Mark Twain, after reading his obituary while traveling in London in 1897, famously sent the following words via cable to the press in the United States, ‘Reports of my death are greatly exaggerated’; Twain died in 1910. This story may or may not be apocryphal, but the reason I reference it is to say that during regular intervals in my life, the demise of NYC has been predicted over and over, and y’know what? Hasn’t happened. I’ll even go so far as to say that it won’t happen. Change is inevitable, and who knows that the twenty-second century will bring (I won’t be around to see it), but I am pretty sure NYC will outlast its detractors, and the many prognosticators of it’s doom. One of them died in 2023: Pat Robertson. Robertson used both the AIDs epidemic and 9/11 to trash NYC as having been forsaken by Gawd, deserving of every kind of misfortune, and doomed to end times style destruction, all while raising money for his empire of bullshit.
This winter, while visiting my auntie in Flah, I fell into conversation with an older white couple, who, when I said I was from New York, launched into an unprovoked lecture about the death of NYC, how it was such a terrible, dangerous mess, and going down the tubes. I corrected them, first as I am from upstate New York, not the city, thank you very much, and second as I wanted to assure them that NYC was not dying, was not that dangerous, and would in time work out whatever challenges it was facing. But, tell me, is there anything specific you feel is especially dangerous about NYC right now? And when was the last time you were actually there, as in have you ever been to New York City? They had not, were originally from Ohio, and the danger they referenced was on account of the ‘illegals’ (migrants sent there by various southern, red-state Gubbners, both Gubbners and their grotesque policies left unmentioned by said white persons), that were ‘over-running’ the place.
I replied, well, that’s simply untrue, and that I personally knew the individual who was running the migrant housing program, a highly competent, deeply intelligent and compassionate individual who, among many talented others, were working on real concerns regarding a migrant population that was not, in fact, ‘over-running’ the city. I also suggested that they might need a new source of information, stopping short of telling them to puh-leeze, puh-leeze stop watching Fox Fucking News.
The conversation ended there. Old, well-heeled white people, y’gotta love ‘em. Or not. I just finished Tim Alberta’s book The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory, and let’s just say, those white Christian evangelicals are a hoot and a holler. Hypocritical, money and power obsessed hoots (outside of marriage hanky-panky, too, if you dig deeper); white male Christians who’ve been hollering about liberals ruining America while working for decades to make us a white Christian nationalist country, destroying a foundational principle of our country, that of separation of church and state not to mention ignoring the increasingly brown beautification of American citizens. None of this is funny, but y’know what is: their numbers are dwindling. Currently a quarter of Americans identify as Christians, with varying definitions of evangelical teasing out a percentage of evangelicals within that 25% at anywhere between 8 – 17%. In 1950, 90% of Americans identified as Christians, and Americans under thirty are losing their religion at a rapidly increasing pace, largely because messages of hate and exclusion – whattayaknow – discourage including religion in their lives.
The demise of NYC was predicted in the 70s (Ford to NYC: Drop Dead – an actual headline), the 80s and 90s, and – after 9/11 – again at the dawn of our new century. Not happening. And it’s not happening because whatever the reports of this or that challenge currently facing NYC or any other center of global finance, arts, culture and population, life goes on, and the appeal of a metro area is real; not for everyone, but real. The population in NYC actually grew in the decade after 9/11. And while Covid19 turned normally busy streets and avenues into a near post-apocalyptic desert, it was temporary; the Big Apple has bounced back, like every other major, medium, or barely a city, suburb, or small town that seemed drained of action after a once a century global pandemic sent us all scrambling into our dens, while triggering the darker fear centers of our brains.
Fear is a powerful driver of human belief and behavior. It is often driven by ignorance, ignorance that includes a lack of plain old fashioned familiarity with whatever the object of fear actually is, in reality. I was and remain a fan of Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, the first woman on the high court, yet after 9/11, visiting the Big Apple for – perhaps – the first time, or one of very few times – I’m not sure – I was disappointed to read that she was surprised to find so many normal, average American people there. Who did she think drove the buses, delivered the mail, took notes at meetings, cleaned the buildings, fought fires and kept folks safe?
NYC, like any place you know, love, or visit, is so much more than any one person, film, book, TV show or news broadcast can describe or sum up. As someone who lived there for over two decades, and has visited numerous times since, I can tell y’all that in my opinion, an opinion based on reality, on real experience, NYC is doing fine, as is America. I often think Americans are unconscious and very spoiled; too many of us simply don’t know how lucky we are and how great this country actually is. And as for migrants, of which I have known, worked with, and hired quite a few, good men and women from all over the globe, to me they look like future Americans seeking opportunity, like those nice white folks from Ohio’s grandparents or great-grandparents did, back in the day.