It must be the timelessness of the place, the winding streets that began, they say, with cow paths. The bohemian flavor that lingers amidst the wealth and Starbucks.
But it's not just the timelessness that draws me back. It's the new features, like Hudson River Park, a ribbon of asphalt and greenery that runs from 59th Street to the Battery. To stroll or bike here is to be of the city but not in it. It's to be moving as the river flows, as the city itself moves, poetry in motion.
Every time I visit, I add another chapter to my own West Side Story.