{"id":98632,"date":"2016-05-26T16:10:56","date_gmt":"2016-05-26T20:10:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=98632"},"modified":"2016-05-27T12:34:19","modified_gmt":"2016-05-27T16:34:19","slug":"new-york-values","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/05\/26\/new-york-values\/","title":{"rendered":"New York Values"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

O\u2019Hare International Airport. Photo: Cory W. Watts<\/p><\/div>\n

The same day I ate the hot dog<\/a>\u2014indeed, the same layover\u2014I found myself in conversation with a group of other travelers. One commented on the crowds, and another said, \u201cTampa\u2019s not a small place but it\u2019s nothing like this,\u201d and they all talked about the energy of the city versus the pleasures of having moved to Florida. It was very friendly. Then one woman said, \u201cNot New York, though. I hate New York.\u201d Then they all piled on with gusto, discussing the general crumminess that is New York, the rudeness, the filth, the overwhelming pace, and all manner of other clich\u00e9s. It all happened so fast that I didn\u2019t have a chance to jump in and defend my hometown.<\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t even have a defense, as such. People from other places seem to feel New York is a thing they need to have strong opinions about, like the election, or cilantro. And the truth is, most of us really, really don\u2019t care. At least, those of us who are from here. Never having made the choice to move here, it\u2019s akin to the affection and irritation one feels for a family member. Especially since our families are, you know, here.\u00a0<\/p>\n

With Gotham skeptics, it can be a sort of party trick to reveal that one is from New York and is a perfectly pleasant person. On the other hand, people are sometimes disappointed with the lack of sexy glamour in one\u2019s life, or the fact that one does not have a heavy Brooklyn accent. (You don\u2019t\u00a0<\/em>sound<\/em>\u00a0like you\u2019re from New York, they\u2019ll say accusingly.)<\/p>\n

During this layover conversation, the rage was amping up: he\u2019d been to New York once; never again. She\u2019d live anywhere, but not New York. \u201cI\u2019m a nutritionist, so you can just imagine how\u00a0I<\/em>\u00a0feel about New York,\u201d said another woman, obscurely.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t know what to do. Things had gone too far. I knew I should stand up and say, \u201cI\u2019m from New York,\u201d but that would have been peculiar and besides, I was kind of curious to hear why nutritionists hated the city. I also kind of wanted to correct them; it didn\u2019t seem to me that they were actually critiquing any of the many real systemic problems with the city, focusing instead on a few largely misinterpreted superficial symptoms.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And then the voice over the loudspeaker called for group 2 service to New York\u2013La Guardia, and I stood up, said, \u201cWell, someone\u2019s gotta live there,\u201d and walked away feeling just like Harold Hill at the beginning of\u00a0The Music Man\u00a0<\/em>after\u00a0all the salesmen have been trashing him<\/a>\u00a0and then he exits the train and smugly reveals his suitcase with the words PROF HAROLD HILL<\/small> on it. It\u2019s usually more like that than\u00a0On the Town<\/em>, even if it is Fleet Week.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sadie Stein is contributing editor of <\/em>The Paris Review, and the <\/em>Daily\u2019s correspondent.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The same day I ate the hot dog\u2014indeed, the same layover\u2014I found myself in conversation with a group of other travelers. One commented on the crowds, and another said, \u201cTampa\u2019s not a small place but it\u2019s nothing like this,\u201d and they all talked about the energy of the city versus the pleasures of having moved […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":178,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13115],"tags":[15225,938,5931,12838,124,15853,15169],"class_list":["post-98632","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-our-daily-correspondent","tag-airports","tag-chicago","tag-cities","tag-conversations","tag-new-york","tag-opinions","tag-strangers"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nNew York Values<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Sadie Stein on people who trash New York.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/05\/26\/new-york-values\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"New York Values by Sadie Stein\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"May 26, 2016 \u2013 The same day I ate the hot dog\u2014indeed, the same layover\u2014I found myself in conversation with a group of other travelers. 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