Mass of Contradictions

"While the full meaning of the city may prove elusive, all New Yorkers are painfully aware that it remains an intractable mass of contradictions. It is not just the extremes of wealth and poverty living side by side. It is as though every condition is locked in a struggle with its opposite, fixing New York in a state of permanent tension. Tolerance vies with racism, social mobility with elitism, sophistication with insecurity, efficiency with corruption, philanthropy with excess. Neither will yield to the other which is one reason New York defies definition."
Amanda Foreman, The Guardian

Femme Fatale

Central Park (Pixabay)

"New York. Like a femme fatale, it is irresistibly compelling."
Amanda Foreman, The Guardian

Potemkin Village

"Impermanence is the great irony and, of all New York's contradictions, perhaps the biggest. What seems to be creative energy is often just feverish activity inside a ballooning bubble. New York is like a Potemkin Village, its inhabitants mere imports for the day."
Amanda Foreman, The Guardian