Since it's been a couple of weeks since I updated all y'all, and my wandering is over (for now, at least), I'll stretch out the updates covering NYC to NOLA over a few posts so you guys have something to look forward to throughout the week. Today's episode:
New York: Final Thoughts.
The weirdest thing about NYC is how much it is exactly what you think it is. Whatever your impression of what you think NYC would be like, you're probably right, or at least you can find a part of the city where you're right (except you Dad. New York is not like Gotham City). The reality of the place matches the impressions given by media in a way that is unique among the places I've been.
Since the place is kind of large, I'm gonna break this down a bit.
The subway, first off- that thing is fucking incredible. No, seriously. Just think about it. I know the NYC subway system gets a lot of shit, including on the previous entry on this very award-winning blog (just because I made the award myself and held the ceremonies in a greyhound station with a wino I paid in taquitos as the MC doesn’t mean it doesn’t count), and it’s all true- it is miles and miles of damp, poorly maintained underground cavern that uniformly smells of urine and occasionally involves a public poll by drunks on whether or not Canada’s a state, but you can get anywhere in the US’s largest city, anytime day or night, for $2.50.
2.50. 24 hours. I have *never* been to a place where that’s true before or since. You can’t get around Eugene for any cheaper than that, and you sure as hell can’t do it at 4:00 in the morning. That is goddam brilliant.
The crowds- This is a no brainer. The city has a metro population of roughly nineteen million people as of the 2010 census, a little over six percent of the people who live in the entire damn country. And, at least in Manhattan (Brooklyn is a little better, but not much), you get the exact crowd movements you expect. People start crossing at intersections, not when the light turns, but when the pedestrians on one side reach a critical mass and claim the street as their own (it looks a lot like penguins trying to decide if the water's safe to swim in). Walking around during the day is like entering a river- the pace of travel is pre-set by the momentum of the crowd, and you're just kind of swept along until you get back to a bank.
The prices- once again, hell yes, but contextually. In poorer areas like the Buchwick, a lot of things are pretty cheap- you can get a meal for a few bucks if your not overly nutrition-conscious, and beer is almost back down to west coast levels. Trendier areas of Brooklyn, like Williamsburg, get pricier, but not much more than Portland levels. It's Manhattan that you have to watch out for- nine dollar well drinks and 15 buck french fries abound (they had truffle oil). And it's not just consumables- one of the reasons I didn't hit up many of the touristy things is that they charge out the ass for ev. ery. thing. Twenty bucks to ride an elevator at the Empire State Tower. Tickets to see the rubble of the WTC. Anything that people will pay to see, in NYC they'll have to.
Except the coffee. The coffee is really cheap, like 75 cents a cup cheap, and almost uniformly awful.
Manhattan as seen from the commuter train, which actually acts as a pretty apt metaphor for the NYC experience when you don't have any money
It’s pretty easy to see why New Yorkers can be so self-absorbed by their town- being in that place, it’s easy to forget the rest of the world exists. According to Wikipedia, two of NYC's nicknames are "The Capitol of the World" and "Center of the Universe." Yup. And that's really the way a lot of people there seem to view it; not just as a separate country, but as the place that everyone else is looking in at, so why should they bother looking out? There is so much going on, and so many different cultures and tribes and nations in the city itself, and so many problems and controversies, you lose perspective on the rest of the world without really noticing it. Almost anything you’re looking for can be found in NYC without trying that hard, which is pretty awesome in one way, but also makes it worryingly easy to expend all your energy on local issues and jettison the rest of the globe. This is the first time I've ever really been in a city quite so all-encompassing; in the Northwest, you can see the wilderness from any where. Even downtown Portland has mountains and forests clearly visible. This is a truism of most places, actually. Albuquerque is ringed with mountains, Denver has a river in the middle, Chicago (I went to Chicago, btw. More on that later) is on the shore of a great lake. NYC, however, despite having two major rivers and an ocean interrupting the cityscape, is still it’s own self-contained urban world.
This is what Brooklyn thinks a park is
You can walk for days without leaving the city. It becomes your universe, and you start to forget that it ever ends.
I left New York on the Amtrak, after once again getting lost on the subway, (unlike airports, train stations still let you sprint onto the train with all your baggage if you’re running late. It’s very dramatic) a two night ride with a twelve hour layover in Chicago, which means I got to be in Chicago. Tell you about that next time though.
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