Thursday, July 19, 2012

Adventures of the new New York


I've got a belly full of blog-- other people's blog-- after having just returned from The Big Apple, where I helped my son, his wife and their friends celebrate his birthday.

There were the musings by Martin Lastrapes on his various successful publications and credits, travel tidbits by Lord John F. Buckley on Facebook, and the new blog by John Brantingham, which included a Youtube elegy on the loss of Pluto as a planet and a shot of his dog, Archie, swinging his cojones.  There were the postings of Andrew Turner, who is learning to claim and hold his energy, and the food blog by Christie Bishop, in which she gives  blend by blend instructions in the creation of beautiful flag-waving sheet cakes.

But I digress.  I wanted to write about New York.

Remember the New York of pushy people, Brooklynese accents, honking horns, cabbies with air fresheners hanging from the rear view mirrors and last names spelled with the symbols for boron?  Remember the New York where the Jews, the Italians and the Irish fought for domination, the Poles/Germans and Puerto Ricans/Dominicans were at war, the Chinese ruled Chinatown, and just about everyone, in good nature, hated each other?

Gone.  All gone.

It's a new New York now and the denizens seem content to slog their way through the sweltering subway platforms to air conditioned trains without hurling endearing insults or big-mouthed jibes.  The once cutting edge shop windows of 5th Avenue now feature the same fashions I saw in shop windows in Chino Hills the night before I left for the east coast.  The Big Apple has become PC and a corporate homogeny.

*Every second block has its own branch of Chase, the people who ate up over 7 billion dollars of our good-faith deposits.

*Most city blocks house either a Subway Sandwich Shop,

 a Dunkin' Donuts, a Baskin-Robbins, a Starbucks or all four.




Where are the delis?  Where is the cheesecake?  I found Eli's coffee cake at the 42nd Street Market, but no cheesecake.  Who does a girl have to ____ in Manhattan to get a piece of authentic New York style cheesecake?

Most people look haunted, scared, stressed, even panicked.  They are hot, they are tired, there are too many languages spoken to argue with each other.  I barely heard a lick of English.  And no, don't tell me it's because New Yorkers leave New York in the summer.  I'm talking about the shopkeepers, the sellers of Sabretts, the push cart men, the cops, the agents in the subway stations, the doormen and the dog walkers.

Oh woe is me when the cadence and the kvetching lilt of the language that I could count on as a little girl, either walking the streets of New York or browsing the stalls in Farmer's Market on Fairfax and Third, are GONE.  I tried to explain it to my son.  Ever the diplomat, he smiled in empathic accord, but his eyes registered incomprehension.  Perhaps one day his ears will miss the hum of the multinational, world cacophony that is now New York.

The old New York is dead.  Long live the new New York.

22 comments:

  1. I had the same experience in Chicago last year -- I mean about the homogeny, not the multi-lingualism. The same shops, Dunkin, Subway, etc. were on every street to an annoying degree. Maybe this is how the world goes. The city, however, was still the city and still beautiful.

    Congratulations to your son. May he always find happiness and peace.

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  2. Thank you, John. Yes, I lived in Chicago for nine years and every time I visit, I see some of the Chicago personality being stripped away. Yet, Chicago does retain its certain City of the Big Shoulders flair.

    I felt a little sad about Manhattan. Even the Public Library is so chopped up in order to keep tourists corralled, that it was hard to find where they hide the books these days.

    Sigh.

    Thank you for your comment. Thank you for your good wishes for my son.

    Marta

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  3. Comment by Andrew Turner:

    Andrew Turner
    9:59 PM (10 minutes ago)

    Thanks for sharing! Our lives change and the world around it, but still we have our memories.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you for your comment, Andrew. You are right, of course!

      Marta

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  4. Comment by Mary Prendergast mp3748@aol.com
    9:59 PM (59 minutes ago)

    I loved your description of the new New York. I am fearful that many places in the world, that we loved for their distinctive flavor,
    have now become so homogenized, that New York is Paris, is Chicago, is Berlin, is L.A. What we ran to see, has been replaced by repetitive logos of well know companies that are omnipresent. 'Tis a real loss............

