Do You Miss New York?
By: Bruce Bawer (The American Spectator USA News and Politics)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Exactly 25 years ago, this native New Yorker finally escaped his hometown's gravitational pull and flew off to a new life in Europe.
Twenty-five years. A quarter century.
The former New Yorker, of course, is a familiar breed. One of us, a jazzman named Dave Frishberg, played piano at the Duplex, a Greenwich Village bar, in the '60s, then moved to Los Angeles, where, after finding a degree of fame, he wrote a witty, wistful tune about the topic:
Do you miss New York —
The anger, the action?
Does this laid back lifestyle
Lack a certain satisfaction?
Do you ever burn
To pack up and return to the thick of it…?
When I first heard the song, back in my own New York days, I could relate, kind of. I spent much of my 20s (too much) in L.A., sitting by the pool at the Melrose Place-type complex where a relative lived. It was, as Frishberg's lyric suggests, a very different world from New York — easier, quieter. The one problem was that, at the time, I was trying to make it as a freelance literary critic, and after a few days by the pool, invariably, I couldn't read or write anything remotely serious.
In any case, I was never in L.A. for terribly long. And I didn't want to be. I loved New York as Woody Allen does (and fully appreciated the L.A. gags in Annie Hall). And I loved living on the safe and civilized but surprisingly affordable eastern fringe of the Upper East Side, where I moved often to avoid the automatic biennial rent increases.
In memory, it's as if I never rested: after a day of reading and writing (eased into with four-plus hours of golden-age Howard Stern), I'd rush off — rain or snow, hot or cold — to dinner downtown with friends; to some off-off-Broadway play I'd heard good things about; to a writer friend's reading (usually at some little joint way downtown, occasionally at the upscale 92nd Street Y, and, once, at a tiny West Side hardware store, where a shaky John Ashbery stumbled in halfway through, zigzagged to the makeshift bar, and poured himself a giant vodka); to a book party or literary reception at some magazine's offices or the National Arts Club or the late lamented Books & Co. (where owner Jeannette Watson, a true patron of the arts, threw my own first book party); to Jimmy Ryan's jazz club on West 52nd Street (where a friend, Martha Sherrill, sang with Max Kaminsky's legendary band); to the ballet at Lincoln Center (whenever my friend Dana Gioia, the great American poet, who subscribed, had a spare ticket); or to the monthly drinks party of the Vile Body (a club for young conservative writers founded by another friend, Terry Teachout) at the midtown townhouse owned by the Manhattan Institute.
From October 1983 to June 1993, I wrote at least one article for every issue of the New Criterion, and after delivering my monthly contribution in person (and hanging around to shoot the breeze with the editors, read other people's galleys, and get sent off with a handful of free books), I'd take the elevator downstairs to the Carnegie Deli — where Woody Allen's Broadway Danny Rose begins and ends — and treat myself to a huge, pricey, impossibly delicious pastrami sandwich.
Living, first, in a sixth-floor walk-up on East 65th Street between First and York, I was pleasantly surprised by the chumminess of the neighbors, so at odds with the stereotype of New Yorkers: the charming old Hispanic lady across the hall whose dogs were named Romeo and Juliet ("they are lovers!" she gushed); Allison Burnett, the playwright in the apartment directly below mine who, years afterward, relocated to L.A. and wrote a Richard Gere romcom, Autumn in New York. Later, living on East 49th Street — a block down from Katharine Hepburn, whom I saw multiple times scampering down her front steps, still lithe and limber, to drop items in the trash — I enjoyed running around the corner, at lunchtime, in fine weather, to eat a sandwich in the U.N. gardens while perusing a review copy of whatever book I was supposed to write about next. (This was before 9/11 turned the U.N. grounds into an armed camp.) I was so young and vigorous that I'd wake at dawn to jog up and down the magnificently empty avenues. Early one morning, turning from 49th onto First, I found myself alone, as far as I could see, with Henry Kissinger, who was standing on the southeast corner with a small dog on a leash.
