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Eighteen surprises in New York City (Barry)

This posting is subject to my usual disclaimer – I was only in NYC for three weeks, as a tourist, mostly in the mid-town Manhattan area, and anything I say is qualified by the fact that I may be very wrong in my impressions. However, it would be interesting to know whether others have had the same or similar experiences.

18 Surprises:

1. People are polite, very polite. Even “too polite” (to quote my wife). We were expecting busy, gruff, hectic individuals rather than people who would stop and apologize if they bumped into you in the crowded subway or on the street. (This happened to me on three separate occasions) We didn’t meet anyone who was rude – how disappointing!

2. Human capactiy for self-regulation. The chaos of Manhattan works because people have a capacity for self-regulation en masse. I saw it happening every day in NYC, and my bet is that the locals aren’t even all that conscious of it any more. For example, at peak hour on the subway, people get off at their stop and then have to ride in tight crowds up the escalator to the street above. Each escalator has room for two rows of people going up. The crowds just form two lines on each escalator: one for those who want to be carried up and one for those in a hurry who wish to walk up quickly. There were no official signs forcing people to do this, no threats of fines or other penalties – people just do it because it’s in their interests, as individuals and collectively. (Humanity, I continue to love you, and can think of no better species to which I’d rather belong).

3. Healthy. Manhattan is an apartment dwelling society. Is this why there are so many fitness centers and gyms? So much healthy foods in the supermarkets, especially pre-prepared fresh salads and fruit salads. Found this upstate (at Binghamton) too. (I’m comparing to Australia – maybe we’re a bit behind). Oh yes, and the bottled iced-tea with lemon. I’m hooked.

4. Parks and ‘people spaces’. Lots of small squares, little parks with benches for people to relax. Also, very big ones – like Central Park, which is huge, and other big parks within this densely populated metropolis.

5. Noise. Yes, a bloody noisy city! (Excuse the Australianism). Every day, wherever you happen to be standing, you’ll hear an ambulance, or fire engine or police siren at least a few times. And the taxi drivers tend to drive with their horns. What surprised me about this, however, was that the horn-blowing is necessary for the traffic to flow, for people to be able to move around efficiently and safely. It took me a few taxi rides to realize that there is actually a ‘language’ in the honking of the horns, a way of communicating between cab drivers. Generally speaking, it isn’t the expression of anger or hostility that it represents on the roads in my part of Australia (albeit a rare phenomenon in Canberra). Also, you do get used to it. Noise is life. We’ll all have lots of silence one day (in the grave).

6. Chaos. There’s order in the chaos – it works. I saw many ‘near misses’ but not one actual collision or road accident. We did a lot of walking through the crowded busy streets, too, and would’ve seen any collisions.

7. Breaking the rules. Conservatives must be horrified by New York City. What a mob of rule-breakers. At a west entrance to Central Park there’s a small walking path with big bold official lettering on it (you know, the type that kind of yells at you while waving a big finger in your face) that states words to the effect: ‘No cycling. Cyclists must dismount and walk along this path with their bicycles’. Yes, I know the argument: it’s to protect people, pedestrians especially, and, as with all conservative arguments, the most extreme extension of possibilities is used to justify the rule. Hey, what if a frail vision-impaired great-grandmother Nobel Laureate was going for a walk and was hit by a cyclist?! But the fact is New Yorkers don’t think like that – and good for them. Reality rules more than actual rules rule and I enjoyed seeing cyclists brazenly ride their bikes over the very sign warning them not to do so. The other good thing about this was that no ‘law-enforcement’ bureaucrats were around to enforce the rule. This same situation occured in other aspects of everyday life. There are signs everywhere – wait for it! – telling drivers not to honk their horns! There’s a $350 fine, if you do. No-one seems to enfroce this rule and the traffic flow would be slowed considerably, if not halted, if it were enforced. Taxis are probably the most common form of vehicular automobile transport on the roads in Manhattan. I also saw cabs going through red lights while beebing their horns, right by a couple of traffic cops who were observing the flow at the intersection. They didn’t intervene against the rule-breakers – and why should they? No-one was hurt. Something good about all this – in terms of working reality as well as philosophy.

8. Streets are both dirty and clean. I was surprised that the streets were both dirty and clean, simultaneously. How can this be? Well, because there’s so many people, and people use stuff that becomes litter, there are heaps of street-cleaners who are constantly cleaning up. Thus, the streets – like the city itself – is not classifiable in static terms but rather as a process. The litter is cleaned up as soon as it is dropped – only to have more dropped and in need of cleaning up.

