Here Is New York

In “Here Is New York,” White interrogates the relationship between urban areas and natural ecosystems. White envisions New York as a living organism that adapts and evolves with the times. Specifically, he is interested in how the growth of the city mirrors the life cycle of natural organisms, as well as how the natural world continues to thrive despite the constant expansion of man-made structures.

White often uses figurative language that compares New York City to a natural organism and ecosystem. For example, he writes: “In flush times the population mushrooms and the new dwellings sprout from the rock. Come bad times and the population scattered and the lofts are abandoned and the landlord withers and dies” (51). In this instance, White’s language directly alludes to the natural world: “mushrooms,” “sprout from the rock,” and “withers” could all refer to the growth of plants.

White also describes the actual flora of the city and how it is connected to the built landscape. He writes: “Forty-seventh Street will be widened (and if my guess is any good, trucks will appear late at night to plant tall trees surreptitiously, their roots to mingle with the intestines of the town)” (55). In this instance, White uses imagery to explain how trees become entwined with the underground elements of the city. The word “intestines” implies that New York City is itself a living organism, a suggestion White introduces earlier in the text when he writes that commuters have “never listened to Manhattan’s breathing” (27).

In his description of New York City’s neighborhoods, White often refers to how the natural world is part of even the most cramped urban, human-dominated environments. For example, he writes: “In the candid light from unshaded bulbs gleam watermelons and lingerie” (45). He also writes of the “nightly garden party of the Lower East Side” (45), which includes “the smell of warm flesh and squashed fruit and fly-bitten flush in the gutter, and cooking” (45). In these descriptions, fruit and plants are just as much a part of the city’s landscape as humans.

White concludes “Here Is New York” by extending the metaphor of the city as a living ecosystem. He writes of a tree which “symbolizes the city: life under difficulties, growth against odds, sap-rise in the midst of concrete, and the steady reaching for the sun” (56). This final image is closely connected to the theme of Vulnerability, as White writes how fervently he hopes the tree will continue to survive, the same hope he holds for the city.

White illustrates the many ways that living in a city make urban dwellers the possible target of violence. Specifically, White writes of the extreme, existential threat of terrorism. White notes that New York City is unique among cities as a place where a “perverted dreamer” might be most likely to plan an attack (54).

In his musings on the vulnerability of New Yorkers, White is focused on the threat of terror by air, noting that the city could be destroyed by planes. Many European cities had recently experienced heavy aerial bombing during World War II. This and the nuclear attacks on Japan seem to weigh heavily on White’s mind as he writes of how news of destruction—“the black headlines of the latest edition” (54)—and the sound of airplanes flying over the city are reminders that New York City could be attacked.

White’s fear at the possibility of an attack on the city is highlighted by his discussion of New York City as the center of the “Parliament of Man” (55): the United Nations, an organizing body of countries which he describes as leading the effort to create a more peaceful world. White describes the duality of the threat of attack and the organization toward peace as “both the universal dilemma and the general solution” (56). This central contradiction—that New York is vulnerable to attack yet also the place where people discuss how “the planes are to be stayed and their errand forestalled” (56)—is one that White suggests defines New York City.