Still later, living at First and 54th, I liked being across the avenue from my favorite brunch place, an Irish bar called Parnell's. And last of all, living at 89th between York and East End — the very building, coincidentally, where I'd lived as an infant, and where I could buy, not rent, only because my apartment's previous owners, who'd retired to Florida after renting to a hoarder, wanted to unload it (and her) prontissimo — I loved being just a few dozen steps away from the East River. In the other direction, I was just a few blocks from the Metropolitan Museum of Art — which, in the winter, was the perfect place to stroll around for hours, piecing some text together in my head and pausing every few minutes to sit on a bench in front of a Van Gogh or a Sargent or a collection of medieval armor and scribble while the tourists flowed past. (In the Seinfeld episode "The Marine Biologist," Elaine's boss, Mr. Lippman, says that "Tolstoy used to write in the village square. The faces inspired him." That's me — Tolstoy.)
Then, of course, there was Central Park. One night when I was living on 89th Street, New York was hit by a huge snowstorm, and in the morning a friend and I trudged to the park and then all the way across it, from Fifth Avenue to Central Park West, without seeing another human being — or, for that matter, so much as a single footprint in the snow. We had the whole park, it seemed, to ourselves. It was dazzling.
My favorite flat of all was on East 85th Street — the fourth of five — where I lived on the same block as MacGyver himself, Richard Dean Anderson. One day there was a piece of paper taped to the wall in our lobby: Woody Allen was looking for an apartment to use in his next movie. (I didn't look into the offer, but when Crimes and Misdemeanors came out a year or so later, I realized he'd been scouting for digs for Anjelica Huston's character.) On 85th Street, moreover, I was right around the corner from a piano bar, Brandy's, which became my neighborhood haunt. What a joy it was to be able to put down my work and, five minutes later, hear a world-class chanteuse, Natalie Douglas (who, criminally, was obliged to double as a barmaid), belt out the standards.
It was, in many ways, a magical time. But eventually all New Yorkers start talking about leaving. Most, unable to abandon what they've told themselves is the center of the universe, never do go (although that number, thanks to the city's successive Marxist mayors and DAs, has certainly climbed). But, 25 years ago, for a combination of personal and professional reasons, I eventually decamped.
When you're back in town for a quick look around, how is it?
Does it feel like home or just another nice place to visit?
To be sure, it wasn't a final goodbye. I've been back many times. Twice to bury my parents. In 2007, I was up for a book award and my publisher treated me to a week's stay at a luxury hotel. (I lost.) In 2010, I went to New York — and traveled around the U.S. — to research another book. In 2011, briefly insolvent (not least because I'd poured so much dough into researching that book), I spent several months in and around New York on other people's couches.
That was my longest time back. Did New York feel like home? Hard to say. The circumstances were weird. And it took days to get out of the habit of addressing people in Norwegian. I went to Brandy's: the music was good, but Natalie had moved on. At Parnell's, the waitstaff — and the menu — were different. (The Sunday morning English breakfast no longer included what, in my experience, were the world's best sausages.)
Yes, I still knew Manhattan like the back of my hand. As much as ever, it was a delight to walk up and down the familiar avenues, wend my way through the crowds, grab a dirt-cheap slice of first-rate pizza, scan the bookshelves at the Strand. In one Seinfeld episode, George brags that when he's somewhere in Manhattan and nature calls, he always knows where the closest available public men's room is. I did, too. But was it home?
One day during that 2011 stay, on a crowded subway, I heard Norwegian being spoken. I never approach strangers. But this time I rushed over to the speaker — a man with two teenage sons — and started chatting away. He was indulgent. He asked, probably out of sheer politeness, for tourism advice. I told him his sons would probably enjoy the Ellis Island Immigration Museum. As soon as I got off at my stop, I was appalled at myself for having been so pathetically thrilled to run into "people from home." And I was a bit surprised to realize that, yes, even in the heart of New York, Norway was home.
And were those halcyon days
Just a youthful phase you outgrew?
"Youthful"? Yes, in memory, at least, New York was about being young. It was about having the stamina to write all day — perhaps breaking at noon to walk the six miles to and from the Mid-Manhattan Library to pick up or return a few books — and then to take a packed, jostling rush-hour subway down to Greenwich Village or the East Village or Chelsea, attend some cultural event, spend hours afterwards shooting the breeze in a noisy eatery with half a dozen friends and strangers, walk alone 20 blocks or so to a crowded, smoky bar, down a few, and eventually walk the five miles home — all without ever getting the slightest bit tuckered out. And after all tha,t I'd wake up at six, turn on Stern, and start writing. (Tolstoy, I wager, would've found the sound of Howard's voice very helpful in getting the day's work off the ground.)
