New York - An Introduction
View from the Empire State Building
When I thought about what place I’d talk about in my first blog article I had no doubt: New York City. It might seem like a cliche, but there is no place on earth I feel as attracted to as New York. What exactly it is that makes me love it so much I’m not sure, but I believe it has to do with the city’s energy, and the fact that when you walk down those streets you feel like you’re in a place that matters, where everyone who’s anyone has been. Vibrant and energetic New York also has its down sides: as all the haters would say it is dirty and smelly; I guess that’s what you have to accept when you try and fit the world on an island! As the great french architect Le Corbusier once said:
“A hundred times have I thought New York is a catastrophe, and fifty times: It is a beautiful catastrophe.”
So I pondered on how I could even start describing the diversity and infinite facets of Manhattan, so the best solution is to cut it up into the puzzle of neighborhoods that make it up and have naturally grown to distinguish themselves.
“New York is the biggest collection of villages in the world.”
New York has become the capital of today’s western world, where the modern lifestyle was shaped and spread out thorough cinema and television.
How did New York become a melting pot for people from every part of the world?
Being an important port for US’s trade and a central to the american industrialization, New York’s richness attracted waves of immigrants hoping for a better life in the United States. It started with the Irish and then expanded to all of eastern and southern European immigrants, who arrived at Ellis Island and longed to cross the bay and begin this new part of their lives. The diversity of cultures developed into different neighborhoods, music genres, art, fashion, design and food.
Protagonist in thousands of movies and cult TV shows such as Seinfeld, Sex and the City, Friends and, more recently, How I Met Your Mother; New York still is recognized today as THE place where you can be successful.
