New York in Buenos Aires

I've long wanted to write (and discussed with the editor I have written for at the New York Times, Connie Rosenblum (check out her new book -- Boulevard of Dreams)), an article about how so many cities, in the U.S. and beyond, have New York "sites."

It is not just the presence of Subway fast food stores, or the occasional clothing store with New York in its name, but that whole sections of the city take on New York place names (or are given them by developers or city officials).

My interest -- more like an occasional hobby -- began long ago when, in the summer of 1988, I traveled to Phoenix (thanks to Yale's Richter Summer Fellowship) to investigate mutual housing associations, a model of affordable housing I had first learned about in Berlin. I remember talking to a city planner who described an area of town as "our Greenwich Village." You've been to Phoenix? There is much to like there, but it is about the furthest from being New York as any place in the world. But they were convinced that by naming an area they might be able to mimic the attributes of that New York district. It is a form of flattery, or cheap economic development, or, perhaps just wannabeism.

So, here is what I have found so far in Buenos Aires:

Palermo Soho (the neighborhood very close to us -- it is unclear as to whether or not people here refer to it that way. It is defined by expensive restaurants and bars, and tourists).

Luna Park -- the early-1900s grand music, dance, and boxing venue, where we saw the Tango finale, named, certainly, after the Coney Island amusement park.

Manhattan Disco in Belgrano -- complete with a three story facade that look just like the top of the Chrysler Building

And just now, walking back from the Japanese Garden: "Wall Street Advertising." This company seem to control much of the signage, on century-old signposts that are on all major avenues. (We have seen, by the way, the changing of the huge signs on Av. Santa Fe -- a remarkable feat of ballet, featuring a man below throwing up (with total accuracy) folded up canvas sheet which are then applied by his comrade who is balancing from a very, very tall ladder, piece by piece, across a twenty-foot long billboard. A little bit of old Times Square....)