I'm here at Fix cafe in (has it jumped the shark yet?) Billyburg. I'm sitting across from Julia's good buddy Karena who's blogging for Cinematical, and I just bumped in to Katelyn Keough, of the (in)famous Alaska Keoughs. And then (like 5 minutes later) I got an IM from Phil Logerfo (a.k.a. Phantom Phil) and he's sitting across the room.

I tend to actually like the small-world vibe. It's an essential part of making life work in New York City. This is one of the most populous metropolis in the world, but also one of the most dense, and thanks to a first-rate transportation network one of the most widely traveled. What that means in practice is that though you swim through strangers, you see familiar faces all over as you hit the same hubs, nodes, and scheduled crossings week after week. This makes for a much more palpable sense of community than you can get in any sub-urban, let alone ex-urban setting.

Just another reason why this is one of the best cities in the world.