I jay walk in New York City. There is so much energy in the place that it is hard to stop moving, to wait for the Walk signs to cross a street. So, I leap off sidewalks — the great organizing principle that moves millions of people along. Where does the city’s energy come from? Everyone living and working here, and maybe a little from enthusiastic tourists. Mostly, however, they and people texting slow me down in the city. But I have learned to live with that.
I eat in New York City. It is literally and metaphorically the best international food court in the world — and by default an excellent language school. I am fluent in Spanish, French, Italian, Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Vietnamese, Greek, Turkish, etc. menu. You name a country or a region of the U.S., and there is a restaurant serving its food in the city, and I have built a vocabulary of dishes and ways to say hello and thank you to the people greeting me at the door and waiting on my table.
Goodreads.com lists 579 books about New York — some of my favorites include A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (where I grew up), Breakfast at Tiffany’s (I stood in the room at Sing-Sing where Holly Golightly talks to her father) and, of course, Emma Lazarus’ “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” My parents waved to the Statue of Liberty in New York harbor when they arrived in 1920. The list of what I love about New York goes on and on — the artists, poets, musicians, theater producers, movie and television makers and photographers who gave us a piece of themselves in this city, because it is a place where they could. It is a place of constant discovery, invention, creativity and diversity.
Just one more thing. I have to mention the I LOVE NEW YORK logo that my boss, Milton Glaser, designed in the back of a taxi. That iconic logo was adopted by many places, people and things that fell in love with the “I Love” idea. The original artwork for Milton’s iconic logo is in The Museum of Modern Art. And so many years after it popped onto the scene in 1977 as part of an advertising campaign to promote tourism, it unites the people who live here and captures their loyalty and devotion. When the World Trade Center fell in 2001, Milton modified the iconic logo with a small black spot, placing it approximately in the Manhattan location where the attacks occurred. The New York Daily News ran Milton’s poster and used it to raise funds for those impacted by the attacks. People wore their I LOVE NEW YORK t‑shirts with pride and strength, gave generously and the city healed.
