Most people do not live in New York City and many of them probably wonder why anyone does. There are more than 8 million people here of every possible race, religion, ethnicity, nationality, and gender. Often it seems crowded, busy, and hurried. But it’s never boring.

Because the city is so polyglot, we New Yorkers tend to be unusually tolerant. We are accustomed to living with diversity. Trump is an exception to that tolerance, but then he lived in a golden penthouse and didn’t have much to do with his fellow New Yorkers. Now that he has moved to Mar-a-Lago, we don’t have to dream up reasons for his ingrained racism.

I watched the “ticker-tape” parade in honor of the New York Knicks (on television, not in person). Around two million people lined the streets from Battery Park to City Hall, according to the NYPD. It was a world-class celebration, topped only by the unadulterated joy in the streets and neighborhoods on the night of the Knicks’ fifth game, when they overcame a large deficit and won the championship in the closing minute or two. As the New York Times recorded, people were dancing in the streets across the city.

NYC is filled with surprising and delightful moments.

Let me tell you about a recent day. We drove from Brooklyn to lower Manhattan to go book-shopping at the Strand, a four-story building at the corner of Broadway and 12th Street. The Strand is an iconic bookstore, the largest in the city, with some 2.5 million books–new, used, and rare. It was packed with customers, mostly young people of high school and college age. There were four or five cashiers to handle the long lines. It was a beautiful sight to see.

Then we walked to Veselka, a Ukrainian restaurant, a few blocks away and enjoyed borscht, pierogies, stuffed cabbage, and schnitzel. Authentic and delicious.

The week before, we invited a friend to go to an Austrian restaurant–Cafe Katja– on Orchard Street on the Lower East Side. I remember when the Lower East Side was mostly slums. No more. The streets were crowded, again, mostly with young people. We ate a meal whose highlight was white asparagus, flown in from Holland. Wow.

The street is lined with restaurants, boutiques, and artsy shops. While we were eating our lunch, a pick-up band began playing across the street. In a minute, the street was filled with people enjoying the music.

Another night we went to Broadway to see Mariska Hargitay playing solo in “Every Brilliant Thing.” She was wonderful. We love watching her on “Law and Order: Special Victims Unit.” As we walked out of the theatre, we crossed Broadway, which was aglow with neon lights and alive with visitors and tourists.

Only in New York!

There’s something about living in this city that is simply joyful. Time and again, we experience that joy and understand why young people in search of adventure will always come to big cities. Despite what you may have heard, NYC is very safe. And the possibility of joy is always around the corner.