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Comment by spunker540 | Hacker News Reader

This is largely irrelevant, but Leonard Cohen’s song “Chelsea Hotel #2” is the primary reason I find the hotel special. Every time I walk past the song pops in my head. I’d be excited to see the hotel returned to some glory, bohemian or not. It’s been under scaffolding for most of a decade it seems.

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One of the things I think is special about NYC is the degree to which its physical places have become a part of the wider American culture.

From Central Park to the 59th Street Bridge to the Empire State Building to Macy's, I probably knew more places in New York when I first moved there than I could name in my own home-town. Part of that is the relative sizes, but New York has a cultural footprint beyond other large cities like Chicago or LA.

Being on the top of the Empire State Building with my uncle who absolutely loves NYC and having him just point out so much famous stuff is a great memory. Just history as far as the eye can see.

Which is saying a lot considering how much larger the film industry is in Los Angeles. A huge percentage of films are done in southern California and even written into the script as taking place there. And yet the iconography and history of New York city is just so rich that it still pervades a lot of pop culture.

Yeah, it's almost an indictment of LA.

I know there's a pier, but I'm not sure if there's one pier or a lot of them. I know about the concrete river, and the Hollywood sign, and that's about it.

My wife and I are Newyorkers (well, to be fair, Newjerseyans) that want to move out West. We love California, both SoCal and the Bay Area, in spite of its warts, and frequently visit.

But we realized that despite living right next door to NYC, we haven't really explored it. We might have explored LA or SF just as much if not more than NYC - especially the non-Manhattan boroughs. We've even started visiting San Diego right before Covid hit.

I'm not sure why to be honest. I guess the fact that it's just there and available whenever makes us postpone it.

While we still want to pack our bags to head out West, we've realized we really ought to take in NYC while we're still here.

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