The final question presented to us by Professor Drabik was “Is this your city? How do you make it your city?” At first, it was an easy answer: Yes. I’ve lived here my entire life, I know how to get around and navigate the subway, what more do I need? But as I thought more about what it really meant to be MY city, the answer became less clear and increasingly vague. I realized that ‘my city’ consisted of select neighborhoods that I frequent and completely omitted other parts of the city. It wasn’t enough that I knew how to get to places if I didn’t have any experiences in those places. In effort to find out how much of this city was mine, I decided to construct a map of the neighborhoods in the city and fill the interior with ‘word clouds’ of elements in that neighborhood. There were so many places and neighborhoods that I hadn’t even heard of which created a personal alienation with the city I called home. At the same time, this was only the beginning of my college years. It may be the same city but it’s a different time in my life. In conclusion, I don’t think I can New York my city now but as I explore the city on my terms, I hope that in the future I can call it mine.