Alas, during my most recent New York visit, a year or two before COVID, I felt I was moving among ghosts. The Carnegie Deli was gone. The New Criterion had relocated its offices. My favorite Greenwich Village bar had closed: it was there that I'd first seen Madonna, not in person but on a boob tube tuned to her then brand-new, career-making "Material Girl" video on, I guess, MTV. The bar, I learned, had reopened in Midtown. I dropped in. It was now a piano bar. Between sets, I struck up a conversation with the pianist, who was terrific. I mentioned another gifted piano man, who back in the day had worked at Brandy's. It turned out they'd been friends, and the Brandy's guy had just died. My new acquaintance told me the whole sad story.
On that visit, I walked through Union Square. I thought of my friend Tom Disch, the brilliant poet and science fiction writer, whom I'd met in February 1985 at a dinner with mutual friends. (When told that I was the one who'd taken down Allen Ginsberg in that month's New Criterion, his face lit up with joy.) He lived on Union Square for decades, and on the Fourth of July 2008, alone in his apartment, he'd put a gun in his mouth and blown his brains out.
I also made my way up to my old neighborhood in the East 80s. It looked largely the same. But when, out of curiosity, I checked out the rents online, they were astronomical.
Even now, when so many people are fleeing the Big Apple, the prices remain prohibitive. Do the trust-fund brats arriving every year from around the country, equipped with brand-new Ivy League sheepskins, think today's socialist dystopia is the New York of story and song? Or is New York, like Harvard or Yale, just a brand name to them, a place where they can kick-start their careers, a potential line on their CV?
One person was still alive and kicking during my last visit: my old friend Terry Teachout, who'd worked his way up to being drama critic for the Wall Street Journal. In many ways, Terry was New York — a Missouri boy who'd been drawn to the city by its magic, who become a key figure on the cultural scene, who ended up (it seemed) being friends with absolutely everybody, and who, immune to the cynicism that eventually infected almost everybody else in town, leapt into his work every morning with youthful exuberance. (Unlike me and Tolstoy, Terry worked best in a tiny, windowless room with no distractions whatsoever.)
On Jan. 4 of last year, sitting on my couch in my sleepy little town in Norway, I exchanged Facebook messages with Terry, who, he'd recently written, was looking forward to discovering what the year 2022 held in store for him. Nine days later, sitting on the same couch, I glanced over at my computer screen, which had just refreshed, to see, on the Instapundit website, the words RIP: TERRY TEACHOUT.
I'll never get over that particular shock.
I was never a regular at the Duplex, where Dave Frishberg played piano. But I did frequent a piano bar right across the street, where I was one of those half-sloshed patrons sitting around the piano until way after midnight, singing the old songs. I think I've been there every time I've returned to New York, and it's one place that always does make me feel, a little bit anyway, as if I never left. The pianists change, but the songs remain the same: "On the Street Where You Live," "I Won't Send Roses," "Send in the Clowns." Plus a thousand others. And don't forget that inevitable piano-bar tune:
Start spreading the news
I'm leaving today
I want to be a part of it
New York, New York…
Well, I was a part of it. Still am, I guess. But as Heraclitus quipped, you can't step into the same river twice. Or, as Tom Wolfe put it, you can't go home again. Maybe before my next visit to New York I'll tease out one of those lines into a lyric, set it to a catchy tune, and sing it at that piano bar. If I tip enough beforehand, I'm sure they'll be good about it. Maybe, if I can track her down, I can even persuade Natalie to give it a try.
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Interesting to hear it from a former New Yorker.
I never lived there, but I'm sure it will NEVER be what it once was.
What is?
The city of New York
Just like the city of Chicago
or the city of LA
NY is nothing like Chicago or LA.
I can vouch for that.
