I once found a birthday card for my husband in a shop in Soho that had a checklist of everything you say when you get old. Our favorite is “That used to be a…” It’s a phrase you can’t avoid in New York City, where every place used to be some other place. But when you live in the Big Apple for a while—say 12 years, like I did—the city performs a magic trick on you. Your favorite restaurants and parks and bars construct an era that doesn’t seem to change, until you decamp for the suburbs, as my husband and I did in 2019. Then the city surges into the future without you. You’ll visit, and whole blocks that you loved will be unrecognizable. Other people will live inside them, and New York will be their city…