Days 7-8: Early Morning in New York - New York City, NY
New York City, NY
The Traveler gets up in the morning before dawn and steps out the door of his New York City temporary home. It's actually Union City, New Jersey--but considering that its closer to the "heart" on NYC than most of Big Apple's neighborhoods--and takes less than 10 minutes to get there taking a Latino run shuttle bus... we'll call it a New York City home.
It's not even 5:30 in the morning and the neighborhood is alive. People are out and about. You have a choice of breakfasts at a Cuban bakery, a Colombian or a Mexican run one (the cops for some reason like to have their coffee at the Cuban one)... There are Latino buses scurrying past every minute or two. You climb aboard that the driver speaks to you in Spanish, no matter what you look like...
The bus plunges into the bowels of the Lincoln Tunnel, then is spit out in the very heart of America's greatest city, where you hop off and see a city very much alive... at 5:30 in the morning.
There's a dollar a slice pizza joint that entices him to a second breakfast. It's one of the many ironies of New York City: it's one of the world's most expensive cities, and yet, you can get a big slice of pizza for a dollar in its most expensive neighborhoods... cheaper than anywhere else in the US that he's seen. Inside a couple of African Americans are making fun of a Latino fellow wearing a Trump hat.
"No speak English!" the Latino responds with a grin...
The Traveler walks along 8th Avenue, the sides of the buildings all lit up with the digital billboards. After weeks of wandering through run down cities and towns that go completely dead at dark, the energy of this place is pure magic. I'm in love with this place... he tells himself.
He looks at the people around hurrying to their jobs. He can't help but wonder... would I still be in love with this place if I had to work 16 hours a day just to pay my rent? Would this early morning pilgrimage still feel magical? He remembers an encounter with a New Yorker in a small town, who was amazed at the realization that there you can work just one ordinary job and be able to afford a nice, 3 bedroom house with a yard...
For many a New Yorker, small town America might feel like paradise...
The Traveler walks from one side of Manhattan to the other... then up another street and back again... pausing in a church for a moment of serenity....
New York and the Common Man
There are many structures that require a closer look to appreciate. Of course, there is the Empire State Building, the mother of all mega-skyscrapers. Way ahead of its time, it held the record for tallest building for 42 years. The next building, the World Trade Center, held the record for 2 years and subsequent "record breakers" haven't fared much better. Perhaps that's why this structure has been immortalized in people's consciousness as the icon of this city.
The lobby does feel like you're stepping back into another era, dimly lit with mirrors and metal paneling. It feel's like a well maintained throwback to another era.
One of the things that makes New York City so magical is that it has so many layers of growth, inspiration and ambition. I imagine that places like Dubai have a rather artificial feel--like some rich guys just decided to make a whole bunch of skyscrapers just because they could. In New York City you can see structures that were way ahead of their time from many different eras--from the days of towering cathedrals... to the days when skyscrapers were a work of art, with stonecut decorations on every floor. And even though the city does often destroy the old to replace it with the new, you can still see a lot of different eras sandwiched together.
The Empire State Building's construction was actually ironic. It was finished in 1931, 2 years after the country had fallen into a deep depression. It was not a time of great ambition and optimism. And for many years after its completion, the building sat partially empty. In fact, it wasn't until 19 years later that it finally became profitable.
So, if this were, say, 1945, we might be looking up at this building and shaking our heads at this mammoth money pit...
The Traveler continues on up the road to another iconic New York structure. It looks like a neo-classical Roman Temple, with towering pillars and arches in front... solid marble all around... statues that remind the traveler of his wanderings through the heart of Rome...
What is this building? The mansion of some billionaire? The headquarters of some mega-corporation?
No. It's a free public library.
And it always has been. The Traveler is stunned to realize that a huge fortune was spent to build this architectural masterpiece, just so common folks could come read books!
Again, it's one of the ironies of this city. It's a city that can be very ******* the common man, with skyrocketing rent, expensive public transit and relatively low wages, it doesn't feel like a city that cares much about the quality of life of the common man. But then there's this... a splendid palace built for the common man to enjoy.
