The Bernsteins Are Moving

My family and I have experienced a lot of personal change this year, outside of everything currently happening globally. In addition to my recent diagnosis, we’ve also finally decided that we’re ready to leave New York.

We’d been talking about it for a couple years. We were growing weary of city life, specifically Manhattan city life, how homogenized it was becoming, how everyone interesting was getting priced out of living there, and we were looking for something a little simpler, and quieter. Not quite completely rural, but not exactly the West Village.

We’d never seriously considered moving, though, because the kids adore the school they’re in, and it goes from Pre-K to high school. So we were pretty much New Yorkers whether we liked it or not. But then the quarantine happened, and the kids started remote learning, and a lot of their friends’ parents decided to move out of the city, and suddenly the kids were open to the idea of pulling up stakes. Then, over these past few months, they started getting really, really excited about the idea.

So we started looking at cities on the west coast, specifically Northern California and the Pacific Northwest because Matty and I both love those places.

We’d narrowed it down to a few cities, and in one, we found a school that felt very much like the school the kids are currently in. Independent, progressive, less focused on standardized testing, etc. Turns out they’re sort of sister schools. On a lark, we inquired about the ’21-’22 school year when our kids would be entering the 6th grade, figuring if we found the perfect school we could figure out everything else. After a really great conversation with school admissions, we were told that there were still a couple of spots available in the upcoming 5th-grade class—this school year.

We applied. And they got in.

We started scrambling to look for a house because it felt like a golden opportunity, and we didn’t want to pass it up. And in a matter of two days, we found our dream home. Not kidding. Everything Matty and I had talked and dreamed about over the past decade. So… three weeks ago I flew out, saw the house, fell completely in love, and made an offer… Long story short, we’re leaving in less than two weeks and heading to our new home, Portland, Oregon!

Now, onto AGP matters… Our new house has room for a full, separate office, so I won’t have to rent separate office space anymore, and Catherine will still be doing what she does now, basically everything, from New York! We’ve gotten pretty good at teleworking together, so that’s not much of an issue, and when the pandemic ends I’ll get her set up with a shared desk at a co-working space, so she doesn’t have to work solely from home if she doesn’t want. Otherwise, nothing much is changing. There might be some timezone tweaks we’ll need to make, as I’ll be on Pacific time, but the company will largely remain on Herman Standard Time (Eastern.)

So yeah, we have lots to do to get ready to leave New York, but we’re really excited to start this new adventure, and experience a new city, a new state, and a new coast for Matty and the kids!

Next week will be quiet around the forum as Catherine travels and I get the apartment in the city ready to sell, but then we’ll be back to normal operations!

Anyone been to Portland? Recommendations?

P.S. Weirdly (or magimystically), this has all happened parallel to the current TBS Oregon narrative, though it was completely unintentional. That part of the narrative was planned out last year.