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January 12, 2007
TT: Life sentence
"I like Raleigh," I told the limo driver who picked me up at Raleigh-Durham International Airport. He laughed. "All you New Yorkers come down here and talk about how much you like Raleigh," he said, "but I don't notice any of you moving here." That silenced me. It also set me to wondering: would it be possible for me to live happily in a medium-sized city?Raleigh, to be sure, has much to offer the culture-conscious émigré. Carolina Ballet is a first-rate dance company. Quail Ridge Books & Music is one of America's best independent bookstores. The North Carolina Museum of Art isn't exactly overburdened with masterpieces of modern art, but it does own a dozen excellent pieces by Joseph Cornell, Richard Diebenkorn, Marsden Hartley, Alex Katz, Anselm Kiefer, Franz Kline, Jacob Lawrence, Louise Nevelson, Ad Reinhardt, Joel Shapiro, Frank Stella, and Neil Welliver. (I briefly thought at one time of leaving the Teachout Museum en bloc to the NCMA, but I wouldn't want to stiff my friends!) Ms. Pratie Place and I dined wonderfully well at a classy pan-Asian restaurant called The Duck and Dumpling, and Radiohead's "Everything in Its Right Place" was playing on the jukebox as I strolled into the Raleigh Times Bar for a post-rehearsal drink. As for the local barbecue, it's to die for.
On the other hand, I was the only person on foot in downtown Raleigh at seven-thirty last night, not counting a couple of panhandlers. That matters more to me than you might think. Having spent the past decade and a half living in Manhattan, I now find it hard to imagine moving to a city that has no street life after dark. Perhaps I won't continue to feel that way as I grow older, but I'm not exactly young anymore, and so far my love of city life has yet to diminish.
Am I destined to pass the rest of my days in New York, going to first nights and eating late suppers? Or will urban life lose its shiny savor? Maybe--but I wouldn't bet on it. At least not yet.
Posted January 12, 2007 12:00 PM
