cheating on Manhattan with Chapel Hill

I lived on this block for a year when I was at Columbia. It's the Seinfeld restaurant! They made the best egg creams. Yeah West 112th! 

Upper East Side

Self-explanatory. 

The iconic Old Well here at Carolina. 

It's so funny how two parts of me can coexist in one brain. I love, love, LOVE Chapel Hill, but also love Manhattan. They are DRASTICALLY different from one another, but I love them both. I love how I can walk to the organic co-op in my neighborhood (thank you, new urbanism) and get milk that is produced from a local farm in a glass jar. Something about that is so quaint. Wholesome. And seriously, milk from a glass jar tastes so much better. I love how the coffee girl at the market knows how I like my iced coffee. I've even grown to love the fact that so many people are regulars, that conversations are often struck up at the registers. I love how when I walk my roommate's dog, people on the bike path say hi. So do kids - they have manners here. There is an elementary school in my neighborhood, and kids ride their little bikes to school, and just park them on the grass - no chains or anything. I love how people think $800 a month rent is so expensive. In Manhattan, that'd be a steal. But whenever I get my issues of New York magazine (which is every week, I still subscribe), I find myself missing the city. I miss the noise and anonymity. I love the subway and people-watching. I love having everything at my fingertips. I love feeling like I am living on the pulse of life - trends, movies, music, fashion, everything. 

I am sure I might be idealizing my neighborhood. It's a planned community, a new-urbanist one, if you will. It's a little like Pleasantville, or Stepford, but I think that's what I love about it. It makes me feel safe and secure, and happy. Like nothing bad could happen here. It's a place I'd want to raise a family. You can't say that about Manhattan.