Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 40 Page 41 Page 42 Page 43 Page 44 Page 45 Page 46 Page 47 Page 48 Page 49 Page 50 Page 51 Page 52 Page 53 Page 54 Page 55 Page 56 Page 57 Page 58 Page 59 Page 60 Page 61 Page 62 Page 63 Page 64 Page 65 Page 66 Page 67 Page 68 Page 69 Page 70 Page 71 Page 72 Page 73 Page 74 Page 75 Page 76 Page 77 Page 78 Page 79 Page 80 Page 81 Page 82 Page 83 Page 84 Page 85 Page 86 Page 87 Page 88 Page 89 Page 90 Page 91 Page 92 Page 93 Page 94 Page 95 Page 96 Page 97 Page 98 Page 99 Page 100 Page 101 Page 102 Page 103 Page 104 Page 105 Page 106 Page 107 Page 108o c t o b e r 2 0 1 6 5 7 voices courtesy Kate Howe In the words of graphic designer Kate Howe. Where New Yorkers Go To Be Happy A s soon as I could choose my place, I chose New York City.I elected to go to Columbia over Harvard or Stanford for the worldliness,the hustle,the grit, glamour,and brushes with greatness of New York City.Four years later,when the fresh-faced graduates of those and other in- stitutions showed up,I felt part of the city–and undeniably superior. In the years after college, I did move out of New York City, once for San Francisco, which turned out to be too parochial, and once for London, which…well that did give New York a run for its money. But settling back in Brooklyn after graduate school, I figured it was game-over. I would go on honing my version of life in the city–find my mate, buy and decorate an apartment, fur- ther my career. Then think about children, and a weekend house, and further further- ing my career. But life anywhere else did not seem plausible. If I complained about the price of real estate, or the exhaustion of the subway commute, or the waiting list for pre- school, it was always with the understand- ing that those hardships were vastly prefer- able to living in the places without those hardships. I sometimes heard people dis- cuss “getting out,” and I mentally put them in the Other category. They must not be that tough, I thought. And those poor souls in the suburbs of Long Island or Jersey. Imagine my surprise then, when I was one-half of a decision to move up to Port- land, Maine. It came upon us almost by chance. My husband applied for a job in Portland and slowly became the chosen candidate. What had seemed a harmless gambit turned into a crazy, weighty, life- altering decision, the most difficult one of our adult lives. At first we thought, “Oh how charming. But of course we’ll stay in New York.” We made up our minds that way at least five or six times, only to be tempted during the night by fantasies of seaside meadows and ocean breezes; fantasies that our daughters could grow up know- ing nature; and the biggest fantasy of all– that there might be another version of life out there, if only we were able to unwind enough to enjoy it. On a last minute trip to check out Maine again, after the job decision was already overdue and we were wracked with indeci- sion, the honey light and sweeping vista of Ocean House Road leading into Cape Eliz- abeth undid me, and just like that, my life path turned and led out of New York City. There is a tremendous loss of identity that comes with leaving New York. The city “There is a tremendous loss of identity that comes with leaving NewYork.” –Kate Howe