It’s my 50th anniversary!
Celebrating America’s 250th birthday in 2026 reminded me of my own milestone…50 years living in New York City. And that’s something I share with pop-culture icon, Kevin Bacon, who came here from Philadelphia that same summer of 1976 and landed on the Upper West Side like me, a transplant from Kearney, Nebraska. We were neighbors and didn’t know it…my ‘nine blocks’ of separation from Kevin Bacon. My first NYC apartment was in the Hotel Belleclaire at Broadway and 77th Street ($300 per month rental) while his first apartment was in Bretton Hall at Broadway and 86th Street ($325 per month rental). Both rents were high at that time, so you split the cost with a roommate. It’s amazing how much those apartment rents have increased over the past 50 years for the same amount of space! Rent has increased approximately 1,567% since then.
Opened in 1903 as an apartment hotel, the Hotel Belleclaire was designed by the prolific architect Emery Roth, whose other notable work includes several UWS buildings (The El Dorado, The San Remo, the Beresford, the Ardsley), and the East Side Ritz Tower on Park Avenue.
Now that August has arrived, I realize I have been a New Yorker for 50 years…longer than the 23 years I spent living and growing up in Nebraska. Superstar Jennifer Lopez, a native New Yorker, would beg to differ…according to J.Lo “when you’re born in New York is when you’re really a New Yorker.” Manhattan city councilman Shaun Abreu, a native New Yorker as well, tends to agree with J.Lo, but adds that people who have lived in the city for 15 years or more can have a separate title of “honorary New Yorker.” So, after being a 50-year transplant to this great city and raising a family here, I think I can safely consider myself an “honorary New Yorker.” That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
It seems like yesterday I graduated from the University of Nebraska at Kearney (UNK) with a BFA degree in sculpture, finished my summer job at Buffalo Air Service, packed two large suitcases, and traveled by car to New York City with a family friend. I had visited the Big Apple several times before en route to UNK-sponsored Studies Abroad programs that took me on journeys throughout Europe. I fell in love with the energy and diversity of this city. There was no turning back and New York City became my home…a dream come true for a Nebraska farm boy.
I married, raised triplets with my wife, Bonita, and after a 35-year career in banking, earned a certificate of graphic design from Hunter College. And RDEnochs DESIGN was born (Website Link). Back to my artistic roots! Full circle!
Time flies by so fast when you’re busy living this thing called life. Although I will always be a native Nebraskan, I’m also very proud to be an “honorary New Yorker” and septuagenarian living on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Cheers to 50 years!