Living in the City.

An Attempt at Rather Brief and Unambitious Comparison of Warsaw

and New York

Since 2002 I have been living in Warsaw, the capital of Poland. Between 1 of September 2010
and 31 of May 2011 I spent nine months in New York City, the self-proclaimed capital of the
world. In this short essay I will attempt to provide a brief comparison between the two. I have
no ambition whatsoever to catch the unique aura of each of these cities. Instead I will share a
few observations about Warsaw and New York and make a couple of comments about living
in each of them.

Let me start with the cities themselves. If Warsaw can be said to be a big city two million
people living there, then New York, whose total population approaches 9 millions, is not big
but huge. However, one should note that the quality of air in New York City is much better
than the quality of air in Warsaw. Another difference between Warsaw and New York is that
part of the latter is located on islands and the whole city lies beside the sea, whereas the
former is a typical mainland city split only by the river. New York is famous for its
skyscrapers which seem to stand next to the ocean. Likewise Warsaw also has skyscrapers,
albeit there are only few of them and they are much less impressive in terms of seize and
height. Both cities play important role in the social, political and cultural life of their
countries. One difference between them is that Warsaw is the official capital of Poland, where
the parliament and the president reside, whereas the New York City is only a capital of the
state of New York. Nevertheless, it is NYC that can be said to be a real center of
contemporary intellectual life. In comparison with Warsaw, New York seems to be colder
place in winter, which I think can be attributed to the impact of the ocean. Contrary to NYC,
Warsaw is not exposed to such natural phenomena like hurricanes. Another point of
divergence is that Warsaw is unlikely to become the next target of the international terrorist
attack mostly due to the fact that Poland plays comparatively marginal role in the world
politics.

Living in Warsaw bears little resemblance to living in New York City. One point of difference
is that New York is much more diverse in respect of religion, ethnicity and life-styles. This
difference is very visible in the street. Streets of New York are full of colorful and
extravagantly dressed people. Photographs of some of them have been exhibited on facebook
profile called Humans of New York. Compared to NYC Warsaw is rather uniform with black
and grey being dominant colors. In the same way the public behavior of the inhabitants of
Warsaw tend to be more uniform and predictable. Musicians playing in the subway, self-
proclaimed prophets of all religions preaching against the Mammon or people performing
various rather risky tricks in public places are much more common in New York than they are
in Warsaw. On the other hand, in Warsaw beggars and homeless people are much more visible
than in New York City. As a result there is more sorrow and sadness at the street of Warsaw
than at the streets of New York. In that respect Warsaw can be said to be truer to lifes real
meaning. Another important difference is that the New York City seem to be much more
divided in terms of class and ethnicity. I can still recall my astonishment when I realized that
in all Mc Donalds restaurants in the city there are no white non-Hispanic working as part of
the staff (I have met only one white girl of the name Magda). Warsaw and New York are
similar in that the rich tend to separate themselves from the rest and live in closed and
protected areas. One huge difference, however, is that in New York there are entire districts
dominated by single nation or ethnicity. For example there are black, Hispanic, Jewish,
Pakistani or Russian neighborhoods. If you happen to rent a flat in the area dominated by
foreign ethnicity, you are very unlikely to make friends with the people living there. On the
other hand ethnic divisions are important source of cultural diversity that Warsaw is badly
lacking. Warsaw can be compared favorably with the New York City in terms of availability
of fresh non-processed food. Even today in most of Warsaws districts there are local food
markets. In New York City such places are rare and tend to be expensive. However, a
distinction should be drawn between American food, which is generally awful, and the food
provided by different minorities, which represent a variety of national cuisines unmatched by
Warsaws shops and restaurants. In general, I would say that living in Warsaw is cheaper than
living in NYC. At times, the New York City seems to be nothing more than a one big
playground for the rich kids. Another advantage of Warsaw in comparison with New York is
that it is smaller and therefore more humane. New York seems to be the city without the past,
whereas in Warsaw its tragic history is present behind every street corner. Melancholic,
reflective, and marked by Europes complicated past Warsaw can be said to be the exact
opposite of dynamic, future-oriented and multicultural American city such as New York.