The City

This morning, true to my promise to myself, I got up early (retired early) and went to the gym to exercise and work off the weight I am gradually putting on.

The gym is about 20 minutes from where I live with a large parking lot. Twenty minutes is not the end of the world that's why I decided to sign up to this particular place. Prior to this one I belonged to a nice health club close to home but many times I had to spend more than a half an hour to find parking. Besides that the owner simply stole the equipment, money and disappeared one night. I am not even mentioning what nationality he was but he was a scumbag!

Anyway I signed up to this place, a large national company very good rates and I like it.

So, I get up early and hit the road. Here comes the problem, getting on the road at 8:30am I am at end of rush hour. That means traffic is crawling regardless which direction one is going. My travels take me in the opposite direction from going into Manhattan and that makes one hope that going away from the City there would be no traffic. No such luck. The same thing happened to me yesterday and I was hoping that today would be different.

No exception. Both times it took me about 45 minutes to get to my destination.

Now why am I mentioning this, you ask? I'll tell you why. Because I am pissed at the media.

The minute I get in my car I turn on the radio and hoping to get the traffic report so I can be prepared. Well, the morning traffic report is geared to drivers going into Manhattan from whatever god forsaken place they travel from. Nobody gives a damn about drivers daring to go to the opposite direction. Unless there is a nuclear explosion in the outbound lanes there will be no mention of any traffic problem. The outbound traffic was standing still, the inbound was moving well but the traffic report was still preoccupied with getting into Manhattan.

If one listens to any kind of reporting in New York it always appear that Manhattan is the center of the universe. The way I see it Manhattan is not for New Yorkers it is for visitors. It is crowded, it is expensive more like overpriced, parking is impossible and unfriendly.

I live in a suburb of New York where there are trees, one can drive and even can find parking places. There are good restaurants within reach and they are affordable. So why in the world would I want to go into Manhattan. I used to work there but since I retired we only went in for the medical care. But not because it was better there but because that was where the doctor happened to be.

Whenever there is some newsworthy event in any of the outer boroughs the reporters treat it like it is another country. Some of them can not even describe the neighborhoods.

Years ago there were traffic signs on some of the main roads telling which way was to the CITY. After many complaints they took them down because we all live in the city and Manhattan is not the only CITY.

As anybody who reads this will be able to tell, I do not like Manhattan. I can live without it very happily.