Why We Love New York 2010

For the 6th year in a row, New York magazine has published its special "Reasons to Love New York" issue. This is one of my favorite thematic issues they publish, because while it acts as a pseudo-"best of" list, frequently citing recent socio-political-cultural happenings, it frequently also makes you realize that NYC's greatness transcends the daily lives we live here each day, tapping into aspects of globalism we may not realize at the time. And sometimes we need that reminder. After all, NYC is far from being the cleanest or cheapest city. But it is one of the most chic cities in the world, and pretty darn important socio-economically. Mind you, I don't always agree with everything on the list, and even that is what makes NYC so great, because we thrive on our differences of opinions (and boy do we all have opinions). This year's list has 59 reasons. Here are some of my favorites Why We Love New York...because...

#1. Pluralism Is Our Fundamentalism: With all the national crying over whether a mosque should be built near Ground Zero, it was the voice of many of NYC's religious leaders--many of them Jewish--who all expressed the need for tolerance and acceptance, and supported the right of Muslims to build their mosque, even if it was in a sensitive part of town.

#11, #12, #13. The 3 women on the US Supreme Court (Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan) are all from NYC.

#16. We're Home to Not Only the Publishing Industry But Also to a Woman Who Spends Her Days Smelling Books: Weird, yes, but she's an artist who's focusing our attentions back onto the experience of books and reading in an ever-increasing electronic book world...and she works at the MOMA Library!

#19. Brooklyn and Queens Are Competing to Be the Most Diverse Counties in America (and Maybe the World): Cultural diversity rocks!

#23. Our Most Famous Softhearted Morning-News Anchor Has a Secret Ninja Side: Matt Lauer is sexy AND he rocks!

#27. Last Summer 60 Pianos Magically Appeared: A public performance art spectacle that helped reintroduce music. Absolutely brilliant! Word is they're coming back next summer too.

#58. This Is a City Where, At Least Some of the Time, We Can All Go Off-Leash: Check out these awesome pictures of Moose the dog wearing his doggie cam in a dog park in Prospect Park.

All this helps make me feel glad to be back in NYC again after my sojourn abroad. Of course it helps that I feel like NYC and London have a lot in common these days, but that's another story. Here are a few of my own reasons Why We Love New York...because...

** Despite all the concrete, reinforced steel, and glass, we also happen to have some of the most beautiful parks in the world.

** Through the windows of everyone's apartments and brownstones, you will find bookcases overflowing with books.

** If I'm craving breakfast at 4am after a night of dancing, I can always stop in any one of a bunch of 24-hour diners and gorge to my heart's content on pancakes.

** Between the Met, Frick, MOMA, Morgan Library, Brooklyn Museum, Guggenheim, Asia Society, and at least a dozen more cultural institutions, you have to work really hard not to be culturally literate.