Friends in Small Places

One of the sacrifices we make in order to live in NYC is space. Or the lack thereof. Property in this town is at a premium and people pay lots and lots of money to live in teeny tiny spaces. It's crazy if you think about it -- the USA is one of the biggest countries on earth and yet 8 out of our 300 million citizens choose to live in these five, relatively small boroughs. Just goes to show you how great this town is since so many people are willing to pay up for the privilege of cramming themselves in here.

After all, there's tons of cheap space available in Nebraska ... but then you'd have to live there.

So it's probably appropriate that, this week, New York magazine has dedicated an entire section to the New York City apartment. As the magazine points out, the apartment is the organizing unit of NYC and defines the experience so many of us have living here. People who move to New York often reminisce about their first apartment. If you're like me, a native, then the apartment is the equivalent of the old family home, a place of the (metaphorical) heart and hearth. There are several interesting short articles about New York apartments by several distinguished authors and there's even a section on growing micro-neighborhoods -- small but distinct areas in otherwise established 'hoods.

Like apartments in NYC, it looks like the future neighborhoods in this town are gonna be small. 

Talking about a New Yorker living in a small space, you should read this article featuring a jailhouse interview with disgraced Police Commissioner and former Mayor Giuliani's right-hand man Bernie Kerik. It's a hilarious read. He's so pathetic. Oh, jail has changed him, for the better. He's learned "so much." There are things that only people on the "inside" understand that those of us on the "outside" don't. And this former tough law and order guy now wants to advocate for prisoners' rights. Jail, he opines, destroys the families of inmates as much as the lives of the inmates themselves. Oh yes, Bernie wails, there has to be a better way. Wonder if he'd feel this way if he wasn't in jail?