same route. Tynes’ blog will push me to discover new streets to discover and maybe even be more organized, as in doing a literary themed walk.

I intend to ramble much further afield, thanks to her. And maybe, just maybe, New York and I will rediscover some of the love we once shared.