NEW YORK IS A MOOD
There’s nothing easy about New York. You fly into JFK and stand in human traffic for an hour. Or, you fly into LaGuardia and hope your luggage shows up. God forbid you fly into Newark. Once you actually make it to the city, you have to find your way through a maze of concrete, built up in layers that go way back to when the whole place was a swamp. And yet, there you are, standing on 500 years of modern history at the center of trade for the largest economy in the world.
When I lived back in Miami, New York was always the aspirational goal—the place you went to make it in the world. Many years later, I’d spend enough time in the city to pretend I was a native. Like everyone else, it seemed, I was there to make some money. The whole place feels like one of those game machines where you have to grab as much cash as you can in sixty seconds.
The tourists in New York always look confused, and disappointed. Like they’d been sold a Disney-Marvel version of the city that doesn’t exist. I suppose you can blame Giuliani, he’s been taking a pretty public beating, anyway. Why are there so many angry people here? Why is everything so darn expensive? Why is there rotting garbage piled up on every block? It’s a New York thing, you wouldn’t understand.
But, not everything about New York sucks. The subway is actually pretty awesome. It goes everywhere, even places you’d never want to be. It’s crumbling and stuffy and disgusting, but it still manages to connect a city of eight million. And even the rich folks ride it. Still, I wish I would have been able to see it in the early 80s, when it was a place of last refuge.
People call New York the city that never sleeps, and that much is true. There’s something going down at any hour. And, if the block you’re on is a snore, walk a couple over and you’ll find a party. There are parallels I can draw to the tribal beach gatherings of L.A., albeit with a grittier aesthetic, and a sharper wit that cries out in its streets. Ultimately, New York may not be a place I could ever call home, but getting to know the soul of the city is a necessary step in understanding the mechanics of the world.
