City that Talks

North Williamsburg landing

"New York is a city that talks. And talks and talks and talks. Not only in different tones—whispers in court, shouts in the subway, grumbles in restaurant queues—but also in many different languages. Language can bridge from the old to the new,  but it can also be used as a drawbridge to keep outsiders at bay. In New York, language is an overworked handmaiden preserving immigrants' habits and rituals as they try to create a new home without losing touch with the old."
Rebecca Solnit, Nonstop Metropolis