New York Stories

Recently, my boyfriend purchased this book, Forgotten Borough, which is a collection of twenty-four different perspectives– in the form of stories, poems, and essays– of writers coming to terms on the borough of Queens. I thought that I should share this book with everyone, even if I have yet to read it myself (he hasn’t finished reading it yet, so I can’t borrow it), simply because it touches upon so many aspects that many of us are familiar with as residents of Queens.

On the SUNY Press website, which I linked to moments ago, it called Queens, in its brief summary, “New York City’s biggest underdog.” I thought this notion to be particularly fascinating, but most importantly, very true. Born in Elmhurst and raised in Little Neck for twenty, close to twenty-one years (soon to become legal this coming May), I have always felt this way myself. Walking through the different neighborhoods– the diverse enclaves that hail from all corners of the world– I am overwhelmed by all that I experience with my five senses. Everything is so elastic; so fluid. There is never the boring drone of monotony.

I realize that even now, there are still so many places– so many nooks and crannies– that I have yet to explore. Queens is truly an underdog; it may not be New York City’s biggest underdog (there’s also Staten Island, which is also infrequently mentioned and discussed), but it is certainly underrated; below the radar for many of us, even those of us who come from Queens. It’s strange, isn’t it? Even we who should be loyal to this great borough can many times, disregard its true worth– its value.

In a short passage I read, the author writes something that is more or less along the lines of this: when you have friends who live in Manhattan, you always end up hanging out in Manhattan and if you ever bring them back to Queens, you feel deeply ashamed about everything that surrounds you. I had only flipped to this page on random, so imagine my surprise at reading these lines that were so connected– that so deeply reverberated within my own life experiences back in my teenage years. In high school, two of my best friends were born and raised in Manhattan (one near Union Square and the other in the Battery Park region). I remember always, and I mean always, hanging out with them in Manhattan, which I called “the city,” because my friends always felt that there was more to do there than anywhere else. This was the “It” place, the place where everyone should try to be a part of, to become a real New Yorker and to also have real fun.

But I know that there is a glory to Queens– a treasure trove that isn’t all that hidden– that many of us should try to come to terms with. Queens, the underrated royalty, is a place I think all of us should embrace.

I came across this video, so I figured I should share it.

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/27Jj0lcmm5Q" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/vBmKXTpu_Ns" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

This is a clip from the film, The Red Velvet Swing”  (1955).  It recreates the moment when the Harry K. Shaw (a jealous husband)  murders New York architect Stanford White in 1906.  White had an affair with the model and showgirl Evelyn Nesbit, who was Shaw’s wife.  The sensational murder trials that followed were referred to as “The Trial of the Century” in the Hearst newspaper, The New York Journal.  Manhattan Transfer refers to this moment in the opening section, “Nine Days’ Wonder.”  White, the designer of the Washington Square Arch, the New York Public Library and the American Academy in Rome, among others, famously kept a red velvet swing in his loft apartment.  He invited women (in various stages of undress) to ride it.  In the novel, Phil Sandbourne declares, “A man’s moral’s aren’t anybody’s business.  It’s his work that counts”  (167).  How do you think this detail and Sandbourne’s declaration informs your understanding of New York in Dos Passos’s novel?

p>I just found this movie on my morning stroll through the internet and thought it would be perfect for the blog.

Like many New Yorkers, I grew up on the train.  I took it every weekday, to and from school, and once I was old enough, to hang out in Manhattan every weekend.  Ever since I started riding my bike, my yearly number of metrocard swipes has dropped from a quadruple digit to a double digit number, and since I’m now only forced onto the train during rain or snow, I’m usually a bit grumpy about it.  But despite all of its problems, you have to be thankful for it because there is no other mass transit system that will take you as far, for as cheap as the New York City MTA will.  Not to mention the fact that I don’t think anywhere else in the world has a system that runs all night long.  (Full disclosure; my dad is a retired subway motorman)

Sub City New York from sarah klein on Vimeo.