What is a city? According to Lewis Mumford, a city is “a geographic plexus, an economic organization, an institutional process, a theater of social action, and an aesthetic symbol of collective unity.” While all those things may be true, I think a city has a much simpler definition than that. To me, a city is a place where people live. A place where they work. A place where they have fun. A place where they make memories.
A city is home.
When I walked through Madison Square Park last week, I saw this firsthand. I saw couples walking hand in hand. I saw a group of old ladies gossiping. I saw friends grabbing a bite at Shake Shack. I saw complete strangers sharing benches. I saw people living their lives.
It occurred to me, that in a place as large and as hectic as New York City, the little things still mattered. That simply walking through a park or sharing a meal matters. That even though, it’s so busy and something is always going on, New York City is a community.
We may all not know each other. We may not all share the same ideals or beliefs. We may not all have a common culture. But what we do have, the one thing that we all share, is that New York City is our home. It’s where we live, learn, experience, and grow.
New York City isn’t the big bad place that a lot of people imagine it to be. Sure, it’s not a little quaint town where your neighbor is your best friend. Or where the population is about two hundred. But it also isn’t a place just for the wealthy businessman or woman. It isn’t a place for strictly Type A personalities. It’s a place for everyone.
-Alyssa Motilal
I like how you point out that New York City is a very big place made of many very little ones. If you stop and take a look around, the city is not an amorphous place void of fine parts, it is a complete whole created by interlocking cogs, and the people and memories are these components.
Alyssa,
I love how you mentioned how the little things matter, and I couldn’t have agreed more. Living in the city, everyone’s so fast-paced and into their phones as well. The park is a great place to bring people and bond them together especially in hectic New York City. I loved reading your blog and I enjoyed your take on it. Great blog!
I love how you said the city is Home because that is exactly how I feel as well. We do have little things and I feel that when movies picture NYC they focus on more bigger picture things, and it is so funny because in actuality it is all of our small little stories that make NYC what it has come to be. Nyc is so dear to me and I agree with how you describe the community of NYC, it’s just how I feel as well.