A Word About Tourists

New Yorkers are used to negotiating their way around tourists. On a day-to-day level tourists are super annoying: In a group, they move like a giant unpredictable – but always slow – blob hogging the entire sidewalk; they stop dead with no warning causing near-collisions among New Yorkers who walk at breakneck speeds; they usually dress with truly atrocious fashion sense (except the Italians); sometimes they even gather in hordes around the front door of my apartment building eating connoli and going on walking tours, forcing me to slink through their midst while half-awake on a Sunday morning. BUT.... I'm a generally optimistic kind of gal, and so I try to see the tourists as something positive. Their presence reminds me that New York City, my home for the last 13 years, is special. It's a place that people read about, talk about, sing about and dream about. People save their money and take time off work just to come here – sometimes only once in their lives. Not everyone loves it. Some are overwhelmed by the noise and crowds and prices and smells. But one thing is certain: No one will ever forget New York City.