I've always felt somewhat uncomfortable calling myself a New Yorker even though I live in New York and have ever since I moved here from Nigeria when I am seven except for a brief stint in Philly for Graduate school. I have worked in the city and had lived in Jersey City (which it took me all of 10 minutes to get into the city via PATH) but really I think when people think of New Yorkers, they imagine a certain hip kind of person who frolics through shops all day in the most daring fashion and a big Starbucks Latte. Well, unbeknownst to some, a lot of New Yorkers (the people who actually work!) live outside the city and commute into work everyday by train, bus or ferry. Post Hurricane Sandy, this group has had to become even more resilient to say the least because a regular hour and half commute has been made longer, its actually quite hellish trying to get to work. My husband leaves before the sun is up and still doesn't get in until almost 10am..today he drove to catch a train in
New Jersey because the trains are running on altered schedules, this train goes all the way to Hoboken (which is out of the way of you're trying to get to Midtown), he then gets on a bus which drives through the Holland tunnel and into the Port Authority (42nd street) to then walk back down to his office...as if that wasn't bad enough, today he had to get off the bus and take the ferry because there was a traffic jam and the buses were stuck. So I say, kudos to the sea of black coats and I understand why you don't flash smiles in the mornings...because you're tired and on the verge of losing it!