These days it seems the Big Apple is on a tear. In the last several weeks, we have seen New York City go from strength to strength. It may be hard to believe just after the Oscars, Los Angeles’ show of cultural strength, but New York City is on a spree of cultural dominance. First, New York elected a new mayor, and dozens of articles were written about that new mayor, Bill de Blasio, and how he symbolized a new era for the Democratic Party. True or not, a change in New York’s government reverberated across the country.
Then, Jimmy Fallon announced he was moving “The Tonight Show” back to New York City. The tag line for The Atlantic Cities website is “Place Matters.” It may seem funny to think about, in this age of the Internet and the world being flat, but place matters as much as ever. Jimmy’s explanation of why he was keeping “The Tonight Show” in New York City was, basically, Place Matters. He told the New York Times, “It’s electric here. It’s the trendsetting city. It’s the most alive city in the world.” Fallon knew that he could get whatever guests he wants in New York City. New York has a sense of place and dynamism that Jimmy Fallon loves; he cannot imagine moving out.
As an example of the trend, Saturday night we saw an all-New-York Saturday Night Live: Lena Dunham with musical guest The National. A Brooklyn TV star and a Brooklyn indie rock band being broadcast live from Manhattan on a New York institution of a show.
This goes to show you that, even in the era of the Internet, place still matters. If you want to be on top of culture, New York is still the place to go. Just like country music hopefuls move to Nashville, like Taylor Swift did at age 14 (14!), other stars-to-be move to New York.
Even our country’s scandal-of-the-moment surrounding the George Washington Bridge is a New York metro area commuting scandal.
What do you think? Has the Internet evened the playing field, or does it still matter to move to New York? Was Jimmy Fallon just following the trend of culture moving back to the East Coast? Are we experiencing an East Coast moment?