The Traveler heads inside, through a security screening and walks around. Inside it is even more splendid, with beautiful chandeliers... ceiling murals and paintings that depict the key moments in learning... from the time of the Hebrews and the ancient Greeks. Not only was this very expensive to build, but it must also cost a fortune to staff and maintain it.
Many of the people inside are tourists, but there are plenty of locals inside the vast reading rooms... surely putting the wealth of rare books to good use...
But no... what are they doing? The Traveler wanders about and realizes... Nobody is reading books! What are they using this multi-million dollar library for? Free wifi! They're all just surfing the internet! Something they could be doing at Starbucks or Mcdonalds! I'll bet Andrew Carnegie would be turning in his grave if he saw this....
So one of the greatest places of learning on earth is being used for watching cat videos on Facebook... It gives the word "underutilized" a whole new meaning.
The Traveler continues on, pausing in Bryant park, where you can ice skate under the shadow of beautiful skyscrapers on all sides, and ponders the ironies of this place.
The Homeless of New York
On up the road, the ironies continue. While it was rare to see a homeless person in the poorer neighborhoods, there are lots of them here on 5th Avenue, in perhaps the city's most opulent districts. Many will have a cardboard sign stating their dire situation and asking for help. Most people just walk right past them, as if they are just a part of the city's decor. But the Traveler notices that one well dressed man stops next to a woman with a sign "pregnant and homeless". He asks her something, then immediately gets on his cell phone. Calling a homeless shelter perhaps? The Traveler assumes the man say the sign "pregnant" and realized this case requires immediate attention.
On up ahead, the Traveler stops to visit the beautiful Presbyterian church, where they have a display showing the church's involvement with the homeless. It has a stack of booklets with a listing of all the homeless shelters, and recommends that you give one of these booklets to people rather than money. There's also a display telling about a court case when the city wanted to make it illegal for people to sleep on the street on 5th Avenue... but this church actually fought against that, defending that they wanted to allow people to sleep on their entryway!
The Traveler decides to ask a fellow working there for more details. "So, if someone is homeless in New York... is there help available to him?"
"Yes, there's lots of help available. The problem is, there are rules if you want to stay in a homeless shelter, and a lot of these people don't want to follow these rules. And sometimes they don't get along with other people at the shelter"
"What about if someone is homeless and wants to get back on his feet, is there help so he can find permanent housing and a job?"
"Yes there is... and there are success stories... but unfortunately many people have become comfortable with the homeless lifestyle."
"Doesn't seem like an easy place to be homeless..." the Traveler muses.
He heads outside, pondering this New York City predicament: if a man has two jobs and struggles to pay his rent, he'll have a hard time getting help. Once he loses his job and has no home... THEN he can get help. I guess it might be easier just to assume, when you see a homeless person in NYC that "he just doesn't want help"... but I'm sure many lie stories are much more complicated than that. The Traveler remembers the image of a man on the "Humans of New York" website, who was an EMT, then answered the call which ended up being his wife and child who had been murdered... and he lost his mind after that...
New York City can be a pretty cold place. You won't get a lot of "good mornings" when you're walking down the street, like you would in a smaller American town. But occasionally you will see moments of compassion towards strangers. Once when the Traveler gets on a bus and is told he must pay with a card or coins, "I don't have enough coins" he replies.
"Oh, just give me what you have," says the African American driver with a smile. "Oh, that's fine!" he says when the Traveler puts in a fraction of the fare...
Another time, on a subway, a dirty, disheveled fellow gets on and immediately starts coughing. He gives his story of how he and his sister came from a "small town in the Appalachia" and hadn't slept in a week... and his sister had bronchitis... etc etc...
To the Traveler the story was obviously fake, but an African American man gave the fellow 10 dollars... a Middle Eastern fellow gave him a couple bucks...
Made the Traveler wonder... if the tables were turned, and an African American or Middle Eastern guy were to go ask for money in "a small town in the Appalachia"... would they get the same response?
