When I first found out I was going to New York for Christmas
I expected to come back with stories of how alien NYC is and how horrible the
city is compared to the country. To my
surprise, I came home with an appreciation for NYC and a new perspective on big
cities in general. A lot of my
misconceptions were probably a result of watching too much television. From watching Law & Order I’ve come to
believe that people get murdered on the streets of NYC on a regular basis and
no one stops to look, much less help. Television
has also led me to believe that NYC is just one big jumble of people, pollution,
crime, and opportunists out to swindle you. Much to my surprise I wasn’t
murdered nor witnessed a murder while in New York.
One of the things that surprised me about New York is that
it isn’t all crowded city slums and upscale businesses. There are actually some pretty nice areas of
New York and Central Park isn’t lined with trash, hypodermic needles, and bums
as I had previously believed (not that these things aren’t present there but
they aren’t as prolific as I expected).
I was also surprised to find that there are suburbs in New York that don’t
look much different from your standard suburb elsewhere. This may sound like a given for most of you
but you have to understand that I was seriously disillusioned and couldn’t
conceive of quiet suburban streets in conjunction with the word New York.
Yes, NYC itself was crowded and there were lots of
people. However I was there during the
more-crowded-than-usual holiday season and I traveled to some of the more
popular tourist attractions within the city.
The public transportation in NYC is a big plus for me. Yes, it was also crowded at times but not as
bad as I had expected. The surprising
part is that it was so convenient and trains ran regularly to and from all
parts of the city. Wherever we were in
NYC we didn’t have to walk too far before finding a subway station. Atlanta has been the big city I’ve lived
closest to for most of my life so public transportation had some pretty
negative connotations for me. Atlanta’s public transportation is crap relative
to the size of the city and it only runs within the downtown area for the most
part. In order to use the public
transportation system you have to drive into the perimeter of the city first
which sort of defeats the purpose of public transportation. Atlanta is notorious for its sprawl however,
so it isn’t the best example of a big city.
Despite being pleased
with the convenience of NYC I was still a little bit hesitant about singing its
praises. After all, NYC is full of
people and therefore pollution right? As
it turns out it really isn’t that bad.
When I got back home I happened to read an article in the December 2011 edition
of National Geographic, The City Solution by Robert Kunzig, which presents an argument in favor of cities as being a
better solution to the problem of population increase. Cities can often produce less pollution
because they rely more heavily on foot traffic and public transportation than
their smaller town and country counterparts which rely on cars to get from
place to place. NYC produces much less
greenhouse gas emissions per person than the U.S. national average. So, public transportation is not only a more
convenient and efficient means of transporting people but it also reduces
pollution to a large degree…sounds like a win-win to me. Unfortunately, too many Americans see car use
and ownership as the key to their independence and would refuse to give that up
but, that’s another topic for discussion altogether.
I can’t say that I’d ever truly want to live in NYC or the
surrounding areas. It would still mean
dealing with large amounts of people and a higher crime rate. I can see the allure of the city now
though. I dislike driving, particularly
in traffic, so the public transportation would make commuting more convenient. So much is available to you within such a
small area that you’d never have to worry about finding the products and
services you want or need. NYC is alive
24 hours a day so you’d never have to worry about finding a place to eat or
somewhere to shop anytime of the day or night.
There’s always something to see and do in NYC. You may not be able to carve out as much
personal space for yourself in NYC but what’s wrong with sharing every now and
then?
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