March 02, 2006

C.A.D. - City Affectation Disorder

It's March 2, 2006. When I was younger I thought how cool it would be to live in the 21 st century. And it is pretty cool.

But I'm still riding a subway every day to get around the city. I was hoping by now someone would have invented a machine that would enable me to teleport myself from place to place. Yesterday morning, I allowed enough to time to get to work early to take care of an errand or two and delays on the train sucked up my extra time so I couldn't run my errands.

I think the problem is that the city is just too darn crowded. Trains have been added to allow for the additional populations and since all those trains have to travel through the same tunnels, delays are inevitable.

Sometimes the crowding really gets to me. I find myself longing for open spaces which is why I enjoy travelling out of the city - even it's only to Long Island.

When we were in Iceland there were a lot of open spaces. Icelanders are very conscious of not overdeveloping their beautiful landscapes.
It's as if the whole island of Iceland is one big national park.

The city of Reykjavik is one big open space. Because of earthquakes, strick building codes don't allow buildlings taller than 8 stories.

So there is a lot of open sky and a lot of sunshine.

There's a lake in the middle of Reykjavik - not in the middle of a park in the middle of Reykjavik.

Iceland was a happy place. I know it's easy to say that when you're on vacation but it really was a great place to visit. No garbage on the streets was priceless. In New York City, there is garbage everywhere. Every morning, I have to walk over sidewalks full of garbage to get to work.

It can be depressing. Why don't people use the garbage receptacles put out by the city to help keep it clean? I've seen people literally teaching their children how to dispose of garbage discreetly on to the sidewalk.

If we could somehow figure out a way to make the city feel less crowded, clean up the sidewalks and eliminate subway delays, everyone would feel happier about living in New York City.

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