Living Histories : New York City and Rome

I’m at the beach spring breaking. All the relaxing and all the distance from the City has got me thinking –

I’ve lived in two Cities in two semesters. You know The City, of course, the one I’ve been telling you about, the one that this semester has dwarfed my understanding of big-ness. That’s New York City. The other one you’ve likely heard of as well, the one that some people call the Eternal City. That’s Rome.

As I said, nothing prepares you for the scale of New York City. It can only be comprehended at a distance. Like this:

new york city skyline

Not this:

new york city street

Below is the street I live on. Notice, I’ve neglected to include the street. This is a necessary concession when looking at say, Trump Palace (pictured here) and the other metaphors of wealth and technology that have grafted themselves onto the grid of the City.

69 st

In contrast, my street in Rome ended in a scene something like this:

largo argentina

Which consists of a bunch of ruins sitting in a big hole. Sunk ten feet down into the earth, Largo Argentina is the opposite of the New York City skyscraper: it is a series of unfinished foundations. In a land with so much history, these incisions into the city can be found everywhere.

Let’s try this game again. Here is the touristy heart of New York City, Times Square:

times quare

Notice the neon, the LCDs, the fireworks.

Now here is a tourist favorite of Rome – St. Peter’s Square:

st. peter's square

It’s hard not to feel the weight of history in Rome. History is everywhere. In New York City, we take for granted that a new subway line can run unencumbered down 2nd Ave. (now under construction) when they’ve been trying the same thing in Rome’s historic district for years and are constantly battling with what histories to selectively erase because in Rome there is always something ‘of value’ underfoot. Like an old lady whose house is full of antiques, it would be wise not to touch anything. Unfortunately, the old lady’s not the only one living in the house anymore and a few million people are now demanding more convenience. The old lady’s going to have to give up something…

In Rome I truly felt that that City was being strangled by its history. A daring move in the late nineteenth century widened a few of its principle avenues so that motor traffic could travel at a decent speed through the city center. But since then not much has happened. Rome is a classic case of how old cities (and thus old ways of life) are at constant odds with new modes of being. For example, all the television antennas and wires hanging out of buildings that were constructed before people even knew what vision was:

roma tv antennas, lots

New York City’s history stretches back only a few hundred years, but we’re already seeing the weight of the burden. Namely, the Grid.

The commissioners laid out the Grid of New York City way back in 1811. Unlike medieval cities in Europe, New York would have no circuitous paths. Instead, the Grid would march across the length of Manhattan. The Grid being Efficiency. The Grid being True Order.

Unfortunately, the rules of the Grid are quite limited. In ancient Rome, institutions wishing to occupy larger blocks of space than the streets allowed could petition to close a few of these streets and create ‘superblocks.’ Since the layout of streets was so redundant, closing a few streets didn’t much matter. The same logic doesn’t hold for Manhattan: very few superblocks have ever been created there because the blocks are so large to begin with. When the desire to create one does manifest itself in reality, the street is such an important entity that sometimes the two conditions exist together:

superblock

The Grid, a figment of Manhattan’s history from two centuries ago, still haunts Manhattan today.

Which means: history defines the modern city. When we fall in love with a city we are falling in love with all its history, too – its violence, its pleasures, its diverse voices.

Next week: Dessert in the City. Gelato, Italy’s famous version of ice cream, has made its way across the Atlantic to multicultural New York. So far I’ve been to two delightful places in the City: Il Laboratorio del Gelato and L’Arte del Gelato.

laboratorio del gelato l'arte del gelato

The latter is run by una vera italiana, a true Italian. Alas, nothing holds a candle to the stuff they make in Italy – like the limone and fragola flavors they made at my favorite corner shop near studio, Gelato Artigianale. They made home-made cones there. And they always placed a biscotto, a little cookie, on top.

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