When I travelled to New York from East London recently, I was struck by the similarities between these two great cities. But they were also different in a very important way……
New York City has Williamsburg and Bushwick; London has Shoreditch and Hackney.
Williamsburg (NYC) and Hackney (London) used to be areas to avoid – for the poverty and (sometimes) the drugs/crime scene. Now both districts are known for their street art, chic cafes and ‘alternative vibes’. Today, this is where everyone wants to hang out. So how did they get to be so trendy?
The short answer is: gentrification. I know I’m not supposed to say this, but in my view the influx of incomers with money to spend locally has done both areas a power of good. Attracting a different crowd means that drug trafficking is no longer the core business these districts depend on. The addicts can no longer afford to stay here, and the fastest growing transactions are in vegan cafes.
New York and London are equally cosmopolitan. Trendsetting cities, they are extremely diverse, typically tolerant, and share the same interest in art.
Brooklyn’s Bushwick Collective is an open-air gallery that surfaced in 2011. Here a multitude of artists, local, national and international, showcase their street art and attract tourists from around the globe. Strolling through the jumble of streets was reminiscent of being at home in Shoreditch.
New York’s reputation as the capital of the world (if not the USA) goes further back than London’s. It is the Big Apple (singular = there’s nothing like it). For generations, the “city that never sleeps” has filled itself with people full of dreams, immigrants wanting to be “somebody” in a city full of everybody. A city of ambitious people, where everyone is an artist or an entrepreneur in the making. A city where not tipping a waiter/waitress for their bad service or inedible food will garner angry looks and a scolding. But if that’s what used to be unique to New York, now you could say much the same about London and it would be equally true of this ‘great Wen’ (as Samuel Johnson called it).
But there’s one important difference. Although Shoreditch after 11pm is not the safest place for strolling around, it does not come close to the risks of doing this in Williamsburg. Citizens of this part of Brooklyn have to be fearless and ready for confrontation. Their awareness level is always on full-blast, as if they are expecting the worst at any moment. Even though I felt fairly comfortable most of my time there, I could never imagine myself living there, in a city where I don’t feel safe, like I do at home, in East London.
