Ode to The Great American Walkable City
Image Courtesy: Vanity Fair
I have long been a part of the cult of the dream-holding, wander-lusting, desperate to get out of my small-town people, who yearn and ache to move to New York City as soon as they can feasibly afford it– or even despite. It has been a totem of many decades, multiple generations of dreamers and doers and creators, artists and misfits packing up their things and uprooting their lives to fly to the Big Apple. But why? I found myself asking this question, in hope of finding a more nuanced answer than the one I already knew: It’s glamorous, it’s fabulously historical, it’s been the backdrop for so many artists and musicians we love, it is a beacon of hope and inspiration for those with a dream- oh, and it’s walkable.
I realized the true reason why we all desire to pack our bags and hit the road to the city that never sleeps is because we want a place to put roots where community is feasible. We want change, we want accessibility, and we don’t want to have to pay for parking every time we go to a coffee shop. We want to step into the shoes of those before us, walk the streets where Patti Smith, Bob Dylan, Andy Warhol, RuPaul, Lou Reed and Edie Sedgwick walked (among countless others). We want to draw inspiration from a place so full of rich, creative past and we want to exist in the living breathing result of the cultural impact of following a dream.
Why do we romanticize the city then? Is it because we want to be like those before us, those who paved the way? Or do we just want the freedom to be? To be something half-baked and raw, uncertain but dying for just a taste of true self expression? Do we go to New York to find out who we are, or to present who we are to the world in an environment that has fostered acceptance of the marginalized, the unique and the different? A city that doesn’t just overlook us, but accepts us, embraces us, and gives us the breathing room and nonjudgmental air to exist exactly as we are? A lot of the people I know who dream of moving to New York are queer, myself included. We come from small towns, stifling ones-- places and homes that may not be exactly accepting of who we are and are often told to just choose to be someone else, to change ourselves for the sake of pleasing others, if not our families, then at least the status quo. I believe New York is uber romanticized because of the incredible power it is known to have, a power that has an unspoken agreement between the city and its people: Come as you are. There is power in identity, an unfiltered expression of the self so strong that the places we come from fear it. There have been systematic patriarchal, heteronormative and explicitly white restrictions in American culture for far too long, present history included, but New York City was one of the first places to foster an environment to protect all people, not in spite of their division from the status quo, but because of it.
New York City’s accessibility also has a transformative power on people’s lives, not just through the city’s walkable structure, but also through its public transportation system, infamously known as The Subway. The existence of this iconic transit system-also known as the metro- has incredibly positive impacts on the quality of citizens of New York’s everyday lives. By purchasing a metrocard, a New Yorker need only pay the fare of $2.95 (recently bumped up from the decades long price of $2.75 due to inflation) to cross whole boroughs, and ultimately save themselves the increasingly expensive cost and maintenance of owning a car, and save the planet some carbon emissions. New York City’s infrastructure exists with the people’s best interests in mind, with a quality of life and art built into the foundational layers of architecture.
Although New York City has taken some serious and invasive hits on the protection and power of the people such as gentrification, housing shortages and rats, I still believe it to be a city to be romanticized due to its powerful and thoughtful structure, its walkability, and it’s iconic accepting and inspiring community. Thousands of books and movies would not exist without the iconic walkable city we know and love today as the backdrop, the force behind the creative mind, encouraging and warm, saying here is a city you can write about, you can create magic with your mind and it will be priceless art, have your characters walk here and here and here, and meet this person that will alter the course of their life forever, and experience a life that can only be had in New York City.
My favorite books to make anyone romanticize New York City: Just Kids by Patti Smith (perfect for creatives), The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt, Sweetbitter by Stephanie Danler, My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottesha Moshfegh, Sex and Rage by Eve Babitz, Cleopatra and Frankenstein by Coco Mellors, I Remember Nothing by Nora Ephron, and of course, Sex and the City by Candace Bushnell.
Image Courtesy: AnOther Magazine
Image Courtesy: All That’s Interesting
Image Courtesy: Blog and the City
Strike Out,
Writer: Brianna Patane
Edited by: Nina Rueda and Reanna Haase
Orlando
Brianna Patane is a content writer for Strike Magazine Orlando. You can find her re-reading a Sally Rooney novel, writing about her feelings, or lost in thought at a cafe while listening to something with an electric guitar solo in it. Other hobbies include making the perfect iced vanilla latte with oat milk at Foxtail, talking very loudly about feminism, making mediocre art, and being outside with friends. Preferably on a porch. You can contact her at bpatane12@gmail.com.
