64 And Counting
As I approach that birthday which will finally entitle me to a Senior MetroCard, my thoughts turn to Florida. Not that I want to move there! No, I am wondering what, besides climate, would make any New Yorker consider leaving New York as we contemplate our later years. It’s the ideal place in which to be older. Yes, the winters are cold, yes the ice can be slippery. On the other hand, you never have to drive your own car and everything you could possibly want is just a cab or Uber ride away.
Having lived in the same building for almost 40 years, I have watched generations of doormen come and go. I try to be kind and considerate to them and in return, they are extremely kind and considerate to me. I feel as if I already possess most of the benefits of assisted living. There’s always someone to help with packages or unload the car. There’s always someone to get me a cab. If the sink leaks, or the plaster cracks, or mice skitter across the kitchen floor, help is just a quick call to the super or handyman away. On the home front I always feel that someone has my back.
And then, when I leave the building, what riches! Museums of art, of natural history, of design, of cultural heritage. Museums for kids, for ice cream, for sex. So many restaurants I believe I could eat out every day at a different one and never be done. Food dedicated to the panorama of ethnicities which constitute our boroughs: Greek food in Astoria, Chinese food in Flushing, Polish food in Alphabet City, Indian food on East 4th Street (and countless other places), soul food in Harlem. The list goes on and on. And if I don’t want to go out, they deliver. As does almost everyone else in New York, no matter what you want to buy. And Max Delivery promises to bring it, whatever it is, in an hour or less.
I have noticed an interesting phenomenon recently among my friends. As we get older, most of us are not scaling down the way a previous generation did. If anything, many of us are scaling up. Many older couples moving from the suburbs or within the city buy bigger properties than they used to, and those properties don’t tend to become available as often as they used to. I think there are a number of reasons for this.
Number one is taxes. With the meteoric increase in New York City home values during the past decade and a half, and the increase in long term capital gains tax rates for NYC residents to an amount in excess of 35%, there is little financial benefit to be gained from scaling down; it’s easier just to stay put.
Number two is expanding family. When I left my mother’s apartment the summer after I graduated from college, I almost never spent another night there. My kids, on the other hand, have been in and out of our place every couple of years, whether for a week or a couple of months. And now, of course, there are grandchildren. When my wife and I bought our house in Connecticut, we went big, knowing that children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, and friends would all end up there at one point or another. And our apartment, which seemed enormous when we bought it, got smaller and smaller as the years went by. Currently, with my daughter, son-in-law, baby, and baby nurse in residence, it is filled to the brim, and wonderfully so. I cannot imagine having less space.
The city attracts and galvanizes people of all ages. Whatever your pleasure, you can find it somewhere in New York. I am excited to think of all the discoveries which still await me, a lifelong New Yorker, as my “golden years” arrive.