Within my time in New York City, I have witnessed the effects of neoliberalism throughout my time in the city. An example of the effects of neoliberalism is when I used to go to a park near where I lived at the time. There were usually ice cream trucks and people with icee trucks as well. The ice cream trucks were from a private company while the people that sold icees were typically independent and were just trying to sell their icees to the people in the area. Typically, an ice cream truck would pass by the park and it would get a good amount of people that wanted to purchase ice cream from the truck. The icee truck sometimes would sometimes walk around the park so that they could get money as well. However, the ice cream truck did not want the icee truck to go to park when they were around so that they could end up making more money. The ice cream truck was a part of a company while the icee person was independent and it resulted in the ice cream truck having more power within the situation. It is an example of neoliberalism due to the fact that the ice cream company did not take into consideration the food that the people wanted or the business of the icee truck, showing how private companies can have power over certain places. This connects to one of the arguments made in Dickinson’s text which was that New York City in the 1970s was being transformed into a city that revolved more around private companies and business people rather than the citizens themselves. It shows how the city focused on being more of a city that focused more on business people and it connects to the ice cream truck and the icee truck example. The ice cream truck was a part of a private company that wanted to have power near the park and they did not allow the independent icee truck to sell their food as well which did not take into consideration the icee truck and the people who wanted to buy from the icee truck.
The landscape of New York has also changed throughout the years. I have seen a lot of different construction occurring in certain places across the city. Some of them involve improving sidewalks which has been something that I have seen multiple times. The construction can take time and it can limit the amount of vehicles that can pass through the road which can cause more traffic and having to take other routes. I have not witnessed a public or social service being replaced but I am aware of the New York housing for lower income people being less accessible due to less funding. It shows how it is not one of the bigger concerns for the city and it affects the lives of lower income people. The meme in general means that going against the norm or what is accepted within society is looked down upon until it can be of use or something can be gained out of it. The article showed that graffiti on trains were looked down upon but in today’s world people put certain things inside of trains to promote companies which shows that it is done for something to be gained out of it.
