Tania Damiano- Activity #1- Be a Flaneur

Well, the Manhattan Mall was quite a change from overly visiting the Queens Center Mall. I went at a fairly quiet time on a Thursday morning at around 11am. I wasn’t sure what to expect from it really. Oh! Let me first mention that I got sooo lost getting there. Unlike QC, the mall is not a huge building visible from really far away. It is a huge building blended it with all the chaos around it. I must have passed by it a good four times without noticing that it was there. Since JC Penny is even bigger there that it is in QC, I just thought it was all JC Penny. Yet, when my stupidity dropped and I was able to see that it was the mall, walking in was a completely different feel from Queens Center. Even when QC is basically empty, it is loud. The MM was rather quiet, much cleaner and it just seems that the people set off a different atmosphere. The black-and-white tiled floor gave it a more elegant, expensive touch than the comfortable, lively Queens Center Mall. Definitely less friendly with their closed-up faces and speed walking as if the stores were about to close in the next five minutes. Only a few people seemed to enjoy their shopping and the ambient of the City life, others had a distinct reason for being there and just rushed into the stores. That’s New York City for ya. Two types of people - The kind tourists that take their time for everything and the fully New Yorkers always in a rush.
I found the lack of sitting areas on the first and second level highly uncomfortable and blah. I mean, where was I supposed to sit to do the assignment? Whatever. I comfortably sat in a corner on the top level and just watched people pass by. I was disturbing no one and since it was so early, I was not even noticed. Suddenly, a security guy saw me and began approaching me, it made me giggle a little as his big, dark-skinned self with a blue uniform looking all serious approached me. Of course, I wrote all this down on my notebook. His serious expression, his straight way of walking. He began to walk faster. “Miss?” “Yessir” I looked up with bright eyes. “You can’t sit here.” I slightly cocked my eyebrow? I can’t sit here? Where do you want me sit? Haha. I didn’t say that. He probably would’ve hit with his rod if he could. But I put my backpack on and slowly got up. “Alright.” So I walked away. I glanced back; he was staring at me as if I was a who-knows-what with some destructive plan. Dramatic much? Probably. But he could’ve have been nicer? So I went and stood on the corner of the other side of the same level and just watched people pass me by. Longest hour and a half of my life I tell you. But I found it fascinating how different people in different boroughs can be. The style people have in even the most minimum points. In QC people are always laughing, walking, taking their time, looking at all the stores they pass by. In MM, people were mostly in a hurry. Maybe because it was Valentine’s in a few days? Well no, because I went to QC just a few days before the fourteenth and still people seemed livelier.
Jane Jacobs said in her infamous book “The Death and Life of Great American Cities” that “a person must feel personally safe and secure on the street among all these strangers” for the city to be a successful one. It seems that Manhattan is a safe area since so many people are constantly on the street. In this case, although the Mall was quite empty, it felt strange. I think a load of people would’ve made it worse. When QC is empty, I feel safer than when it is packed. I guess that Jacobs forgot to mention that it doesn’t necessarily apply if you are an outside.
Is it that NYC is more “Urban” than Queens? Could it be that the fast-paced life that the businesses in Manhattan live is much, much faster than in Queens? I’m not a Manhattan person. I’ve lived in Queens for almost ten years and rarely do I get out of the borough, only to come to Hunter and few times when I hang out at the movie theater in Times Square or when I walk around Hunter or Central Park. But Manhattan needs to chill out and enjoy that greatness of it all.