Competing for Downtown Urban Spaces

"Hit the town. It hits back.": Illustration by Jacob Thomas for TimeOut NY.Contemporary literature perpetuates cultural understandings of Lower Manhattan as an entertainment zone rather than a residential neighborhood. In his essay “Downtown,” Colson Whitehead structures the essay around the experience of nightlife. The essay begins at a bar at the beginning of the night, and ends at sunrise. Throughout, Whitehead points to specific signifiers of subcultures at work:

“Hipsters seek refuge in church, Our Lady of Perpetual Subculture. There is some discussion as to whether or not they are still cool but then they are calmed by the obscure location and the arrival of their kind” (Whitehead 128).

The restaurant industry is also identified as a part of an exclusive experience of downtown: “What do you feel like doing. Dunno. Everybody else knows where the hot new restaurants are” (Whitehead 126). That creative writers are perpetuating cultural stereotypes of urban life is not surprising, but their role in the culture machine has a significant affect on the cultural understanding of place and therefore, through the political and economic processes of the growth and community machines, the physical landscape of Lower Manhattan.

The rearticulating of one’s self-image can be linked to historical shifts in the state’s perception of the individual. As part of its central argument on the changing nature of urban life, David Grazian’s On The Make: The Hustle of Urban Nightlife examines the changes in the post-1970’s American city, in which the self-centered philosophy of neoliberal politics and economics has dominated and commodity fetishism has reached a fever pitch. As a result, urban life itself has faced a process of commodification, and the detached nature of contemporary urban nightlife runs counter to a preconceived notion of camaraderie and intimacy in social spaces. Grazian laments this process, as “even neighborly fellowship and conviviality represents little more than a purchased consumer experience” (Grazian 62). In fact, Grazian characterizes “downtown entertainment zones” as “an upscale playground where affluent young adults prepare for the post-adolescent life by learning, practicing, and refining a set of nocturnal selves” (Grazian 95). Paradoxically, the experience of the place must involve a sense of voyeurism or vicariousness in order to feel more genuine, an assertion reiterated in Colson Whitehead’s personal essay on “Downtown”:

“The newspaper write-up contains bad directions to the hot new spot. Suddenly they’re on empty streets in unreckoned neighborhoods and must go deeper into darkness before safety. Corners and alleys out of metropolitan fable, bricked-up doorways, newspapers stuntdoubling for tumbleweeds. Streetlights gallow. Footsteps of roving thugs” (Whitehead 129).

Part of the transaction of urban nightlife is a superficial experience of neighborhoods that others call home. The work of these social forces clashes directly with the spirit of postreform politics, which calls for participation and engagement with neighbors, businesses, and government for the benefit of all. In this way, the entire culture of socializing outside of one’s private residence has transformed in a way that renders it almost unrecognizable to those who enjoy intimate, involved experiences with friends or new acquaintances in social spaces.