Crofton, MD: The Two-hundred Fifty-Third Borough
Old news by now, but Philadelphia Weekly reporter Jessica Pressler got a piece in last Sunday's NY Times about Philly's transformation into the "sixth borough" - as if its "hipness" is related to being an extension of NYC. (Is the heroin that good down there too?) Apparently the local "cool-but-we'd-never-say-it crowd" got all brothers-up-in-arms about it with the standard territorial hissing and the like.
It's not exactly an original concept and I seem to remember Jonathan Franzen in The Corrections made some reference to Philly being Brooklyn without Manhattan next door or something to that effect. When I read that I thought, well big shit-steak, you could say the same about Baltimore or several other East Coast cities on the rise but there's a major problem with that logic. It only works in reverse. Better stated: Brooklyn without Manhattan would be Philly or Baltimore.
Those towns are what they are and will only be what they'll be because they don't have a big stinkin' center of the world island next to them. Catch my drift? I'm talking about the ones sweating off the Hudson and East Rivers, which brings to mind, hasn't the conglomerate of Hoboken and Jersey City been the "sixth borough" for some time now anyway? Philly needs to get in line like everyone else. When they pull the #7 ticket I'm sure Wilmington, DE (home to cool indie label Jade Tree!) will be elbowing in for a piece of the action and I hope this ass-lickle-down effect would eventually reach my hometown of Crofton, MD: All along the watertower.
One last thing, I knew the name Jessica Pressler sounded familiar. In one of her old columns she linked to the infamous interview on Lasagnafarm about my experience with Friendster in summer 2003 which gave birth to the Young Manhattanite brand. (Yes, I'm smirking). Jessica P. must have seen it after it was picked up by Gawker which means she dates back to the Spiersolithic era of "snarky" blogging and the woman deserves some street cred!! (Yep, still smirking...)
It's not exactly an original concept and I seem to remember Jonathan Franzen in The Corrections made some reference to Philly being Brooklyn without Manhattan next door or something to that effect. When I read that I thought, well big shit-steak, you could say the same about Baltimore or several other East Coast cities on the rise but there's a major problem with that logic. It only works in reverse. Better stated: Brooklyn without Manhattan would be Philly or Baltimore.
Those towns are what they are and will only be what they'll be because they don't have a big stinkin' center of the world island next to them. Catch my drift? I'm talking about the ones sweating off the Hudson and East Rivers, which brings to mind, hasn't the conglomerate of Hoboken and Jersey City been the "sixth borough" for some time now anyway? Philly needs to get in line like everyone else. When they pull the #7 ticket I'm sure Wilmington, DE (home to cool indie label Jade Tree!) will be elbowing in for a piece of the action and I hope this ass-lickle-down effect would eventually reach my hometown of Crofton, MD: All along the watertower.
One last thing, I knew the name Jessica Pressler sounded familiar. In one of her old columns she linked to the infamous interview on Lasagnafarm about my experience with Friendster in summer 2003 which gave birth to the Young Manhattanite brand. (Yes, I'm smirking). Jessica P. must have seen it after it was picked up by Gawker which means she dates back to the Spiersolithic era of "snarky" blogging and the woman deserves some street cred!! (Yep, still smirking...)
Comments:
Miami gets that moniker too, sometimes, just to add to the list, for its jet-set appeal. It's a horrendous cliche, terribly overused. Yet I'm grinning that you gave good ol' Hudson County a thimble full of respect. A rare treat.
A bit of background: Until 50 years ago there was no material difference between any location in the metropolitan area except for Manhattan itself; Jersey City had a subway to go with an extensive network of trollies up the Hudson coast. But then, for all that Robert Moses did for New York, politicians who were far clumsier in New Jersey made ugly mistakes. Then they spawned Bon Jovi and malls, never fully recovered.
Anyway, the whole "Sixth Borough" designation is tricky because all these other cities don't want to be seen like Queens or Brooklyn (excellent places to live and work), they want the Manhattan cachet. That they will never have, and it's sad because if they weren't so busy trying to create a fake identity for themselves, they might have had a shot of developing some real modern character (ala Seattle, Austin, hell even Orlando) that would have elevated them to greatness.
Philly's pushing themselves as a cultural alternative to New York, which is a fallacy and a folly. The ugly, highly derivative architecture alone is enough to cause unending shame. Maybe if Philly tried more to be like Philly - cheesesteaks, Old World stylings, boorish fans, thick ethnic diversity, UPenn, breathable air - they wouldn't be scoffed at.
Q: what's Wilmington going to brag about when that day comes? Logan House? The Big Kahuna? The Winterthur Gardens? hah. I'd rather live in the Bronx. (No knock on the Bronx)
Brian, it wasn't the Robert Moseses of the world who screwed up the smaller cities across the states, it was so-called "White Flight". Manhattan just had the attractiveness and population density to maintain a core of interesting artistic people even when living here became a huge pain in the ass.
At least, that is one possible explanation.
That is, I imagine there must have been people in Detroit and Kansas City and Wilmington who had the same attitude, "fuck that I ain't leaving", but it's hard to feel that way when you're the only one left for blocks around. So by the 70s these cities were not citylike any more.
Tentative title is The Midwest: A Century of Conflict. I will never get anything done.
Generally speaking, urban planning in the 1950's was a disaster. Highways everywhere (luckily many plans were defeated), international-style office buildings sprung up like dandelions, and brick dormitories were constructed for all levels of living. Remember, Stuy Town is supposed to be middle class / luxury housing, and Co-Op City is not supposed to be low-income housing. Yet neither look functionally different from a ghetto housing project.
Anyway, "white flight" is the racist term for "sprawl". The same thing is still happening, but they're just building farther out from city centers, and the people participating are now ethnically diverse.
It's completely bizarre, though, that with sprawl rapidly extending from Manhattan, you'd find NYC commuters choosing to convert dilapidated or low-rent sections of Jersey City, Newark, and Philadelphia for bohemian living. It's complete nonsense, and just a sign of the overpriced times. I'm very familiar with the politicians who run these places, and they have no idea how to retain their new residents if the housing market softens up.
Again, developing character will get you far. There are many cities in the US where not everyone under 40 were wishing they were in NYC, or that their own city were more like Manhattan. They like where they live, it suits them fine. With a patient approach (not, "Hey, we need to convert this brownfield into luxury condos in 10 months, before the bubble pops!"), intelligent urban planning works.
if philly is the 6th Borough, then CT is the 7th , and willam s. is the only dead Borough. don't forget as guliani said, (when there was an issue over ellis island sovernigty) if his grandparents knew they landed in NJ, they would have stay on the boat to go back to Italy (the 8th borough. The red soxes are the 3rd NY baseball team this year.
blah blah blah blah 6th borough blah blah. who cares? in the immortal words of Kenny Loggins, "there are no points for second best."
in the immortal words of me, "don't ever quote kenny loggins here again."
you're on double secret probation, parenthetigal.
Johnny-taft, as much as I do like timber and up to date timber news, how do I break into that industry?
double secret probation? you know what i say to that, dean krucoff? toga! toga! toga!
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