I understand New York City as a palimpsest through the architecture present. Although much of it is overlaid with modern living and the buildings have different uses, there is still a trace of an older city. The richness of this architecture that we only know about through history studies, is present and can be seen on our day to day lives if we just stop and take a look with greater detail. Palimpsest is an ideal metaphor for this city it’s as a writing tablet on which layer after layer of messages are inscribed, always legible yet never completely erasing what was written before. The palimpsest city sets the values and contributions of our own time among the monuments of the past. We encounter history and a story with every brick from a building and every archway of an entrance. Although we add to these stories and overlay our own lives on them, we should know these palimpsests are not blank slates and will always have that story and mystery in the background.
My partner associates New York to shadow cities through restaurants and other food establishments that trigger a sense of nostalgia. A lot of the restaurants are places she’d never been to but she has heard of and maybe just the name reminds her of home. Other places such as barbershops and hair salons give her a sense of homeyness and of living that adds to her sense of home. Chinese restaurants and food establishments overlay New York and add to her new home here.
