Stuart Reid

City that never pales

The Big Apple is noisy, flash and bumptious, but <em>Stuart Reid</em> still loves it

Ooh, sir! Do you? At your age, sir? Well, yes. Revolting though it may seem, I still love New York. Every time I go there — as I did earlier this month — I fear I am not going to like it, but every time I fall in love all over again. I think it was Evelyn Waugh who said that when we are young we are Americans, but when we grow up we become Frenchmen. There is some truth in that. Although I cannot claim to have grown up, I do find as I hurtle towards my seventies that I have more in common with cheese-eating surrender monkeys than with Twinkie-scoffing war-losers. Not that I have anything against Twinkies, mind, and, in truth, I remain -rather fond of Americans, among whom I count a wife and a son.

So. New York is flashy, fast, noisy, brash, impudent, venal, bumptious, and dangerous, though not nearly as dangerous as she likes to believe. At the same time, however, she is singularly beautiful, especially on a September day of bright blue skies. On such a day you could walk the city’s streets for ever. Jeffrey Bernard once said after a trip to New York that he hadn’t once seen a skyscraper. You knew what he meant. There’s plenty to occupy your eyes and mind — not to say your adrenal glands and your swordstick — at street level. But look up and you see the most wonderful things. Let’s not be frightened of clichés here: there is surely no art deco in the world to compare with the Chrysler Building (1930), with its Flash Gordon dome and eagle gargoyles; and when you walk down, say, 15th street from Union Square to Fifth Avenue at dawn and look right and see the Empire State Building (1931) all pink and gold in the morning sun, you wonder, just for a moment, whether earth has anything to show more fair.

New Yorkers are supposed to be rude, but I’ve found them polite and helpful, with a sense of decency and decorum

But nearly everything built between the wars is pleasing.

Already a subscriber? Log in

Keep reading with a free trial

Subscribe and get your first month of online and app access for free. After that it’s just £1 a week.

There’s no commitment, you can cancel any time.

Or

Unlock more articles

REGISTER

Comments

Don't miss out

Join the conversation with other Spectator readers. Subscribe to leave a comment.

Already a subscriber? Log in