Yorkville, Manhattan

Oh, man, what are you doing with your life?

If somebody walked up to me on the street and said, "Oh, hey, Zach, how's it going? You've really lived such a great and virtuous sixty years that here, take my three million dollars," I would know immediately what I would do. I would hop on the 5 train, walk east down 86th Street, and buy one of the houses on Henderson Place.

As an old man in Manhattan, I would look back and say, "Yeah, I really did live a pretty good life. That was lucky of me. Now I live quietly in the smallest house on the Upper East Side, walk in the park every day, and play piano every night." I'd rent my ground floor apartment to destitute friends for free, make small talk with the various German shopkeepers, babysit their kids and live in a tiny brick house with a giant door and vines growing up and down the sides. Unwanted relatives would visit constantly.


Oh, man. Money cannot buy happiness with this single overriding exception.

Greenpoint, Brooklyn, New York

Any good trip starts at home. Greenpoint is the northernmost neighborhood in Brooklyn, a densely packed village of 40,000, living mostly in unattractive tenements and small apartment houses, speaking mostly Polish, with clusters of Spanish in the northwest. I moved here in March 2007 and will probably stay for the remainder of my time in New York; it's a great place.

North Brooklyn fell upon particularly hard times in the 1970s; Greenpoint (and neighboring Williamsburg) were very low-rent districts then. By the late 70s, a wave of artists had settled Williamsburg and rents were rising. Greenpoint started growing more expensive, too, particularly in the 1990s, and now a large fraction of the neighborhood's population is young artists, weirdos, college students, me, and a fair number of wealthier people in the nicer townhouses in the historic district.

Greenpoint is a wonderful place, though. You can't beat it. Tranquil, traditional, and except for a few condo buildings, a lot of vinyl siding and 20,000 cars, almost exactly as it was in 1910. Great sandwiches at the bodega on Franklin & Huron. More culture than you can shake a stick at. A weird, old-world feel. McGolrick Park.

One of the main complaints among long-time New Yorkers and transplants alike (including myself) is the ongoing homogenization of the city. It's hard to find anywhere with a truly strange feel in New York anymore, but Greenpoint still retains a fantastic integrity.

Get there: NYC Subway. L train to Graham Avenue, walk ten blocks north; or G train to Nassau or Greenpoint Avenues.