Clarissa's Blog

Speaking about New York, there’s definitely something to lying in bed on the 21st floor, with skyscrapers towering over you. It’s enjoyable for short periods of time.

One thing I’ve found hard in New York is getting used to the fact that transportation by car is pretty much not an option. Traffic is so bad in Manhattan that cabs or rideshare are extremely slow and expensive. And after watching all 28 seasons of SVU, there’s no likelihood I’m going into the subway. You have to walk everywhere, and I like walking but this isn’t like walking in Madrid. There’s garbage everywhere, it reeks of pot, and we ran into a naked transgender on our first full day here.

On the positive side, I have solved the mystery of why New Yorkers elected Mamdani. They spend all day inhaling marijuana fumes. They are simply high all the time without knowing it.

Since I’m in New York the second time in a month, I’m going to take a moment to talk about my initial impressions. My dislike for New York was proverbial on this blog back when I lived close by and used to come here regularly. That New York no longer exists, and even though I’m more comfortable in its new version, I feel bad for being so down on the old one.

Here is a photo of the Ground Zero memorial that I took last night, and I promise I’m not making any political point, even though it might look this way. I found the representation of the broken airplane to be beautiful and very touching.

I don’t find New York remotely as annoying as I used to in the past. It happens to be very warm here, even warmer than at home, where it is extremely warm. The prices are high, but strangely, they are lower than in my small town back home. I’m here with my sister, who lives in Montreal, and she was shocked at a $7 designer coffee, which didn’t impress me because at home this coffee would cost $9.

Another thing that is new and that I hate is that everywhere outside reeks of marijuana. We walked from Times Square to the Financial District on foot yesterday, and the stench was invariably powerful.

New York has lost what made it New York and has become a standard Western city without much of a local flavor. I didn’t use to like this particular local flavor, so I enjoy being in the city more than I did 20 years ago. New York has become a lot more convenient for tourists, but this transformation must be devastating to people who are actually from here. This makes sense for a reality where nobody is from any particular place and everybody is an indifferent passerby.