9. Air pollution. There were times, when walking around near Times Square, for instance, when my eyes were itching from the pollution. There were other times, near the same area, when I was awe-struck by the clarity of the night sky, which seemed free of any haze. (Hey, if you want a pollution-free environment, you’ll find it at the same spot where you’ll find complete silence).

10. The sub-way rail system is very efficient and inexpensive. I was expecting delays and high ticket prices.

11. Safety. Having years ago watched the entire Charles Bronson ‘Death Wish’ series, I was concerned about my family’s, and my own, security and safety on the streets and subways. Again subject to the disclaimer at the start of this post, everywhere seemed basically safe, day and night, including the seedier parts of town. We were hussled only once – and that was a welcome experience because the guy actually helped us find the bus station we were looking for – and then he very discreetly asked for some ‘spare change’. He had approached us inside the entrance of the Port Authority terminal, asking if we needed help in finding our bus. He made it seem like he was just wanting to help but he really wanted money. Hence it was a ‘hussle’. But, he did help us and we were pleased. (When does hussling become enterprise? The Port Authority should employ him – or allow him to set up his own ‘find-your-bus’ business!)

12. Homelessness. This is a tragic problem, and it is not swept under the carpet. The homeless commonly sleep on steps of churches and other businesses. One chilly night, as Joan and I were walking past a luxury hotel, we noticed a couple of homeless men sleeping on the steps of a church across the road. Hey, I understand why the luxury multi-million dollar hotel wouldn’t let the homeless sleep inside its premises on a cold night… but the church? A church? Also a multi-million dollar property, across the road from a luxury hotel? We saw too many homeless men, amidst all the wealth and generally good standard of living, and they usually protected themselves from the elements by using cardboard or plastic as a blanket.

13. Which leads to my next ‘surprise’. New York City, no less than the USA as a whole (I suspect), is not a free market economy. There’s a sales tax and other taxes that add (at least 10 percent) to the cost of heaps of things. Fellow-tourists: keep this in mind when drawing up your budget. NYC, like the USA, and contrary to overseas misconceptions, also has a state welfare system. As in other capitalist societies, this is what keeps the ‘poor and tired huddled masses’ in their place (especially now that the religious promise of a terrific after-life if you remain meek no longer persuades as it once did).

14. Still, overall, NYC seems to be going well economically and life seems good for the majority – and amazingly good for those on the upper east-side! In Harlem, too, the shops along 125th Street/Martin Luther King jr. Boulevarde, were thriving and people as a whole seemed well. I certainly saw several notices in shop windows offering employment.

15. Another surprise: Manhattan is still developing. I thought it would be fully developed, with no room left for new buildings. However, in our block alone – around W42nd/10th and 11th Avenues – there are three building sites, one of them large. Scaffodling and building work was not uncommon in other mid-town areas. (Quite an adjustment for me as an Australian to see so many building workers wearing stickers of the ‘Stars and Stripes’ on their hard-hats – in Australia, they tend to wear the ‘Eureka flag’ on theirs; though come to think of it, both have their origins in the historic democratic demand for ‘No taxation without representation’).

16. Multiculturalism. NYC seems to work well as a multicultural society (with Spanish as the main language after English). However, as far as I am aware, there is no official governmental policy of multiculturalism. (Different to Australia, where we have had official multiculturalism for more than three decades. Mind you, it works well in Oz, too). In NYC, it just happens, and is necessary for the economy and society to function. So, it will keep on happening.

17. Tourists. I was the unashamed tourist – much to my son’s embarrassment – and took more than a thousand photos, snapping away at everything from the US Mail boxes on street corners to MacDonald’s majestic family restaurant in Times Square. I’ll repeat an earlier point: we were safe the entire time, even as ‘vulnerable’ tourists travelling as a family unit. Initially, we hid our passports and currency in our little security bags, hung around our necks and tucked into our clothing, but it soon became clear that this was unnecessary. We just carried our wads of cash like everyone else, in our wallets, purses and pockets, and I kept my passport in my shirt pocket. We walked through bustling crowds on Times Square at night – aware of the menace of pick-pockets – and we were squashed into the subway train on one occasion at peak hour (‘rush hour’). Maybe we were lucky. Personally, I followed the vibe, as I found it.

18. New York City has the third lowest suicide rate in the USA. (Just thought I’d throw that one in – not based on observation but something I read).

Comments and feedback appreciated (especially by others who have visited NYC or who reside there),

Barry



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One response to “Eighteen surprises in New York City (Barry)”

  1. Tarso says:

    Sound’s like you fall in love !

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