retouchers—obsolete), regular public school teacher, journalist, CUNY professor, hotel owner, and now, again, a cabdriver. Driving Uber has allowed me to see parts of the city that I rarely saw driving yellow, almost all in the outer boroughs. I love a building that gives me the shivers, that makes me want to stop my car and linger. The further you go from midtown, the better this city gets. I believe a strip of immigrant-owned stores under the Myrtle Avenue El, is way more interesting than the Hudson Yards’ phony wow-isms or Madison Avenue boutique.

To paraphrase Jim Bouton, I’ve spent a good deal of my life trying to get a grip on this city, and in the end it turns out it was the other way around.