4 ms·
It’s all relative. But to say the flatiron neighborhood is a thriving cultural scene is a stretch. Is a ballet school for rich kids part of a creative scene? Is
by subpixel 8y ago
It’s all relative. But to say the flatiron neighborhood is a thriving cultural scene is a stretch. Is a ballet school for rich kids part of a creative scene? Is Eataly, a food court for tourists?
A better measure of the neighborhood’s creative DNA is the number of cultural events in Madison Square Park, where just yesterday there was an LL Bean promotional event taking place next to a Brooks Brothers promotional event (you can’t make this stuff up).
In this New Yorker’s opinion the last time your neighborhood had a creative pulse was when artists and photographers lived there in order to be within walking distance of the (now long-dead) photo district, where all the labs and darkrooms were. How many musicians and ballet dancers live there now, when a take-out salad in a plastic bowl is easily $20?
The linked article is maddening to me b/c it’s so damn accurate.
- JumpCrisscross 8y ago> Is a ballet school for rich kids part of a creative scene? Yes? And it isn’t a school, it’s a repertory. With performers—not kids—from a variety of backgrounds. Next to the promotional events (which aren’t always horrible) you will find publicly-funded music performances in the park (I never go to these), lectures at NYU and the New School, and random local performers at several bars in the neighbourhood. (Though I personally prefer the West Village for jazz.)
- Gargoyle 8y agoThis isn't much different from say Lawrence, Kansas, much less any decent-sized American city.
- JumpCrisscross 8y agoAnyone who finds the cultural variety within walking distance of any point in Manhattan is comparable to a mid-sized city probably shouldn’t be in New York. (You’re overpaying if the experiences are comparable.)