A Little Bit City, A Little Bit Country
Donny and Marie Osmond made A Little Bit Country, A Little Bit Rock ‘N Roll their theme song for their variety show in the 1970’s. It was driven by the schizophrenia of Nashville in that era. Mashing up music genres must have been an unnatural act. In today’s multi-pronged social-media-saturated world, I guess everyone has an easier time with mash-ups.
As I headed uptown this morning in a cab with Kim, I couldn’t help but observe that this may be the finest September weather I can remember in Manhattan. It’s the end of September, technically autumn, and it is still warm summery weather. This is not Indian Summer since there has been no frost or even slightly cool weather yet to give it that “Indian” aspect. It is just a nice extended summer with a cool breeze to keep it all very pleasant. As we drove along on this sunny Saturday morning, I stared out the window of the cab at the cityscapes that were going by. People were jogging, people in matching yellow shirts seemed to be marching in some sort of peaceful protest, and tourists were hustling here and there or stopped looking at their smartphones trying to figure out where to go next. Traffic was normal and not particularly heavy or light. There seemed to be a dearth of crazies on the road at that moment and we just advanced our way up the Westside Highway.
Mayor Bloomberg’s well-to-do Planning Commissioner, Amanda Burden ruled over New York City development for a dozen years. Few people on earth have the pedigree that Amanda Burden can boast. Her family includes Bill Paley of CBS fame, Stanley Mortimer of the Standard Oil fortune, founding-father John Jay and even, by marriage, W. Averell Harriman. That probably puts her in the Knickerbocker top-ten. But here’s the thing, none of that compares to the good she did for NYC, especially downtown after 9/11 and even more-so on the Westside Highway Promenade and Highline. Some might say that no one can compare to Robert Moses and his impact on the infrastructure and parks of New York City, but for my money, Amanda Burden comes damn close. I had the opportunity to meet her on a few occasions while trying to build the New York Wheel (which she supported, like all the Bloomberg leadership did) and she always impressed me with her respect for the aesthetics of the byways and roadsides of New York City. She cared about every detail for every stone wall, every bike path edge and every hand railing. I thought of her positive impact as we rode up the Westside Promenade and how her attention to detail made such a difference and contributed to the pleasantness of New York City on this fine sunny day.
It’s much easier in 2019 to be in love with New York City as a place to live than it was in 1976 when I first moved here lo those forty-three years ago. Back then, the City’s finances were in the toilet after a prolonged real estate and municipal union crisis. It was unclear in 1976 if New York would remain a world center or if it would all move out to the suburbs. Perhaps the only thing that anchored it in place on Manhattan island was the fact that Wall Street had not yet digitized and dematerialized all its securities into the Depositary Trust Company and the Fed Book Entry System, though the process had begun. Without that in place, securities movement required a physical presence and a nearby one at that to keep the DVP (Delivery Versus Payment) wheels on the bus in a world where short term interest rates and the cost of cash flow gaps was astronomical. Living in Manhattan was a sketchy proposition at best with a blend of prestigious apartments and townhouses in Carnegie Hill, a bunch of cheap young peoples’ apartments in post-war buildings on the upper east side, funky Greenwich Village apartments that extended a bit into Chelsea, and a bunch of impoverished slums and public housing in Harlem, the Lower East Side (lots of squatters down there then) and Hell’s Kitchen. And the outer boroughs were, well, outer. In today’s New York City, every one of those squidgy areas of New York is now a hot ticket. New York City has become one of the most desirable residence addresses in the world.
This morning I am reminded about just how fine the City can be on a nice day. And here we are, heading up by cab to a SAG/AFTRA premier of the latest Scorsese film, The Irishman. The whole cast, which is a combination of Goodfellas and Serpico, was on hand for a chat with the audience. One can do this sort of thing out west (at least in L.A.), just not as often or as easily. This is the best of life for us in the City. We probably see one or two shows a month. We eat out a fair bit even though we are the furthest thing from being foodies. I work 150 feet from where I live. Grubhub will deliver any cuisine I want to my door. My kids are all nearby and we see them and our grandkids as often as they want. We are a $50 cab ride from any of three international airports that go directly to just about anywhere in the world you want to go. We have 30-40 years worth of friends here and yet, City life allows us to be as private as we want at the same time. City life in New York City in 2019 is pretty damn good (though not exactly cheap).
When I wake up in San Diego I can look to the east and see the sun coming up over the Palomar and San Jacinto Mountains through the cacti and the exposed giant boulders, or I can look west towards the Pacific Ocean and, on a clear day, see out over forty miles of ocean to Catalina and San Clemente Islands. We have 360 degree views from our little zero-scaped hilltop. There are blossoms blooming all year long and it is a great day in Paradise almost every day. My day can start in the in-ground outdoor hot tub, it can move to the deck under the palapa for a light ocean breeze in the shade. I can take a motorcycle ride out to the ranching-oriented Valley Center, up onto Palomar Mountain or out to the Anza-Borrego Desert. Otherwise I can take the Tesla X out of the garage and zip around town all day on a silent single electric charge from my highly efficient solar panels that keep my electric bills in the net credit zone so far. It’s hard not to like the country when this is the country life I have managed to organize for our lives. Just to be clear, while I was fortunate enough to buy our house at the nadir of the California market in 2012, my all-in cost (including significant renovations) is still a mere $400/square foot versus an average cost in Manhattan today of $1,773/square foot. By my math, even though you may need less square footage in NYC than in California, that is still four times cheaper to live in California than in NYC.
So here I am, a little bit City and a little bit country. I can’t help myself, I like them both. But after so many years of living in New York I feel its time to favor the country life of California. Some might say we should keep a Pied-à-terre in Manhattan, but I am tired of multiple homes. I have no interest in keeping a pair of socks in New York, there are plenty of hotels and the economics strongly favor being a visitor to NYC whenever we want (which will likely be often) rather than a part-time resident. Not to mention that the NYS/NYC tax authorities will be looking for any excuse to continue to tax me for each and every home I maintain in New York and New York City. Leave it to New York to make my move there in 1976 painful and my move away in 2020 even more painful.