Urban Experiment

New York City is one of the most fascinating experiments in urban living in the world. It is a place in constant flux, continually changing and evolving as time has relentlessly marched on. In many ways, it is akin to a living organism; expanding, breathing, evolving, decaying and regenerating.

People have flocked to its shores from all reaches of the globe, searching to fulfill their hopes and dreams. New York has become a place of myth that has grown larger than itself. It is a commodity being bought and sold as if it were a stock on Wall Street. Amid the cacophony of daily life, one cannot help but notice the beautiful lyricism as the train snakes through one of the many tunnels, criss-crossing throughout the five boroughs. It is a city firmly rooted in neighborhoods each with their own distinctive flavor. The city can be a very unrelenting and unforgiving place but at the same time wonderfully familiar. It has always been an environment filled with extreme dichotomies. My hope is that I will be able to give you a glimpse into my New York. At the expense of sounding cliché, I would like to quote the director Jules Dassin from his masterwork, The Naked City: “There are eight million stories in the naked city and this is just one of them.”

One of my favorite neighborhoods is a very small area bounded by Sixth Avenue to the east, the Hudson River to the west, West Houston Street to the north and Canal Street to the south. When I began to explore the area, nine years ago, it was industrial neighborhood yet to be gentrified, inhabited by painters, sculptors, photographers and graphic designers. It is an area on the fringe; not exactly Tribeca, Soho or the West Village. This is precisely what drew me to the neighborhood. Here, in a sense, I felt like a pioneer in my own city, which in recent years has become increasingly more difficult.

One of the first places in the neighborhood that caught my attention was a small bar in a wooden frame house on Spring Street between Greenwich and Washington Streets called the Ear Inn. If these walls could talk what a fascinating multigenerational tale would be spun! It is one of the oldest continuously running drinking establishments in all of New York alongside places like White Horse Tavern and Fanelli Cafe; it has been in operation since 1817. The food is good, the drinks are cheap and you are bound to meet many interesting local characters. These guys are there every single day, treating the place like a home away from home. The eccentric mix of people consists of local artists, designers, union guys and your occasional celebrity. When one enters the bar, it is almost as if one has been transported to another time. Everything about it has a worn-in feel from the bar stools to the slightly sloping floor to the men sitting there every day for years. This is New York of a different time, a simpler time. It is not just a place to eat and drink, it is a community center, an old stalwart amid an ever changing more corporate New York. It is the New York of my father, my grandfather and my great grandfather. In a way, the Ear Inn is all of the things people don’t think of when they are describing New York. There is a warmth, friendliness and a sense of community; it is a microcosm within a larger urban dynamic.

If one wants to take a glimpse into future of the neighborhood it is not tremendously difficult; one only needs to step outside and look to the left. There is a brand new multi-million dollar apartment building called the Urban Glass House designed by the late architect, Phillip Johnson adjacent to the bar. The lot on which the new building is situated is all landfill, which was used to build what is now the West Side Highway. There was a time when the Hudson used to come right up to the Ear Inn building. If you listen closely you can still hear the longshoremen bellying up to the bar after a long day.

It is precisely this tension between the old and the new that makes New York so fascinating. It is wonderful that they can both coexist side by side in an ever-changing landscape. They are constantly interacting and creating a marvelous dialogue with one another. These vestiges of the past are vital to the urban condition so one knows what things once were and how to proceed into the future. As a result, New York is truly one of man’s greatest works of art.