The Billiken's Bluff

First off guys, promise me that this doesn't turn into some Mid-Atlantic East Coast Vs. New England East Coast Beef. Let's all try and remember what happened to Biggie and Tupac (R.I.P).

Rico has cajoled me into posting a New York rebuttal to Mal's extolling of Philadelphia. I think, actually, the fact that I am a "native New Yorker", might make it harder for me to sing the praises of fair Gotham, than it would be for someone like Rico.




Firstly, when you are a tourist, like Mal was in Philly, or you are a student living in second city, like Rico in NYC, I think you are better able to see a city, maybe with a clearer perspective than a native like myself.

And secondly, I grew up in Queens, not Manhattan (and no N. Dot I do not have an accent. It's most certainly pronounced Basketball, not Basketbawl). Queens is technically part of NYC, and one of the 5 boroughs for certain, but to quote Mos Def, the skyscrapers in Queens are not colossus and the cost of living is not exactly preposterous. But, if you are in a New York State of Mind, parts of Queens, like Howard Beach, and Ozone Park might remind you of Goodfellas, or to make a more timely comparison, The Sopranos. And if you travel to Jamiaca, Queens, 30 blocks south of my apartment in Fresh Meadows, you might catch a glimpse of 50 Cent, "the Silver Back Gorilla in the Concrete Jungle" (He's the strongest around, you know how he gets down).



Fresh Meadows, isn't quite as Italian, nor quite as concrete. There are a bunch of apartment buildings, and a bunch of greenery. Actually, I have to admit, I don't quite recognize my own neighborhood anymore. My three-story apt. has become something of a middle-class boarding house, with families moving in and out every 6 months. I don't recognize half of my neighbors, and I came back from school this year to find that the signs in front of the rental office are now written in Korean. Talk about a fast turnover. Maybe if there is one constant in Queens, or Manhattan for that matter, it is change. (Wow that sounds cliched!)

I'd say I know Manhattan about as well as N. Dot or any NYU graduate who spent the past 4 years living in the city. As Thomas Wolfe once wrote, "One belongs to New York instantly. One belongs to it as much in five minutes as in five years." There are a million quotes about NYC, and just about as many coffee table books filled with those millions of quotes about NYC. (A coffee table book about coffee tables, BRILLIANT!!!)



As I said you get a clearer perspective on a city as a tourist or when it is your second home. Last year I spent 5 months living in Prague, and got to see the way in which NYC is 'understood' by Europeans. This was back in March 2003, just before Operation Iraqi Freedom. Americans stuck out, and were always the topic of conversation. I was often asked, Where in the US are you from? I'm from New York. Oh, you're ok then. I got this response a lot, as if New York, was somehow seperate from the rest of the United States, and in a sense it is. I drove to Mexico a few months ago, all the way through the American South, and it there really is a stark contrast between NYC and the majority of America. I'm not going to knock the rest of the country for being less diverse than The Big Apple, but the fact that there is such a noticeable contrast is the reason why Europeans think of New York as a not-so-American-Animal. It is the most metropolitan of all cosmopolitan cities (if that even makes sense).



My favorite quote about New York City comes from a tourist and it is hardly celebratory of the city. Federico Garcia Lorca, the Spanish poet, wrote this about NYC, while visiting in 1931:

"New York is something awful, something monstrous. I like to walk the streets, lost, but I recognize that New York is the world’s great lie. It’s Senegal with machines. The only things the United States has given to the world are skyscrapers, jazz, and cocktails. And in Cuba, in his America, they make better cocktails."

Now I wouldn't say I agree with everything Lorca said (Cuba does make great cocktails though, try a Mojito), and I also think he was partly kidding. Maybe I'm just a cynical, jaded New Yorker (it comes with the territory), but Lorca's view of NYC sounds more authentic than any of the post card depictions people like to cue in their memory when they think of NYC.

And this is all sounding way too serious, I'm sure Rico was looking for something a bit more funny and clever. I'm just not in the mood at the moment. Maybe I'll come up with something a bit lighter and fluffier later.

I will say this though, I will take issue with anyone who says New York does not have the best pizza. If any of you are ever in New York, you should take a brief junket out to Queens and get a slice from Brothers Pizza (185th and Horace Harding).

What does everyone else think of Gotham?