My mother’s first breath after crossing the Williamsburg Bridge into Brooklyn today was a sigh. She wishes I lived in Manhattan, I know. She tells me every chance she gets.

As Mom drove north on Havemeyer toward my apartment, I saw Williamsburg through her eyes: graffiti, old unpretty buildings, men with weird facial hair weaving in and out of traffic on bikes, more graffiti. I get it. She doesn’t see what I see and I have stopped trying to persuade her of my neighborhood’s charms.

Mom’s favorite past apartment of mine was probably the one at 72nd and 3rd on the Upper East Side where I lived starting when I was 23 years old. Now she would gladly accept even the Cornelia Street walk-up in Greenwich Village that I called home on September 11. In spite of my current place being modern and comfortable, in Mom’s eyes, everything is better in Manhattan. Continue reading →