From the Editor

When the HPR selected Urban America as the summer covers topic, I immediately cautioned our Covers Editor that the section could not just be a feature on New York. Given that she is from Boston my worries were probably unfounded, but people do love talking about New York, and I can understand why. The Big Apple is home to over eight million people, some of the best museums and cultural centers in the world, and the giants of big business.  Yet my relationship with New York has been a tumultuous one. I first visited on a trip to scout out colleges, but spent only a few hours at Columbia University; the combination of a severe traffic delay, pouring rain, and a West Wing marathon on Bravo prevented me from enjoying more of The City. I was unimpressed, but knew I had not given the place a fair shake. But returning to New York three times has convinced me it is just not for me.
Maybe it is a minor case of claustrophobia, but whatever the reason I find the Empire City quite unpleasant. Hailing from northern California, I am used to things being fairly spread out; even San Francisco, the third most densely populated city in America, is only 60 percent as dense as New York. The most troubling consequence of the extreme density, for me, is the frequent inability to see the horizon. San Francisco, while home to its fair share of skyscrapers, is a hilly city and thus regularly allows one to see far off into the distance. Golden Gate Heights, Telegraph Hill and many other spots afford tremendous views of the City by the Bay. In this regard New York, which is comparatively flat, cannot compete. Sure, you can see all of New York from the top of a skyscraper, but it is just not the same as viewing it from a natural part of the landscape.
Harvard is home to a lot of New Yorkers, so my distaste for the city often produces arguments. I typically contend that New York is crowded, expensive, superficial, and lacking in park space. While the first two are undeniable, advocates respond that the third is true only for the touristy parts, and that the fourth is just plain wrong (which it is, New York is actually almost 20 percent park space, the most of any densely populated American city.) But I maintain that since most of that space is a rectangle circumscribed by tall buildings, it should count for less than the parks in San Francisco, which are not geometrically shaped and run mostly along the Pacific Ocean. I always thought this was an excellent point, but it never seems to persuade New Yorkers.
After about two years of coastal feuding, I came to realize that it is virtually impossible to convince someone your city is superior to his or hers, especially if that city is New York. People love the big cities they consider their own, despite the problems Urban America examines. I still refuse to concede New York’s superiority, but am content with the uneasy truce that permits me to avoid disagreements and instead focus on what I love. I am thrilled to be living in San Francisco this summer, and while I will return to Harvard in September to write my thesis and help produce two more issues of this magazine, my efforts will almost surely be lacking in heart.