The question is why does one love New York. This city has a way of trapping hearts and pulling in people. It inspires songs and dreams the way that, say, Cleveland can only dream of. The draw isn't the dirty streets or the bums; it isn't the projects or the packed subway car, but it is the idea of New York. New York has an identity beyond what you can see. Part of it is the history of Gotham, part of it is the future that never came. It's the neighborhoods that used to stand where the Expressways now lie, the automats that stood where your Starbucks is now. Its the sense of self that New York carries with it, a ghost-city that is the living dream of a conscious New York. The idea of New York isn't the past or the future, it is now, it is timeless, it is the everything that the city was, will be, wants to be, regrets doing. It's the sum of every fable, urban legend, and lie that's been told about it. It's grand. And it's personal. To me, the idea of New York is...

...a madman's tangle of subway lines that looks like it was drawn by a two-year-old, but makes sense when you pull apart all the lines built by the three competing systems, and add in the long-removed elevated trains.

...the obvious place to buy fresh flowers being the Fresh Flowers District.

...all bagel production until the 1960s being controlled under the firm thumb of the Bagel-Makers Union.

...a football pitch-sized model of the city in Queens on the site of the World's Fair. It was built under the supervision of Robert Moses, so he could stand over the city and plan where to lead his bulldozers next.

...serious mobsters at the turn of the last century making a killing, and killings, in the Egg Cream racket.

...living in the Bronx and zooming to school in lower Manhattan on the 3rd Ave Express train, standing on the balcony between cars, and watching the city whiz by.

...a bum in a shelter on the Bowery being able to pass for a Mad Ave ad exec by shaving and cleaning his suit.

...hopping a BMT Beach Special in Union Square and sunbathing on Coney Island thirty minutes later.

...a public library being a world-shaking idea, and disconcerting to the private library operators.

...real estate brokers being hopping mad over the planned Central Park, since they'll never be able to build on all that prime real estate.

...my grandparents, Howard from Washington Heights and Florence from Flatbush meeting each other at a dance club near Washington Square Park.

...Admiral Dewey's 1899 triumphal arch and promenade at Madison Square, the arch being the same basic size and shape as the one to Washington in the Village. The promenade and arch were built completely of wood and plaster for his victory parade, and was to draw donations to rebuild in stone. His popularity wasn't great enough, however, and the entire grand procession was pulled down less than a year later.

...a Zeppelin dock on top of the Empire State building, for trans-Atlantic service.

...the world financial markets thinking New York had undergone a major disaster when all trading stopped and the tickers ran blank for fifteen minutes... as Groucho Marx sang, danced and told jokes to a standing ovation during an impromptu tour.

...reading the funny pages over a diner breakfast.

...sleeping on the fire escape.

...stickball in the alleyway.

...the Queensboro Bridge, the largest cantilever bridge ever constructed, a mass of interlocking steel shapes bounding across the East River, covered in a wide dirt path roadbed, so that the horses didn't hurt their hooves in crossing.

...building an ultrawide avenue street grid in the middle of pastoral farmland, knowing that the city would get there eventually.

These are the things I see when I walk down the street. This is why I came, and why I stay. These are the ingredients that give me the taste of the city. What's your idea of New York?