This month, Natural Selections features Bregtje Hartendorf-Wallach, Assistant to Occupational Health Service Office.

How long have you been living in New York?
I’ve lived here since 1993.

Where do you live?
I live in the East Village.

Which is your favorite neighborhood?
There is not really one neighborhood I like best in the five boroughs. Since I ride my bike all over town, I (re)discover interesting neighborhoods and streets all the time. On a bright day, seeing the sun set over Astoria is beautiful, for instance. Although I generally stay clear of midtown as much as possible, I recently happened to walk on 55th street between 6th and 7th Avenue and noticed that on this block time seems to have stood still since the late 1980s. There are old, yellowed awnings stuck against dirty brown building facades and grimy storefronts. There is no direct sunlight on this block, but the street is somehow brightened by an enchanting reflective glare. With a little imagination, you can picture wood-paneled station wagons and other boxy American cars lining the city streets. It’s a slice of New York that has somehow remained unaffected by the area’s Disneyfication. In the same vein, I like to walk around the East Village early in the morning and see the elder Polish and Ukrainian inhabitants do their neighborhood shopping at the few old-fashioned butchers and bakeries that are left.
What do you think is the most overrated thing in the city? And underrated? Broadway shows are the most overrated thing in NYC. The art of knowing how to walk on any New York City sidewalk without bumping into someone holding a cup of coffee while talking on the phone is one of the most essentially underrated skills in this city.

What do you miss most when you are out of town?
When I’m away, I really miss the city’s energy and pace.

If you could change one thing about NYC, what would that be?
It would be great if New York City would truly commit to creating safe bike lanes all over the city. The so-called “green ways” that exists now is certainly a start, but as long as bike lanes are not separated from the rest of traffic and there is no police enforcement to prevent cars from using these bike lanes as additional parking space, biking in the city remains pretty dangerous. Also, I would take those long accordion style buses off the streets! They tend to travel in convoys of a least three and as they inch along the avenues, they take up too many lanes at once.
Describe a perfect weekend in NYC. To me, the perfect weekend would include getting out of the city for a few hours during the day to go for a sunny spring-day mountain bike ride with my husband Larry and some of our friends at the Rocky Point trail out on Long Island. It’s a beautiful, fun wooded trail and it gives me a much needed nature fix. After the ride, we drive back to the city for a shower, and then go out for dinner and on to see a band or an exhibit. On Sunday, we might do it all over again!

What is the most memorable experience you have had in NYC?
Meeting my husband Larry for the first time.

If you could live anywhere else, where would that be?
It’s always fun to think about other places I might like to live, like Austin TX or Boston or Amsterdam or Montauk, but when it comes down to it, I’m not so sure I’d really want to leave NYC at all unless I absolutely have to. Nothing compares to New York.

Do you think of yourself as a New Yorker? Why?

I do. New York completely feels like home to me. I came to New York as a young adult and the city has played a great part in my overall formation. Plus, I appreciate the directness and spunk of New Yorkers.