    ReplyDelete
  5. Nice quick trip through NY. Did you go to Brooklyn? I think some of old NY is still there, but eventually everything changes except in our memories.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You are right, Cora. There are a few authentic pockets in Brooklyn, especially in the Williamsburg section. You are right on two counts. Most of what we have left is memories.

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  6. What's the point of travel if every city looks like every other one? It's hard to tell where you are. I like the regional, individual look to towns and cities even if that means I can't walk into a chain restaurant and get some fast food. I'll take the slow stuff in a mom and pop cafe.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Exactly, Lesley! I'll also take a mom and pop establishment any day.

      Delete
  7. I just got back from Vancouver, Washington. There's a Starbucks located about every two blocks. I went to the Redneck Auction and didn't see very many rednecks. Everyone is green.It was a shock to the system after living in Arizona for ten years, but I loved that beautiful state.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I've been to very green Vancouver, Washington and also loved it. Glad you got a chance to go there.

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  8. As always Marta--I enjoyed the post. Life as we once knew barely exist (the long walks to the libraries, shopping areas, the museum, etc.) but we still have the opportunity to make a better world. Keep our eyes open and see the beauty. Augie

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    Replies
    1. Thank you, Augie. It's true that sometimes I get weary and I also sometimes get tunnel vision. I like your attitude!

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  9. I was wondering where in the world you had dropped into. I am curious - why did you not like the languages? Seems to me that'd be part of the cultural diversity you miss.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's an expanded cultural diversity that seems to have edged out the "old" New York, to which I was accustomed and even, at one point in my life, addicted. My then-husband often said, "Marta needs her New York fix," and off he would send me from Florida to New York.

      It's probably only a sign that I am getting old and crotchety. :-(

      Delete
  10. Hi Marta,

    I cannot respond on your website because I can't sign in. John Brantington had this problem with his new blog and added a new entry where I can sign in with my e-mail address and website. Hope you can add that option.

    As for cheesecake in New York City, you were right near Junior's Cheesecake, one of the very best -- two locations: in Times Square, on West 45th St., between Broadway and 8th Avenue, and in Grand Central Station, on the lower level. No Cheesecake Factory yet in the city, but Junior's is one the best and VERY New York.

    All best,

    Eileen Obser
    eobser@yahoo.com

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    Replies
    1. Junior's two locations are now indelibly etched into my food addict brain. I hope to have many future opportunities to sample their product. Who needs the corporate Cheesecake Factory when there is Junior's?

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  11. Merryl Alpert
    Jul 20 (1 day ago)

    ALOHA! Welcome Back! Lots of information on this one. All the New Yorkers now live here in L.A./ Beverly Hills! We who have lived here all our lives need to carry passports.

    Very little English (American slang ) spoken here. Even the shops are foreign owned and managed. Way out of reach, monetarily, for we peasants to afford. How did we get sooo out of control?


    OXOX ME
    MERRYL OF MAUI

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Little by little, bit by bit, we lose control. I see it in so many areas of my life. Why should America at large be any different? I guess the tricks are acceptance and surrender. Sweet surrender-- right into cheesecake-- that would be my preference. :-)

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  12. I think Cora nailed it. You can find New York in Brooklyn, but you'd better get here fast because we are quickly becoming New York. The original Juniors with it's savory cheesecake is found in Downtown Brooklyn too.

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    Replies
    1. How did I miss that you are in Brooklyn, Theresa? We could have had tea and a chat (or cheesecake) if you would have had time for a vagabond writer. My son took me all around Prospect Park-- him on a bicycle that looks like he got it at a Russian circus and me on some wobbly piece of junk he bought for his wife. Sometimes he scares me.

      It was about 500 degrees out and 100% humidity. Both bikes had no gears. In the end, I allowed the fountain at Grand Army Plaza to soak me in its healing ice cold waters. That should teach him. I was the only one drenched and happy, much to his embarrassment.

      The most exciting find for me in Brooklyn? The mosaiqued house façade at 108 Wyckoff Street in Carroll Heights, as I am also an architectural scale mosaicist.

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