Welcome To The Nouveau Native's Guide To NYC

When I arrived in this wonderful, exasperating City a decade ago, I made every rookie mistake. I brought my old car (a Mercury Montego called "The Blue Beastie"), my cat, and an attic full of 1970's furniture that even my parent's were too ashamed to let the neighbors see. I moved into a TINY, "nose bleed," studio apartment, (read sixth-floor, walk-up, closet with a separate bathroom) on 78th and York; I had sublet site unseen. Since no one that I had ever known had been to New York City, let alone lived here, I was left to my own devices to make New York my home.

The first casualty was the furniture. My Father had basically emptied the attic of every piece of unwanted furniture and packed the UHaul trailer absolutely full of 70's, Formica, crap (sorry "Danish Modern"). After the shock that I was going to live in an apartment that was the size of my parent's master bathroom started to ware off, I took out my suitcases and took the full UHaul trailer to the local rental office to turn it in. Callie, my eight-year-old calico cat lasted three days. After a life-time of being able to Tom Cat around the neighborhood every evening, life confined to apartment 6B was too stressful and Callie went back to live with my parents. The Blue Beastie lasted about six weeks. Opposite-side-of-the-street-parking and tickets that almost equaled my rent were enough to send the Beastie back home as well.

Over the weeks, months, and years that followed, I made lots of mistakes, learned almost everything the hard way, and fell passionately in love with New York City. I have met loads of people who, like me a decade ago, are just starting out and struggling to reconcile the sometimes bewildering cultural, social, financial, and environmental differences between this metropolis and where ever they had come from. I have met even more people who live here and seem oblivious to the truly great things about calling this City home.

This blog is dedicated to helping every New Yorker, whether you have been here a day or your whole life, get the most out of this City. With a little inside information, everyone can live like a Native!