When I first came to New York City in 1974, it was a deteriorated city with roaming bums and muggers. The Big Apple had a worm inside it. Choc-Full-O-Nuts, a popular deli where you can get soup and biscuits for 15 cents, referred to a New York full of crazy people (nuts). Woody Allen wondered why New Yorkers were so emotionally troubled.
All this changed under Rudy Giuliani. Giuliani adopted a zero-tolerance policy in confronting all forms of criminality. Mentally disturbed people were gathered from the streets and brought to institutions. Suspected troublemakers were accosted (yes, accosted!) in the streets. And of course, the subways were cleaned up. In due time, the old New York was no more. In its place was a safer, cleaner and friendlier city.
Back in 1974, the World Trade Center was just a year old when a daring tightrope walker by the name of Philippe Petit crossed a tightrope between the rooftops of the two towers without any safety net below. It was the world’s tallest building at the time! He did it for fun and was arrested right after but later on released. You will not believe the kind of people this city attracts.
New York City is truly the capital of the world. So international it is that it has the most number of immigrants per square mile. In my old elementary school (at 17th Street), we were a virtual United Nations. I had classmates from Ireland, Puerto Rico, Haiti, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Italy and what-have-you. My English teacher was a Filipina! It should therefore be no surprise that the entire world mourns the shocking attack on this great city.
The World Trade Center was located at the southern tip of Manhattan, near Chinatown, near Little Italy, 50 blocks from Hell’s Kitchen (Irish community), 30 blocks from Korea Way.
But more than the racial diversity is the tolerance that New Yorkers are capable of. If they can tolerate lunatics, they can tolerate anyone or anything from the Hare Krishnas to Donald Trump. Here you can see Jewish rabbis and Muslims walking side by side. You can also find anything and everything in New York. Yes, you can buy balut in any of the dozens of Filipino stores.
New York City will rise from this tragedy, no doubt. The way New Yorkers walk (do you still remember the way John Travolta walked in Saturday Night Fever?) will tell you that this is a city of resilient spirit. They walk more vigorously than any other city dweller in the world, and they can walk that fast even while eating a McDonald’s or Burger King hamburger with one hand. This is a city of walkers. Yes, they walk blocks and blocks even when there are buses and subways. With New York weather the way it is, this tells you that these people can endure much discomfort. At times, summer heat can reach up to more than 100 degrees Fahrenheit, and during the winter, well, below zero temperatures do occur.
This city has a vision unparalleled anywhere in the world. This vision is a source of its immutable strength. It is a city with the "mostest" – the tallest building in the world (until 1975); the biggest department store in the world (Macy’s) until it was dislodged by one in Germany by one square foot; the largest toystore in the world (FAO Schwarz); the biggest Asian community outside Asia (Chinatown); the world’s largest stock exchange (New York Stock Exchange); the most number of ethnic newspapers (Black, Hispanic, Irish, Japanese, Chinese, Indian, Korean, Greek, of course Filipino, and many more).
In New York, you will find the most impressive collection of post-impressionist art at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA); the largest science museum in the world (The American Museum of Natural History); and of course, the New York Public Library. The list of human achievement is endless.
The people? I will tell you that I have met some of the kindest people in the world in New York. The people there have big hearts. Occasionally, you will meet seemingly rude people or mind-your-own-business people. But this is New York and they have the right to be so because some of them believe that being rude is an exercise of their freedom. How often will you hear from a New Yorker: "It’s a free country!" But the curt façade should not mislead the foreigner. The city if full of concerned and loving people. It was the concern of the reform minded group Guardian Angels that put an end to juvenile activities in the streets of New York. The Guardian Angels were the beret-wearing and karate-practicing youth patrols that responded to the surge of criminality in New York during the 1990s.
The lifestyle? Well, there is no such thing as baduy for New Yorkers. You wear what you want to wear. There is no such thing as "in" or "out," you do what you want to do.
New York has changed a lot since I first came to the city. B. Altman’s along Fifth Avenue is now closed. A portion of Broadway is now called Korea Way (in the ’70s there was only one Korean store along Broadway Avenue). Gimbels is no more. The subways are now cleaner and safer. Forty-second Street is now wholesome! Unbelievable! Who would believe 30 years ago that a Warner Bros. store would someday stand along New York’s most popular red-light district?
This power of renewal and re-generation is well ingrained in New Yorkers. Perhaps because it is a city of the middle-class. Perhaps it is because of their very good public educational system. Or perhaps it is because of the city’s prosperity. Whatever its source, it is there.
New York will rise from this tragedy. I am certain of that because it is a city made up of New Yorkers.