new york city

the Museum of the City of New York

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I’m a Native New Yorker. It’s the second sentence in my professional bio. It’s about 70% of my personal identity (New Yorker first, dog lover second, art/culture/history fan third, Buddhist fourth, Real Estate Agent fifth, Youtuber sixth, aspiring world traveler seventh . . . friend and sister eighth?!?! yikes . . . all other social roles of incidental significance . . . )

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I’ve also been one of those white ladies you would truly regret asking about her ethnicity, because my family goes all the way back in the city. My heritage is a rather perfectly proportional reflection of the second generation rise of various immigrant populations into socially acceptable circles, from the arrival of the Dutch in New Amsterdam onwards. I’ve seen enough eyes glaze over to now lightheartedly summarize with “standard East Coast blend,” “lots of white,” “history’s a mystery!”, “miscellaneous Euro”, etc.

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All this to say, I didn’t think anyone could tell my anything about the history of New York I hadn’t learned from the explicit and tacit teachings of my grandparents. i was wrong! The Museum of the City of New York has the best teaching exhibits I could imagine on both the demographics of the city over time AND its social, political, economic and cultural evolution. I spent many hours there, and could spend MANY more.

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New York has unfortunately always been rife with nativism, classism and prejudice. I wish more New Yorkers would visit this museum to learn some FACTS. Perhaps the part I enjoyed most was seeing tourists from many different countries (I heard German, Dutch, Russian, Arabic, Polish?, Spanish and Italian spoken in the galleries that day) taking the time to deliberately watch the detailed, map intensive video exhibits, and then discuss what it meant to go from being whatever-they-are to being an assimilated New Yorker.

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In this country we often ask what it means “to be a real American,” and so often ignore the far more important question of what it should mean to become American. This is a question us citizens can answer constructively, together, without judging each other’s ancestry.

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I may always cringe when I hear myself on voicemail or see myself on film, with the nasal, lockjawed pronunciation and incessant supra shoulder gesturing that will mark me as a New YAWKUH for the rest of my days. I may want to go far, far away for as long as I can. I do still love the city though, and this museum does a great job explaining it. I can’t recommend it highly enough!

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If, as a native, I could choose one essential takeaway for anyone visiting, it would be this: please remember New York City’s history of peaceful protest and social advocacy!

Quick Visit to El Museo del Barrio

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About 10 days ago my psychiatrist said getting out and exercizing, even if it’s just walking a mile or two, is an essential curative action for my depression and grief. Despite my new 20mg Lexapro subscription, I’ve been spending about half my days in bed, in a darkened room, feeling bad, so I decided today to take this advice to heart.

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El Museo is small and friendly and all about how tough it was/is to be a Puerto Rican in New York. There are fewer but similarly inspired works by Dominican and Mexican Americans also.

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I wish I could say spending a good 40 minutes considering the systemic oppression of Latinos made my personal problems seem small by comparison, but it didn’t. Aren’t all catastrophes essentially personal?

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It was a nice experience and reason to get out of bed nonetheless. Kind people, good art, good restaurant, and the entrance to the area of Central Park with the formal garden and duck pond is right across the street.

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I walked around the pond a bit despite the rain. That was the theme of my day: sometimes it rains; sometimes it’s dark and gray; whether it’s the weather outside or the weather in my mind, from now on I won’t let it stop me.

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The obstacles I’m facing are pretty serious, but the world didn’t end today.

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Gritty Sh*tty Tribeca

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I . . . never loved Tribeca. Don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t turn down a multimillion dollar cast iron palace à la Blake Lively and Harry Styles, but the reasons celebs love it tend to be the very reasons plebes hate it. Street life is nil . . . many brunchy bistros, all with very expensive potted plantings rotated biweekly; the occasional superbougie toy shop or book store; dive bars, dollar pizza places, graffitied vacant storefronts, and brutalist highrises mix indiscriminately with the sedate, darkened lobbies of luxury condo buildings made from gutted Victorian factories and warehouses.

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Façades remain deliberately gritty and retail deliberately shitty for the discreet, impressionist lifestyles of the überrich: going about their business in chauffeured black cars, they do not participate in street life; from afar (say the huge windows of a $20 million loft apartment) the graffiti and grime are picturesque and “old school New York.” Dollar slice shops are headspaces to glance at punk teenagers and daydream, NOT a dietary option, symbol of class polarization, or symptom of an urban food desert.

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For all my disdain, I understand how the neighborhood remains aesthetically inspirational for many. So here are some themes I like in Tribeca!

  1. The neon lighting shops along Canal. This has been an electrician source place for at least 70 years, and they don’t bother doing anything with their windows at all, which is fun!

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2. Graffiti . . . this is what the tourists come for!

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3. Brutalist architecture and public sculpture

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4. Art Deco

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5. City Hall Park. Small enough for a peaceful pretty stroll, and the golden statue Civic Fame is visible from almost anywhere in the neighborhood, calling like a beacon of serenity.

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And here are two unique spots I just like:

  1. The Ghostbusters fire station? How have I lived 36 years as a native New Yorker and not realized this?

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2. Philip Williams Posters. Local legend since 1973 and he’s in the shop every day, a decorator MUST

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