Although we made it through the COVID fight with our usual grit, and crime is going down and employment up, New Yorkers continue to heal from the collateral damage. We still face countless challenges — some of them seen, some of them felt — that keep the specter of uncertainty at our mind’s door. But New York has struggled many times before — and it is helpful to remember that today’s struggles have elder fraternal twins that haunted our history, now exorcised.
That is why, I was recently heartened to come across famous Gotham chronicler E.B. White’s little ode to the city, “Here is New York,” which he wrote exactly 75 years ago in 1948.
We should all read E.B.’s essay in 2023.
I read the short book sitting on a bench overlooking DUMBO’s beach. I was startled by how the scenes of the city he illustrated then were so observable today.
So I think it helpful to share E.B.’s observations on the diamond anniversary of his book. Let our confidence now come from his experience then.
Seventy-five years ago, E.B. White wrote:
“New York is peculiarly constructed to absorb almost anything that comes along.” Of course, the “almost” is important — and new challenges require new solutions (and often help from our state and federal governments). But as we take on thousands of asylum seekers a week, it is critical to remember that our city has been pressed to its seams many times before.
“Eighteen inches are both the connection and the separation that New York provides for its inhabitants.” We are always close enough here to share energy, both positive and negative. That distance feels closer and more combustible on the street and in the subway to many at the moment. But the electricity between us can either repulse or make a circuit. It is largely our choice.
New York “reached the highest point in the sky at the lowest point in the Depression.” We built the Empire State Building when we were broke, the World Trade Center when we were attacked, and One Vanderbilt when we faced COVID.
“No one should come to New York to live unless he is willing to be lucky.” Half of New Yorkers aren’t from here. The persistence (arrogance?) of New Yorkers allows them to manifest their dreams. That’s our secret: we can’t lose because we won’t stop trying. (“In New York the chances are endless,” E.B. wrote.)
“The inhabitant is in the happy position of being able to choose his spectacle and so conserve his soul.” Some of E.B.’s observations — like this one — are also notable for how things have, in fact, changed. The choice to turn down the volume of New York as needed for mental health — and live a quiet day or life — is much harder to accomplish now than it was then, as alert messages of local tragedies blare across your smartphone whenever you check the time. Two-dimensional horror becomes three-dimensional fear. This makes our concerns wildly disproportionate to our problems. It’s important to be aware of that fact: things are often not as bad as they seem.
“New York never quite catches up with itself, is never in equilibrium.” E.B. was actually lamenting the lack of affordable housing here. Sound familiar?
“The city has never been so uncomfortable, so crowded, so tense.” Ask any New Yorker at any time in our history if they feel this is true and the answer would likely be “yes.”
“It is a miracle that New York works at all. But the city makes up for its hazards and deficiencies by supplying its citizens with massive doses of a supplementary vitamin–the sense of belonging to something unique.” The sheer logistics of New York are baffling. How do this many people live this close when so many things can go wrong? Pride and belief.
“The city at last perfectly illustrates both the universal dilemma and the general solution.” New York is a congregator of humanity. We are often at odds; we are mostly at peace. Because we all must live together.
New York “is to the nation what the white church spire is to the village–the visible symbol of aspiration and faith.” As we stew in our own moment of transition — and diehard hope — as our city dusts itself off yet again, we must remember the truth E.B. White told 75 years ago. Other cities are simply stories unfolding; New York is a sacred psalm the world needs to be true.
New York is a legend — and legends don’t die as long as they are told. And as long as the legend lives, New York is forever, and its people, ready to rise.
Thies is a political consultant in New York.
