I marvelled at the vitality reverberating from every street and avenue. The city moves and breathes every minute of the day and night.

Walking from First Avenue to Eighth Avenue yesterday, I passed a Puerto Rican street carnival, the banks of six nations, the airline offices of ten countries, dozens of restaurants offering cusine ranging from French to Indian, and street vendors hawking everything from Italian ice desserts to Greek newspapers.

It would be wrong to think New York's Manhatten district is some sort of materialistic circus, where money and vanity obliterate the human side. Contrary to those who portray the city as cold and selfish, I found New Yorkers to be as healthily "human" as people anywhere. The problem is that in a city as overpowering as New York, the numbers and grandness tend to distract one's attention from the personal dramas being played out on every corner.

Before I entered the city, I was apprehensive about my safety. I had been told repeatedly the city was crime-ridden, the people rude and concerned only with themselves. I envisioned silent, smileless faces. Wrong. For every grouch I've passed in New York, I've seen ninety-nine others laughing or in lively conversation.

It's true that New Yorkers--as do most Americans--love their money and possessions. It's just not true that they won't help one another.

I'll tell you what happened my first evening on Staten Island. I stopped at a gas station to get a drink of water, and before I could leave, two teen-aged boys working there had given me twenty dollars, one large pizza, two soda pops and a beer--and I didn't ask for anything but the water.

And what of the crime in the city?

"Don't believe that at all!" a wild-eyed Yugoslavian cab driver laughed. "I dare you to walk anywhere in Manhatten--yes, even Central Park--at any time of the day or night and see if anything bad happens to you."

I did just as he advised. And, as usual, the purveyors of fear were wrong. Other than a few passes from streetwalkers, absolutely nothing happened.

Sure, you must use common sense and caution in some places. But the horror stories about New York City crime are mostly exaggerations.

I felt safer in Manhatten at two in the morning than I ever felt in other metropolitan inner-city areas. Maybe it was the masses of people on the streets at every hour of the day.

I believe that America's big cities are very much alive and growing--and so are the people in them.

Steven