The streets of New York

The Big Apple through the eyes of a first time visitor


New York is amongst those cities that songs have been written about and novels and films have been set there. I now know why.

New York is a city that takes your breath away if you allow it and it took mine with force. I needed more time to explore but in that short six days I lived a lifetime of New York City. I had travelled twenty-four hours to get there on the worst airline on the planet, with a toddler crying behind me for seventeen hours between Sydney and Los Angeles, and yet it was worth all the suffering. I ran for six days with jet lag to see a city of eight and half million, in a recent count. I caught up with old friends and new ones, saw most of the museums and explored most of the city. I did not get to the boroughs, as time was limited. It was worth the bitter cold, the sleepless nights and days, waking up at 2.30 am and wandering the Guggenheim sleepless and exhausted.

I’m in a taxi on the way to the Metropolitan Museum and as I look out the window I see architecture that takes my breath away. Pre-war architecture built between 1900 and 1940 and I feel like a ‘peasant’ in the city for the first time. Oh my god! Such beauty, such harmony, these are not concrete and glass buildings, these are high-rise buildings made brick by brick with decorative ornate windows in the brickwork. From my research the architecture is famous and books have been written about some of the buildings and apartments. But I can only report on what I saw with my eyes and my heart. I looked for the street name: Park Ave; yes, where all the rich people live but that is not the issue, it is about a city that has kept its old buildings, cared for them and is proud to have them.

The Metropolitan Museum is big and needs a good part of the day. It has everything from everywhere and from all times. It’s in a wonderful building and that was what I loved the most, the building. It was not the highlight of my visit to New York City. My highlight was MoMA, the Museum of Modern Art. Words fail me; if I had time I would have gone back over and over again. There is every known modern artist to see and admire. It’s also a reflection of American society (or maybe it is only New York society) where there are rooms named after the families who have donated the artworks. There is a room from the Niarchos family, the Greek shipowners who made New York one of their homes; their collection is only Piet Mondrian.

I made an effort to go see the Guggenheim on a day when I had been up since 2.30 am due to jet lag and got into trouble. The building is small but with interesting modern architecture. It is like a snail inside, where you walk the snail path with the exhibits on one wall and the abyss on the other. Try that walk without any sleep and see if you can make it unscathed. The exhibit when I was there was Italian Futurists, not a favourite movement of mine but interesting historically. I had been warned by a New York expert it is a highly over-rated museum and in my opinion famous for all the wrong reasons.

There were the days of walking Soho and Tribeca – beautiful old areas that have been completely refurbished and have become very expensive.
Cobblestoned streets, with the shorter buildings and the swinging fire escape ladders in front reminding one of American films like West Side Story and others set in these areas before they became trendy, with private galleries, art schools, wonderful cafes and restaurants.

The thing that surprised me most was the lack of neurosis in this large city. Yes, people still crossed the street against the lights and in certain areas one could see and feel the overcrowding but it was never intrusive, New Yorkers go about their business and I never felt that there was a ‘New York Minute’ happening but I’m sure if I lived there it would happen.

I must mention The National Museum of the American Indian. I was fortunate that I had a private tour of the museum by the director himself, John Haworth. A wonderful gentleman very proud of his museum that covers all Indian nations of all the Americas, from Canada all the way down to South America. I was mesmerised and educated and thrilled that a nation would take so much pride in their indigenous people and it made me wonder about our unfortunate Australian Aborigines.

What did I not like, you ask? The difficulty of getting good coffee and tea made well. Getting good food everywhere was not possible. I did eat well but I was with friends and went to great places to eat. There are a lot of burgers, be they gourmet but burgers nonetheless. Lots of fried food that I saw on people’s tables, salads were limited on menus. The portions were too big and I could never finish my plate, the waiters were the best I have ever encountered, that is not so good as they have to be to get the tips as they are very lowly paid.

It is the ambience of the city. It is that feeling you have when you instantly fall in love with a human, a city, a piece of art or what else takes your fancy; try making sense out of unrequited love. I have only fallen in love with cities three times in my life: Athens many years ago, and this still lingers; Rome, that I have grown out of; and my new love, New York City.

But the most important thing about New York is that it is truly a multicultural society, not pretend multicultural as Australian cities are. And not only that, while I watched morning TV in my hotel room it also came to me the lack of ageism and sexism. Not only were the presenters of every colour and every ethnic background, but of every age and shape. It is a city that is multi-coloured, multi-aged, multi-ethnic, and all these are in the forefront of its society. It is a city of the future, understanding the way of globalism but at the same time respecting the past.

New York City has the combination of the old, the new, the sophisticate, the street and even the ordinary.