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Jonathan Lethem And Other Notable Hometown Departures

Notable New Yorkers Who Fled New York
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Brooklyn scribe Jonathan Lethem, who earlier this week announced he is moving to California to become the Roy Edward Disney Professor in Creative Writing at Pomona College, revealed that he is writing a new outer-borough epic - on Queens. Some are incensed that Brooklyn's most Brooklyny Jonathan is futzing around with other zip codes, but perhaps the greater betrayal is that Lethem left the city he so diligently canonized.

Lethem, however, is only one in a string of notable New Yorkers who have recently fled. Below, see others and vote on the one New York misses most.

NY Authors
Woody Allen(01 of07)
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Allen left the city to make films abroad, starting with Match Point (2005). Why? It was too expensive to shoot in NYC (but apparently much cheaper in London!). (credit:Getty)
Pat Riley(02 of07)
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in 1995 Riley quit the Knicks and headed to Miami because the Knicks’ management was “cramping his style” (credit:Getty)
Rush Limbaugh(03 of07)
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Limbaugh fled town because he didn't like New York's tax code. (credit:Getty)
Conan O'Brien(04 of07)
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in 2009 O'Brienleft New York for California to host the Tonight Show for six months. (credit:Getty)
Ryan Adams(05 of07)
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"I got shat on by the New York Times for long enough so I moved." (credit:Getty)
Brooklyn Dodgers(06 of07)
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The beloved Brooklyn team moved to Los Angeles before the 1958 season. (credit:AP)
JD Salinger(07 of07)
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In 1953, he moved from his midtown apartment to Cornish, New Hampshire – probably to get away from all the “goddamn phonies.”
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