September 25, 2004
New perspectives
Since moving to New York, I have become significantly more aware of things of which I previously took no notice. Things like network television. As opposed to last year, when there was a TV with digital cable in my apartment, I now have no TV. But if you walk around outside or, even better, get on the subway, you'll see dozens of ads for current and upcoming network series. I can't really name names, because I don't have a TV and wouldn't be watching network television if I did, but they're everywhere. It makes sense. Put a bill up somewhere outside New York and you'll get about 1% of the attention you do here.
Something else: people complain that New Yorkers don't have much sense of the world outside the city limits. I've found this to be somewhat true, but it's not snobbery or arrogance. It's just that there's at least as much going on in this town as there is outside of it, and a lot of the things that affect the rest of the world happen here. I mean, we've got over 8 million people living in the five buroughs alone. That doesn't count anything in Jersey, or most of the suburbs in Long Island. There are only about 6 million in the entire state of Tennessee. The sheer amount of news generated by that many people living that close together doesn't really leave much space for anything other than major, top-of-the-fold headlines. I mean, sure, stuff happens elsewhere, but not nearly as much, and not nearly as quickly.
Another thing: public transportation is really nice. Through a combination of my feet, my bike, and the subway, I can get anywhere I need to go in less than an hour. Shopping is only 3 minutes by bike. And anything I can't carry home will probably be delivered. When I was home in August after being here for a week, I found myself the tiniest bit annoyed that not all the stores I wanted to go to were within throwing distance. It only took ten minutes to get there, but I still covered fifteen miles, so if I hadn't had a car, I would have been royally screwed.
One last observation: I like trees. Real trees, not ones planted to brighten the place up a bit. I also like actual terrain. Sure, I have to up a freaking big hill every time I go to campus, but there are so many buildings around that you never get a decent view of the landscape. The only real vista I've found is looking east from Morningside Drive out over Harlem Plain. You can see a long way - over into Queens and the Bronx - but it's flat that way. No rolling hills, no clouds playing with the folds in the ridge, nothing like that.
