Tuesday, May 31, 2022

Old New York

East 29th Street


"New York is old, and say what you will you feel the charm of the established, and it gives you a sense of satisfaction to realize that you can't detect the odour of varnish and new paint. New York has got beyond it, and has begun to take on the gray of age."
Lilian Bell, At Home with the Jardines


Monday, May 30, 2022

Monuments of Defiance

Financial District seen from Governors Island


"Before them was spread out the ragged panorama of south Manhattan, the wonder island of the West. A narrow hump of rock sheltered from the Atlantic by the broad shoulder of Brooklyn, a mere ripple of stone in the ocean's inroads, on which the indomitable cussedness of Man had elected to build a city — and, not contented with the prodigious feat of overcoming such a dimensional difficulty at all, had made monuments of its defiance."
Leslie Charteris, The Saint of New York


Friday, May 27, 2022

Civic Black Hole

St. George Terminal


"New York is now just a flooded playground for the one percent of the one percent. The Bronx is now Brooklyn.  Brooklyn is now Manhattan.  Manhattan is now Dubai.  And darling, the worst part is, Staten Island is still just Staten Island.  That thing is a civic black hole that the light of gentrification and human decency can't penetrate."
Jim Brockmire (Hank Azaria), Brockmire

Thursday, May 26, 2022

Charming New York

East 18th Street

"When most people think of New York City, they imagine soaring skyscrapers, busy streets and crowded sidewalks. Charming is not the adjective that usually comes to mind. But beyond the steel and glass of Midtown, the city has another side, one that is picturesque, a bit quieter, and⁠—yes⁠—seriously charming."
Susan Kaufman, Walk With Me

Wednesday, May 25, 2022

Creative American Dream

Williamsburg

"There is a certain type of person that moves to New York. We don't pay ridiculous rents and live sandwiched against a million other people because that sounds comfortable, we do it because we're seeking out the culture in the arts and I think that New York will always be a center for that because anything is possible, it's the creative American Dream."
Lori Zimmer, Forbes Magazine

Tuesday, May 24, 2022

King Kong of Cities

East Village


"More than any other place in America, New York
 is the city Americans love to love, and love to hate — the King Kong of cities, the city that has inspired greater ambivalence than any other city in America."

Ric Burns, Thirteen


Monday, May 23, 2022

Making It in New York City

West Village

"The hallmarks of feeling like you’ve made it in New York City are often as follows: navigating the subway sans map, a maitre d’ who knows you by name and living alone, at last, in your own apartment." 
Sarah Maslin Nir, The New York Times

Friday, May 20, 2022

New York Feeds Us

Dumbo

"New York is an amazing city. It feeds us with its diversity and energy and cultural complexity."
Karole Armitage, Forbes Magazine

Thursday, May 19, 2022

Hard Place to Be Lonely

First Avenue

"The whirring beehive of New York is a hard place to be lonely. If you don’t rise to its level, it’ll leave you left behind."
Philippa Whishaw, Urban Adventures


Wednesday, May 18, 2022

Dream Space

Central Park West

"New York is the dream space of all my fantasies; the destination of every desired trip; the reality that, when it finally occurs, surpasses everything I imagined."
José Manuel Romero, quoted in Humanos y marcianos en Nueva York II

Tuesday, May 17, 2022

Intimate Form of Anonymity

Apple Fifth Avenue



"What makes New York, New York to me? I think it's just the ever-changing flow of people and the number of people you interact with on a day-to-day basis. I feel like you don't get that anywhere else. You notice it especially on the subway. It's a funny paradox; the city is so anonymous, you're surrounded by strangers on the street or packed in a subway car, but you're also centimeters away from them. Sometimes literally touching three people at the same time. It's the most intimate form of anonymity I could imagine."
Michelle Salem, Vice


Monday, May 16, 2022

Small City

Union Square


"New York is a small city, in the end, equipped with some strange
 gravity that is forever pulling you nearer those people you'd rather avoid: you're drawn back to the same places, the same games, ten years down the road."
Jessi Jezewska Stevens,  The Exhibition of Persephone Q

Friday, May 13, 2022

Doppelgänger

Park Avenue



"The pace of the sidewalk here mirrors something inside me and New York will never stop feeling like home. I keep whipping my head around, thinking I see people I recognize. This is a common experience for me in New York. Everyone is a doppelgänger of someone from my past."
Jillian Lauren, Everything You Ever Wanted

Thursday, May 12, 2022

Magic

Mail slot in SoHo


"The first time I met you, I didn't know what to think. I was just a girl from North Carolina. You were larger than life and so much fun, but loud and strange. That first time, I was happy to leave. It took me a few years to realize how much I missed you. I'm so glad I got to come back. New York, you are magic."
Melanie Conklin, Counting Thyme

Wednesday, May 11, 2022

Too Hard for Too Many

Midtown Manhattan

"New York is too hard, for too many. The opportunities, the serendipities, the quintessential experiences and wonders of New York are closed down, and cut off. The thrills and superlatives, the biggest, longest, tallest and best of everything in the world, the very things that more than made up for all the downsides — the rats, high rents, bad smells and loud noises — those things are on pause."
Daily News Editorial Board, NY Daily News

Tuesday, May 10, 2022

The City That Winks Back

Chambers Street subway station


"I've always said that New York is the city that winks back. It's a main character. It's a friend, a lover, an enemy sometimes."
Maggie Rogers, quoted in Paste Magazine


Monday, May 9, 2022

Glittering from a Distance

Empire State Building


"This was New York: a place that glittered from a distance even when you reached it."
Jennifer Egan, Emerald City

Friday, May 6, 2022

Too Skinny

Lower East Side


"Everybody in New York is too skinny. The women are all, they look so unhappy! Their figures are nice, but their faces are unhappy. People in the midwest are not unhappy."
Theresa Rebeck, Dead Accounts

Thursday, May 5, 2022

Eight Million Stories

Rose Main Reading Room


"New York is such a vibrant place to write about. Eight million stories colliding all at once. And what a landscape to operate in. The eye never gets tired."
Colum McCann, Conversations with Colum McCann

Wednesday, May 4, 2022

New York City is a Planet

Midtown Manhattan



"New York City is a planet all to itself. I'm sure there were some actual Americans living there – but I never met them."
Bruce Frohnen, The Imaginative Conservative

Tuesday, May 3, 2022

Inspiring New York

Greenpoint


"New York is my favorite city. It is sort of my muse I guess you could say. It is amazing. The energy, the people. The atmosphere is ever changing depending on the season, or the year, or the day. There is no city like it in the world. It continuously inspires me."
Kat Irlin, The Unlimited Magazine

Monday, May 2, 2022

Style and Fashion

Midtown Manhattan

"Growing up in New York, there's a sense of style that you don't really get in too many places, maybe London and Paris. But in America, New York is the center of style and fashion."
Dylan McDermott, Parade