Somewhere between Vox & Hunter S. Thompson
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North America
There’s a lot more to Bushwick than I’m going to cover here; it’s known for having a large Latino community, especially Puerto Rican and Dominican, and since the gentrification of Williamsburg, it has also become the new center of indie culture in Brooklyn. But that’s not what this article is about. Today, we’re here to go mural hunting!
We rode the L train to the Jefferson Street station in Bushwick, and basically from the moment I stepped out of the station, I was in mural heaven.
As one of the 5 boroughs of New York City (the others being Manhattan, The Bronx, Staten Island, and Queens), it’s home to some 2.6 million people, which—if it were a stand-alone city—would make it America’s 4th largest city, nearly as large as Chicago! It has a stand-alone GDP of approximately ~$120B, which—for context—is more than the country of Ethiopia.
While the ascent of NYC’s Chinatown may have coincided with the shrinkage of Little Italy, giving the impression that the former was “taking over” the latter, the truth is that, by the 1990s, both of them were under equal economic pressure from encroaching gentrification and rising real estate costs. In spite of that Chinatown didn’t start to shrink until the early 2010s. By that point, as had been the case with the Italian immigrants who’d followed a similar path before them to achieve widespread integration into American society, the next generation of this Chinese community soon relocated to other parts of the city, especially Queens and Brooklyn. And just like Italians are now an integral part of the New York identity, this Chinese community is part of the deal now! There are 4th and 5th generation people of Chinese descent walking around New York, which means their families have been here longer even than mine! Cue my recommendation for you to go watch Nora From Queens. Great show.
New York City not just one thing; the whole is formed of many thousands of individual threads woven and intertwined together. All of these parallel realities existing on top of each other is a big part of what makes New York so captivating… but some of these threads are more visible to the outside than others. One of New York’s most visible threads is its status as ground-zero for Italian-American culture. Yes, from Frank Sinatra to George Costanza, few immigrant communities in the US managed to balance the simultaneous integration with American society with the maintenance of a shared collective sense of identity like the Italians. Ironically, Italian-American culture has strayed hilariously far from actual Italian culture at this point; the two groups barely even claim each other at this point! But, within the U.S. at least, this shared homeland is a powerful unifier. Indeed, there are about 16 million Americans (~4.8% of the population) that have some level of Italian lineage, including yours truly. 🍕
Although the beginnings of the U.S. as we know it today began with British roots, New York City actually began as a Dutch colony called New Amsterdam. It passed into British hands in 1664 and actually served as the capital city of the newly independent United States from 1785 to 1790. So it has been vitally important since the very beginning. As of 2023, the city alone (its metro area, that is) had a stand-alone GDP of $2.30 trillion, making it the most valuable city in the world. In fact, if treated as an independent country, New York City would rank within the top 10 largest economies in the world, ranking above Italy, Canada, and Australia, to name a few. For a domestic point of comparison, the next largest economy in the United States is Los Angeles with an approximate GDP of $1.1 trillion.
Finally, we arrive at Canyonlands National Park, which is the largest and most remote place we will visit on this trip by far. A couple hours southwest of Moab and Arches, Canyonlands spans an area of more than 300,000 acres. It is not a place that can be seen fully in a single day… but we’re going to do our best. Indeed, this particular trip will be most confined to the northern regions of the park, but I want to underscore that there is a LOT more of this landscape that we won’t see today.
As you will see, Canyonlands is a VAST area of canyons carved by mighty rivers that still flow through them to this day. Thousands of feet above the water, towering mesas look out across seemingly endless canyon-scapes. It offers more than a few STUNNING views.
There are lots of famous rock formations in Arches National Park, but the most famous of them all is called “Delicate Arch”. We wanted to get there early in the day and experience sunrise within the park, which meant that we have to get moving at the butt-crack of dawn. In the gentle early morning light, our rental car carried us out of Moab and up a steep switch-back road into the park. Mind you that Moab is already ~4,025 ft (1,227 m) above sea-level. Arches actually gets as high as ~5,653 ft (~1,723 m) above sea-level, and—despite being only ~5 miles (8 km) away from downtown Moab—is usually 5–10°F (~3-6° C) colder. That being said, both Moab and Arches get HOT in the summer. The record high in Moab was 114°F (~46°C), and summer highs frequently exceed in 100°F (38°C) within Arches. So, heat is a hazard here! Consequently, sunrise/sunset exploration tends to be preferred, with many visitors retreating to Moab for a nice air-conditioned siesta in the middle of the day.
The road you are about to see was an important regional access point long before Moab was ✨M0aB✨—it was (and still is) important for ranching and river access. AND, it was apparently an important area for Uranium mining in the mid-1900s. But the human element of this road is really besides the point; unlike the rigid grid systems you will find in a lot of US infrastructure, this road works with nature, snaking through this canyon, following the river wherever it goes. In this sort of geography, you’d really have no choice but to build this road this way. That’s one of the magical things about traveling out west: the natural features become far too big for humans to tame.
Colorado National Monument isn’t a single landmark, but a large area of landscape, which includes massive rock formations, deep canyons, and rugged plateaus, all of which were carved over millions of years by wind and water. The primary thing to do here is the Rim Rock Drive, which is a 23-mile-long paved road that brings you past a great many breathtaking views over dramatic sheer cliffs and expansive valleys. There are lots of places to stop along the way, many of which have their own hiking trails and camp sites. Today, we’re going to drive the Rim Rock Road.
And we’re back with Volume THREE from Toronto. This is only the 2nd city after London to get multiple volumes in this street art series so far. It’s a great honor 😂 and one that Toronto is extremely well deserving of. This is undoubtedly one of the best cities in the WORLD for street art, which is a designation that I am more and more qualified to bestow with each passing month.
In vol. 2 we were in Kensington Market and Ossington. Now, we’re going to move a but closer to “downtown” Toronto, and explore an area called the Fashion District.
