For the past year and a half, we have been living a divided existence, the workweek on Staten Island, the weekend in Manhattan. This about to end, as we are in the process of moving back to Manhattan full-time. This decision is, in part, a result of my choosing to retire, or, as we like to say, "move on." It is also in keeping with our shared sense that we are better suited for Manhattan than Staten Island. In Manhattan we feel at home. On Staten Island, we are forever visitors. But what, you might ask, makes Manhattan such an ideal location for our permanent home? There are any number of things we could say about this, that, undoubtedly, would include Manhattan's proximity to the most remarkable set of cultural institutions in the world. We are not only thinking here of the museums, the music venues, the unparalleled variety of theatrical options, and some of America's finest repertory movie houses. But also the remarkable library system from which virtually any book is available, if you're willing to wait, and the fact that we live within two blocks of two of the world's most impressive and commodious public spaces - Central Park and Riverside Park.
Yet our affinity for Manhattan has more to do with its special energy, its historic eagerness to welcome and absorb a dizzying diversity of lifestyles and cultures that most obviously embraces a multiplicity of fashions, races, colors, creeds, classes, and sexual orientations, but extends as well to such a rich variety of interests, hobbies, forms of amusement, and passions that every day seems to offer something new.
To walk out onto the street and to witness this unending stream of humanity is a joy. It may present difficulties at rush hour or at other times when you're in an hurry, but for the most part it is a bottomless source of fascination and delight. Manhattan's unique combination of density and variety, of affording you the opportunity to do almost anything you can imagine, makes it our ideal home.
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