Autumn in New York
Is New York City at least the best city in the United States? I've stared at that opening question for a couple minutes searching for my own answer to it. Look, I get why people don't like New York. It's loud, dirty, everyone seems particularly in hurry and a lot of folks can come off as short or rude. The traffic is terrible, the parking is even worse, and the subway smells horrendous especially in the summer. Living-wise, the rent is laughably ludicrous especially for the astonishingly tiny amount of space you're paying for.
But I wouldn't have it any other way.
When I was a kid, New York was still cleaning up. The porno theaters, drug dealers, and hookers that used to line Times Square had been gone for years by the first time I started visiting but it was still pretty rough around the edges with quite a few neighborhoods in Lower Manhattan you still didn't want to go to alone or after the sun went down. My family that lived there (and still does) lived in the outer boroughs which you would never really want to visit unless you were trying to catch a ballgame and, even then, you would turn tail and return to the Manhattan as soon as your business in those boroughs was done.
Fresh out of grad school, I used to go up to New York a lot. I was working freelance for a consulting firm based out of Manhattan and would swing by semi-regularly to meet with the senior staff and get briefed in-person on longer term plans. As that work seemed to pick up, I began looking to Brooklyn for places to put down roots, usually in neighborhoods that were just a stone's throw away from the hipper places (Williamsburg, Park Slope, etc.). It was during those visits that I really started to look around and really fall in love with the city.
Walking through Midtown, Greenwich Village, or the Lower East Side nowadays feels like Disneyland. Everything is bright and lit up at all times, most folks seem generally happy to be there, and hip boutique shops line the streets along with big name stores. The Village still has this old world quality to it with cobbled sidewalks and plenty of mom and pop restaurants and bars up and down MacDougal; the Comedy Cellar made iconic by Louie still thriving for those looking really for the most authentic New York comedy scene experience (The Stand in the Lower East Side takes the #2 slot). Just down the block is Washington Square where NYU students linger between classes and old men play the same chess game they’ve been playing for decades; a nexus where old New York meets the new.
The rest of Lower Manhattan is populated by trendy cafes and watering holes all along the Lower East Side and TriBeCa some of my favorite haunts lost to gentrification though my favorite churro place in the whole city keeps on keeping on in its little hole in the wall spot off Mulberry. The Upper West Side popularized by Seinfeld twenty years ago is the place for more affluent families in Manhattan, the East Village and TriBeCa having been lost to years of steadily rising rent. And, of course, there’s Times Square bright as the day even in the middle of the night; America’s billboard with designer stores and lit up displays as far as the eyes can process.
Brooklyn, particularly Williamsburg and Park Slope, stands at the forefront of hipster culture with bars featuring back patios and rooftops strung up with lights like a Lumineers music video. Move into the grittier neighborhoods like Bushwick and the corner bodegas and working class bars return; staying their ground with a strong local pride.
Queens has always reminded me of how Arlington compares to DC in a way. Both stand as increasingly diverse cities in their own right but in the shadow of more culturally prominent neighbor on the other side of the river. And, really, the best and most varied restaurants not so secretly exist right off the Q in the heart of Queens; the beautiful potential of the American melting pot in excelsis.
The grit of New York has diminished somewhat or at least been corporately co-opted but that local flavor I love so much has not. As with any city, this influx of gentrification will ebb and flow but there are certain elements that will remain eternal, that continue to define the city in the face of change. It can be something as tangible as a skinny, greasy slice of pizza or cheap, burnt (but oh so necessary) coffee in a blue and white paper cup. It can be having no patience for slow walkers on the sidewalk or knowing how to navigate the subway after midnight with all the foibles therein. It can be as simple as remembering to look up and take in that Manhattan skyline or the way the sunset catches the rooftops of Brooklyn. But there definitely is a New York State of Mind and I love that feeling as soon as I cross the Washington Bridge or Lincoln Tunnel. Here we go.
But I wouldn't have it any other way.
When I was a kid, New York was still cleaning up. The porno theaters, drug dealers, and hookers that used to line Times Square had been gone for years by the first time I started visiting but it was still pretty rough around the edges with quite a few neighborhoods in Lower Manhattan you still didn't want to go to alone or after the sun went down. My family that lived there (and still does) lived in the outer boroughs which you would never really want to visit unless you were trying to catch a ballgame and, even then, you would turn tail and return to the Manhattan as soon as your business in those boroughs was done.
Fresh out of grad school, I used to go up to New York a lot. I was working freelance for a consulting firm based out of Manhattan and would swing by semi-regularly to meet with the senior staff and get briefed in-person on longer term plans. As that work seemed to pick up, I began looking to Brooklyn for places to put down roots, usually in neighborhoods that were just a stone's throw away from the hipper places (Williamsburg, Park Slope, etc.). It was during those visits that I really started to look around and really fall in love with the city.
Walking through Midtown, Greenwich Village, or the Lower East Side nowadays feels like Disneyland. Everything is bright and lit up at all times, most folks seem generally happy to be there, and hip boutique shops line the streets along with big name stores. The Village still has this old world quality to it with cobbled sidewalks and plenty of mom and pop restaurants and bars up and down MacDougal; the Comedy Cellar made iconic by Louie still thriving for those looking really for the most authentic New York comedy scene experience (The Stand in the Lower East Side takes the #2 slot). Just down the block is Washington Square where NYU students linger between classes and old men play the same chess game they’ve been playing for decades; a nexus where old New York meets the new.
The rest of Lower Manhattan is populated by trendy cafes and watering holes all along the Lower East Side and TriBeCa some of my favorite haunts lost to gentrification though my favorite churro place in the whole city keeps on keeping on in its little hole in the wall spot off Mulberry. The Upper West Side popularized by Seinfeld twenty years ago is the place for more affluent families in Manhattan, the East Village and TriBeCa having been lost to years of steadily rising rent. And, of course, there’s Times Square bright as the day even in the middle of the night; America’s billboard with designer stores and lit up displays as far as the eyes can process.
Brooklyn, particularly Williamsburg and Park Slope, stands at the forefront of hipster culture with bars featuring back patios and rooftops strung up with lights like a Lumineers music video. Move into the grittier neighborhoods like Bushwick and the corner bodegas and working class bars return; staying their ground with a strong local pride.
Queens has always reminded me of how Arlington compares to DC in a way. Both stand as increasingly diverse cities in their own right but in the shadow of more culturally prominent neighbor on the other side of the river. And, really, the best and most varied restaurants not so secretly exist right off the Q in the heart of Queens; the beautiful potential of the American melting pot in excelsis.
The grit of New York has diminished somewhat or at least been corporately co-opted but that local flavor I love so much has not. As with any city, this influx of gentrification will ebb and flow but there are certain elements that will remain eternal, that continue to define the city in the face of change. It can be something as tangible as a skinny, greasy slice of pizza or cheap, burnt (but oh so necessary) coffee in a blue and white paper cup. It can be having no patience for slow walkers on the sidewalk or knowing how to navigate the subway after midnight with all the foibles therein. It can be as simple as remembering to look up and take in that Manhattan skyline or the way the sunset catches the rooftops of Brooklyn. But there definitely is a New York State of Mind and I love that feeling as soon as I cross the Washington Bridge or Lincoln Tunnel. Here we go.
