Been thinking about Pico Iyer's essay on New York in "Tropical Classical"...Published in 1990, a lot of what it says about NYC remains pertinent...maybe younger people today don't think of New York (or anyplace) in Black and White, but the sense of angularity, expressionistic/Mondrian imagery and the sense of griminess ( particularly after a trip down in the subway) remain, that's for sure...
Also the play of light and shadow that seem so much part of New York...
Of course, New York City is more than Manhattan ( or downtown Brooklyn, which has a Manhattan-ish feeling), but when people talk of New York, they are usually thinking of Manhattan...
The BBC has a New York correspondent, Peter Franklin ("the Gabby Cabby") who loves New York and is always urging people to get out into the neighborhoods when they visit...but people coming from Britain ( and elsewhere) tend to remain somewhat fixated on Manhattan....( keep remembering subway signs in Brooklyn that used to say " To the City" meaning towards Manhattan)...
It IS a good idea for people coming from elsewhere to get out to "the Boroughs," where they will experience a different city (cities), but Manhattan remains the beacon that draws people here... to that Fritz Langish skyline of the "Metropolis" and everything it symbolizes.
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