The Spatial and Social Boundaries of the New Yorker Identity
“Ask an American where they’re from and they’ll tell you they’re American. Unless they’re from New York” (Harfield and Raddatz, n.d.: 1). I can almost feel the proud nods of approval reverberating from the place I call home. What does it mean to be a New Yorker? For some, it has to do with physical location. For others, social identities; a mindset; whether or not you know the subway lines by heart. In my favorite episode of How I Met Your Mother, Robin is not a real New Yorker until she steals someone's taxi, cries on the subway, sees Woody Allen in person, and kills a cockroach with her bare hands (she ends up doing all four in one day). Whatever the qualifications, the discussions around the New Yorker identity are endless. Poets write about the fantasized idea. Writers create shows with characters intended to assume the New Yorker persona. Artists write songs about the pride and magic that comes from owning such an identity. As Parsons (2000:1) contends, “there are infinite versions of any one city,” and with that, infinite identities to be found within it. In this paper, I explore some of these concepts, specifically how physical and social boundaries—and the combination of the two—can explain some of the many New Yorker identities I've come across.
I’ll start by explaining where I live, as a small part of me (and indeed a small, or large, part of every New Yorker) wants to prove the validity in me claiming this identity. I live on the ‘x’. Geographically outside of Manhattan’s physical border, my New Yorker identity varies constantly depending on where I am, who I’m talking to, and what I’m talking about. Categorizing a New Yorker and distinguishing the varying identities within this broad term is a difficult task. By examining physical and social borders, I will conclude that an accurate depiction of the New Yorker identity can only be found through a combination of the two.
Figure 1: Map of Long Island, 2011, edited with ‘x’
I will first attempt to locate the New Yorker identity through surveying physical boundaries, specifically geographical borders, city structure, and transportation systems. Perhaps most obvious is the physical border of Manhattan island. In the plainest of terms, one could argue that if you are inside the boundary of Manhattan you are a New Yorker, and if you are outside, you are not. A closer look at the structure of Manhattan affirms this view. There are many ways to organize a city's structure. Many metropolises expand around a city 'center'. Others, like New York, are crafted by the renowned grid system. Koolhaas (1994:18 cited in Harfield and Raddatz, n.d.: 9) writes of the grid, ‘“Twelve Avenues running north-south and 155 Streets running east-west. With that simple action they describe a city of 13 x 156 = 2028 blocks (excluding topographical accidents): a matrix that captures, at the same time, all remaining territory and all future activity on the island. The Manhattan Grid.” The grid is “simple, clear and rigid,” so much so that from a birds-eye view, not only does the city look like a well-oiled machine, but the people inside of it enact the role of its moving parts (Harfield and Raddatz, n.d.: 9). From the simplicity of the grid comes the equally simple notion that those who live within it are a part of New York, while those outside of the grid are excluded, unable to play the role. And yet, while this is geographically accurate, in reality it holds little truth; it would be near-impossible, for example, to find anyone living in Brooklyn or Nassau County who doesn’t identify themselves as a New Yorker.
Figure 2: Hermann Bollmann Print of New York, 1962
A closer look at the Subway system further confuses the city’s physical boundaries. According to the Subway map, the city's boundaries extend far beyond Manhattan— the Subway system occupies more space off the island than on. What then, does that say for Manhattan's physical boundary? Is it helpful in this discussion of identity at all? From these findings, I will argue that to only rely on physical boundaries in this discussion of identity provides an inaccurate and inconclusive finding; as observed from this subway map, despite the organization of Manhattan itself, it is entirely unclear where the city's border might end.
Figure 3: NYC Subway Map, 2019
As the New Yorker identity is so open-ended, what is crucially more important is an understanding of the various social boundaries of New York to highlight how abstract this identity is and therefore how many variations of the identity exist. As Parsons (2000:1) has pointed out, “Increasingly academic criticism is recognizing that cities have aggregate and multiplicitous identities, made up of their many selves.” This sentiment is incredibly accurate for New York: every New Yorker's identity will vary depending on social aspects including age, sexuality, gender, and social and economic status.
The variations of New Yorker identities are endless. And while they can be witnessed through a purely social lens, the best analysis of these identities stems from a combined understanding of both types of boundaries discussed. For the sake of clarity, I will focus solely on identities within Manhattan. The island contains many neighborhoods, and each is associated with a unique identity, with a type of person, however accurate or false these labels may be. This is made possible by the city's grid—precisely the fact that there is no city 'center', which allows for both the wide range and equal standing of each of these selves. Some prime examples include the financial workers of Wall Street, the younger generation of Lower East and Greenwich Village, the artists of SoHo, and the wealthy and elderly of the Upper East Side.
