I read the article in your 8/1 issue about hating D.C. (“New York Fetish”).

I am a native New Yorker, born in Hell’s Kitchen (really!), brought up on the Upper East Side—and later in Brooklyn, in Lauren Bacall’s neighborhood, and in Queens, in Archie Bunker’s neighborhood. Central Park and Coney Island were my playgrounds and, from the time I was a schoolgirl, I was no stranger to Times Square, the Broadway theater, and all the museums, from the Metropolitan to the Museum of the City of New York. I live here now, but I still visit New York often enough to know what’s goin’ on and still am totally at home there.

And I say that article was a piece of CRAP! Not only were the facts wrong—the facts, fellas—but the whole attitude was wrong. This wannabe from Arkansas, a writer, who does not have to be anywhere special and can stay up all night any time he wants, has no clue as to the daily life of New Yorkers. What is more, he is not even writing about New York City but about some semifictional little part of Manhattan—Chelsea, Soho, the East and West Villages. That’s what they all do.

Every year, someone has to make the same dopey comparisons between Washington and New York. Why not Washington and Boston? Or Philadelphia? Or Paris? Or Baltimore? Or Little Rock, for Pete’s sake (that ought to keep him in Washington!)? Haven’t you jerks figured out yet that each important city has its own strengths and weaknesses, different in the eyes of different beholders with different needs?

Forest Hills