In my travels I have seen a lot of the country. I have driven through the south, the southwest, the Rocky Mountains, the plains states, etc., and everything I have seen makes me believe that Manhattan is not, in fact, part of this country. It is a different mindset. We are a country of expansion. We build bigger houses, and we commute longer distances to them in our unnecessarily large SUV's. When compared to Detroit or Chicago, New York could just as well be somewhere in Europe, or maybe more appropriately, on the fucking moon. There is no "out" in New York, only "up". Buildings reach ever higher to take space away from the birds and convert it in to yet more lofts and office space. It is a city that spits in the face of population density statistics. Who needs an acre plot in the suburbs when you have a cramped 7x10 room in the East Village. As one of my friends said when we discussed this topic, "I don't need anymore space than this. I have a bed, a closet, and just enough room for a few necessary possessions. My apartment is for living--not entertainment--I have the city for that."
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As I walked up 5th Ave with a friend from college who was also visiting, we talked about the city and our perceptions of it. He grew up in Chicago and had visited New York a handful of times before and was interested in how I saw everything through virgin eyes. We talked about the scale of the city, and how its enormous place in pop culture taints the city in the eyes of its visitors.
Then he said something that caught me quite off guard. "This is it. This is the American Dream." No stranger to the endless debate that accompanies grandiose topics like what really constitutes the American Dream I was intrigued by this idea. I initially agreed with him. Taken on face value he had a point. We generally perceive the Dream (as I will call it from here on out) as being the pursuit of not just money, but comfort and social standing as well. Perhaps no street in America drips with more of these three things than 5th avenue. High rise buildings create a huge chrome hedge maze filled with people trying to find their way through. There is no horizon, no distance, just crisscrossing streets and dizzying heights. The luckiest of the people on the street--or more aptly, the most successful people--get to retire to their high rise apartments and look down on the fray. They found their way out of the maze and have been blessed with a balcony seat to watch the rest of us toil away.
However, like all the best generalizations, this one was also doomed to failure; a seemingly obvious failure that speaks to both the disconnect between Manhattan and the rest of the country as well as the vast social and cultural changes that have affected what we want most out of life.
Sometimes when I talk politics with people I feel as if we come not from neighboring cities but from different dimensions where the rules of the debate are different. Thinking about the Dream being a high rise in Manhattan brought about the same feeling. I could walk around my hometown and ask what each person felt was the Dream, and I can guarantee two things. First, I wouldn't get the same answer twice; and second, not one person would ever consider living in Manhattan, period.
Why then was I immediately drawn to this theory of a 5th ave. high rise being the ultimate end to every one's version of the Dream? Part of it has to do with money, obviously, but that part really doesn't interest me. It doesn't say anything real about the individual other than, if given the chance, they would take a life of luxury if given the chance.
What does interest me is the subset of people who could very easily classify this as the Dream, or at least their version of it. I would imagine the vast majority of these people would be between 18 and 35, have a college education, and a love affair with pop culture. Young, upwardly mobile professionals, people who could, from some of their earliest memories remember being conscious of New York City. Perhaps no place on earth is more force fed to the US population than New York City. For a middle class white kid who grew up watching entirely too much TV I was destined to be drawn to it. It is the rough equivalent of how tourist traps out west draw in visitors. Mysterious billboards announce a must see attraction hundreds of miles in advance, and this constant barrage of advertising gets you thinking. What is "The Thing" (see footnote)? We see New York in much the same way, except the selling point isn't so obvious. No one has to ask "What is New York?" to pique our interest. The draw is in the limited view we get of the city. For a thirteen year old kid watching Seinfeld reruns in flyover country the existence of such a place provides enough allure to bring us in.
People migrated to New York in the beginning because of the opportunities that were present there. This is where people flocked to from their home country to pursue their dreams, and its quite possible that the whole idea of an American Dream was built just like the city--slowly growing upwards to accommodate more and more people and ambition. Today the dreams of 19th century immigrants have been replaced by the ambition of young middle class professionals, bohemians, and repressed artists. The city is awash in money, culture, and art. It is a hub of endless activity. It is everything the rest of the country isn't.
This works for those eager to escape the confines of suburbia. But the Dream has changed. The promise of a better life that drew in so many people through Ellis Island still exists, but now it can be found elsewhere. Just as the rest of the country expanded, so has the Dream. Now it is a nice house with a yard, and enough money for a vacation or two every year. The comfort and opportunity can be found everywhere, but with the added benefit of space.
So where does that leave the Dream? Just as confused and muddled as the rest of this countries values and ambitions. The Dream used to be the opportunity to succeed, but the opportunities afforded to a good deal of the population over the past 60 years has splintered the dream. Now that the pathways to success are more open than ever before it is up to us to tailor the Dream to fit what we want. My dream may be that apartment in New York, while my neighbor's is a bigger house and a sports car. The specifics aren't important, whats important is that both me and my neighbor have the opportunity to build a life that is based more on wants than needs. We no longer dream simply of survival, we dream of surviving in style with a fully automatic dishwasher and a pool.
All this explains my reaction to my friend's theory of 5th ave being the center of the American Dream. My initial agreement was based more on my own dream than any bigger idea of what Americans strive for. But I soon realized that the American Dream as it has been known through this countries history is dead. We achieved the dream in 50's with the rise of the middle class. We killed the American Dream and opened up the landscape for millions of smaller dreams.
The American Dream is dead, long live the American Dream.
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(Footnote: I had the pleasure of stopping at a tourist trap that went by this name somewhere along the freeway between New Mexico and California. Billboards displayed large question marks, and cryptic questions about "The Thing's" origins to build up suspense. Once you get to the truck stop that houses "The Thing" all you need to do is pay your dollar and wander the exhibit, which includes various machines and antiques before concluding over a skeleton encased in glass. For my dollar I got more questions than I had when I entered, as there was little explanation of anything contained in that fenced in area behind the truck stop.)
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