When Ali Solomon was getting ready to move to Manhattan in 2001 for graduate school, her Long Island family had plenty of tales to tell. “Both my parents grew up in the Bronx and had tons of stories of what the city was like. Everyone was telling horror stories of it — ‘I once got mugged in an elevator! Oh, but you’ll love it there.’ Then my aunt slid a pocketknife across the table.”
Her first apartment was in Morningside Heights, close to the Columbia campus.
“The first place I looked at had no floor, and they kept assuring us it would be there by the time we moved in, but it was like — ‘What if it isn’t?’ The one we went with was on the first floor above the garbage room. It was a total New York story. Where you’re like, ‘This is terrible — I love it!’ I don’t like change, so I lived in the mouse apartment for 6 years, even though my roommates kept changing.”
That entire “This is terrible/I love it!” spirit is in full effect in Solomon’s new book, “I Lov(ish) New York City: Tales of City Life” (Chronicle Books), which is a hilarious mix of love letter to the city, guide to newcomers, and laugh-out-loud tales of the metropolis that will be relatable to anyone who has ever lived here. (Indeed, the marketing material sums it up quite well: “New York will always be absurd and wonderful to those who live or who have lived there.”)
With chapter titles such as “All Work and No Plan Makes Jane Still Unable to Pay Her Rent,” “The Shortest Distance Between Two Points is Not the L Train” and “I Can See Suburbia from my Fire Escape,” the book encapsulates the life cycle of a New York City resident — including the decision of when/if you should leave. (More than 20 years after she first moved to the city, Solomon lives in Queens with her husband and two daughters.)
For newcomers moving to the city, Solomon offers up these pieces of advice: “Don’t take furniture off the street, and be open to new experiences, because if you’re always trying to stay in your comfort zone, it won’t work. Try to find like-minded people, and look at the health inspections before you eat in a restaurant.”