144. “The A train, Brooklyn, Subway Acts, International Flair, The Shopping, Street Vendors, The Fashion, The Pulse of the City, the extreme temperatures, Spring in the City, Fall in the City. Ideas NEVER leave your mind because the city view is filled with a bunch of minute details. It’s almost like you’re five years old again and reading I SPY. And I love being FROM New York because wherever I travel, all over the world, when I say I’m a Native Noo Yawker people want to listen to what I have to say, and I say it with a Brooklyn accent.”
-Gloria Rosenthal

145. “I’m a 24-year-old art director from Latvia, and am lucky enough to be able to travel the world a lot. Yet NYC is in my heart wherever I go, and truly my most favorite place on earth. Several times I’ve been there. It’s always felt like home, and I know why. I really think NYC embodies the greatest achievements of mankind during the modern era—be it architecture, art or food. Yet what makes NYC that more special and loveable is its blend of cultures and nationalities—an idealism of sorts that feels so loveably self-evident in NYC! I often remember seeing the grid of Manhattan streets lit by afternoon sun when my plane ascended from EWR bound for Stockholm last summer. As it climbed over the clouds the image of Manhattan lingered still, and I vowed to return whenever getting a work permit wouldn’t be as excruciating as now…”
-Janis Notte

146. “I love New York because people get emotional if you offer up your seat on the subway.”
-abby

147. “I love New York because there could be 3 bodegas, 5 cheap nail salons, and 1 “hot restaurant” in a 2 block radius and the bodegas and nail salons will outlast the restaurant any day. As much as people say you have to have a ton of money to live in New York, it’s the cheap places that last and sustain the city. IF it wasn’t for a $.75 newspaper of a $20 mani/pedi combo, how could we afford the $15 saki-tini with a certified organic star fruit garnish?”
-Maggie Danielson

148. “I love New York for the people you pass on the street, the music you’ll hear emanating from neighborhood apartments and the history that seems to stench every corner of the city. Everything one can imagine has happened in this city. The mere thought of that idea can excite even the most jaded imagination. I hope New York never changes by being the only place I know in the world that changes every minute.”
-Amanda Mihaly

149. “Because the New York City firemen are truly the most brave, the most fearless, not to mention the most handsome, in the world.”
-Theresa Pantazopoulos

150. “Because Edward Norton winked at me on Columbus Avenue.”
-Sam

151. “Where else can you see so many small dogs in wee little sweaters?”
-Sara Eagle

152. “I love New York because no matter where I’ve just traveled, my happiest moments are when I first return back to New York. It’s that undeniable satisfaction of catching a glimpse of the harmonious skyline and the cascading glow of the bridge lights over the East River.”
-Lauren Lynch

153. “I love NY because I can sing any song from Anything Goes or Blood Brothers at Marie’s Crisis with the original cast of Showboat, eat the best Sicilian pizza at Spumoni Gardens in Bensonhurst, and have the best poached eggs at Grey Dog’s every Saturday morning. This city has everything. Especially the poached eggs.”
-Gabby Etrog Cohen

154. “Because gluttony is revered.”
-Debbie Guirand

155. “I love McSorley’s Ale House. My father and his buddies spent a considerable number of afternoons-into-evenings there when beers were two for a quarter, and he spoke about it with such reverence that it was the one place in the city I refused to go with my, um, alternative and non-government-issued identification. My father took me there on my twenty-first birthday, Christmas Eve, and as the older gentleman who’s been slinging beers there for years and years brought us over our second round, all the union men filling the back tables who surely weren’t there on paid time stood up and sang me happy birthday.”
-Meghan McGavin

156. “I love New York City because it’s friendly—you can walk out of your apartment and literally bump into a stranger who eventually becomes your best new bud. I love (and hate) New York City because it’s easy to be alone. There are so many aspects of the city that cater to the single person from being able to sit at the coffee shop writing in your journal for hours to eating at the bar of some of the finest restaurants in the world. I love that you can be at the most casual place and spot a celebrity going about their everyday life. I love that New York City can be whatever you want it to be and that can change every day depending on which part of the city you decide to hang out in. From being artsy on the LES or glamorous shopping amongst the mega rich on the UES to being a party girl at the trendiest venue in the West Village or Meat Packing to being a jock running in Central Park.”
-Liz Bazini