Quote:
Originally Posted by MonkeyRonin
it's too big and too multi-faceted to ever not be
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To expand on this: New York is a big, complex metropolis. Always has been, always will be. Singular descriptors it's been given at various times by various people - whether that its become a gated community for the rich, that it's a creative utopia, that it's a decrepit shithole, or anything else - have never really captured the essence of the city in its entirety, if not being outright hyperbolic. In reality, the changes we've seen in the past few decades tend to look something more like this:
Bombed out ghettos have once again become lively, successful, safe areas. This is good.
Comfortable working & middle class areas have seen an influx of creatives and vibrancy, but also rising prices. This has its positives and negatives.
And once vibrant, unique areas have become inaccessible to the non-rich, and have been dulled of a lot of what once made them vibrant, unique areas in the first place. This isn't so good.
But unfortunately, it's moreso the latter areas that are really the "signature" parts of the city that tend to be written about in articles like these. As a whole, New York is probably better off now than at any point in the late 20th-century by just about any measure, but its core is most certainly not.