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EMAIL FROM ONE OF MY FAMOUS SUBSCRIBERS, posted here with her permission (only names and full street address removed):

<<You nailed it! And what about the rats! I can't step outside of my full floor pre-war coop on Park avenue without worrying about constant scurrying at my feet. This is no "honey I love you but give me park avenue!" And as you said, NYC, like so many great cities, is a walking city but now I'm afraid to walk (for good reason.) Sure there were always homeless people but I never feared that they might attack me. Now I do. And many have also joined my outside dining table as we like any good hostages just try to be nice, praying they'll get up. Sure NYC was dirty, but I never saw rats and garbage everywhere. And I don't recall that the scent of the city was pot smoke. I grew up in the '70s and NYC was dangerous but frankly I think the upper east side was safer than it is today. Plus we all carried a dollar to give to a would-be mugger. The understanding was as long as you gave them something they wouldn't hurt you. Today I assume they'd kill me. We used to drop our car off at our garage around the corner when we drove in late and walk to our building. Today I make my husband drop me off first. It's insane and unlivable.>>

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In a rational world, the millions of New Yorkers who have been similarly terrorized, victimized, inconvenienced and put-upon as Ann has would be storming City Hall, demanding radical change, screaming for duh Mayor's head or all three. Instead we hear crickets from all except Ann, and the Governor informs New Yorkers that anyone with personal views not in line with the fashionable 'progressive' agenda that has destroyed the city are unwelcome and should leave.

This is Liberalism in a nutshell...ideology is EVERYTHING and liberals will quietly watch their city and their homes collapse around them...and pretend it's not happening and it's always been this way...rather than admit that maybe...just maybe...they were wrong.

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To a liberal, nothing is more terrible than being accused of racism.

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I was so over the moon when the Second Ave Q line opened...the 72nd St. station was a work of beauty and filled with some very interesting people and performers...plus it was clean...and, after decades of walking in the inclement weather from the 6 train stops on Lex, the 72nd St. station exited right at the entrance to my favorite restaurant...life was a Beach and then, in the blink of an election and a virus...

I was transported back to the Dinkins era...the joys of tiptoeing through streams of urine at Grand Central and not even daring to connect via Times Sq express....NYC is all about walking and taking the subway...it is how one connects with the pulse of the city and like Miss Ann, I have been waiting since March 2020 for "normal" to return but,,,

The new "normal" is no more casual shopping on Madison Ave; no more opera at the Met; no more getting together with lifelong friends and classmates for drinks at the club; no more midtown Easter/Christmas season parades/festivities and no more anxiety-free dinners at our favorites...

And please forgive me but the inside of the average NYC cab is a worse health hazard than covid...

Please somebody bring back the sun...Miss Ann, you have connections up there...the Sun, a relatively safe subway ride and crazy-free dining is not much to ask.

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New York needs more police officers; because, there are too many folks in this city, still using inappropriate pronouns. More police more correct pronouns, all of these inappropriate pronouns are driving these criminals crazy with criminals activities. We need a world where criminals feel safe and nothing is safer than appropriate pronouns.

(J/K)

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Sep 4, 2022·edited Sep 4, 2022

Funny weird story. Several years ago, pre-covid, I was admittedly having a hard time dealing with being 'canceled' in my profession for supporting Trump. My internist gave me the name of a female psychologist who was obviously Jewish by her name. I know how neurotic Jewish women are - I live on the UWS - so I held onto the name for a year - I really can't do neurotics very well. I just didn't think we'd be a 'match'. But a year passed and I decided to give her a ry anyway. She was 5 minutes late for our appointment. I was standing outside her door when I received her text saying she would be delayed - and she signed her note with 'her pronouns'. When we finally sat down to talk, I was in the mode of interviewing her to decide if she was a 'fit'. I briefly outlined what I wanted to talk to her about ('canceling') and then proceeded to query her on why she felt the need to list her pronouns etc. She clearly seemed stunned by my vetting her. About 30 minutes in, we decided we weren't a 'fit' - and she announced that she wouldn't charge me to the first. LOL. What a joke. I would never have paid her for being such a looney person and unprofessional to boot. I couldn't get mad. I chuckled to myself. My instincts were correct. Even shrinks are their own special lunatics today.

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Hmm, after high school. Many brave folks go on and join the infantry, the deaf usually end up artillery.... the rest seem to go to college. The folks good at math go into engineering or any of the science field. Yet, the crazy ones alway seem to find their way into psychology, the folks who don’t have a clue about logic, end up with sociology degrees. The ones who think every thing sucks (in HS they’re the ones with only a two word vocabulary, “That sucks!”) get their degree in Political Science.

Some how, I think your “lady” fits the bill, so to speak.

