Lady New York and Her Scarred Mantle

08/25/2020

What's next for the City that Never Sleeps

By Irene T.

Nothing has ever come easy to the city that never sleeps. Sometimes, I do wonder if the lack of sleep is actually due to all the battle scars that Lady New York has accumulated over the years. Those scars that she doesn't let you see, covered with the gilded gold and promises of better tomorrows. If we look back in history, every decade, every century has brought new challenges, new plagues, new foes, but somehow 400-odd years laters, 2 empires, and 1 democracy under our belts, she is and we are, somehow and against all odds, still here.

The past 6 months have been a blur. A rapid succession of events so discombobulated, so mystically intricate, that sometimes it is impossible to even put them in a straight coherent timeline. After all, how can you make sense of it all? Every day seems like new challenges and questions arise and every day we seem to have fewer answers. Along with the countless COVID-19 related questions inevitably intertwined with America's current political climate, the 2020 general election, the worst public health crisis of the century and what it is projecting to be one of the direst economic recessions in recent decades, there seems to be one more question that goes incessantly around and around the internet sphere -- "Is this THE END for NYC?"/"Is NYC finally over?"

To the first few questions, I'll leave the answers to the overly-paid pollsters, the know-it-alls, the well-to-do, the economic gurus, and the internet doctors. Instead, I will try to answer the latter as a simple New Yorker.

My first direct testimony to the challenges that New York City has faced over the years dates back to the 70s. By all means, they are not direct accounts, as I would have come to this world 2 decades later. No, these are recollections, bedtime stories told by my beloved Grandpa. An ever-Venetian man in New York City working on gallery installations at the Guggenheim Museum amongst other things. As a Venetian man, he loved to walk. Walking for him was a necessity just like the air he breathed. And man, did he love walking in New York City. Not a day went by, that he wouldn't try to venture a bit "too North", a bit "too East" for comfort. Like clockwork, a police officer would have looked at him -- suit, tie, and the ever-present umbrella used more as support tool than actual shelter from the nonexistent rain, and inevitably would have encouraged him to turn back to "safer areas".

It was October 30, 1975, when the infamous Daily News front page read -- "FORD TO CITY: DROP DEAD". By all intents and purposes NYC was "over", or at least that's what Washington D.C. and the administration told us. That was the New York City my Grandpa fell in love with despite the ugliness of her battle scars. The ugly New York City, the battle-scarred New York City, the New York City that was allegedly on the brink of extinction. But not a day went by that he wouldn't try to walk a little further North, a little further East, pushing boundaries and limits of the NYC he once knew knowing in his heart eventually boundaries are lifted, limits are broken and ceilings get shattered.

To clarify, my Grandpa didn't own many suits and ties. He had 1 pair of "good Sunday" shoes, 1 suit, 1 shirt, and 1 tie that were promptly cleaned and starched the night before. He didn't come from money and didn't belong to any upper-class neighborhood. He simply loved his Lady New York and wanted to walk in it as a Gentleman.




Eventually, the 70s turned into the 80s and the 90s and we were celebrating a new Millenium, new opportunities, new dreams. Then, one crisp and clear-sky September morning, the life as we once knew came to a halt. One more scar for Lady New York. This scar was uglier than the rest, was felt deeper because this scar didn't make sense. But somehow, somewhere, New Yorkers rallied behind the still bleeding Lady New York, patched her up the best way we could, the best way we knew how, and helped ribuilding her shiny mantle once more.


It was late 2008, when we saw hundreds of people walking out of offices with cardboard boxes filled with personal belongings, hopes, and dreams of a future it was now just a distant memory. In just a few weeks, they would have lost not only their dreams and hopes, but their homes, health insurances, life savings, pension funds.

2020 started like an okay year and then it turned into a nightmare. Once more Lady New York was battered and knocked on her knees. She cried the loss of 32,482 of her children.

Maybe we should ask ourselves if we would ever get to the point of too many scars that we cannot patch back up. But just like any historian will tell you, it's not about the battle-scars -- the battles you lose, the scars you receive. Ultimately, the only thing that matters in the end - is the war. You either win or you lose, and sometimes to win, you must lose some battles, yet, you fight to live another day.

This morning I was reading an open letter that the iconic, funny, Jerry Seinfeld wrote for the New York Times. The letter is in reply to an op-ed Column aptly titled "NYC is dead forever. Here’s why." published on LinkedIn by James Altucher a former hedge fund manager also co-owner of the Stand Up NY Comedy Club on West 78th and Broadway where Mr. Seinfeld himself performed.



I invite you to read Seinfeld's letter. It's short, it's quirky, and yet, it's a summary of what many New Yorkers think and feel.

- CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL LETTER -

This is what I wrote when I re-shared the article on my Facebook -- "8.5 million residents in NYC, I’m sure we can make do without a few of them. There will always be a difference between those that are just transiting through these bright NYC streets, those that see it as a phase, a career opportunity, a lifestyle choice.

And the rest of us — the natives, those that don’t see NYC has a mere opportunity or a phase, a way to get richer or a place to have fun, a simple footnote in their lives, those that on a daily basis choose NYC despite NYC being NYC, despite the thousand of struggles we face day in day out, despite the many times we are kicked to the curb, and yet, we are still here yearning for just a glimpse, just a piece of our beautifully damaged home.

So, If you feel like NYC won’t be back, here's a news-flash for you - NYC was never yours to rebuild. And yes, for you it won’t be back because this city was never your home either."

Don't get me wrong, Lady New York is not perfect, never has been and probably never will. By all means, she's the unfairest of all Ladies. She wouldn't think twice about chewing you up and spitting you out. She will ask unimaginable sacrifices from you only to give you inches. Sometimes you will ask yourself if it's worth it, only to look around and recognize somehow, somewhere along the way, she has become unequivocally and unapologetically your beautifully damaged home and you are just another addict waiting in line for a piece of her infinitesimal love.

That being said, the people that are now so ready to say "NYC is dead" are not saying it because they have come to recognize the real challenges that have affected New York Residents (minus the 1% of course) for centuries. No, in all fairness, they probably do belong to the upper class or even that 1%. To them, Lady New York is simply not serving her purpose anymore. To begin with, these people are probably not from here, or at the very least, they were never really part of NYC. Yes, they are physically here, but not in their hearts. They are not and never will be addicts to our beautifully damaged home. They do their job, work their way up, they take the opportunities, they live their lives blissfully until New York City doesn't serve its purpose anymore. And that's why they say the city is dead - for them is just another chapter closed, on to the next phase of their lives wherever that might be. Which is okay, they get to move on, it's their prerogative. What I say is they don't get to tear down something they never helped build, something they never bled for, something they are not willing to stay behind and fight for.

The reality is that unless you are one of those self-proclaimed, magic-8-ball-reader kind of gurus, you and I don't know what the future has in store for Lady New York, for us and for mankind in total. Here today, gone tomorrow, and no one can assure you of the contrary.

At the end of the day, in its most simplistic way, life is just a bet. Every choice, every decision, every left or right ... 50%-50% chances.

I, for one, bet Lady Liberty will once again patch up her mantle and keep going a little further North, a little further East.

God Bless,

Irene