In 2019, we relearned what we already knew: The world revolves around New York City, and that's not entirely a good thing.
Queensite Donald Trump, for the third year, brought his odious brand of self-promotional, impulsive, divisive, ignorant, insulting, corrupt leadership to the most powerful job in America.
That the economy is good matters to millions. That the nation's character will need more than one power wash before this is all over matters more.
We learned that the reality-show CEO has become the talk-show president, and his Ed McMahon is not Mike Pence; it's Brooklyn-born Rudy Giuliani, who we will no longer refer to as mayor.
We learned that another tragicomic reality show struggled to draw ratings, as our current mayor, Brooklynite Bill de Blasio, offered himself as the Democrats' savior in the age of Trump.
We're in the process of learning whether all the television all the money in the world can buy is enough to enable a third mayor, Manhattanite Mike Bloomberg, to vault himself into contention for the Democratic nomination late in the game.
Closer to home, we learned that even in a relatively healthy city, there is terrible, often hidden suffering. Police officers are taking their lives. People who drive for a living are struggling to say afloat. Hundreds of thousands are struggling with drug addiction. The ranks of the homeless remain stubbornly high.
We learned that some so-called progressives are so sure of their righteousness, they'll brandish pitchforks and tell one of the world's largest employers to take 25,000 jobs and get the hell out of town.
We learned that the sad, slow, sloppy subways can start to get on track again. And a tunnel to Brooklyn didn't need to be closed in order to be fixed.
We learned that even in an age of ever-advancing communication technology, perhaps especially in such an age, one of the world's oldest hatreds can make a comeback.
We learned that no matter how destabilizing a year can seem, we keep hurtling into the next one _ another 12 months on the calendar where we'll have to try to not just absorb what we learned but apply it.
