Why I love New York in general, and Park Slope in particular

Over at Pomegranatesandpaper,
my friend Loretta is running a fun series of lists for bloggers on
Fridays. Today’s is “reasons you love to live where you live.” So here
we go:

• I’ve got a great apartment, which, unlike many New York
  apartments, is larger than a breadbox, doesn’t have a bathtub in the
  kitchen (though some have been known to complain–loudly–about the size
  of the bathroom that does exist), and actually has a kitchen, instead
  of a hot plate in the living room (I saw all of these variations when I
  was hunting for a place)
• 
  Park Slope is a real neighborhood, where I have all my favorite local
  haunts,including a good butcher, excellent bakeries, and even a
  candlemaker (ok, well, they don’t actually make the candles there, but
  they do carry my favorite tapers)
• We have three, THREE, independent bookshops, on the same street!
  And, for when I’m feeling in the mood to frequent a bastion of
  globalization, Barnes and Noble, on the said same street
• You can get a pastrami sandwich at 3 o’clock in the morning. I never
  have, but I sleep better knowing that it’s possible. New York is the
  perfect spot for the restless, the ADHD-inclined . . .
• THE NEW YORK TIMES on the doorstep. EVERY MORNING. And on Saturdays, we get most of the Sunday paper. GLORIOUS.
• Cafes with free wi-fi, and not just that other bastion of
  globalization, Starbucks (which I happen to love). Tea Lounge, Chocolate
  Bar, Comfortzone (a Turkish cafe), and, wi-fi-less (I think?) but a
  favorite nonetheless, Cafe Regular. Oh so French.
• Park Slope is a little respite from the bustle of Manhattan. I
  breathe a little sigh of relief when I climb out of the train station.
  And we’ve got a huge park, just like Central Park, designed by the same
  guy
• The flea market in front of PS51. Where Lorraine sells brand-new
  books that have just been published for a pittance–her boss is in
  publishing or something. And there are lots of other great vendors.
• Every venue you can imagine, for everything you might ever want to
  see: foreign films, theatre of every description, Austrian art. MoMA,
  the Frick, the Morgan library (soon to reopen), the Guggenheim, weird
  galleries in Chelsea, Christie’s showrooms!
• Friends in the neighborhood: they’re the people, when not yet friends, who got me to move here.