gIs there a more confident city than New York? Whose residents know best about the history and many crises of their often only temporary homeland, carry larger chunks of topographical memory with them, note every change, mostly disapprove, and yet never want to be anything but New Yorkers? As always, what John Steinbeck, who came from California, said in his autobiography in the middle of the last century still applies today: New York is ugly, dirty, the climate is scandalous, the traffic is insane and the competition is deadly – but once have you lived there, is no other city good enough?
Almost everyone here has an opinion about what will become of New York after the latest crisis. For everyone sees and hears the changes, the huge price hikes everywhere, the empty shops and businesses, the departure of many who have found the city too expensive, hear the praises of the country life many New Yorkers have become accustomed to during the pandemic, notes Manhattan’s aging and blooming across the river in Brooklyn.
