Good Riddance

Since we have decided to leave New York, our home of 12 years (and our entire adult lives), I thought I would begin to feel an overwhelming nostalgia, or become wistful in anticipation of all the things that I will miss: hot dog vendors, street fashion, the idea of Broadway and Museum Mile. Instead, perhaps as a defense mechanism against change but perhaps as the simple relief of honesty, I find myself making mental lists of all the things I will not miss, and that list is long. We all know that parking problems is at the top. Guess what? The meters I use weekly while getting Clio to and from school just went from 30 minutes for a quarter to 20 minutes for a quarter, a 50% increase. Good riddance, meters. The road construction in our neighborhood means that the journey from Clio's day care on 31st street to our house on 30th involves going the wrong way around extra blocks, many double-parked obstacles, and waiting for construction vehicles to stop blocking the street, a journey which just now took 20 minutes. Good riddance, road rage. When we went to the aquarium on Wednesday, this was the scene that greeted us:


literally hundreds of school children, waiting to get in. Good riddance, crowds.

Of course there are things that make me sad to go, that feel irreplaceable. My Doctor. My Mom's group. Walking to the playground (though not through construction). The Aquarium, and Coney Island all around it. The list goes on, and yet....

I am a traitor: Good riddance, New York.

Oh! It just broke my heart to write those words. There is city love in me yet.