This morning, as I left Midtown Manhattan for my first leg of my journey to the Azores, I was unusually grateful to be escaping the city. It was hot & humid and even worse, it is the beginning of "Tourist Season".
These plentiful strangers appear everywhere and walk 5 people abreast, blocking sidewalks, always getting in the way and generally stopping for no reason. Real New Yorkers seem to understand the delicate dance and can navigate the streets without changing speed and managing to avoid bumping into anything. This past weekend, I was a witness to the Northside Festival in Williamsburg, which was less a music festival (as billed) and more an excuse for drunken revelry from the Bridge & Tunnel kids.
As I am writing this, I happen to be watching RTP's "Pros E Contras", and the topic is Turismo/Tourism. I haven't heard much (if anything) about the Azores, but I keep hearing "Muito Barulho".
It generally means there is a "lot of noise" (and annoyance). It's a phrase I'm familiar with, having been a child in a Portuguese family, I got the message it was something that we created on a regular basis.
Now I am feeling a pang of guilt, which gets added to a larger ennui about being a witness to the gentrification of the best places on earth. I have worked in theater (another source of muito barulho), which invites people who can afford tickets to neighborhoods where even the artists can afford to pay the rent. Within my NYC experience, both the Lower East Side and Williamsburg have turned from wild, deserted places where artists could put down roots and create. They are now unaffordable and insufferable places. Less than a generation.
Granted, the Azores have not yet been "discovered" by the masses of tourists who have gotten tired of the Greek Islands. Nor has Lisbon turned into a constant Mardi Gras, unless you count the St. Anthony Festival (discussed in the previous post). But watching the show, I relate to the argument of annoying tourists.
NYC is dealing with the issues that AirBNB is bringing in (and I just heard it mentioned on the program). Unregulated taxis, Uber. In New York, the worst problem of all is the international super-rich real estate sharks who purchase a pied-de-terre (4 bedroom) apartment and leave it empty for 50 weeks of the year. I'm not sure how much of that exists, maybe in the form of summer/vacation homes that stand empty most of the year on the islands or on the mainland of Portugal (Faro, maybe?)
In writing on the topic of tourism, and of bringing different cultures together without diluting them, I feel this is something that needs to be addressed. Yes, it is good for the economy, and yes, it is usually a whole new can of worms for quality of life. Isn't it possible to share authentic experiences and still make both sides happy? How can tourists get a real sense of a city and not visit a place that could be as artificial as Disneyland?
These plentiful strangers appear everywhere and walk 5 people abreast, blocking sidewalks, always getting in the way and generally stopping for no reason. Real New Yorkers seem to understand the delicate dance and can navigate the streets without changing speed and managing to avoid bumping into anything. This past weekend, I was a witness to the Northside Festival in Williamsburg, which was less a music festival (as billed) and more an excuse for drunken revelry from the Bridge & Tunnel kids.
As I am writing this, I happen to be watching RTP's "Pros E Contras", and the topic is Turismo/Tourism. I haven't heard much (if anything) about the Azores, but I keep hearing "Muito Barulho".
It generally means there is a "lot of noise" (and annoyance). It's a phrase I'm familiar with, having been a child in a Portuguese family, I got the message it was something that we created on a regular basis.
Now I am feeling a pang of guilt, which gets added to a larger ennui about being a witness to the gentrification of the best places on earth. I have worked in theater (another source of muito barulho), which invites people who can afford tickets to neighborhoods where even the artists can afford to pay the rent. Within my NYC experience, both the Lower East Side and Williamsburg have turned from wild, deserted places where artists could put down roots and create. They are now unaffordable and insufferable places. Less than a generation.
Granted, the Azores have not yet been "discovered" by the masses of tourists who have gotten tired of the Greek Islands. Nor has Lisbon turned into a constant Mardi Gras, unless you count the St. Anthony Festival (discussed in the previous post). But watching the show, I relate to the argument of annoying tourists.
NYC is dealing with the issues that AirBNB is bringing in (and I just heard it mentioned on the program). Unregulated taxis, Uber. In New York, the worst problem of all is the international super-rich real estate sharks who purchase a pied-de-terre (4 bedroom) apartment and leave it empty for 50 weeks of the year. I'm not sure how much of that exists, maybe in the form of summer/vacation homes that stand empty most of the year on the islands or on the mainland of Portugal (Faro, maybe?)
In writing on the topic of tourism, and of bringing different cultures together without diluting them, I feel this is something that needs to be addressed. Yes, it is good for the economy, and yes, it is usually a whole new can of worms for quality of life. Isn't it possible to share authentic experiences and still make both sides happy? How can tourists get a real sense of a city and not visit a place that could be as artificial as Disneyland?
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