Steinbeck on the City

"New York is an ugly city, a dirty city.  Its climate is a scandal, its politics are used to frighten children, its traffic is madness, its competition murderous.  But there is one thing about it--once you have lived in New York and it has become your home, no place else is good enough."

 

--John Steinbeck, 1953

Nicholas Cresswell on the Stench of the City in the 1770's

"If any author had an inclination to write a treatise upon stinks he never could meet with more subject matter than New York City."

It still rings true.