jorge.delprado/CreativeCommons
You'd think that this was the world centre of sales. And the sales attitude is everywhere. From the young black man who tries hard to sell extras at the Empire State building, aggressively but not unattractively, like a keen sportsmen you're sorry has missed his goal - with you any way - to the Chinese woman incapable of answering a question in English but able to promote an Internet cafe on East 57th Street. Yet walking down Fifth Avenue in the afternoon you're actually struck by how little commercial life there is, relatively speaking. It's not that easy for a writer to find a notebook and pen (I picked up mine near NYU, just south of Washington Square Park - quite a long walk down Manhattan) and just as tough for a reader to find a Barnes & Noble. Strange; compared to London, where a Waterstones or Books Etc. or even a Borders (none of which I've spotted in New York) seems to be on every street corner, like a pub.
So there's a strange, bare feeling about some parts of New York: perhaps it's less designed for browsing than London is. Perhaps you need to know your way around more. Or perhaps it's simply that I know London, which perhaps explains that my constant wish to compare the two cities. Though of course the fact that these two cities compete to be thought the world's most sophisticated, the world's most civilised, makes comparisons unavoidable.
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