What city walking experiences do you have in common with the writer? What in your experience is different from what he wrote about? What do you think of the power of serendipity to “expose our commonalities,” as he puts it?

       Growing up in New York City is a very exciting experience, because of the amount of options and resources we have. Similar to the writer, when I became of age to wander the city on my own I would take long trips to every part of my borough. I would take trips with several of my friends in groups to make sure nothing would happen to us. We first started in Brooklyn. I was raised in Flatbush, one block from the Q train station. We would jump the turnstile and take the trains to random stops, to get a better understanding of Brooklyn. We would go to bay ridge to play basketball. When we arrived we would be the only black people at the court since the area was filled with Chinese, Russian, Indian and other cultures but the people that looked like me and my friends were train stations away . We made friends with the kids there because they took an interest in us. The same way we never really got to experience other cultures were the same for them. After mastering Brooklyn from Flatbush to red hook , from bed stuy to crown heights, we became experts of our area, learning shortcuts to reach destinations within our borough. As I grew into adulthood I acquired new friends on the east side of Harlem, and just like the writer says upper east side heading into Harlem is a very friendly place. To some it may seem dangerous but to others that know and understand the environment it’s really a place to be yourself. Coming from Brooklyn and transitioning to Manhattan by train I was able to see a big difference from the upper east side (86th and park ave) to 99th and Lexington (project housings). The distance from 86th to 99th is a ten minute walk at most but you can see the huge difference in the neighborhoods. Upper east side I couldn’t find any corner stores/bodegas and I couldn’t find a friendly face to help me with directions to save my life. It was like I was a ghost and I couldn’t be seen until I got off the bus which drove through the park to reach Harlem . Immediately upon leaving the bus I’m greeted by people that resemble me and that are more open to talk. Harlem was a community and that’s what upper east side lacks. Everyone was in tune with one another. There was so much life on every block. The old folks sit outside during the summer heat to try and catch shade to stay cool. On that same block a group of young black men are having debates about politics and what’s going to happen to our future, and kids playing catch on the corner . Recently when I go to Harlem those stores that I once stopped at to get a beverage and make small talk was no longer there and the projects which I hung out, the demographics had changed drastically from black and Spanish people to Chinese and white, increasing the amount of police in that area. These new changes weren’t so welcoming of its old neighbors, a lot of my friends had to go, kind of like out with the old and in with the new. I believe as long as New York City is welcoming of the new rent and new high rise buildings we are going to lose that sense of family/community all over nyc, not just upper east side to the Bronx.