I've taken my family multiple times to NYC and twice to Chicago for vacations. We all like the theatre, museums, restaurants and other sights in both cities. I have never taken a car, stayed down town and used Uber, Taxi, walking and subways to travel. We've never felt unsafe in either town. If you are white and stay out of the few really dangerous neighborhoods, it's not very risky. It's very different for young, black men living in those dangerous neighborhoods.
You've never been to Los Angeles. Your words carry no weight whatsoever. You have no idea what you're talking about, but that never seems to stop you.
That' the best defense of NY I've ever heard.
I expected you would understand. Some here took the words that I used to visit New York as my only interest. Suppose you had to live there? Suppose you lived in an area dominated street gangs. They have prosecutors who don't want to prosecute people. Think of that.
No thank you.
I've been many times with my best friends to NYC and Chicago as well for vacations and we never had one single problem either.
It's really nice in Los Angeles. You can find anything, and someone, from almost anywhere in the world in Los Angeles. It's a vibrant, eclectic, diverse culture with beautiful natural surroundings. You would hate it.
Moscow would be more to your liking so you could mingle with your ideological soulmates.
How about that, there are some things we have in common.
It’s so great people are fleeing in record numbers. Almost 300,000 fewer people in 2 years.
Might have to go the East German route and build a wall to force people to enjoy “paradise”
Less than 1% of the population in Ca.
"Record numbers" lol.
Ridiculous, isn't it, Pat. California has such a huge population that a few people moving back to their home states means nothing. On top of that, more than 125,715 new residents moved to California in the last year. I've also been reading about Californians who moved to other states and are now planning to move back home as soon as possible. Of course, we can always count on a few reactionary propagandists, squatting in their miserable hovels in some dismal location, to spew meaningless drivel.
Well, California did lose residents between 2010 and 2020.
That is indisputable, as the state lost a Congressional seat.
That's from one county, Los Angeles.
And yes, if that trend continues, its a massive deal. Revenue matters to a state losing billions a year. I think that would be obvious.
Its not too late for California to learn from successful states like Florida and Texas that actually attract Americans.
If California were a nation it would have the 6th largest economy in the world. What do you think Florida or Texas could teach California ?
That's hilarious considering the number of red states, starting with Idaho, that are attempting, or planning, to criminalize interstate travel for people seeking medical care.
Florida could teach a lot about banning books and right wing cancel culture.
Texas is a model for how not to have a functioning power system in the event of a natural disaster.
How to not repel its own citizens and attract other Americans. How to a balance a budget.
So put you down for supporting the kidnapping of kids and taking them across state lines without parental consent.
Most states do. Is that what you think the Berlin Wall was for, to prevent kidnapping? Sad.
Does California allow adults to take across state lines without parental consent. Is that the next "civil right" the left wants to fight about? Kidnapping kids?
So, put you down for supporting minors being raped and impregnated by their fathers, and being prevented from having abortions. Monstrous.
Is that the next "parental right" reactionaries want to fight for? Rape and incest?
Have you ever read a law? Abortion is already legal in the case of incest in Idaho.
But keep defending kidnapping children.
Do you ever understand anything you read? There are conditions imposed by the Idaho law that may not have been satisfied by the minor or her parents, or the physician might not have fully complied with the requirement in the applicable subsection, which would render the abortion illegal.
But keep defending rape and incest.
Read it again, abortion is legal in the case of incest in Idaho. Kidnapping isn't, despite your wishes.
You read it again. You obviously do not understand it. Although, it's likely you could never understand it no matter how many times you tried to read it.
Your support for rape and incest remains monstrous
Lol. We both know you aren't winning a battle of reading comprehension .
We both know you don't have the slightest idea what you're talking about. It's not a surprise that you would link something and claim it says what it doesn't say. It's not my problem if you can't comprehend the statute. Another epic fail by you.
Now, run along and play with your friends. Maybe they will pretend like you know something... anything. And have a really great day!
I've led you to water, don't blame me if you don't know how to drink it.
I'm just happy that you managed to go two posts without misusing the words fascist or reactionary. Progress!
I know it's embarrassing for you to post a link that you don't comprehend, and then claim it says something it doesn't say. You'll just have to try harder next time, won't you?
