The Allure Of The City That Never Sleeps

For as long as I can remember, I have wanted to move to New York City.

I wanted the cluttered, maximalist apartment, the Sunday morning bagel runs, to catch a yellow cab, and to walk through Central Park in the fall. For as long as I can remember, it’s been New York or nowhere. 

As a journalism major, I always knew I wouldn’t find success in a small town or even a small city. I was attracted to the endless opportunities New York seemed to offer. The late-night pitching sessions depicted in movies, Chinese takeout on the apartment fire escape, running late for work, and almost getting hit by a cab (okay, maybe not that one). New York radiates professional success and the work-hard-play-hard lifestyle so often idealized in American culture. 

The cultural impact of New York City is found through countless forms of media over the last 100 years. The TV show Friends features a group of six navigating adulthood in New York through humor and platonic love. Marvel shows Peter Parker swinging between skyscrapers. And Gossip Girl depicts socialites Serena and Blair’s lunchtime get-togethers on the steps of The Met.  

Sex and the City, How I Met Your Mother, Saturday Night Live, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, When Mary Met Sally, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, and the list could go on and on. 

Pop culture has curated this image of New York City as a utopia with career success, personal prosperity, and romantic plenitude. It has become a place we can all point to and say, “We will make it there eventually.” A place to dream of, a place to romanticize. 

But it has also become a place that is becoming unattainable. A place for influencers, off-duty models, Wall Street businessmen, and nepotism babies. People claim it is no longer middle-class friendly; apartments are more expensive, local businesses are being replaced by chains and corporate machines, and the New York dream is becoming more and more out of reach for the average person every day. 

But that doesn’t stop people from wanting what they’ve been shown in the media for several decades: the glitz and glamour of the big city, and the comfort and nostalgia for the entertainment we all grew up watching. 

New York City is still the dream, but it may no longer be as accessible as it once was. 

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