If anyone’s wondering why I once compared New York City to Darfur, maybe a bit of it has to do with the fact that both are absurdly inhospitable to outsiders. And the “art installation” depicted above and discussed here provides good insight into said inhospitability.
I think the big issue with New York is that, unlike most places in the world, it does not welcome anyone. There are insiders and outsiders and if you have to ask which you are, you Do Not Belong. The implication here is that anyone not born and raised in the least friendly city in the world is automatically a “Tourist,” a word that probably might as well be “Terrorist” in the minds of many locals.
And before the fellow Meppers get all “What about Ellis Island?” on me, it should be clear that, like the country around it, NY’s days of offering solace to poor, tired, huddled, and such are long over. Both the US and NY may have had old traditions of caring about people without otherizing them, but those days have gone the way of disco balls and hoola hoops.
