From Philadelphia we went on to New York City. We drove to where we would be staying, at an AirBnB in the South Bronx, with a plan to leave the van parked there for the week and relying on public transportation. For the most part, this worked out fine. I had checked with the AirBnB host in advance regarding the parking situation, and they said there was “plenty” of free street parking in the neighborhood. What they didn’t mention is the parking restrictions – one side of the street was restricted from 9-11 am on Tuesdays, and the other side on Thursdays. So we had to move the van (i.e., search for parking) several times while we were there. However, despite the density of the housing, there seemed to be relatively more parking available than in Oakland, CA, where I worked for many years. My theory is that car ownership is expensive and inconvenient in New York City and there are a variety of public transit options available, so a smaller percentage of people own cars.

I am not a city person. I grew up in the suburbs in Southern California, and then as an adult I have spent my life in the suburbs of the San Francisco Bay Area. I have worked for many years in Berkeley and Oakland, which are very urbanized, and while I enjoy the culture, the restaurants, museums, and the constant buzz of life in these cities, my real comfort zone is back home in the suburbs. Surprisingly to me, during our week in New York City, I found it to be very, what I call “liveable”. We met neighbors near our AirBnB in the Bronx, we found every type of food imaginable, we felt like we could get around to anywhere we wanted via public transit in a reasonable amount of time. We were impressed by the overall quality of life we experienced during our week in New York.

There is so much to see in New York that we didn’t even consider trying to fit everything in. We took our time visiting places we were interested in – the Metropolitan Museum, Central Park, the Brooklyn Bridge, the World Trade Center / 911 Memorial, Wall Street, Battery Park – and did our best to enjoy ourselves, without rushing through everything.