🧵 As a born and raised New Yorker, I've never even considered living anywhere else. Raising my kids here was the best gift and privilege I could give them. But last night, as I tucked my son into bed just after the ball dropped, I was overwhelmed by sadness and guilt...
Sadness for the years of childhood my son has lost & for my 2 year old who's never known normal. Sadness for what's become of the greatest city in the world. Sadness for my fellow New Yorkers, who used to smell bullshit from a mile away & who'd do anything to defend our city...
Guilt for allowing my city to become a toxic environment for children. For not fighting pointless, harmful, unscientific policies. For knowing we are the extreme, the fanatics, the exception, not the norm, but not moving almost anywhere else to give my kids a better life...
New York has always been a kind of bubble, a city like no other, and New Yorkers a unique breed - savvy, fierce, "real," wise to the ways of the world, always one step ahead. Thinking we were just a little bit cooler and maybe even a little bit smarter than everyone else...
Maybe that's why we now refuse to look beyond our bubble, stubbornly insisting our way is the right way - the only way. Cause we're New Yorkers and we know what's best. But there is nothing sophisticated or clever or smart - nothing New York - about our policies...
We've lost our way, unable to adapt, analyze, adjust, stuck in a superficial loop of science-free safety theater & virtue signaling, oblivious to the rest of the world, lacking all of the creative, forward-thinking nuance & realness that once set our city, & our people, apart...
We aimlessly stroll from mandate to mandate, accepting each and every decree without so much as a hint of the healthy skepticism that was once a sign of a thoughtful, well-informed public, & once a part of what it meant to be a true, gritty, don't-mess-with-me New Yorker...
We once stood by our windows every night, one city united, to cheer & applaud the essential workers working tirelessly to care for our neighbors, our families, and our friends. Now we celebrate & welcome division, seeking more ways to pull us apart than bring us together.
We once claimed to be a tolerant, progressive, "enlightened" city. But now we turn a blind eye to the devastating impact of our policies on some of our most vulnerable communities, including our children...
New York was my home. But it's now unrecognizable, a shadow of its former self. This is not the kind of place I want to raise my kids, or the kind of place I want to live. In the words of David Byrne, my city is now "just a house, not a home." Maybe it's time to find a new one.
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