This mass stereotyping is a citywide phenomenon. In a 1925 New Yorker article, for example, Ellin Mackay writes that "the worst offenders among social climbers […] are born and bred far from the Upper East Side, like the young man who 'talks glibly of the Racquet Club, while he prays that you won't suspect that he lives far up on the West Side'" (Mackay 1925: 7 cited in Grant 1987: 34). However, there is a layer of truth to these spatial identities. Houston Street acts as the physical and social border between Lower Manhattan and the rest of the city, and south of Houston one can find endless galleries, vegan restaurants, and secondhand shops, all associated with the generation of young creatives. In Times Square, the city really does bustle; with packed sidewalks and streets, a plethora of chain restaurants, and enough neon signs to light the entire city, the neighborhood truly fulfills its tourist-crazed stereotype. The Upper East Side, notoriously clean and containing most of the city’s private schools, does certainly house many of the city’s wealthier families. Parsons (2000:1) contends that “we are increasingly realizing the significance of the urban map as influential in the very structure of social and mental daily life,” and this certainly rings true for Manhattan. In this sense, I find New York to be the perfect exemplar of de Certeau’s view of ‘space’: he writes that space “is never ontologically given. It is discursively mapped and corporeally practiced. An urban neighborhood, for example, may be laid out physically according to a street plan. But it is not a space until it is practiced by people’s active occupation, their movements through and around it” (Clifford 1997:54). Indeed, any New York neighborhood is entirely void of meaning until social identities are practiced within its confines.
There are of course many exceptions to where certain identities reside. As in many other skyscraper cities, there is the added physical boundary of height. Those who identify the persona of “New Yorker” with success, status, and wealth, are of course those living in the most expensive apartments. And where are those? Generally speaking, Up. In 1936 Sally Benson wrote a piece for the New Yorker describing a couple who finds themselves moving up through a building’s floors as their salaries increase: “Lois ‘liked […] riding up in the elevator and watching other guests get off at the sixth, ninth, or fifteenth floor, while she and Don rose to the heights of the twentieth” (Benson 1936:19 cited in Grant 1987:39,40). Seen as a symbolic and literal act of moving up in the New York world, every floor passed on one’s ride up feels like a validating nod to their success. In this respect, identity in New York runs not only through social and physical boundaries, not only from North to South and East to West, but also from the ground up. This map of identities can be best described as a 3D diagram, continually progressing along with the city.
These various identities and the many social and physical divisions can leave the city feeling famously isolating. And yet, there is something about the idea of belonging to New York, to its magic, that I (however biased) believe allows for a sense of community that transcends these various identities. Commuting underneath the city streets, “[you] rub shoulders [with others] every day in the subway without knowing where they went to school, where they lived and worked, where they are at, and where they are going” (Augé & Conley 2002: 5,6). I find the shared pride of the New Yorker identity to be incredibly strong. Maybe because of how exclusive the identity is, and therefore how special it feels to coin it for yourself. Perhaps because New York is the essence of diversity—it was, after all, the population of the Lower East Side from which the term 'melting pot' stemmed (Harfield and Raddatz, no date: 5). I think it’s the magic, that feeling that is continually written about. I hold my New Yorker identity so dear because of the allure surrounding the personality of the city itself. New York is the place to dream of, the end goal, the idealized city; despite which identity you associate with, to claim yourself as part of that world feels nearly entrancing.
Bibliography
Sources:
Augé, Marc and Conley, Tom. “In the Metro.” (Minneapolis, University of Minnesota Press: 2002).
Clifford, James. “Routes: Travel and Translation in the Late Twentieth Century.” (Cambridge, Harvard University Press: 1997).
Grant, Thomas. “Mythologizing Manhattan: The New Yorker’s New York.” American Studies, vol.28, no.1. (Mid-America American Studies Association, 1987).
Harfield, Steven and Raddatz, Chris. “New York. Urbanism, Identity & Design.” (Academia.edu).
Parsons, Deborah L. “Streetwalking in the Metropolis: Women, the City, and Modernity.” (Oxford, Oxford University Press: 2000).
New Yorker Articles:
Benson, Sally. “Suite 2049.” The New Yorker (New York: March 6, 1936). https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1936/03/14/suite-2049.
Mackay, Ellin. “Why We Go To Cabarets.” The New Yorker (New York: November 20, 1925). https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1925/11/28/why-we-go-to-cabarets-a-post-debutante-explains.
Images:
“Fire Island, New York, US, Location Map.” (Wikipedia, 2006). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_Island#/media/File:Fire_Island-NY-USA-Location_Map-01.svg
“New York City Subway Route Map by Michael Calcagno.” (NYC Subway, 2019). https://www.nycsubway.org/wiki/New_York_City_Subway_Route_Map_by_Michael_Calcagno.
“Map, New York City, Pictorial, Hermann Bollmann, Vintage Print, 1962.” (George Glazer Gallery). https://www.georgeglazer.com/wpmain/product/map-pictorial-birds-eye-view-manhattan-hermann-bollmann-1962/.
