Dear Diary:
My New York wasn’t lost with the gentrification of the East Village â€" a once edgy, tattered, soulful neighborhood turned into a massive food court.
Or with the closing of CBGB, or the morphing of SoHo into a shopping center, with crowds to rival Times Square.
It was with the audio automation in the subway â€" that voice, like a computerized Verizon operator, intoning the stops. You could be in any city.
Where’s the man at the wheel who tells you it’s his birthday, gives a thumbnail history of Astor Place or barks, “Let’s Go Mets!†as he’s pulling into Willets Point?
Couldn’t they at least have given the robot a New York accent?
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