Over Spring break, I had the opportunity to visit Hudson Yards together with my family. Not knowing that we had to reserve tickets in advance for “The Vessel,” my family and I spent our time milling about the shopping mall. As we walked through the first-ever Neiman Marcus in New York City, we wondered: “Who can afford to shop here?”
In his book Vanishing New York, Jeremiah Moss makes his views on, what was then, the upcoming plans for Hudson Yards crystal clear. He writes, “A dream world of exclusion, Hudson Yards will be one of those places Mike Davis describes in Evil Paradises: “where the rich can walk like gods in the nightmare gardens of their deepest and most secret desires.” This may sound like an extreme take; however, after visiting the place myself, I find that I personally agree with this last statement.
As I walked through Neiman Marcus, it became obvious that the store was trying to sell a NYC experience that can only be encountered in films and advertisements. At the store’s entrance, there was a magical yellow taxi cab whose trunk was stuffed with flowers. It was such a stereotypical scene that I had to chuckle at its total disregard for realistic New York City life. 
Similarly, the advertisement that Neiman Marcus created in anticipation for the opening of its first NYC store, also attempted to sell the image of a magical city. I chose this advertisement because I believe that it is a visual representation of everything that Moss disparages. 
The impractical world of Sex in the City literally jumps off the page/screen. The target audience must be tourists who are eager to visit the New York City that they know from television.
The fact that the vast majority of authentic New Yorkers cannot afford to live in the world portrayed by Sex in the City is irrelevant. And thankfully it is so, otherwise the newest Neiman Marcus would be out of business. Tourists are not likely to be interested in the everyday lives of Flatbush residents. Flatbush does not sell like the NYC skyline or the yellow taxi cabs that are slowly being replaced by neon green ones. And of course, nothing sells like the little red heart that was specifically created by marketing agencies in order to attract more tourists to NYC.
When Moss predicted that Hudson Yards would be “a neat and tedious stage set, regurgitating global clichés about modern urban life, ‘in which there is no room for irregularity and the unexpected,’” he knew what he was talking about. Another clichéd portrayal of New York has found a home in Neiman Marcus.
Questions to Consider:
- Why do you think that Neiman Marcus is trying to sell a clichéd version of NYC?
- Have you been to Hudson Yards recently? If yes, do you think that it is as bad as Jeremiah Moss feared that it would be?
- Do you think that Hudson Yards appeals to tourists more than it does to native New Yorkers? If yes, why do you think that developers want to appeal to tourists so much?
