You tear me apart. The greatest city in the world. (San Francisco has its allure.) I am so drawn to the impeccability excellence of uptown. Just at a baby shower at 111 West 57th… wow! You have never seen a better building, everything is executed to the highest degree par none.
Yet, I’m so drawn to downtown. The jazz. The creativity, the spark, the drive.
Automattic’s office at 166 Crosby feels like a creative center. We’ve built something pretty cool there to inspire and delight people in space.
But you don’t even need to go downtown for jazz! Jazz at Lincoln Center has excellent programming and you’re also so close to Juilliard, which has some excellent student showcases.
It’s missing that grittiness though.
The second you step out onto the street in manhattan, there is this energy, this human energy.. cross the bridge to bk and already, it’s different… less intense.
Without a doubt one of my favorite cities. Need to go back soon.
I’ve seen a lot of people saying nasty things about that building, but it looks magnificent to me. It looks like a gratuitous display of wealth and in some ways it is. But it is also totally practical in other ways; the spaces inside it, seem to be well used, which can’t be said for some of the other monstrosities I see for similar prices.
> The greatest city in the world.
I simply cannot agree more with you , Matt.
While I absolutely adore my own city of Kochi in Kerala, India, New York City for me is an emotion. I love it so much that I try to find my way there – even for a few hours, every year since I first visited the place in 2018.
Of all the things I love about the city, my favorite is the diversity – the five boroughs represent a slice of the world. Imagine taking a stroll through Battery Park and overhearing conversations in chaste Malayalam (my native language spoken by 40 million odd people) OR randomly running into a long-lost college friend on West 4th St! Every time I am there, the city makes me feel at home, I have never had that feeling at any other place in the world, other than in Kochi.
I jumped with joy when I first heard about the Automattic NoHo office – I have had the honor of being there once in 2022, and I love what we have going there. It is indeed bustling with creative energy, and I sense so much potential in that space, in addition to all the cool things that are already happening there.
I can’t wait to go back to New York in 2024!
Aside: I have heard you mention this once – I’ve also wondered why the Houston of Houston St. is pronounced “How-stone” instead of the RIGHT way, like how the name of your hometown. 😀