On Hating Places
A lot of people hate Cleveland. Or say they hate Cleveland. These people range from those who complain about Cleveland and say they want out but don't (or won't, or feel like they can't) ever really go, to those who visit Cleveland and think it's a dump (although, frankly, I've never talked to anyone who's visited who hasn't been pleasantly surprised), to those ignorant people who've never been to Cleveland and know nothing about what's happened there in the last 30 years but spew hate talk about it anyway.
I've been thinking a lot about hating places lately. It would be easy for me to hate the place where I am now. After all, I'm as much of a sucker for some good city infrastructure as many women are for things like pink roses and bubble baths (an aside: blecccchh!), and Ocean County, NJ has seen much poorly managed growth over the last 20 or 30 years.
But what really gets me started thinking about hating places is a visit to New York. I keep going there, telling myself, give it one more chance. You might like it this time. I never like it. I don't like the throngs of people, I don't like the glitz of Broadway and Times Square, I don't like the inexplicable wafts of rotting milk smell that seem to come from everywhere, whether you're around a garbage can or not. I don't like how blocks and blocks of stores selling expensive junk turns quickly into blocks and blocks of stores selling cheap junk. And I've been to those places that everyone seems to love, like Chelsea and Greenwich Village, and even Central Park, and I'm just filled with a sense of "that's it?" Seriously, if there's something I'm missing, tell me, and I'm willing to try again.
Being from where I am, I am very sensitive not to totally slam someone's beloved hometown. I'm sure New York is great for those who love it. But hating New York has taught me something valuable: don't plan to love a place that you think you might love.
Ostensibly, doesn't New York have everything that I think I want? Doesn't it have culture, and great restaurants, and can't I get around there without a car? Isn't the Creative Class alive and well in New York?
So what is it?
Maybe it's that New York is constantly referred to as "the City", as if it's the only city in the world. Maybe it's the ridiculous real estate farce that keeps people earning modest incomes in cramped apartments with too many roommates. Maybe it's the fact that everyone seems to want to cram themselves into Manhattan and Manhattan is so freaking small, if you look at it on a map.
That's it: everyone seems to want to be in New York. As if there are no other places to be.
But there's more. I try and live by the concept of "enough." New York feels like "too much." Too many people, too much monetary excess, too much hype. Maybe even too many entertainment options - my God, how many Saturday nights does one have? I suspect there are other people who feel this way, who just don't want all this excess, people for whom a nice mid-sized city somewhere in between the coasts might be a nice option.
If only I could think of one.....
I've been thinking a lot about hating places lately. It would be easy for me to hate the place where I am now. After all, I'm as much of a sucker for some good city infrastructure as many women are for things like pink roses and bubble baths (an aside: blecccchh!), and Ocean County, NJ has seen much poorly managed growth over the last 20 or 30 years.
But what really gets me started thinking about hating places is a visit to New York. I keep going there, telling myself, give it one more chance. You might like it this time. I never like it. I don't like the throngs of people, I don't like the glitz of Broadway and Times Square, I don't like the inexplicable wafts of rotting milk smell that seem to come from everywhere, whether you're around a garbage can or not. I don't like how blocks and blocks of stores selling expensive junk turns quickly into blocks and blocks of stores selling cheap junk. And I've been to those places that everyone seems to love, like Chelsea and Greenwich Village, and even Central Park, and I'm just filled with a sense of "that's it?" Seriously, if there's something I'm missing, tell me, and I'm willing to try again.
Being from where I am, I am very sensitive not to totally slam someone's beloved hometown. I'm sure New York is great for those who love it. But hating New York has taught me something valuable: don't plan to love a place that you think you might love.
Ostensibly, doesn't New York have everything that I think I want? Doesn't it have culture, and great restaurants, and can't I get around there without a car? Isn't the Creative Class alive and well in New York?
So what is it?
Maybe it's that New York is constantly referred to as "the City", as if it's the only city in the world. Maybe it's the ridiculous real estate farce that keeps people earning modest incomes in cramped apartments with too many roommates. Maybe it's the fact that everyone seems to want to cram themselves into Manhattan and Manhattan is so freaking small, if you look at it on a map.
That's it: everyone seems to want to be in New York. As if there are no other places to be.
But there's more. I try and live by the concept of "enough." New York feels like "too much." Too many people, too much monetary excess, too much hype. Maybe even too many entertainment options - my God, how many Saturday nights does one have? I suspect there are other people who feel this way, who just don't want all this excess, people for whom a nice mid-sized city somewhere in between the coasts might be a nice option.
If only I could think of one.....
posted by Christine Borne at 6:22 AM
3 Comments:
Shalom Christine,
New York is the city wearing the emperor's new clothes.
I've been there many times and it has never ceased to underwhelm me. I think there is a certain cognitive dissoance at work. People who live there don't really like it, but they have to justify being there.
Give me Seattle or Chicago or Toronto or Atlanta or...
Anyday.
B'shalom,
Jeff
I'm late on the conversation, but here's my two cents.
I do beg to differ. The only city I love more than New York is London, and that is based on a few brief visits. New York I have grown up with and love especially for its ability to transform itself, precisely because there is too much of everything there.
I remember Times Square before the glitter and glitz, when it was filled with prostitutes and pimps, drug dealers and the homeless. Port Authority was flat-out dangerous, as were the subways.
People who see it for the first time nowadays go for the neon, the flashing spectacles, and the commercialism. People nowadays hate it for the same reason.
But most of all, Times Square exemplifies the living, breathing city, which has gone through revision after revision after revision and still is vital and unique in every iteration.
New York is the history, the lives crammed into that one tiny island, leading to the smells, the rush, the experiences. People don't go to experience everything, just to find the slice that they like best. Some move after a month; some stay for the rest of their lives, but it's always their choice.
Hmmmm, thought-provoking. I've never been to NYC, in part because I have a fear of being overwhelmed and hating it, for all the reasons you mentioned and more.
That's precisely what happened to me when I moved to Los Angeles - I thought I'd love it, and I hated it on sight. After living in L.A. for a number of years, the hatred has only grown.
I'm from San Francisco, and was just there visiting with a friend who is not an SF native. And his comments about SF, a city I love with all my heart, almost matched your comments about NYC word for word.
All of the cities I mentioned have so much history and mythology associated with them that it's nearly impossible for the reality to really stand up to the hype. There's good and there's bad, but most days the bad is so much more apparent than the good - at least in L.A., and I'd venture a guess that it's true elsewhere. One has to search carefully to find the beauty underneath the excess and the dirt.
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