The oasis of sanity in Manhattan
Manhattan is often pictured through its buildings. In multiple movies, be it Spiderman or King-Kong or other countless movies, the skyline with the empire state building or the Chrysler building or more recently Freedom tower captures the city ever so perfectly. For some its the museums. The MET waiting there in all its splendor, the museum of natural history with its questionable Theodore Roosevelt statue, the museum of modern art for the five people who say they understand those paintings, the Guggenheim museum, the 9/11 museum and a few others that you never imagined existed such as the tenement museum and the Ukrainian museum (in the,wait for it…Ukrainian village).All of this, packed in the dense criss-cross of Manhattan. What else, Manhattan boasts as assortment of the best food. From halal carts to dimly lit restaurants with the best chefs, winding queues outside new ice-cream shops and 99 cent pizzas, cute little coffee shops sprinkled across the island to large burger and fries chains. If there is a melting pot of food, this has to be it. I’d be a prude not to mention New York bars. From hole-in-the-wall speakeasies to large crowded places where you can’t hear your own voice. NYC has (or had) all bases covered if you needed to let your hair down.
Being an island, Manhattan really doesn’t have any space to grow. Being water-bound on three sides, there is a finite limit to the physical space available. Yet somehow, there is an infinity to Manhattan itself and the extremes it holds within. You can pretty much bet everyone who’s every lived here will have a bias to the east or the west, to uptown-midtown or downtown. Its like everything about Manhattan is intense and everything has been showcased so many times, yet never gets old.
However, having been a Manhattan resident for a paltry 3 years now, I think the most under-rated part(s) of Manhattan are…..its parks. And yes, Central Park might come to mind but the truth is, Manhattan is littered with big and small parks. From the green pastures of the MET cloisters, to Asphalt green on the upper east side, to Central park, to St.vartan park, to Washington Square park, to Madison Square par to bryant park…the list goes on. These parks, for me have been the Oasis of Sanity in this insane place.
Manhattan is always characterized by purpose, by drive, by money, by culture — all in its extreme. The parks for me brings the much needed serenity like nothing else in the city. The pause before you get busy doing whatever you’re doing in this city. The parks are the real heroes.
