I will be hitting the road.  I’m now well into the nitty gritty of it all.  I found a broker to try and lease the apartment early, picked the SUV I want, looking at storage facilities and route planning is well under way.  It all seems to be falling into place–so exciting.  I’m ready, ready to leave my small little island at least for a while. I’m not sure if it’s because I know I’m getting ready to go or it’s been coming for a while, but I’m finding the city more and more crowded and feeling the need to be “out in the nature” as my Czech English students in Prague used to say.  I was walking around the other day and wondering if my time here had passed. I feel like everything has a shelf life and it seems that so much of what was familiar to me in the city has changed.

It really struck me when I walked down to Battery Park City on Friday.  I used to love Piers 25 and 26 in Tribeca. There was a unique grittiness to them.  They had the Sweet Love Shack that made delicious burgers, a rusty old pier, a miniature golf place that looked like it was put together by a group of junior high school students and a sandy beach area where people played volley ball.  They started renovating them two or three years ago and the first section opened a few weeks ago. I saw  the new pier for the first time on Friday and was horrified!  It’s all shiny and new, but it could be anywhere, it had no soul.  There were litearally hundreds of strollers lining the entrance to a new playgroundand screechng little urchins everywhere.  It was awful.  Now I know you may be thinking what an old crumudgeon, but the uniquness of what made NYC amazing is slowly being eroded and the city is changing forever, my sense of duty as a New Yorker feels compelled to shien a light on that fact. 

Another part of town I’ve seen change dramatically is the West Village, particularly West 4th Street. It used to be a lot of quirky little individual stores and restaurants and it’s beens turned into Soho. Marc Jacobs on every corner, Ralph Lauren, Michael Kors and more.  My point of this rant is. I definitley think it’s time for me to go.  I know NYC is still the best city in the world, at least in my opinion and I will always love it, however a breather is in order. This is where I’ve enjoyed so many incredible experiences and met hundreds of amazing people over the last two decades, but I think it’s time for us to have some time apart.  We’re not breaking up, but I think we need to date other people, at least for a while.

Piers 25 and 26-Original Recipe (2005)

Piers 25 and 26-Extra Crispy (2011)