BESIDES singer Billy Joel, 47 million people are also in a “New York State of Mind”. That’s the record number of visitors who came to Gotham last year, giving the city some cheer to what was otherwise a gloomy 2008.
Its social calendar remained busy – two days before New Year Eve, the cheery news came that the city had hosted 47 million tourists including 9.8 million foreign travellers. They spent US$30bil, creating another first.
For all the cliches (“The city that never sleeps!”, “Greatest city on earth!”), there is something about New York where the subway runs 24 hours a day and the Apple store on Fifth Avenue opens 24/365.
Sometimes, however, patience runs low among the locals. Take gossip columnist Cindy Adams who writes about the rich and famous here. She devoted one previous article for the out-of-towners, telling them to “walk briskly. Forget sauntering. Even jobless New Yorkers rush.”
Native New Yorkers are not terribly fond of people who keep gazing up at the skyscrapers and thus holding up the foot traffic instead of watching where they are going.
“We appreciate our skyline but stop looking up,” Adams wrote. “And lose that stupid camera that’s always slung across your chest.”
Try explaining that to teenage visitor Connor Wright from the UK.
“The buildings here are a lot taller,” said Wright, 14, no doubt referring to the Empire State Building, a New York symbol. He found the city much livelier than where he came from.
Aimee Murata, an 18-year-old student from Southern California, wasn’t entirely comfortable with the throngs of people. “It’s so crowded!” she said. “I’m not used to being around so many people.”
Murata was in Times Square where it is often “people mountain, people sea”; to borrow a Chinese phrase referring to packed places.
New York, Murata discovered, moved at a much faster pace. “They even walk faster.”
Jersey girl Iva Croston often takes a one-hour drive to New York for the food, shopping and ballet performances.
“New Jersey is tops for shopping but sometimes you want to come to New York City for a better selection of styles. I like buying winter coats here,” said Croston, resting on a bench near Rockefeller Centre.
Croston, an IT system engineer, however, doesn’t buy New York’s reputation for its famous pizzas.
“Nah, I don’t think so. You can find better ones in New Jersey,” she said, citing names such as Chimney Rock Inn.
She pointed out, too, that finding a public toilet in Big Apple can be a headache. “It’s quite stressful. And most restaurants allow only patrons to use their toilets.”
Foreigners have observed that public toilets here often have a gap between the door and the wall, which means people could easily see you from the outside if they peer into it.
The partition wall does not extend all the way to the floor, either, leaving a space big enough to view the person’s legs in the next cubicle. Do not be surprised to see a hand wandering over to retrieve the earring that she dropped and which had rolled over to your side.
Or that little boy who followed his mother to the toilet, poking his head out from below the partition and looking out at you innocently.
Shazelina Zainul Abidin, a counsellor with the Permanent Mission of Malaysia to the United Nations, finds life in New York is much more hectic. She previously worked as Second Secretary in the Malaysian Embassy in Washington DC
“But it’s interesting as well. Everyone’s walking to everywhere. And I mean everyone. Just the other day, I was ambling along 20th Street, getting elbowed in the process, and who did I see walking past? Tommy Hilfiger.”
Washington DC, she said, was a place meant for driving. “The only place I can think of where people actually enjoy walking in DC is Georgetown. But that’s because it’s more of a university area and a shopping district.”
Shazelina, however, dispelled most images about Big Apple as seen on TV.
“I know New York is one of the fashion capitals of the world, but you don’t see too many people walking around in designer clothes. Sex and the City tend to exaggerate how average New Yorkers dress up.”
“People here have to walk. During the winter, they are bundled up in their thick half-length jackets, which resemble windbreakers. Certainly not what you would see in fashion magazines,” she said.
In DC, however, she found that people would wear nice, long winter jackets of all colours and fashion.
Indeed, New Yorkers’ choice of colours are often confined to neutrals such as black and grey. One traveller, wearing a fuchsia jacket, went to a New York museum, prompting a guy at the coat check to comment:
“You’re not from New York, are you? Nobody here wears that colour.
“People who work in DC are more fashionable,” Shazelina said. “And it’s not something they wear just to the opera or to a show. They will put on nice long winter jackets to the office and everywhere else.”
New York isn’t likely to create another record of tourist arrivals this year. A survey of New Year resolutions showed that Americans intend to spend less this year.
