Reflections from Late-Capitalist Manhattan

In the time I’ve been away from New York, I’ve grown in ways I couldn't have imagined. And in just four months at Trinity, I’ve been sold: ‘this is a place where I can thrive.’ So, I entered New York with a hypothesis I’d seemingly confirmed: that Manhattan is not my only possible ‘centre of gravity.’ I can grow as a scholar, in my career, and build meaningful relationships in San Antonio, as I can in New York. And Trinity, to my pleasant surprise, is an incredibly formidable institution outside of San Antonio. So the question now is: where do I actually want to be?

The case for New York is simple. It’s New York. I’m obviously quite familiar with the city, already have connections there, and ‘understand’ its ‘habitus.’I know how to negotiate New York extremely well.

The case for San Antonio? More nuanced, a bit more complex, and perhaps: a bit more compelling. In San Antonio I’ve found something I don’t know that I can find at Gallatin: fulfilment. I’ll make the highly controversial statement that New York is not exactly conducive to ‘fulfilment.’ In fact, it has a reputation that suggests it can only provide the opposite if you let it: alienation.

I would be okay if the City of New York seemed like it wanted to do something about its problems, or make life better for its working class populations. But it doesn’t. It feels overtly hostile to working class aims. Take the The New York Times’ coverage of an incident where a man violated a corpse on an R train in lower Manhattan after the deceased had passed from natural causes hours prior: all they could muster up was a pathetic ‘the MTA says crime is down ‘whateverthefuck%’ so far in 2025’ to conclude what was a truly ghastly news story. The people that can afford to debate whether that’s true don’t take the subway. The working class does.

It’s a city of contradictions.

If you have money, you experience a completely different city. You never have to interact with the working class, and you can stay within your economic lane. It’s a city built on the “virtues” of capitalism.

But beneath the streets, cafés, design studios, and banks, lies another city: one that’s largely been forgotten about, or told to fuck off everywhere they go. So naturally, it attracts those with mental health issues, schizophrenia, and those addicted to K2/Spice. What effect has this created for the subway?

It is effectively the city’s asylum.

And for what reason? Surely the City of New York isn’t resigned to this. If they are, they shouldn’t be. The working class have to take the Subway everyday, and the narrative that the media is “fearmongering” really discredits the experiences of locals I’ve talked to. They feel, for their own reasons, unsafe on the train.

The Subway is not in a good spot right now. And I wish, as a “city” we could talk about it honestly.

We have to look out for the vulnerable. And that includes everybody: the homeless, the addicted, the mentally ill, and the commuter.

I’m disenchanted with New York. I have been, for a while, but this time felt different.