I echo seven's sentiment as well, Artemis.
And I believe you will prosper because you had those dreams. It always was those that came without them, or that expected NYC to be just like home that wound up running back from whence they came, tail between legs...
I don't think we oldtimers really think New York has lost its charm. It is just that, for most of our time here, New York City seemed impervious to the changes and misguided trends that were so popular in the rest of the country. Don't forget, although The Gap is a phenomenon that had its beginnings about 20 miles due east of Times Square, it took three decades for it to take the rest of the country by storm, and make its way back here.
It was only really in the last 10 years that such changes in our local urban environment became more than just a few snowflakes, but like an actual blizzard. NYC had remained rich in odd and peculiar and unique traditions until then, so it really is shocking to us that it has lost much of its regional flavor.
Perhaps the cataclysmic events of September 11, 2001 did much to make those changes so apparent to us lifelong residents. Or at least to underscore them. Be that as it may, it seems to us that we all woke up one day and our city had changed practically overnight. And that so much was lost.
There is much lost in other areas of this country as well. Who here remembers how wonderful decrepit old Miami Beach was before it became South Beach? Or Atlanta when ancient black women still served afternoon dinner to the public in their living rooms? Or the Five and Dimes that had the same wood floors and the smell of roasted nuts no matter where you were in this country from coast to coast? All gone too. But it is in New York somehow that the loss of our treasures seems most painful to all of us. I know it does to me, though I am not exactly sure why. And I am not a big believer in hanging on to the past. After all, Tempus Fugit... The trouble is, what has replaced these things seems sterile and gimcrack in comparison.
Speaking for myself, though, I am still here in NYC spite of these changes and upheavals. Still living here among all the new Gaps and Starbucks. And try as I may, I am unable to find another place quite like New York in the entire country. Maybe the entire world. Go figure.
And how wonderful that you entered this place through that hellish gateway of Port Authority, Artemis. I always used to joke that we should set up a card table there, much like those money-collecting blue nuns used to, so we could meet people like you fresh off the bus. But I guess the Motherboards is like that in a way!
And speaking of Port Authority... who remembers the old one, before the remodelling? And how gorgeously filthy and poorly lit and stained it was? My guess is just Merlin, Bobby, and myself. But just maybe daddy and S'tan might too.