But something has notably shifted since my last visit 10 years ago. Some of the sense of possibility has evaporated. It’s still thrilling to imbue the buzz, the lights and the multicultural diversity. I just wish – like many visiting Aussies must do – that I could afford it more.
City of dreams. Credit: Pinterest
Many New York aphorisms are feeling frayed, hackneyed and, in some cases, no longer true.
When I consider the real city of opportunity, of dreams – having split my last two and a half years between Sydney, London, Buenos Aires, Medellin and New York – the answer, in many respects, is Sydney.
Some may find it laughable to say Sydney competes on the world stage with London or New York, but in certain aspects, it absolutely does.
Of course, Sydney has its own cost of living crisis – but it’s actually now cheaper than London or New York for many items (whilst still being undoubtedly expensive). A recent study ranked NYC by far, the world’s most expensive city.
Not often lauded for its nightlife, there’s nevertheless an after-party club culture in Sydney that I’ve yet to find on this New York trip. A decade ago I visited a huge gay nightclub, The XL Lounge. Now such superclubs have vanished from the Big Apple’s gay scene. Its biggest permanent gay venue – The Eagle – is a multi-level pub, but at 4am closing time last weekend, nobody knew of an after-club. So much for the city that never sleeps. In Sydney, I’d head to Morning Glory, open 4am to 10am at Darling Harbour’s Home nightclub.
Broadway has long been the destination for budding stars. Whether playwrights, actors or theatre producers, people yearned to see their name, or production, up in lights. But staging a show in NYC now is unaffordable to all but the super-rich production companies. Even shows selling a million dollars of tickets a week can’t survive.
It’s crushing New York’s reputation for new ideas, new writing and the notion that anyone can make it here if they work hard enough. None of the 18 musicals that opened last season have made a profit. Only three have recouped their investment since the pandemic – and two of those were the cul-de-sac of fresh ideas: jukebox musicals. Sydney has the Hayes, Griffin and New theatres which all encourage new writing and fresh perspectives. I’m saving my theatre viewing money for Sydney – I can’t even afford off-off Broadway tickets.
Madonna, Keith Haring, Harlem’s Vogue Balls – all this NYC 1980s creativity thrived from the struggle of arty people who could – only just – afford to live there. Now they’re priced out completely.
As the comparisons roll on, the theme of American demise continues. NYC’s subway is old and knackered and feels dated and unpleasant. By contrast, Sydney’s shiny new driverless Metro has practically become a domestic tourist attraction to its own residents.
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Add our world-class architecture, great public amenities such as queue-free swimming pools, beaches and a country that has gun control, affordable health care and a prime minister who grew up in council housing in a single-parent household – and the true city of opportunity is now Sydney.
Yesterday on my jog, I glimpsed billionaire, silver-spoon born Donald Trump in his presidential car. En route to deliver his detached-from-reality UN address, the glimpse occurred as his motorcade drove past one of his eponymous NYC skyscrapers.
No leader arriving at the UN this week needs to sweat the shocking cost of everything here as mere mortals like me do. City of dreams? It has, sadly, become a nightmare.
Trump this week said countries like ours are “going to hell.” Having travelled as a digital nomad for the last two and a half years – across several of the world’s big cities – when I return to Sydney next week after my hiatus, for all its flaws, I’ll be coming back to my slice of heaven. The true land of the “fair go”.
Gary Nunn is a regular contributor. Instagram: @garynunn11
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