We all spend our formative years in these tiny insulated bubbles populated by very few people with very similar lifestyles and beliefs. Army brats, sorry, you are no exception. Your formative years may cover more geography, but they see even less diversity in the people that surround you. PLUs, ditto. Summering in St. Barth's and learning French at the same time you learned English is a pocket universe too, but you knew that before any of us because your nanny explained it that time when you asked if her kids have a Death Star treehouse at her summer cottage in Newport. We all figure it out eventually. It's a big world out there with lots of different people believing a lot of different things and living in very different ways. Sometimes better, sometimes worse, mostly just different.
Last time I checked, New York City's population was creeping up on 9 million. Well over 1 million of those are just on Manhattan island, which is only about 23 square miles. Those of you a rudimentary grasp of scale will see immediately: that's not enough space. Those of you with a rudimentary grasp of supply and demand will see immediately: that's going to make things that use space-things like housing and cars-VERY EXPENSIVE. If you can manage $3200/month rent, and you have an apartment broker that shows you a Beekman studio in a doorman building, you better sign the papers now because if you wait until you "see a few more" and call back Thursday, it's going to be gone.
I think most of us are aware that NYC is a very different environment, but it is hardly a secret one. If you have a television and have been to a few movies, there is no excuse for writing laughably a improbable New York/Gotham in your fiction.
I think Law and Order is probably the most thorough in reaching all the different neighborhoods, faces, and social strata of the city. Sex and the City isn't as diverse. It's wedged intractably in that world where upper-middle-meets-upper, but what it covers, it covers well, capturing the personality of quirky little corners like the Magnolia Bakery or that art cinema near Bergdorf's. You'd also see what it's like to be interviewed for a co-op board, which isn't something you'd ever experience in suburban Pennsylvania. Bravo's newest reality show "Real Housewives of New York City" will take you inside an upper east side townhouse, the salon of a not-quite-famous-yet fashion designer, opening night at the Met, and other corners you wouldn't normally see.
For movies, there are hundreds like A Perfect Murder, Serendipity, and When Harry Met Sally that give glimpses without necessarily capturing the spirit of the place. Everybody's tastes differ on that score. Personally I love a Scorcese/Coppola/Woody Allen triptych called New York stories, Green Card, Woody Allen's Manhattan Murder Mystery, and The Thomas Crown Affair (remake), although I'm sure I'll think of ten more favorites as soon as I hit send.
Now, let's talk about some of the false impressions folks can get if they rely solely on the media to form their New York.
Item 1: It's not downtown Beirut. People are not routinely mugged, raped, shot, stabbed or decapitated riding the subway. Stepping into Central Park does not mean there' a 50-50 chance you're going to get attacked. Getting into a cab doesn't mean there's a 1 in 6 chance the driver is going to rob you. And when out of town relatives come to visit, they do not need to be monitored 24/7 by a native New Yorker less they wander off and get themselves killed for having sideburns. The Millerites need to take a pill.
Item 2: Nobody's apartment is that big. Rich or poor, every dwelling you see on television except for reality TV and Law & Order which shoots on location, think of it as that kitchen in Singing in the Rain. You know the one? There's this little island with a stove, oven and sink behind hit, and in front… a football field.
Item 3: Yeah, it's an expensive city, but that doesn't mean absolutely EVERYTHING costs 200X what you'd pay in Arkansas. An apartment? Hell yes, that will be a separate entry. But if you go into a Duane Reede, the nail clippers that's $1.29 in your local drugstore is still $1.29. If you go into Barnes and Noble, the paperback that's $4.95 is still $4.95. For that matter, the famous Serendipity 3 that has the $1,000 ice cream sundae also has $7 nachos $11 sandwiches. I think their smallest dish of ice cream is $6.50.
The things that get outrageously expensive are the ones that consume space (especially housing and cars) and the beautiful people's best-of-the-best businesses. I imagine the priciest beauty salon in Youngstown, Ohio is about $60-$100 for a shampoo and set and a high ticket dinner isn't much more than $12 appetizers and $40 entrees. In Manhattan, a top salon on the upper east side is going to be $600 for the shampoo and set, and I think the highest ticket restaurant by popular reputation is still Masa at $300 prix fixe, although you could certainly spend more a la carte at any number of locations. There is STILL a $60 haircut and a $40 steak to be had. Hell, there's a $20 haircut and a $12 steak to be had. It's just not "the best of the best" and that's where I think the misperception comes from. If George and Martha Trytohard are used to ordering the most expensive thing on the menu regardless, that's doable when it's the aforementioned prime rib, but not when there's a $1,000 "pizza" topped with 4 kinds of caviar. They come away with their noses bent out of shape, going on about how ludicrously expensive everything is.
Well, the caviar pizza isn't $1,000 because it's being served in New York, it's $1,000 because it's 4 tins of caviar.
Whew. More than enough for one installment. Next time, eh, maybe we'll do housing, maybe move on to something else.