But for all its quirks, New York remains enchanting to people near and far. As Billy Joel sang “I know what I’m needing; And I don’t want to waste more time; I’m in a New York state of mind.”
Its social calendar remained busy – two days before New Year Eve, the cheery news came that the city had hosted 47 million tourists including 9.8 million foreign travellers. They spent US$30bil, creating another first.
For all the cliches (“The city that never sleeps!”, “Greatest city on earth!”), there is something about New York where the subway runs 24 hours a day and the Apple store on Fifth Avenue opens 24/365.
Sometimes, however, patience runs low among the locals. Take gossip columnist Cindy Adams who writes about the rich and famous here. She devoted one previous article for the out-of-towners, telling them to “walk briskly. Forget sauntering. Even jobless New Yorkers rush.”
Native New Yorkers are not terribly fond of people who keep gazing up at the skyscrapers and thus holding up the foot traffic instead of watching where they are going.
“We appreciate our skyline but stop looking up,” Adams wrote. “And lose that stupid camera that’s always slung across your chest.”
Try explaining that to teenage visitor Connor Wright from the UK.
“The buildings here are a lot taller,” said Wright, 14, no doubt referring to the Empire State Building, a New York symbol. He found the city much livelier than where he came from.
Aimee Murata, an 18-year-old student from Southern California, wasn’t entirely comfortable with the throngs of people. “It’s so crowded!” she said. “I’m not used to being around so many people.”
Murata was in Times Square where it is often “people mountain, people sea”; to borrow a Chinese phrase referring to packed places.
New York, Murata discovered, moved at a much faster pace. “They even walk faster.”
Jersey girl Iva Croston often takes a one-hour drive to New York for the food, shopping and ballet performances.
“New Jersey is tops for shopping but sometimes you want to come to New York City for a better selection of styles. I like buying winter coats here,” said Croston, resting on a bench near Rockefeller Centre.
Croston, an IT system engineer, however, doesn’t buy New York’s reputation for its famous pizzas.
“Nah, I don’t think so. You can find better ones in New Jersey,” she said, citing names such as Chimney Rock Inn.
She pointed out, too, that finding a public toilet in Big Apple can be a headache. “It’s quite stressful. And most restaurants allow only patrons to use their toilets.”
Foreigners have observed that public toilets here often have a gap between the door and the wall, which means people could easily see you from the outside if they peer into it.
The partition wall does not extend all the way to the floor, either, leaving a space big enough to view the person’s legs in the next cubicle. Do not be surprised to see a hand wandering over to retrieve the earring that she dropped and which had rolled over to your side.
Or that little boy who followed his mother to the toilet, poking his head out from below the partition and looking out at you innocently.
Shazelina Zainul Abidin, a counsellor with the Permanent Mission of Malaysia to the United Nations, finds life in New York is much more hectic. She previously worked as Second Secretary in the Malaysian Embassy in Washington DC
“But it’s interesting as well. Everyone’s walking to everywhere. And I mean everyone. Just the other day, I was ambling along 20th Street, getting elbowed in the process, and who did I see walking past? Tommy Hilfiger.”
Washington DC, she said, was a place meant for driving. “The only place I can think of where people actually enjoy walking in DC is Georgetown. But that’s because it’s more of a university area and a shopping district.”
Shazelina, however, dispelled most images about Big Apple as seen on TV.
“I know New York is one of the fashion capitals of the world, but you don’t see too many people walking around in designer clothes. Sex and the City tend to exaggerate how average New Yorkers dress up.”
“People here have to walk. During the winter, they are bundled up in their thick half-length jackets, which resemble windbreakers. Certainly not what you would see in fashion magazines,” she said.
In DC, however, she found that people would wear nice, long winter jackets of all colours and fashion.
Indeed, New Yorkers’ choice of colours are often confined to neutrals such as black and grey. One traveller, wearing a fuchsia jacket, went to a New York museum, prompting a guy at the coat check to comment:
“You’re not from New York, are you? Nobody here wears that colour.
“People who work in DC are more fashionable,” Shazelina said. “And it’s not something they wear just to the opera or to a show. They will put on nice long winter jackets to the office and everywhere else.”
New York isn’t likely to create another record of tourist arrivals this year. A survey of New Year resolutions showed that Americans intend to spend less this year.
But for all its quirks, New York remains enchanting to people near and far. As Billy Joel sang “I know what I’m needing; And I don’t want to waste more time; I’m in a New York state of mind.”
