More than the New York landscape and skyline changed over the past decade. The mental map of the city carried by most New Yorkers altered. So much of the city was reshaped so quickly that there are times now when nothing feels the same. Even if you didn’t leave the city while a decade of development was underway, the new New York may have started to make you feel a little like a visitor in your own home.
In a city that always invited the world to come in and improvise a life there’s been another shift – it feels like there’s now a script to follow plus a new cast, new wardrobe, new lines – it’s enough to make a native New Yorker feel disoriented sometimes, like someone stumbling onto a live set, ruining a beautiful shot, slowing the pace of an expensive production.
I love walking the city, experiencing the new New York at its most glittering, the version that brings on a long, hushed, “Wow…” of recognition – what a long way we’ve come from the time when the city was broken in the 70s and in tatters after 9/11. It’s a transformation that people from all over the world are drawn here to see.
But I also love unique, quirky and a little rough-around-the-edges classic New York – the one that seems to be fading one day at a time. As the city loses one unassuming yet irreplaceable spot after another to make room for more luxury, more flash, more gloss, I worry that the classic version of New York is not only becoming invisible but that it’s on the way to becoming irrelevant. Will the soul of the city survive so many goodbyes?
The transformation of New York will continue and as it does my appreciation will keep growing for the places that remain untouched – they hold so much of the city’s history and so many New Yorkers’ memories. I’ll also keep looking for original, authentic New York in the people who remember how it once was.
Revisit classic New York daily by following @MBVINTAGENY, @jeremoss and @yorkville_nut. Experience it live during City Stories: Stoop to Nuts, through great storytellers that take the stage on the second Tuesday of each month @corneliastcafe. More @citygirlwrites on Twitter and at citygirlwrites.blogspot.com
