Hey! Thanks for taking a look at my blog. My name is Daniel and I’m a born and raised New Yorker who has a love for this city that has evolved over time.
When I was kid growing up on the streets of Queens, there was something about my neighborhood that made me feel special. It wasn’t one of the suburban communities I saw on television shows; those places never seemed like a place I’d want to live in. And although it wasn’t Manhattan, my neighborhood felt like a city; at least, that’s what I realize that feeling was now I’m that older.
Not a city in the most traditional sense, with high-rises, a super bustling night-life, and tourists galore, but a city none-the-less, with multiple and organic interacting parts that made it feel alive and interesting and safe.
It wasn’t until I went to college that my love for New York translated into an interest in architecture and urban planning & design. As my ‘History of Architecture’ professor spoke so elegantly and beautifully about the ruins of Ancient Greece and Rome, the illuminated heights of Gothic cathedrals, the grandeur of the Baroque, and the spectacles of the modern age, I felt myself falling for the beautiful artistry of buildings and urban spaces.
I realized that I loved NYC because of it’s lineage, as a descendant of beautiful cities like Rome and Vienna. I loved it more, though, because of its unique urban experience: the feeling of camaraderie in some places, solitude in others, grandeur at focal points, and street life throughout. I could go on and on, but I’ll end by saying that New York is truly its own world, one that has dazzled and infatuated me since I could explore it as a kid.
That’s how I got here, following in the footsteps of the famed critic Ada Louise Huxtable, hoping that I could show people, New Yorkers and visitors alike, the places that make New York so transcendent in this messy world.
Read on, and let me know if you find anything inspirational.
City air makes free. – Medieval saying
New York at its Best 