“City Limits” by Colson Whitehead is a interesting article that tells readers about different views of New York and how everyone see’s it differently. In the article, Whitehead explains how New York life was for him, and how he see’s New York compared to everyone else. He begins by telling readers what he knows New York to be in his perspective, for example, in paragraph four, he explains his first time building his New York when he was looking out a subway window on the 1 train, describing the area as filthy, and to him, that’s how he will always portray that area, since that’s the way he saw it. He also shows this further on into the paragraph as he begins to describe the Met Life building next to the Grand central station as the Pan Am building since that’s the way he first saw it, compared to a woman that refers it as the Met Life building. Both contradict each other, saying that the other one is wrong and they are right, but in the end, it all depends on how the person first saw the building in their perspective.
Throughout the rest of the article, Whitehead exclaims that everyone’s new York will always be their own personal New York, but there will be times where people will begin to refigure their New York as time moves along, telling readers that you should try to accept the new compared to the old, not trying to judge it just because its different. But no matter what happens, the building you have grown to accept, will still be your own memory of what the building used to be to you in your own personal New York. It’s as if our own New York is like our own Utopia, a happy place that we can go back to remember and wish that we can relive again if given the chance. Its that sense of nostalgia that makes us sad at first, but happy to know that we once knew of such a place when we first saw it. For example, I remember when I was younger, the Nintendo world building in Rockefeller center in time square, wasn’t always Nintendo world, to me, I saw the Pokémon center. It was a building that was dedicated to such a big franchise that was, and still is successful to this day. now, instead of the building being dedicated to the one game, it has its own corner of glory on the top floor of the building, along with other Nintendo titles. However, the building still has the original doors from the old building, retaining its history and nostalgia for most people. To me, that building will always be the Pokémon center in my personal New York.
