During a productive period of unemployment in 1975, I wrote a book with a friend, "The Pedestrian Revolution: Streets Without Cars" (Vintage). This gave me a confidence about writing I never had had before. Once you start writing, it is not easy to stop. Over the past 38 years, I have written 400 personal essays. In a spirit of independence, I have never sought advance approval from an editor. I choose the subject, write the essay and then find a home for it. Many of my essays have appeared on the "Home Forum Page" of "The Christian Science Monitor" and in the "New York Law Journal." Others on the Op-Ed pages of 'The New York Times," "Wall Street Journal," "Newsday" and "International Herald Tribune." My annual income from writing has rarely exceeded a few hundred dollars. (Mother provided sound advice when suggesting I attend law school.) Yet the pleasure these essays have given me, both in the writing and publication, has been enormous. For this collection, I have selected 83 essays. Topics include: Walking, Central Park, Grand Central Terminal Basketball and Opera, Rikers Island and Potter's Field, Bridges, Rivers, the Harbor, Whitman and Thoreau in New York, New York and Venice. These essays, and others, reflect my close ties to New York, the city forever a part of me.

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