The Streets of New York

The best sights and sounds in the world are in Manhattan, where the streets and subways are the world’s greatest equalizer.  As Glenn O’Brien wrote in the latest issue of Purple magazine, “New York is kind of the last great city-state,” an assessment that’s correct when compared to the shifting American landscape in our age of populism.  Not that New York is impervious to the emerging tide of nationalism, rather there’s still a togetherness that has disappeared throughout the rest of the country, an egalitarianism that can’t be found in cities - no towns - where people drive in from the suburbs and never walk the streets.  In New York, everyone is together at five o’clock p.m., whether they’re heading Uptown or Downtown.

Walk down a street in the West Village on a Saturday morning, and you can find a street choir harmonizing to the Temptations’ “Just My Imagination” while a bass keeps time.  Their sounds are so sweet and soulful that you can’t help but sing along.  Drummers lay down beats in front of Central Park, and Latin American reed players blow in unison while people refill their subway cards under the city’s streets.  Everyone is playing their own thing, saying their own thing.  Any sound can be - and probably has been, or will be - heard in the course of New York’s history.

Manhattan’s sights are the one thing equal or greater to its sounds.  The island dares you to be present, if presence means snapping every moment and building on the street that captures the attention.  It’s not uncommon to see two people in completely different styles walk down the street together, or to be awestruck by an ancient building’s faded glory, whose ornate details have been weathered by longevity and its front covered in graffiti and stickers that keep the city from becoming too glitzy.  If you can’t find something in Manhattan that catches your eye or curiosity, then you’re not paying attention.

Manhattan is the city.  Other cities are cities in name only.  This is not to denigrate them, but what they lack is the frenetic energy and pace of New York, which is not for everyone.  Without vast public transit systems and people on the streets until four in the morning, they almost feel suburban, whereas Manhattan is always alive, even though it’s sleep-deprived.  I don’t know about you, but I’ll sleep when I’m dead.

Location: Columbus Circle, Central Park, West Village