There is no location in the world where that sentence also would not be true. Every city, town, and community has changed over the last 25 years, and none of them will ever be what they once were. It's called PROGRESS.
Nope. It is called CHANGE. Only change for the better gets to be called PROGRESS. That is not the case for America's largest cities.
The seeded article doesnt say a word about New York changing for the worse. All it is is a recital of reminiscences by the author.
I dont think the article is intended to convey the meaning that Vic thinks it does.
Imagine thinking cities like San Francisco, that are so lawless that Whole Foods can't operate there, have progressed in the last 25 years.
That is the way they were taught at college. Mom & dad paid for that.
Stop the shit John. Vic didn't portray the article one way or the other. New York just like fucking Chicago has gone downhil and PROGRESSIVES had a lot to do with that, didn't they?
Those are your first words on the seed, and you think you didnt portray the article a particular way? lol.
You are digging a hole for yourself, but do keep at it.
NYC is a wonderful city and a destination for the world. You can't make blanket statements like that.
Whether the progress is for the better or not is purely to the individual's personal beliefs. Progress is simply moving from point a to point b, does not speak to better or worse.
Which explains why we're called "progressives".
Doesn't have to. No mater the change, some will think it for the better and some will think it for the worse.
Very very little is meant to mean what Vic thinks it does.
Sure I can. Crime has risen in New York and it was not by accident. The city defunded it's Police Department and elected Soros funded DA's who vowed not to prosecute certain crimes. Two of them ran on going after a single human being. Do you remember when you thought it was great for NYPD officers to be doused with water and not be able to do a thing about it?
The city's past few elections were dominated by the issue of crime.
Are we all going to pretend that what has gone on since 2020 hasn't?
Post 2.1.11
Are you unable to see the first graph posted?
Some prefer to live in the past.
Why are referring to yourself in the third person?
I think the entire concept of murder rates, and crime rates, is somewhat flawed.
These are recent homicide rates. Philadelphia is at the top with what looks around 35 murders per 100,000 population. New York is at the bottom with 5 .
One could say Philadelphia is 7 times more prone to murder than NY, but that would be misleading. Let's look at the same thing, but instead of 100,000 lets consider a population in Philadelphia of 10,000. That lowers the murder rate in Philadelphia to 3.5 (per 10,000 pop) and NY to .5. Doesnt seem as quite the huge difference it did before , does it? If we lower the per number down to 1,000, Philadelphia has 0.35 murders per 1000 and NY has .05. Notice that both numbers , both cities, have less than one murder (for this year) per 1000 people.
While it is fun for some to overdramatize such statistics, I dont think they mean all that much.
How is that misleading?
The difference between 35 and 5 isnt as great as people think it is. Not when you're talking about a base of 100,000 people.
It’s 7 times as much.
Lets put it like this in New York %0.99995 of the people, per 100,000, will not be murdered.
In Philadelphia %0.99965 will not be murdered.
In both cities there is a 99.9% chance you wont be murdered.
Exactly, this perspective is rarely raised when the topic is gun control.
Don't travel like an idiot and you will be fine. I've been to New York on multiple occasions and had a great time. Everyone was nice and helpful enough, the sights were pretty damn cool, and didn't have any trouble outside of Manhattan in the Bronx, Queens, or Brooklyn. Honestly, in every bar I went to I was a curiosity being from a sate in the SW, no lack of conversation.
It's not about me traveling.
Well, I read the article.
Its horrible. I lost count of how many times the writer uses the word "I". The article is a blur of geographical references that mean a lot to him, which I guess is why we get all the "I's", but conveys very little, almost nothing, of what he thinks New York has lost, other than New York has lost his adventures and meanderings there.
Who the hell cares?
Certainly anyone who goes out and interacts with other human beings.
Vic, I read the article. It is not about New York going downhill, as much as you want it to be.
It can't be. You see Bruce Bawer would have to return and note the changes first.
I'm giving you my opinion based on my many trips there since I was in my 20's.
I had once hoped that John Howard Griffin would put on the black die once more and go out and note the changes from his original book. That would be positive change, AKA PROGRESS.
I guess you should have wrote the article then. The article you seeded does not make that argument.
The article is Bawer's. I added my opinion. You can't separate the two?
