Eleanor (East 5th Street)

"i love that the city is something to conquer; that it takes on a personality... and you're always fighting... and you're always trying to make it, whatever that means to you, and sometimes the city totally beats you... and sometimes you feel like you made it a little bit".


"and right now i feel like i'm making it actually, i think i might be an intern at "in the life" news magazine and i'm a student and i'm a writer and ummm a runner and a reader and i'm pretty good at drinking... that's when i always beat the city!"... she said sipping a Rhum chaud au lait. The secret is OUT!

From Portland, Oregan, Eleanor has been living in the city for about 6 years and lives in the hills of northern Manhatten that is Inwood. She describes Inwood as a close knit somewhat isolated community, a hidden treasure all the way up there into the woods above 200th street.

When Eleanor has the time or just needs to clear her head, she likes to walk along the bus route, the entire time assuring herself that she'll take the next bus until she's walked 100 blocks... "if you look at the city from the bus, it all blends together, but when you walk, is when you experience New York and it's subtleties, it's peculiarities, it's architecture and hole in the wall coffee shops. People in New York live in the street, there are no closed doors, so when you walk in the city you are exposed to a human experience that is much more intimate than exists anywhere else... you know something will happen if you walk more than 20 blocks... something beautiful or crazy... everybody's living their life in front of everyone else."

Unfortantaely, Eleanor can't remember the name of any of those hole-in-the-wall places that she's found... perhaps the result of too many Rhum au laits? but more than likely she's keeping them to herself for fear of them being overrun by the masses... we all have a handful of secret gardens that we like to think of as "my place" it's kindof personal and and if you walk a few blocks you'll find your own. She does however recommend bebopping the night away St. Nicks Pub on Sugar Hill and the hot waitresses and kielbasa at any of the Polish diners on Manhatten avenue in Green Point, Brooklyn.

Although she is just a younger generation "blow-in" and doesn't recall the crime ridden, dirty "good old days" that other people seem to lament so much, she points out that nostalgia is a human characteristic and that people in general are reluctant to change and will always romanticise the past, when New York was rough and tough and "for real". The world is fast changing and New York is too and it seems Eleanor is excited to be a part of it!