Manhattan
Manhattan does not contain the most residents of the five boroughs that make up New York City. Brooklyn and Queens both have considerably larger populations. It is by far the smallest borough in land area. Yet this once forested island is the center of the largest city in the United States and the most influential city in the world.
Tourists come to the city to get a feel of the place where the action is, but it is not possible within a short time span to really know and understand it. I have lived more than four and a half decades in New York City, long enough to have seen more than one version of Manhattan and the evolution of its many parts. The experiences and years have been unforgettable.
I am very aware of the late 1970s and early 1980s, when Times Square wallowed gleefully in its own sex driven depths, when the old piers next to the elevated highway (no longer in existence) in the West Village had transitioned from active shipping docks, when Harlem was so drug ridden it was both scary and extremely sad, and when Central Park was dusty and at times dangerous.
Yet I also remember the renewal of the Lower East Side, and the growth of SoHo, the construction of Battery Park City and the great concerts in Central Park. I have witnessed and captured huge demonstrations and protests marching through the streets. I have watched, recorded and interpreted the city's many ethnic or cultural parades.
I have saw and felt true horror and grief along with others in Manhattan on September 11th, when the first place flew directly over my head in Chelsea where I stood on the street for much of that morning (I have written about it in an essay with photographs taken since the beginning of its existence, entitled "In Memoriam: The World Trade Center").
I have seen the island on its coldest winter mornings, fresh spring afternoons and humid summer nights. I have walked, run, bicycled and driven my own car or rented cars through its streets when they were quiet (according to its own definition) and when they moved at light speed. I have traveled countless times across all the bridges and tunnels that lead to it and the subways that run through it. I have both known and been very much a part of its energy and resilience.
There are places that imitate New York City, that watch its every move and rapidly adopt what occurs in Manhattan. Some world cities come remarkably close to the combination of ingredients that Manhattan possesses in abundance, but few have equaled it.
There had to be a place that played such a role, and this is it. There is only one Manhattan.
Marc
