There may be two Americas, but there are three New Yorks (roughly). Or so claims E. B. White, excerpts of whose 1948 essay, “Here is New York,” were introduced last month as part of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s new Train of Thought literary campaign (which displaced the Poetry in Motion campaign, much to the dismay of poets).
The selection, which is supposed to represent a slice of history, seems particularly meaningful on the subway, for Mr. White posits:
There are roughly three New Yorks. There is, first, the New York of the man or woman who was born there, who takes the city for granted and accepts its size, its turbulence as natural and inevitable. Second, there is the New York of the commuter — the city that is devoured by locusts each day and spat out each night. Third, there is New York of the person who was born somewhere else and came to New York in quest of something ….Commuters give the city its tidal restlessness, natives give it solidity and continuity, but the settlers give it passion.
The idea of three New Yorks has prompted debates among New Yorkers, non-New Yorkers and people who wish they were New Yorkers.
Can anyone really claim to know New York, a city of eight million, City Room wonders? And just who is a New Yorker anyway? Commuters, settlers and natives? (Don’t forget the original natives.)