People are generally helpful. They see you struggling with boxes or something, and someone is going to hold the door for you. When it’s ass o’clock, and you’re trying to get into penn station, one of the folks who hang out will let you know that the door you’re about to walk up to is gonna be locked, so try that next one over. When you’re at the Shop Rite, and you’re about to grab a janky cart, either a store worker or some random person will tell you, “nah, that cart is messed up, try the ones over there.” Yeah it’s a small thing, but there’s this feeling of “these folks in this neighbourhood are my people, and I’m gonna look out for them.”

People are also pretty damn friendly. Ever since moving here, the daily strangers (the folk you pass by every day who see you but you don’t stop and talk to) who will do the head tilt in your direction is way more than anywhere else I’ve know. Or, if you’re both headed somewhere, someone will feel comfortable chat with you if they see that you’re going there. There was this time my friend and I were headed into the Whole Foods, and this lady was like “so how do you get there [from the parking garage]?” We ended up chatting from the parking garage all the way to the entrance, and then a bit more.

There’s a ton of stuff to do that isn’t eating or getting drunk. I’ve been places where there’s an active night life. You can have a nice meal. You can go to a bar. You can go to a bar and have a nice meal. Maybe you can get some coffee or something. Newark has a ton of stuff that’s family friendly, or fun to do if you’re not into getting drunk. There’s poetry readings, art to look at, comedy shows (technically at bars usually, but still), street fairs galore. Every other weekend there’s some excuse to get out and wander the festival for whatever it is that they’re celebrating. Even if you don’t have kids, it’s still fun to get out and meet the people who live near you, and vibe with them for a spell. And by and large, the events are either free or relatively low cost.

And of course, our biggest superpower is that we’re diverse. I can hear several languages wherever I go, and I think that’s awesome. I don’t feel like the only brown person, or that all the brown people are there to serve the overwhelmingly white majority of people in that area. There are folk of all different races, and nobody gives me a second glance. There’s queer people all over the place, and nobody gives a crap about it. I can walk around with my boyfriend, both of us with painted nails and bright vibrant clothes, and nobody gives us a second glance. Unless it’s to say “hey how you doing?”

Honestly, of the cities I’ve lived in, this one is possibly the weirdest but also the one that’s captured my heart the most.