THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, April 2, 1995 TAG: 9503300186
SECTION: CAROLINA COAST PAGE: 07 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Opinion
SOURCE: BY AMY SHAFFER
LENGTH: Medium: 62 lines
I went to New York City and did not get mugged. From everything I've ever heard or read about that place, I must have been the first.
``Never look anyone in the eye,'' I was told. ``Walk fast and ignore everyone.''
For a small-town teenager like myself, New York is a place of hidden fears and horrific nightmares, a place where outsiders are sure that lunatics lurk in the shadows and murderers cruise the subways looking for fresh victims.
So when I traveled from the Outer Banks for a journalism convention at Columbia University March 15-17, I expected the worst.
I was surprised by what I found. While I had been busy worrying about thieves and drug dealers, I somehow managed to forget about all the great aspects of the city.
I hadn't thought of Broadway, with all the colorful advertisements and glamorous stars; or the serene majesty of buildings with hundreds of floors. I hadn't even considered Rockefeller Center, one tiny stretch of clean white where tourists are encouraged to embarrass themselves on ice skates.
Some things connected with the traditional New York myth were accurate. It's true that the city never sleeps: As I looked down from the 15th floor of our hotel at 2 a.m., there were just as many bustling bodies as there were at noon.
Also, many of the taxi drivers seemed to have difficulty going less than 50 miles an hour between stoplights and even more difficulty staying in one lane. But I found that if I averted my eyes and closed my ears to the blaring horns, it was sort of like an amusement park ride.
However, no matter what you've heard, there are people in New York who are nice. Not everyone wants to steal your possessions or hurt you. It is no more accurate to stereotype all New Yorkers as dangerous or callous than it is to connect all females in the South to Scarlett O'Hara and hoop skirts.
In fact, as a group of eight high school students and two adults, each toting backpacks and cameras, we would probably have been treated with less respect on the Outer Banks, where tourists and young people both are looked down upon a lot of the time.
But in the city we were treated just like everyone else - with indifference by most and with courtesy by those who were in contact with us.
It's impossible to ignore the obvious crime problem in New York. The constant sirens blaring in the distance and the police booths on the sidewalks can attest to that.
I can't say that I would feel safe striking up a conversation with a stranger on the subway in the middle of the night or swinging by the peep show buildings for a pack of gum.
But I realize now that most of my fears were unreasonable and unfair. It's horrible to think that I could have ruined my trip to such a wonderful and unique place simply by being suspicious of everyone I saw. Surviving in New York is just a matter of using some common sense and keeping an open mind.
Now I can't wait to go back again - and this time I'll leave the paranoia at home. MEMO: Amy Shaffer, a senior at Manteo High School, hopes to become a
journalist. by CNB