Ideas of Escapism

Being a product of an urban environment myself, I’m constantly fascinated by the idea of escape, particularly from the noisy, crowded streets of the metropolis to greener pastures. And I mean this quite literally. Nothing is better than hopping the Jitney bus on a sweltering Friday afternoon, knowing that in two short hours, visions of trash strewn streets, thick hazy air, and loud whizzing cabs will soon be replaced by the peaceful parks and relaxing beaches of Amagansett or Southampton Long Island. It’s almost expected that come Memorial Day, the weekly exodus from New York City to the Hamptons, the Connecticut countryside, or the New Jersey seaside hideaways will filter city streets, separating the few who have remained and those who have escaped. Certainly I understand the need to escape from the chaos and the grime, and therefore, the weekend getaways prove so appealing to city dwellers. However, for the tried and true New Yorkers who sweat out the summer months within 212-718-646 area codes, the city plays host to substitute forms of nature and rural landscapes in order to create a balance within the frenzied metropolis.

Because of my fascination with the city and one’s escape from it, I focused most of my attention on the parallels between the quintessential Georgian city of Bath, as Cosgrove describes, and the city of New York, which within recent years has adopted a “green” campaign to include natural parks and public spaces within its concrete confines. In “England: Prospects, Palladianism and Paternal Landscapes” Cosgrove not only touches on the importance of city “naturalizing” and the incorporation of gardens as “pleasing prospects” in urban development, but he also points to the political implications of such distinctions between country and urban influences. Wealthy landowners of country farms and estates would lease their property for capitalist gain, “creating a market for capitalist accumulation.” Thus, others were pushed out of the city to work these lands, and the wealthy remained in the newly redesigned civic spaces of London, Bath, and the like. Cosgrove states, “The city [became] viewed as a product of the country, or at least of a set of attitudes and values still powerfully rooted in the idea of land as the foundation of wealth and status.”

This idea seems all too familiar. No, every Friday afternoon I was not on that Jitney bus to the Hamptons. Why? Because I had to work. Also, I didn’t have access to five thousand dollars (split amongst four friends) to rent a house for the summer in Montauk. I was forced to sweat it out in the city with the rest of the “poors,” taking solace in an air conditioned office on the twenty seventh floor of the Empire State Building. My idea of an escape was a picnic in Central Park, a visit to the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens, or a trip to the farmer’s market in Union Square. I’m thankful for the “natural” spaces within the city, despite their artificiality in creation, because I now have the opportunity to escape, even if I'm forced to stay.