Visiting New York is always an exercise in perspective, even if the Empire State Building, the United Nations, the Statue of Liberty, Broadway, MOMA and Yankee Stadium aren’t on the itinerary. To wit:
* As an infrequent, post-9/11visitor, it’s impossible not to be affected by some of the inimitable sights and sounds of the city. You’re viscerally reminded the first time a fire truck, seemingly as ubiquitous as taxis, comes barreling along with its siren blaring. You think “first responders” and the Ground Zero inferno that claimed so many of them 11 years ago. Tearing up is not an unexpected visitor response.
And yet, such haunting ambience is part of the routine of daily New York life–even if you are trekking around Tribeca and views of nearly topped-off One World Trade Center (1 WTC) are everywhere visible.
“It’s all part of the landscape,” explained the manager at the Cosmopolitan Hotel at Chambers Street and W. Broadway. “Not that we’re insensitive. Far from it. Whenever I see a ceremony or a parade goes by, it all comes back. But you do have your routines. You do have your life to lead.”
“To this day, my mother-in-law cringes in fear whenever she hears a low-flying helicopter,” confided the attendant at the Staten Island Museum. And lower Manhattan has more than its share of such flights.
* While the (104-story) 1 WTC and the complex’s other buildings, including the controversial National Sept. 11 Memorial Museum, won’t be finished until late next year, the sunken granite pools that occupy the footprints of the fallen twin towers have been open since last fall. They were designed as places to mourn and remember and the names of those who died there are inscribed on the perimeter walls. It’s a fitting, contemplation-inducing memorial.
But the vibe was less than somber. The twin pools are the only part of Ground Zero rebuilding open for tours. Tours mean crowds with cameras. Which means people posing and juxtaposing. It is its own dynamic–and not particularly reverential.
* As to the Memorial Museum, seven stories below ground, it has been embroiled in controversy, including lawsuits, since inception. While financing disagreements have caused delays, nothing has been more contentious than the basic effort to tell the story. It is, after all, what museums do.
But for obvious personal and ideological reasons, this story’s telling is rife with emotion. It impacts the choice of what to include and how: from archeological relics to unidentified human remains. It involves properly honoring the dead and the survivors, but it also begs the question of how to handle the images–and grievances–of the hijackers responsible. Some members of victims’ families–as well as New York’s fire chief–have protested any use of their photographs. They considered such an inclusion a sacrilege.
But, yes, the photos–necessary documentation to some, insulting abomination to others–will be included, albeit tucked away in an alcove. As for terrorist motivation, the documentation will begin in 1979 with the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan that ultimately led to safe havens for Al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden.
Joseph Daniels, the chief executive of the memorial and museum foundation, put the museum’s challenge and dilemma into context in a recent New York Times interview. “You don’t create a museum about the Holocaust and not say that it was the Nazis who did it,” he stated. “We have to transmit the truth without being absolutely crushed by it. We don’t want to retraumatize people.”
* It’s a given that New York will always be big time pricey. Otherwise, check out Newark or Jersey City. But part of a vintage New York experience can be done on the cheap. Actually, for free. And it’s not just limited to ambling through Central Park, hanging around Times Square or queuing up for a photo behind that anatomically correct bull on Wall Street. For example:
^Walk the acclaimed High Line, the one-mile, urban linear park that was built on an elevated freight rail line above the streets on Manhattan’s lower west side. It morphed from 1990s demolition candidate to aerial greenway. Its vistas are standard world class and its flora an aesthetic seasonal surprise.
^Spend some time at the 9/11 Memorial Preview Site across from the WTC construction at 20 Vesey Street. There’s no charge, but the moving, maddening retrospective video does exact a toll.
^Check out the New York Public Library. The ultimate Beaux-Arts design. Wander and gaze until you need a rest. Then use the iconic reading room on the second floor. The only sound is the occasional chair-leg friction on the tile floor. You’ve got your no-money’s worth even if you skip the prized holdings–the Gutenberg Bible and Thomas Jefferson’s personal, hand-written copy of the Declaration of Independence.
^Grand Central Station. Grand enough to shoot iconic movie scenes. Good enough to revel in.
^Staten Island Ferry. Yes, it’s free. Takes about 20 minutes. On time, plenty of room. Room service tableaus for true camera buffs. Lower Manhattan Skyline and Statue of Liberty/Ellis Island shots to die for.
*Speaking of Staten Island, it has a quaint village feel although its inhabitants number about 450,000. Shops, galleries, several restaurants, a museum and a theater are within walking distance of the ferry dock. It’s also hilly enough to be reminiscent of San Francisco topography. And who knew it was home to the Staten Island Yankees? The “Baby Bombers,” a short-season, Class A affiliate of the New York Yankees, play at the impeccably manicured Richmond County Bank Ball Park just behind the waterfront esplanade.
*Newsstands. They’re still a cultural presence. As are those New York tabloids and their eye-assaulting, bad-pun headlines. The day Lance Armstrong was dominating the news cycle: “Drug Pedaler” and “Cycle of Abuse.”
*Security. Rare is the intersection lamp post without a video camera affixed. Rail stations are equipped with poison-gas sensors and radiation detectors. Wider, buffer-zone sidewalks now front most high-profile buildings. Police are a uniform presence. Ascending subway stairs is an ongoing, literal reminder: “If you see something, say something.”
*Incongruity: All those 7- and 8-figure residences–co-ops to condos–with AC window units. The Flatiron Building symmetry wouldn’t be the same without them.
*Irony: The city is awash in diversity–and that’s not even counting the UN. But a key issue among candidates now positioning to replace Mayor Michael Bloomberg next year: diversity. In the first mayoral-candidate forum, the six would-be mayors, including an African-American, an Asian-American and one woman, zeroed in on the city’s unimpressive record of awarding contracts to minorities. Among the consensus suggestions: Hire a chief diversity officer.
Under Fire: Mayor Bloomberg is under increasing criticism for the city’s “Stop-and-Frisk” policy. Last year police stopped and frisked 685,000 people, most of them black and Hispanic. More than 96 percent were released without charges. Weapons are recovered in roughly one in 1,000 cases. The Mayor contends that’s a sign that they’re getting guns off the street. Civil rights leaders, who organized an anti-Stop-and-Frisk march on Sunday, see it as thinly veiled profiling. A federal judge said that the city’s own records showed that many of the stops did not meet the constitutional standards for searches. Most observers consider the high-profile march as pivotal in transforming Stop-and-Frisk into a major political issue.
*Big Apple context: You wouldn’t know it from the media, but a major movie, “Taxi Driver II,” was shooting in Manhattan. You would know it from the media–if you read as far as page 24 in the New York Times–that President Barack Obama was in town for a WTC update and a fund-raiser.
*Zuccotti Park: Tourists, lunch-break construction workers and a hip-hop, back-flipping ensemble were much in evidence. Not so: the Occupy Wall Street set. Neither were they on Wall Street. Perhaps they’re preoccupied with planning for Tampa.
*One: The number of Archdiocese of New York seminarians who were ordained Catholic priests this year. In 1960 it was 28. Last year it was four.