I think I'm beginning to see your problem.
You want the world to back to the 1950's, prior to any widespread social change. Thats likely your problem more than it is the rest of the worlds problem.
For one thing I WANT LAW & ORDER and I DON'T WANT PRISONS EMPTIED BECAUSE THERE ARE MINORITY INMATES IN THEM.
Can you understand that?
America has had continual social change to include both sides of the 20th Century:
Vic,
NYC is the safest city in the US. The stats show that.
MURDER
The city recorded 488 murders in 2021, a 4% increase from 468 in 2020, which in turn was up 47% from 319 in 2019, and 295 homicides in 2018 after falling to a low of 292 in 2017 following a steady decline since the early 1990s. The number of murders in 2010 was 536, in 2000 was 673, and in 1990 was 2,262.
Vic thinks people of color and liberals are destroying the American way of life. New York has a lot of people of color and a lot of liberals ... and... voila!.
Vic wants to live in the past. Its pretty much that simple.
Statistically New York is one of the safest places you can be. Everytime I have been there NYPD was all over.
We don't judge the crime rates via the murder category. That is usually a personal matter.
"Rapes climbed 7% (1,591 from 1,481); felony assaults rose 13% (25,596 from 22,738), and robberies (17,138 from 13,592) spiked 26%, the data show.
Burglars and thieves had a field day, with burglary ballooning 23% (15,481 from 12,568); grand larceny surging 26% (50,698 from 40,166); and car theft soaring 32% (13,475 from 10,2190), according to the stats from Jan. 1 through Dec. 25.
The tally for total major crimes topped 100,000 for the second consecutive year. Overall, major crimes were up 23% (124,397 from 101,245 in 2021), the NYPD stats say."
Don't ever speak for Vic. I'm sure that many of the minorities who have to live in NYC or Chicago agree with me.
Vic,
You seem to have missed my point totally. The crime rate overall is down from the good old days. Yes, they are up since the pandemic, but overall they are trending down. The Post is always doom and gloom. My daughter lives in Spanish Harlem, and she parks her car on the street and walks the streets, and does not worry.
That is yesterday's news.
Why do you refer to yourself in the third person?
How many years ago did that happen?
Vic's good old days are the 1950's.
And here is today's:
Bar prices are way too high but when it comes to the stuff I really like, the bookstores and art galleries, I would return in a flash. Hell, even the street buskers are worth the trip ... and if they learned to make a real bagel, I'd book this afternoon or if the god's of temperate weather be so inclined, indulge in a day's worth of chess at Washington Square Park.
There's a "New York Hardcore" band called Agnostic Front that has a kind of updated view (from theirs naturally).
I'll give it an 85, it's got a good beat and you can dance to it.
They put on one hell of a show. Although, it's not for the casual spectator.
Am I imagining things, or are they lamenting the loss of violence ?
If that's what you see. I don't. Interpretation of music is really on what the listener hears. One song you may hear a call for violence, I may hear them calling for people to come together.
I first went to NYC in 1975 as a college kid, it was a different city then:
The opening lyric in the Old New York song, is a line in Taxi Driver:
"All the animals come out at night: whores, skunk pussies, buggers, queens, fairies, dopers, junkies, sick, venal. Someday a real rain will come and wash all this scum off the streets."
Times Square has changed lol.
In fact, it has. There are no cars allowed there because of the big plaza set up for people to enjoy.
I'm really tired of this uninformed attack on NYC.
All some seem to have is 'uninformed attacks'
Think about what a NYC cab driver must see during his 12 hour shift.
In 1975 the city was a toilet. I would be the first to say it.
I got to say, I find it beyond annoying that people who have never been to NYC or been there recently are judging it.
Been to NYC 3 times since 2009 and loved it.
You would know better than I. If you say that it is still a great city, I'll concede on this one.
Hey yous guys. My family and I have enjoyed all of are many trips to NYC. I even enjoyed my first one in 1975, of course I was a somewhat wild college kid then. My wife has also had several girlfriend trips there. We've mostly stayed in Manhattan, but never the same neighborhood twice, We've also stayed in Brooklyn twice. We also varied the seasons while always avoiding midsummer.