According to Ric Burns, the director of New York. A documentary film (1999) – a history of the city from its creation until the dawn of the 2000s -, with every ordeal the city goes through, that is, roughly every five years, the verdict falls: “New York is over. ”
Certainly, with the pandemic, the city has hardened considerably, recording an increase in crime of more than 40%. The staggering increase in rents (over 20% on average, according to New York Times) and a delusional cost of living ($ 5 per coffee) push part of the population of Manhattan to migrate to nearby cities (neighborhoods): to the east, in Long Island, Brooklyn or Queens; north, towards Harlem or the Bronx, but also towards “In the state of New York”, in the country side. And, more recently, to the west, across the Hudson, in the state of New Jersey, long shunned by New Yorkers but where a whole community of artists, families and people tired of struggling to make ends meet.
Half an hour from Manhattan, Jersey City, with the impending opening of a new Center Pompidou, could very well become the sixth village in New York, as reported by the American press for several years. “A new geography of the city is taking shape. There is a clear dynamics of gentrification, but always alternative spaces that resist or even appear “, notes Gaëtan Bruel, cultural advisor of the French embassy. “New York remains a city of very strong opportunities. All the cultural prescription authorities are concentrated there: museums, media, sales networks, art consultantscollectors, researchers … ”
“There is this incredible energy, the blue sky all year round, the sea air and the beach thirty minutes by train… In New York you can find it all. “ Catherine Servel, French photographer and jeweler
Gaëtan Bruel is also the director of Villa Albertine, an artist residence opened less than a year ago, which has already hosted 70 French artists in fifteen cities in the United States. “In the cases we receive, the requests mainly concern New York (24%), ahead of Los Angeles (18%). ” Because the city has lost none of its aura. “As a matter of fact, there is this incredible energy, the blue sky all year round, the sea air and the beach thirty minutes by train … You can find everything in New York, all the trades there . Join, it is a melting pot of human resources, we continuously meet people “, sums up the French photographer and jeweler Catherine Servel who, after twenty-three years in New York, still chose to settle in Arles. “But New York is still a small home for me, I always go back. “
You still have 76.12% of this article to read. The following is for subscribers only.
