New York: Infinitely Adaptable

Before I went there, I wondered how Manhattan could possibly work. There are 1.5 million people living in Manhattan, which works out to 46,000 people per square kilometre. Compare that with Edmonton, which is 1500 people per square kilometre (in fact, the wikipedia article on Edmonton compares it with New York for population density). During a weekday, the population in Manhattan swells by 1.3 million people to 2.8 million as people come from the New York metropolitan area to go to work. That means more people than the entire population of Edmonton need to commute into Manhattan every day. How can that possibly work? If there is a stall on the Whitemud in Edmonton it seems like the whole city comes to a stop.

New York, and New Yorkers, seem to be infinitely adaptable. They've had to make their system work every day, and so every day they make it work. Somehow, everything that needs to be done gets done. I shudder to think of how many police officers, transit workers, garbage men, and others are working behind the scenes to keep everything going.

Every day we saw examples of this adaptability. You can buy just about anything on the street. I was amazed to see vendors pushing their hot dog or pretzel or peanut carts down the street in the middle of rush hour traffic. People just find a way around them and they find a place to sell their stuff. On sunny and hot days the vendors put away their ties and pull out their sunglasses. On especially hot days people gather by the tour bus stops with a few cases of Poland springs water, some ice, and a cooler and sell cold water to tourists for $1 by throwing it to the upper deck of the double-decker bus. On rainy days you can buy an umbrella on any street corner for $3.

Our cabbie to the airport said you can't slow down because you feel like you may miss something. The Empire State building started excavation January 22, 1930 and was finished March 1, 1931. The tallest building in the world was completed in 16 months - if you blinked, you could have missed it. Along with 40 Wall Street and the Chrysler building, New York got the three tallest buildings in the world started and completed within three years.

Evidence of change, on a massive scale, was everywhere. Construction and renovations are happening non-stop. Across the street from our hotel, a new development is coming up. In 2006, Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village, a group of 110 buildings, that have housed veterans and other low-income residents since 1947, was sold for $5.4 billion. They are now privately owned properties and can charge high Manhattan rates. The lease on the hotel we stayed at is coming up for renewal. If it is not renewed, then doubtless the hotel will disappear to be replaced by some kind of development.

And there was plenty of anecdotal evidence we heard about, too. All of our tour guides talked about local businesses being replaced by franchises, and gas station owners not making enough money to make it worth their while. Alan told me he noticed there were less poor people in Manhattan than when he last visited ten years ago. And Toscha told us that she thought her area of Brooklyn was starting to attract more middle class people into slightly more affordable townhouses. So anecdotally it seems the tired, the poor and the huddled masses are slowly being forced further and further away as the prices in Manhattan escalate to ever more ridiculous levels.

Underneath all the skyscrapers and subways is Manhattan schist: a rock formation that is well-suited to anchoring the borough of Manhattan. Whatever changes happen on the surface, the foundation of New York will remain in place, strong and immovable.