Favorite camping places for the homeless are the train and bus stations. At the train station, the police will let them be--as long as they don't sleep. At the bus station many will try to stay the night. At 2 in the morning the police will come and kick out anybody who doesn't have tickets. The homeless folks will all trudge outside... and then come right back in 10 minutes later!
Later, having dinner with his cousin-in-law, an immigrant who moved to New York years ago, he tells him of when he worked at a 24 hour grocery store. A homeless man would come in and stand there when it was cold. The clerk didn't have the heart to kick the guy out (even though the owner wanted him to), so he and the other employees would buy the guy coffee so he could stay inside "as a customer"...
Overall there's a feeling of "live and let live" when it comes to homeless people in New York. Homeless people are part of the New York City "family"... like it or not.
The Traveler continues on, soaking in all the facets of life here. He stops at a food truck to order a doner. "Will that be for here or to go?" he is asked.
"Uh... make it for 'here' " the Traveler responds, standing on a crowded, rainy sidewalk. It's the New York way...
Next stop is the Rockefellar Plaza, a fountain way that leads to the iconic ice skating rink, overlooked by skyscrapers and the iconic golden statue of Prometheus. This whole area was financed exclusively by John Rockefeller Jr, a member of one of America's richest families.
Overlooking the plaza, with flags of all the members of the United Nation countries around, is a plaque with John Rockefeller's Credo. One of the statement catches the Traveler's attention:
"I believe the world owes no man a living, but owes every man the opportunity to make a living".
The Traveler has mixed feelings as he reads this. People like John Rockefeller played a vital part in making America the industrial and economic powerhouse that it is today. And yet... their report card in their treatment of their workers is mixed. Was he a great exploiter making himself wealthy on the backs of his workers... or was he a great visionary who sought to raise the quality of life of the common man? It's not an easy question to answer...
The Traveler takes another pause, in Saint Patrick's Cathedral, a towering masterpiece that could rival the great cathedrals of Europe... seeming a little out of place in a neighborhood where things are built to create more wealth...
Finally the Traveler reaches Central Park. Another massive, expensive New York project which is free for the common man to enjoy. And a splendid park it is. Although there are hundreds of city parks bigger than this one, Central Park feels absolutely massive--when you consider how expensive every square meter of land is here... it's amazing that 3.4 square kilometers have been preserved as a green space.
It's a gray, drizzly afternoon--but this actually gives the park a sort of dreamy feel. Crossing the bridges, past the lakes, pausing at the statues, and clambering up the boulders--all under the oversight of massive skyscrapers disappearing into the clouds... The contrast with the rest of Manhattan is what makes this place pure magic.
Reading up on the history of this park, there are some dark aspects to it. Turns out, this was not just empty space when it was determined to turn it into a park. Irish and flee blacks lived here and raised livestock... the city them determined that they were living in "shantytowns" and had them evicted. Wonder what kind of compensation they received, if any...
The park has has many ups and downs. A couple of decades ago it would've been a pretty dangerous place to wander around in. Nowadays, you can find millionaires coming to walk their dogs late at night. On a night stroll, the Traveler can't resist the temptation to scare a couple of rich people by pulling down his hood and walking with a menacing shuffle as he approaches a solitary Park Avenue socialite with her poodle....
Evil, but fun...
Day 9-11: Playing the Tour Guide
New York is not just a city to enjoy on your own. It's an experience to be shared. And the Traveler has that opportunity. The Traveler, coming into town by plane is eager to get a taste of the city--and the Traveler is eager to show him some of the highlights. Later, he brings the Family, to share some of his experiences with them. Together, they re-enact the "coming to America" experience, by taking the ferry from Staten Island which passes right by the Statue of Liberty, with the glorious skyline of the city getting closer and closer...
When his in-laws fly in from overseas, he organizes a quick tour for them, enjoying the city once again, seeing it through their eyes.
It's enjoyable to re-experience the city's highlights with company... but he's also eager to get off the beaten track to explore the city's lesser known corners.