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A New York state of mind Just Like Old Times. Except...By Rick Horowitz
NEW YORK -- The lunchtime bustle in Chinatown seems every bit as bustly as it's always been. We're part of the pedestrian parade this weekday noon, picking our way past the fish stalls and trinket shops that line Canal Street. Perfectly normal, all of it, though we do notice that the cars and trucks are being directed through various intersections by men and women in uniforms. New Yorkers, we remember, have typically relied on other tools to make it across these streets: gas pedals, horns and nerves of steel. We also notice something else slightly out of the ordinary: Several of the intersections on the south side of Canal Street are blocked off by wooden barricades. Somebody could just be doing some repaving, of course. Or there could be some other reason they're keeping traffic from going in that particular direction. If we didn't know, would we even notice? Down in the subway, the platforms are crowded, the seats as difficult to come by as they've always been. The expression on nearly every face is a vacant stare -- so what else is new? The vacant stare has been the New York City subway rider's standard expression for decades; the last thing we want to do is read too much into things. In Times Square -- the revitalized and family-friendly Times Square -- the sidewalks seem as hectic as ever, and the giant electrified signs hanging from the buildings are even more riotous than they used to be. Just a few steps off the square, the hostess at the Italian restaurant we've chosen for dinner tells us there's a two-hour wait for a table. (So what else is new?) We head off in search of something a little more convenient. Scattered among the countless billboards and neon signs competing for our attention are multiple quotations from Mayor Giuliani -- exhortations to out-of-towners, expressions of pride in his fellow New Yorkers. My hometown isn't a city that puts its politicians' words on billboards. If we didn't know, would we be mildly curious at this odd turn of events? Would we wonder about this sudden Cult of the Mayor? And speaking of cults, what about all these curbside vendors with their paintings and drawings and postcards of New York scenes, and so many of them focused on a single image? There are other striking vistas around here, aren't there? There are other (prettier) skyscrapers. Were the city's artists always this single-minded? And would we have noticed if they were? Unlikely. As unlikely as noticing all the shirts in the store windows; the ones that don't have Yankee pinstripes have stars and stripes, and uplifting messages. The messages that swoop and swirl around one of the buildings in Times Square are less uplifting. The president says he doesn't have anthrax. The doctors say some other people do. The troops are moving. The bombs are falling. If we didn't know, would we be looking skyward for headlines in the first place? "Go see a play," the mayor says, and we do exactly that. At the final curtain, the two stars step to the edge of the stage and thank all of us for coming. "We know everybody's been having a really tough time lately," they say. "God bless you. And God bless America." If we didn't know, would we think they were talking about the stock market? Along Broadway, a few blocks farther north, there's a cluster of policemen standing in front of a hotel, getting ready to board a bus. If we didn't know, would we bother to look at their badges and notice that they were from out of town? And even if we did notice, would we assume that they were here for some convention, and that the bus was waiting to take them off for a few fun-filled hours of sightseeing? If we didn't know, would we notice them at all? Wouldn't they -- wouldn't all of it -- seem perfectly normal? The policemen and the billboards and the barricades, the postcards and the T-shirts and everything else? Possible. Entirely possible. Except that we do know. We know -- and we've gone downtown to see for ourselves. So none of it seems normal. Posted
10/25/01. Get award-winning commentary from syndicated columnist Rick
Horowitz twice every week.
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Rick Horowitz
