Al Greenberg never had a passion for accounting; he even tried to talk me out of going into accounting when I told him my future plans. His passion is New York City.
He was in the Yankee Stadium bleachers on the day that Lou Gehrig gave his unprecedented farewell speech. He witnessed and felt the pain of the city on the dark day of 9/11. He lives and breathes with the thick air and pungent scent of New York and longs for it when he leaves on short trips to Jersey. He does the crossword puzzle every morning in the New York Times, even on Sundays when it is the most challenging. He has a monthly pass to Lincoln Center to view the opulent operas, the thespian plays, and elaborate ballets; he even moved from his Central Park apartment a few years ago to his current residence so that he could walk the six blocks to the theater. He knows that the #5 bus is the finest bus in the city because it only stops twice from his West End home to 42nd and Park Avenue. And in the tourist teeming months of summer, he sometimes will declare that he has had enough, and emphatically wishes for them to get out of his city.
The high-rise buildings and bright lights of New York City come with a price; it is a place where you have to be rich just to be poor there. The place has the highest average monthly rent in the nation at $2500, and it’s unheard of to have a car there because a parking space is more than my monthly rent in Phoenix!
But with Al Greenberg being born and raised in New York City, remaining there was all he every wanted. It is his passion to indulge in what the city has to offer. By working through the laborious 50+ years in accounting, he is able to continue appreciating the city that drives him.
