> This reads like an example of the classic genre of writing "nostalgia for how a place used to be which is really nostalgia for the life the author used to ha

> This reads like an example of the classic genre of writing "nostalgia for how a place used to be which is really nostalgia for the life the author used to have" Yeah, I'm surprised nobody has mentioned this, but it's practically a New York tradition to publish essays like this[0] every so often - about why New York isn't what it once was (the "Why I'm Leaving New York" essay). Typically, it's an exploration of the ways in which contemporary New York doesn't match up to the New York of nostalgic memory. Usually, the essay ends on an ambiguous note, with the sense of discovery and adventure, but ultimately results in the author either returning to or remaining in New York. It's so common that it's almost a literary genre trope, with predefined criteria and stages, similar to the Hero Journey[1] concept first formulated (but not invented) by Joseph Campbell. And, like the Hero's Journey, the journey usually (though not always) ends where it started, but with the participants ("hero") changed somehow in the act of exploration. The first[2] was Joan Didion's, which she wrote back in 1968. While she took a short break while raising her daughter in the suburbs, she's lived in New York City for 35 of the last 60 years and still lives here today. [0] usually better-written than this one, but on the same topic and format [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hero%27s_journey https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hero%27s_journey [2] Not necessarily chronologically, but seminal[3] to the genre [3] It's influential enough that a recent essay on the genre even opens with a nod to Didion's work: https://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/24/fashion/From-Joan-Didion-to-Andrew-Sullivan-some-writers-leave-behind-letters-when-they-leave-new-york-city.html https://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/24/fashion/From-Joan-Didion-...