Why New York?

Some of my friends from home have asked me, “What’s the big deal with New York all of a sudden?” and fellow film students have asked me, “Why not L.A.?”

Here’s my attempt to ‘splain it all.

New York City is a strange world.  It’s a country all its own, with its many boroughs and cultures and stories.  When I came here for the first time last August just to visit out of curiosity, I had no idea what was in store for me the moment I set foot in the City.

The Dakota Building on West 72nd Street (photo from Wikipedia)

In Manhattan, the skyscrapers, apartment buildings, and business districts are alive.  There’s a feeling of presence that scuttles along with you as you walk down the sidewalks and gaze up at the beautiful spandrels and gables of the Dakota Building, or gawk at the (in my opinion) cheesy, somewhat mawkish Art Deco of Rockefeller Plaza.  Each and every block has a short story of equal importance but varying intensity in the NYC anthology.  

St. Patrick's Cathedral on 5th Avenue (photo by sunsurfr)

You can be walking down the street anywhere – Greenwich Village, 5^th Avenue, or even Wall Street, and happen upon a cathedral so massive, so beautiful, and so ornate in detail that you begin to wonder if you might be hallucinating from culture shock.  I found myself standing in front of these brilliant structures and just staring at them, completely mesmerized by not only their majestic charisma but also by the mere surprise of finding one there, literally in the middle of the City, surrounded by taller modern as well as older buildings, which always seem to hover around the cathedrals as if they’re protecting them from harm.

Then there are the “everyday” places where you go when you’re just being a citizen – like looking for a good book to check out at the Public Library on 42^nd Street, or just catching a train from Grand Central Station.  The buildings that have been preserved for these mundane activities are completely unlike anything I’ve ever seen in the west. 

But before this just ends up being an overly long rave about the architecture itself, I think I’ll go a little deeper into why this type of structural design translates, for me anyway, into personal security and a sense of well-being. 

Out west, we have the wonders of the Grand Canyon, the ancient, endless breathing terrain of Yellowstone, and the towering cliffs, crashing seas, and mammoth Redwoods of Northern California – all of these natural creations functioning as working evidence of the presence of God, or some kind of creator, because how could something like that exist without the existence of love to define it?  Natural beauty always gets a good rap for being described as “God’s creation”... but what about what we create as the hands, eyes, and soul of God?

I see the architecture, the loving preservation efforts, and the collective appreciation for the historical buildings, cathedrals, and public edifices in NYC as evidence of God working through our hands.  New York City as a whole is very extreme – and quite breathtaking in its various extremities.  Which brings me to another point about why this City speaks to me, personally.

I, like New York City, have undergone my own transformation.  I was also at one point in my own history in a very run-down, dangerous state, and I had to pull myself out of that place in my mind and body in order to survive.  New York has done this several times.  Most recently of course, in the decade following the attacks of 9/11, but before that, in a major transformation during the mid 1990s.  New York City had been described in the 1980s as a crime-ridden, crack-infested, depraved place to be trapped in, with no way out for the poor and no decent way to live for the middle class.  It became a living testament to the dark side of humanity, and was criticized profusely for the rampant pornography and subculture, while completely overlooked for its potential to celebrate sexuality and diversity.  It was, in a sense, the ugly, greasy, unpopular kid who always got picked last for dodgeball, while L.A. glimmered brightly in her effervescent notoriety as the “It Girl,” especially in the film and television industry.

In time, however, Manhattan was given a good sweeping up, a good polishing, and what some have described as a tasteless Disney-fying of Times Square (I happen to agree with this, although I don’t know what it was really like before, so I can’t judge it too harshly).  It still has its problems, but it’s come around 180 degrees and re-emerged as a popular tourist attraction, a city of joy and prosperity, and as the new Hollywood (with “Golden Age” connotations) as far as a renaissance in the entertainment industry goes.

I think New York City personifies what is possible, what is beautiful, and what is spiritual in humanity.  If you look hard enough, you can see twinkles of our own collective unconscious in the gargoyles, the seraphim, and the creepy little cherubim that line the storm drains and rooftops of the spectacular buildings here.  The City itself is a massive throng of human life, perpetually unleashed – back into the hands of New Yorkers who run about in their taxis, subways, buses and sidewalks to keep the place running 24/7, 365.  A soul never dies or sleeps, which is why this is the City that Never Sleeps, and it’s only fitting that Times Square is where the entire country, as well as a large percentage of the world, tunes in every year to watch the New Year begin – because NYC is the perfect venue to reinvent oneself and pursue New Life.   So that's why I 'get' New York, and why New York 'gets' me.