Day 15- Cape Cod, MA - Jersey City, NJ

            From the quiet scenery of Cap Cod National Seashore to the noisy streets of  New York City, NY today’s travels highlight the extremes of American spaces. The first two weeks of my fellowship covered the quiet corners of our country’s New England spaces. Today brings that peace and quiet to an abrupt end as I slogged from the edge of Massachusetts to the heart of the Big Apple. The contrasts of American communities couldn’t be more pronounced.

            As I approached New York City I marvel at the congestion that greeted me almost sixty miles from city center. You just don’t “show up” to New York, you’re welcomed in stages that test your sanity. First you’re hit with construction…All the construction I’ve missed for the last 3,000 miles waited to get me today…As the construction issues begin to rise, so does the traffic volume. The last two hours to city center had me in bumper-to-bumper traffic almost to my final destination. The sheer volume of cars and people lays itself out on a scale unrivaled by any other American city. Lastly, lane changes and exit ramps have little rhyme or reason. If M.C. Escher designed cities, he would love how New York can be impossible at times to navigate. 

My final twenty minutes had me driving right next to the Hudson River, past the Intrepid museum, and within close proximity to Ground Zero and the under construction Freedom Tower. For me the ghosts of the 9/11 still linger just under the surface. While it’s been ten year since the 9/11 attacks, the wound and insult seem very fresh in the mind of a guy who was half a country away on that fateful day. The city is recovering, but I would bet anyone who was here ten years ago could tell me their fateful account of that infamous day. People are moving on with their lives, but just exactly how well can  you move on from a day that changed the very core of a city and a country? My answer: You move on, but you move on as a different person…

I wonder how the founding fathers would view the growth of New York and other eastern seaboard cities? Would they marvel the accomplishments of modern urban planning and its ability to serve the needs of millions of people at once? Or would they think that the cities disconnect form the reasons early colonists sought a new life in the new world?

            American cities are certainly world-class cities, but do they reflect a healthy growth for America the country? Crumbling infrastructures, vast ranges of wealth for individuals, and the fact that natural beauty is often an afterthought in our concrete jungles.

Cities are a big draw, but when they draw you in perhaps you should ask yourself if you like where you are headed…

Thanks for joining me today…~Mr. K.