For my visit to the Museum of the City of New York, I watched a short film called “Timescapes”. This film showed the history of how New York City came to be, starting all the way from the 1600’s when New Amsterdam became New York, to the city that we know and currently live in. I enjoyed this film for the reason that it gave me a new perspective for the city that I’ve been living in my whole life. When people live in this city, there is a small chance that majority of the people take the time to think about how did this modern and technological advanced city came to be. I got to see how the hard work and determination of the people before us in different eras paved the way for this city.
One of my favorite eras in New York City that was explored was after the Great Depression. I believe that after the Great Depression, the people of New York City displayed great determination and perseverance. When the economy was down and the city was physically in shambles, the civilians didn’t want to give up on the city they lived in. Instead, they wanted to revive it and make it into something even greater. Residents were doing work on their neighborhood buildings, construction was being done in major cities area, and new sky scraping buildings were seen for the first time. Without the strong people of the previous era, I don’t think I would be seeing the greatness my city currently has to offer.
After seeing “Timescapes”, it made me wonder how the development of New York compared to the development of another major city. In Erik Larson’s book “Devil in the White City”, it tells a story about a famous architect and his uprising in the city of Chicago around the time of the early 1900’s. While reading, I saw how another major city such as Chicago was developed, and I compared it to what I noticed about New York City in “Timescapes”. Some things that I noticed about both cities is that there was a huge class separation, explosive growth, and progressive movements. There was the city area, where wealthy individuals lived in lavish buildings, while the working class lived in the slums where homes were in unbearable conditions. Larson describes the Chicago street of the working class area as dirty, foul smelling, and there would be piles of garbage and corpses, which all sound similar to the streets of New York. However, one positive similarity is that both had an explosive growth with new building development and rising population. During that time, New York and Chicago were #1 and #2 in terms of population respectively. Women in both cities were also allowed for the first time to go out by themselves in the street without their husbands to go into the workforce.
After seeing the short film and reading the book, it made come to the conclusion that “Timescapes” was showing the development of New York City in a positive light, as something heroic and wonderful. Compared to Erik Larson’s “Devil in the White City”, the development of Chicago depicts the more harsh reality side of the development of a major city. In New York City, we hear the good side of the determination and perseverance of the people, and all the brilliant leaders that helped shaped the city through the beginning and temporary downfalls. But in the development of Chicago, we are introduced to a more detailed look of the city’s development. As the book points out, when a city becomes more popular and growth is expanding, it also comes with more crime. As the city developed, more problems came along with it such as diseases and pointless murders due to inexperienced police force. Building skyscrapers were also not an easy task because of the way the earth and soil was in Chicago. Bedrock was not easily accessible and hard work was needed to compensate for the lack of natural conveniences, which led to the deaths and illnesses of many construction workers. Although New York City has also experienced similar hardships, the way Larson depicts Chicago gives us the reality that comes with the development of successful major cities.
