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New York's Empire State Building (L) once over-shadowed by the 110-story twin towers of the World Trade Center is now a focal point of the city skyline. All New Yorkers have a 9/11 story. (Doug Kanter/AFP/Getty Images)
NEW YORK—Manhattan—the Big Apple—draws millions of visitors from all over the globe.
To out-of-towners, Manhattan is New York City. This high-energy urban magnet that never shuts down is actually the smallest of the city’s five boroughs in land size. It also has only a fraction (about 1,631,900 people) of the entire state’s population of about 19,541,500.
Every year, tourists spend millions of dollars in Manhattan’s restaurants, theaters, and night spots, yet they don’t know what to make of the people who live and work there.
Most of the natives couldn’t care less what the world thinks of them.
Compared with people in other parts of the United States—particularly the South and Southwest, where locals go out of their way to be nice to strangers—New Yorkers are indifferent to the staring, gawking, picture-snapping visitors from every country on the planet. They don’t smile at strangers or greet passersby with a welcoming “how ya doin’?” In fact, they seldom acknowledge their own.
New Yorkers’ Negative Press
And visitors aren’t scoring points trying to be friendly to New Yorkers. They’re more likely annoying them, because busy New Yorkers don’t see the point of smiling at anyone they don’t know. It’s a meaningless, wasted gesture when there are more important things to do.
Much has been written about New Yorkers—most of it uncomplimentary. American journalist and author Mignon McLaughlin wrote, “A car is useless in New York, essential everywhere else, the same with good manners.”
Civil rights attorney William Kunstler said, “This is New York, and there’s no law against being annoying.”
It’s easy to mock New Yorkers. But they also deserve to be understood. Who’s better qualified than someone born and raised there who still calls New York home.
This reporter grew up in a middle-class Brooklyn neighborhood, worked in Manhattan for 30 years, and now spends most of his time in a rural New York hamlet tucked away in the Hudson Valley—130 miles from Manhattan’s madding crowd.
Get to Know the Natives
New Yorkers are not an easy read. Since they don’t feel the need to defend themselves, they’ll probably always be the butt of jokes and ridicule.
The irony is that it’s not the city’s countless diversions that make it unique, but its people. They’ve created the city’s vibrant energy and rhythm—found nowhere else.
The only way to understand New Yorkers—most live in Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx—is to spend time with them. Talk to them, but don’t try to be part of their world unless you’re willing to spend months—better yet, years—living there.
A City of Distinct Neighborhoods
New York has been called a melting pot of people from all over the world. The implication is that they all live together in the city’s five boroughs.
But that’s not the case. Yes, New York is home to practically every race and religion on the planet. But they don’t live together in large, sprawling communities; they live side by side in ethnically diverse neighborhoods, where they’ve created microcosms of the societies and cultures they emigrated from—replete with their own unique food and specialty shops, restaurants, nightclubs, and houses of worship.
While New Yorkers work closely together, come 5 or 6 p.m., they return to their respective neighborhoods.
Label Us, Who Cares?
What’s to be made of this strange conglomeration of urbanites whose roots can be traced to every corner of the globe? Are they distant, distrustful, or paranoid? Or, for some unexplainable reason, do they carry a chip on their collective shoulder?
Hard to say. Unquestionably, many New Yorkers can be abrupt, curt, and even rude. But there are good reasons for it. New York City is a tough place to work and live. The pace is hyperfrenetic; the cost of living ridiculously high. And it’s not an easy place to raise children. Cut New Yorkers some slack.
