"A Nearby Outsider has a different view " a New York City Travel Page by jcjoe

Every sighted person on earth has seen the moon - or at least thinks he or she has. We say things like, "Look, there's a full moon" or "Wow, look at how bright the moon is tonight" and so on.

But only a handful of people have actually seen The Moon, in the sense that they've seen both the face that the moon shows towards us Earthlings, and the Far Side that is invisible to us. We call those privileged few, "astronauts."

If you could stand outside the orbit of the moon, as it rolls around our planet, you would see both sides.

The point applies to views of New York City as well.

People who live within its borders see it from the inside. People like me who live directly across the river, only a 5 minute subway ride away, see New York both ways.

Like the insiders, we read the same newspapers, watch the same television stations, attend the same events, eat in the same restaurants and literally breathe the same air. By osmosis, by custom, by habit and by the sheer powerful influence of all the things NYC is, we develop the same insider's view - and in my case - have the same passionate love for it.

When we travel outside the area, in response to the usual question from rickshaw trike driver in New Delhi or the cafe waitress in Manly Beach, Australia, asking, "Where are you from?" - we automatically answer, "New York."

It's not just a matter of geological convenience or political shorthand that we don't say the pure fact, "Jersey City."

We say, "New York" with the same pride as anyone with an NYC zip code. It's a boast spoken as unashamedly as anyone else with a zip code that starts with 10. That's not an empathetic, "Ich bin ein Berliner" or a post-911 self-aggrandizement. In our mind and soul, it's the truth.

Yet, when I'm in New York itself, asked by either a resident or a visitor, "Where in NY do you live?" I re-assert my outsider status and say, "Jersey City, just across the river from the downtown."

We over here have the picture postcard views that its residents can't see. The sunrises from my windows are against the dark foreground of the skyline and my sunsets are brilliant with red and gold reflections off the thousands of windows.

At night the lights dance across the waves and yes, at times, at the right time on the right date, that same one-faced moon rises from beyond Manhattan's towers. Just as only a few astronauts have seen both sides of the moon, I, a nearby outsider, see a more complete version of NY.

All that is metaphor and explication of what follows here in these pages. I claim no special expertise or privileged information. At times my facts will be wrong and my opinions skewed. But at all times I will be as sincere as the A train.