Regarding Santino Carnevale’s Thursday letter to the editor (‘New York? Give me a break,’ Nov. 14, pg. 10):

You have to admit that New York City is far more exciting then Boston? Maybe that is because it is. I think you have to take a moment to step back and read the words you wrote, Mr. Carnevale.

There must be a reason you think New York City is more exciting then Boston and Providence put together. There must be a reason most of the world thinks that, yet, you only mention the bootleggers, bagels and looking for Al Franken. Those are all true, plus there are about a million more things to do in New York. Who rates a city on Al Franken sightings and bagel flavor? Then you mention the bars and how late they’re open and how with the extra time you can sleep with someone and not even know their gender. I don’t know about you, but no matter how drunk I get, I can usually tell the difference…

If all that was not enough, you go on to insult the very character of New Yorkers. To this I take personal offense, being from Brooklyn myself. We are ‘narrow-minded’ and ‘arrogant,’ and since none of us know where Missouri or Wyoming is (according to you), we are also ignorant. Well, this all sounds like it is coming from a narrow-minded, arrogant and ignorant suburban kid who couldn’t survive 24 hours in New York City without his Mommy and Daddy’s checkbook.

There are drugs and there is crime, but you know what, it’s a great place to live and when I am out of college I am going back. New York is the capital of the world in a lot of ways. Almost every immigrant that has come into this country in the last 100 years came through New York, it certainly is the financial capital of the world and every form of culture and people are in New York, it is the home of Lady Liberty for God’s sake.

But you know what? The foundation of the Statue of Liberty was financed by donations of children from all over the country, and that makes it not just for New York, but for all Americans. It symbolizes all Americans together and what we stand for, and you running your mouth about how we are dumb and have a bad attitude is just insulting.