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Sep 5, 2022·edited Sep 5, 2022

Agreed! Professors at my alma mater (which has gone bat shit crazy over the past years) told me it was the faculty in the Sociology Department that is creating all the 'woke' problems. 'Talk about a useless topic for a degree. I also refuse to talk to a psychiatrist that I can detect is not as smart as I am - there are ways to figure this out very quickly. I always try to keep in the back of my mind that half of the population has an IQ under 100...it puts things in perspective very quickly....can also calm the nerves when one bumps into 'dumb' day-to-day. Makes ya empathetic when otherwise one's head would explode : )

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Ann: run for mayor. It's not coming up for a while but still. How much fun!

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Start spreading the news, we're leaving today

Don't want to be a part of it: New York, New York

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I remember reading an interview with Giuliani when he was mayor, and he said when the NYPD began targeting subway turnstile jumpers for pat-downs, 1 out of 6 jumpers searched was carrying a weapon. Bus-ted. Giuliani; "People started leaving their weapons at home."

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Aug 30, 2022·edited Sep 4, 2022

UWS here! New York started getting really grubby & dicey under King DeBlasio's reign. Noticeable amounts of trash and garbage started to pile up on UWS streets. The number of homeless grew. We have 'neighborhood bums' who UWS uber-liberals know and befriend- almost as if they're family!! When you start talking to people about the weirdo who lives on the Broadway median strip @ 79th Street, they'll say, "Oh that's so and so" his family lives nearby etc, etc. This guy is insane as well as constantly high. He sometimes sings holding onto a can. He's very tall and does lunging movements as he moves about, so it can be tricky and scary getting around him from one side of Broadway to the other, especially when one needs to take care not to be pushed into traffic; Crossing the median strip can feel like a scene in Jumaji. I've been told that he's totally 'tame', but he's just one more obstacle to worry about. Another local bum is a guy who slept in the side door of the Apthorp, one of the most gorgeous residential buildings on the UWS, reeks of urine. Who cares that they just spent millions recently to wash the building down, it still stinks. One day as I was walking by this dude gets up on knees and sticks out his big fat black dick - a first for me - and pees onto the side walk, right in front of me. Fun! I'm just glad my mother or kids weren't with me to see the Gold Shower performance. Add to that the boarded up store fronts, grumpy & ugly people (UWSers are not lookers and are lousy dressers - it's either Lululemom-at-the-gym or 1970's hippie vibe for clothing). There's nothing good to look at on the UWS EXCEPT the parks - Riverside or Central. Other than that one's eyes are constantly being assaulted. That said, we've kept our UWS apt but have permanently moved to the country. We hardly go in anymore; Our accountant is telling us to sell.....

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Ann, this is an excellent piece! but please be careful even taking a cab or an uber (or similar things). people aren't even safe in those.

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I first went to NYC in 2014. I had a pleasant time, above ground. Remember vividly entering the vaunted NYC subway system. I had ridden some systems in Europe and I must say I was, very sorry NY, disgusted. Felt like was was 4 feet from the tracks just waiting for the push from behind. It was dirty, confining, hot and I could barely breath with the 28% O2 level and it smelled terrible. Ground level to platform, now that’s climate change. I wish the good NY luck in the attempt to survive.

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You're absolutely right, Penn: The subway always looked like a hellhole (though Giuliani cleaned it up with grafitti-proof subway cars), but by 2014, it was virtually CRIME FREE. I loved that. It felt romantic to ride the subway with a strong male, who made you feel 100% safe, when the reality was, even a single female was 99% safe.

That's how crazy I am about New York City. Democrats have made the greatest city in the world unlivable.

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The Democrats are showing us How To Re-Ruin a city. The people who can't leave should resolve to never vote for a Democrat or a Liberal but only for someone running on the Conservative Line. Everyone remaining in NYC should remove their children from the Public School system and get them enrolled in a Home School Program.

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does NYC do that liberal Democrat thing of not punishing Antifa/BLM (or just giving them a slap on the wrist) when they commit their crimes, but then try and get the "brutal death" penalty for conservatives (or even regular citizens) who have the audacity to try and defend themselves from those criminals?

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The last time I was in Manhattan was to see Bocelli at MSG. December, 2019. Even then, the city was starting to look really dirty.

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Aug 30, 2022·edited Aug 30, 2022

I live in MI, and the only reason I go to Detroit is to drive my father to see Detroit Symphony Orchestra concerts (otherwise a waste of perfectly good Sunday afternoons for me). Stay for dinner afterwards? Forget it.

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Come back to Palm Beach !

Rodney

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Hey Ann, So you think DeSantis got rid of Covid in Florida. Well I was hospitalized in Florida with a non-Covid condition, but I was infected with Covid in the hospital from all the visitors and staff following DeSantis rants and efforts to prevent people wearing masks. Thanks Governor Ron.

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Ann, curiosity got the best of me and I rented “The Last Seduction”. It was like reading a cheap paperback mystery novel. The jazz was the best part. Thanks, I think.

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