I was born in Brooklyn, New York, and despite having moved twice, have lived in here my whole life. There are aspects of the borough that have been familiar to me since I was a child, like walking the boardwalk and beach of Coney Island, taking pictures with the skyline at Brooklyn Bridge Park, or having a barbecue at Prospect Park. It might be surprising then that my absolute favorite part of New York City is actually Lower Manhattan.

Whenever I feel the least bit of New York pride debating a big-city somebody, my strongest memory of the city is of walking the cobble-stoned blocks of Lower Manhattan. On these irregularly gridded streets, with more worded names than numbers, I can get lost for hours. I’m usually here with a group of friends for family on a weekend, either coming from shopping at SOHO, a good restaurant, or ending a tiring visit to a local museum or cinema. Every block seems to have its own mood, depending on the amount of people and their movements, the buildings, the restaurants and their themes, graffiti and other street art, and the lighting.

As the sun goes down, and the sky’s cool blue and violet fights the fiery blends, yellow streetlights begin to light up, replacing the stars that have since been drowned out by light pollution. The takeover by night brings excitement, and rather than the city slowing down, its energy rises exponentially. The whole scene seems straight of SNL’s title sequence. Street musicians, from jazz quartets to solo drummers and cellists, situate under and around the grand and well-lit arch of Washington Square Park. If you’re lucky, a live freestyle battle will form right in front of you. Teenagers on skateboards race past the numbers of foreign faces who’ve come to witness New York City’s energy at night.

Every block or so has its own food cart or stand, releasing delicious aromas of grilled lamb or roasted nuts. Local college students, who make up a lot of the young faces on these streets, are beginning to rejoice. The only thing missing from this memory is a slice of pizza, probably from a local family-owned pizzeria, who’s recipe has survived generations without an alteration; that or ice cream. The combination of all these elements makes Lower Manhattan my favorite spot to be on a weekend’s night.

Whenever my relatives or friends visit from abroad, we end up sightseeing at an overrated or famous spot of the city because of their curiosity in what makes the city so great. It saddens me that they will never get to appreciate the lesser known gems of New York City, in which the simple act of walking can be an experience. Lower Manhattan is such a place, completely immersed in music, light, conversation, and food at an hour late enough to be an adult’s bedtime. To me, it captures the heart of the city that never sleeps. Eleven miles from my house is a place I can truthfully call home.

 

Hussain Bokhari