“New York is notoriously the largest and least loved of any of our great cities. Why should it be loved as a city? It is never the same city for a dozen years altogether. A man born forty years ago finds nothing, absolutely nothing, of the New York he knew. If he chances to stumble upon a few old houses not yet leveled, he is fortunate. But the landmarks, the objects, which marked the city to him, as a city, are gone."—Harper’s Monthly, 1856

My comment: 

Everything from my youth and early adult years is gone. …everything. It’s like they never were. You can’t love this City because it completely changes every decade or so. It is more a familiar stranger than a love.  Cities both ancient and now were always living beings. Like forests or coral reefs. They change as their environment changes. …For better or worse.