The Yin and Yang of New York (both photographs immediately below representing the yin, to keep things pretty)
(Apologies ahead of time for the awfully generic observations found below, but I made a promise.)
One of the funny things about spending significant time in the south is that you meet a lot of smart, well-traveled, interested people who ask for a defense (of sorts) of New York. I’ve been here almost six years now, and one of the deepest truths of the place is the fervent belief among young(ish) people who come here that it’s where they need to be. They complain about the more taxing aspects of the city on occasion, but you get the sense that they couldn’t live anywhere else (at least for a while). So the longer I stay, the odder it seems when someone -- especially someone who has a lot in common with my Yankee friends -- asks me to describe why I choose to live here. But I’m glad they do, because, probably more than the average place, New York causes you to take stock every now and again, and rededicate yourself to the project of hanging in here (or to the project of fleeing in some way that won’t feel like giving up).
As the humid season approaches, when I spend every other day wondering why I don't move to Saratoga Springs (aside from dearth of employment opportunities, lack of social options, and a better than even chance that I would become a degenerate horse gambler within a year or two), it's time to briefly answer a friend's recent question about just what's so great about living in the city. (Calling New York the city is a pretty surefire way to piss off people who live elsewhere. It's fun. Try it.)
First, if you love street living -- walking down the block for pretty much every practical need, and several highly impractical needs as well, at just about any hour -- then there's nowhere else in America for you. In this sense and others, the positive aspects of living here are so broad as to verge on cliche. Just think of the communal, continually adolescent group fun fetishized in shows like Seinfeld and Friends, but with real beauty around you instead of plastic L.A. sets, and with, you know, real people, too. (The beauty, of course, takes the form of the pristine -- Lincoln Center, the Chrysler Building, the bridges, the broader skyline (see above), residential streets (also see above) -- but also what one friend calls "picturesque urban decay." The perfect phrase.) Not excluding myself by any stretch, I've found that New York is an incredibly provincial place for a certain group of people in their 20s and 30s, where they can extend their college experience to its breaking point (which point, for many, doesn't seem to exist). This is enjoyable and incredibly annoying in all the ways you would expect, but you can wring a lot of the former feeling from it before you hit the latter.
Every day, there's something to seek out. My recommendation today (though it doesn't actually happen for another couple of weeks) is the opening of the redesigned Morgan Library and Museum. And every day, something seeks you out. Another friend recounted a cab ride last week, during which the Russian driver had a fender bender with a Chinese counterpart and ended up screaming at him, "I will kick you in your brain! In your brain!" If that doesn't sound like a good time, don't come here. It might come down to this: New York is perfect for people who need constant stimulation, regardless of the type, and probably ruinous for anyone else.
I walked along the east side of Central Park the other night for the first time in a long while, for the last hour or so of sunlight, and was giddy. That said, I needed the reprieve it gave me. Because here's the yang: yes, the place can drive you crazy.
posted by JMW at 10:36 PM
8 Comments:
Hallelujah.
This point might be too obvious to bother making, but much (to all) of our affection for places grows out of familiarity. No one should have to apologize for favoring one city over another, or feel condescended to by others who happen to love their cities, too. I have no doubt that San Antonio and Houston are fine cities in their own particular ways, and that some people are better suited to them than to New York, say. That said, New York is in a whole different league than San Antonio and Houston (and even Austin, for that matter) as far as cities go. You can't compare them objectively. New York is New York. The beauty of the immense pride we take in living here is that it requires no explaining or defending.
This probably warrants a follow-up post, so I'll limit myself here. Just want to say that San Antonio is a fine city, but I find it very narrowly appealing. Can't imagine living there for years and years. I barely made it through four -- and no, I didn't explore much, but I didn't feel all that inspired to either. And despite the fact that I'm not a big camper-type, I do like the outdoors -- beautiful Atlantic Ocean beaches are a very, very short drive from Manhattan (even shorter from Brooklyn), and just north of the city is beauty that, frankly, you can't find much of in Texas.
lfw makes a good point about the city thing -- Houston and Dallas have things to offer as places once you adjust to them, but as far as street-level city life, there's just no comparison at all (for that, you have to go to Chicago, Boston, etc.) It's not really the fault of the cities, it's just the way that American places are developed now, and that's a shame for those of us who prefer the more old-fashioned structure.
And although I think lfw is absolutely right about familiarity engendering affection (how else could I ever defend Dallas?), there's also the opposite at work, I've found, in NY (and other places) -- the longer you live here, the more you take the good stuff for granted and focus on the bad. After all, "familiarity breeds contempt" is the real cliche.
So much for limiting myself. I guess this serves as the follow-up.
Attitude, fact; toMAYto, toMAHto.
Like I said, dezmond, of course I don't begrudge anyone the right to enjoy living somewhere other than New York. Many people would hate living in New York. You might be one of them, if you ever gave it a shot. But I find it strange that you can't accept that New York is just on a different level, as cities go, than Houston or San Antonio. It's hard to put it in a way that doesn't sound belittling, but I swear that's not my intention here.
Dezmond understands, lfw, so don't provoke him further. He has strong jedi mind tricks that cause people to scream at him when they don't want/need to. He spent four years using them on me to great effect.
You find it difficult to believe because you've never lived here.
Or in Chicago, for that matter, which also puts Houston to shame.
By "level" here, I think we're talking something along the lines of "ability to secede from the union and still remain totally intact and functioning without any of its residents batting an eye."
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