[Eager is always a good sign. Ned's definitely interested in that name, since things just got a lot more New York neighborhood in this conversation.]

I knew I was right to peg you for a New Yorker. Accent's a little off, but what isn't off around here, huh? [He himself doesn't sound like anything less than "wandered out of the Upper East Side a decade ago," but details.] How's the city doing these days?

[Whichever days those are, it doesn't really matter.]