I went to New York last month full of pre-conceived notions,
ripe for contradiction and rebuttal. After 30 years absence, I had become lazy
and easily accepted hoary old caricatures and urban myths. New York is no doubt
very different from other parts of the far-flung USA and finding the “real” New
York is well beyond me. But let me tell you how I put paid to some illusions.
New Yorkers are rude – quite false! Even the passport
controllers and security staff at JFK were polite and friendly (much more so
than at Heathrow). Frequently lost in Manhattan, passers-by readily took time
to help with directions; on the notorious subway, my wife and I were at least 4
times offered a seat in deference to our age (73), though we are not obviously
decrepit (I fondly believe!). The local courtesy campaign is working! “Have a
nice day” may be just a formula, but it still sounds pleasantly welcoming.
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| The New York Subway is fine |
New York is exhaustingly hectic – well, maybe the glittering
streets of Manhattan are a challenge, but Central Park is a huge real haven and
we were based in Brooklyn Heights, where a stroll round the human proportions
of the shops and brownstones brought back memories of elegantly laid-back St
John’s Wood.
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| Fifth Avenue shopping |
Everything costs a bomb in New York – not everything, though
certainly rents are at least as high as astronomic London’s; restaurant bills
can be high too, especially if you drink alcohol, and are swollen by a sneaky
8% sales tax, not to mention the expectation of a service add-on in the cool 16-20%
range. But clothes are much less expensive than in Europe, costing about the
same in dollars as they would in pounds, with further discounts often
available. The flat fare New York subway is also a bargain and petrol is
amazingly cheap.
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| Multi-Ethnic America |
Americans are cousins to the Brits – well, only rather
distant ones. In truth the Americans are sui
generis, a people apart, fashioned by their own distinctive history. They
share with us some, but by no means most, of our cultural assumptions. They
speak eloquently, sometimes vociferously, a vibrant version of the English
language with many novel coinages. There are 308m Americans in a vast melting
pot; the largest minority is the German with 49.2m, there are 41.2m Blacks,
31.7 Mexicans and 18.8m other Hispanics. Those of British origin (including
Scots, Welsh and Scots-Irish) total 39.5m and if you add in the 35.5m of
Catholic Irish ancestry and include the Germans you get 124.2m Anglo-Saxons and
Celts. Once predominant, this bloc is losing ground to the rapidly rising
Hispanics and now Asians (14.7m). Russians, Italians, French and Polish also
have substantial minorities. So American attitudes naturally enough will not
mirror those of London.
I assumed Americans are religious, knowing about the strong
historic influence of Puritanism and seeing dozens of churches, cathedrals,
tabernacles and synagogues in every area. They certainly value the oldest (Trinity Church, Broadway), the tallest (The Riverside Church) and the largest
(incomplete St John the Divine). Yet
I guess Americans have sublimated their religious enthusiasms and transferred
their whooping and tub-thumping to their Byzantine national politics instead.
The low quality of most of their presidential hopefuls is dismaying – the
leading Republican, Donald Trump, reminds me of General Boulanger, the classic Man on the Black Horse, who greatly flustered
the French electorate in 1889 but who soon faded: may The Donald do likewise!
If New Yorkers do not always feed the inner spirit, they
certainly know how to feed the inner man. Their food is absolutely fabulous.
Their ribeye, porterhouse and fillet steaks are legendary (try Keens, Del Frisco or Wolfgang’s)
and burgers are consumed by the million (see Shake Shack et al). We
developed an insatiable taste for tender moist brisket with corn hash and baked
beans at Brooklyn’s modest Hill Country.
Saucy classic dishes – veal, beef and duckling - are a speciality at cosy Henry’s End, washed down by warming
Californian red Paso Robles blend, Troublemaker. Great seafood and fish abound
in New York, oysters at Cull & Pistol
and Keens too, though our favourite became Brooklyn Heights’ Kittery for scallops, oysters, mahi-mahi and snapper. To
supplement all this you can savour award-winning pizza at Juliana’s, classic pastrami at Katz,
superior Greek cuisine at Ethos Gallery
and trendy American food at The Boathouse
in Central Park.
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| Porterhouse steak for two at Keens |
An unsurprising aspect of New York is its cultural depth.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art is one of the top world collections and The
Frick and MOMA broaden the range further. Theatre on and off-Broadway
flourishes, books fall in a cascade from articulate pens and the Lincoln,
Rockefeller and Carnegie provide splendid concert venues. We strolled around
the model campus of Columbia University and also one Sunday, Washington Square,
centre for NYU, where a performance of Shakespeare’s Tempest competed with singing and piano playing. In the autumnal
warmth, hand-in-hand couples, costumed pet dogs and tame squirrels mixed in a
civilised fashion.
Many of my readers will know New York much better than I do.
I had one final surprise. My ever-kind sons provided me with some pairs of
jeans, a garment I had always disparaged and never in my life possessed. I am
hooked - I love them and wear them constantly! Has America helped me at last to
join the 21st century?
SMD
8/11/15
Text Copyright © Sidney Donald 2015
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