New York will always be a beacon for other American enclaves. Like Lagos the city, New York will never carry last. Its place is in the front row. And I always remember the words of a poet: “New York, New York so good they call you twice”
By Olukorede Yishau
The runway of the LaGuardia Airport in Queens, New York, is encircled by water, a beautiful and scary development. When a plane is landing at this airport, which was opened in 1939, the fear of it dropping in the water is possible for a mind to conjure, especially if you look through the window as the plane drops to the concrete runway. Somewhere on the water is plastered a sign “Welcome to New York”.
Flying into New York through LaGuardia was a first. The more popular JFK had welcomed me on a number of occasions in time past. Getting a flight through JFK at the short interval I had proved abortive. Perhaps the fact that the world had literally emptied into New York for the United Nations General Assembly and its myriad of side meetings that have fast become the main events was responsible. World leaders don’t travel alone, their aides, their spouses, at times their children and others tag along. A mischievous fellow even say girlfriends sometimes make the entourage. So New York had more than it ordinarily should have, even for an UNGA week.
New York is undergoing changes and LaGuardia Airport — one of the city’s major airports, bears witness. It used to be avoided. A rating agency, Frommer, rated it as one of the worst airports in America because of delays and cancellations. The U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) said 22.52 per cent of flights were delayed or canceled from July 2019 to July 2021.
But the LaGuardia I flew into is revamped. The investment on it is the first on any American airport in 25 years. Billions of dollars worth of renovations has been done and it has earned a place as the best in design and architecture by an international jury for the Prix Versailles Award. Gone is what Bloomberg called a “once-infamous” airport.
The new wing features sculptures, ceramic murals and other works by New York-based artists, including permanent large-scale installations. They tell stories of the city’s immigrant history, its people and the importance of diversity. The terminal I flew in through belongs to American Airlines. Until its revamping, a 1960s-era Central Terminal Building was where travellers suffered. Now, a facility with 35 gates, a parking garage, a skybridge, almost 50 new shops, restaurants, and the Central Hall, which will connect with Terminal C, are functional.
Delta Air Lines decided to up the bar when it invested $4 billion to revamp its terminal at the LaGuardia. The new Delta Terminal C consolidated the old Terminals C and D into a single venue. It now has 37 gates across four concourses. Its completion date is 2024. The views so far are so breathtaking. The temptation to stop and take pictures is irresistible.
Even when it is still work in progress, New York Governor Kathy Hochul said of it: “This is your masterpiece, all of you involved, this is a legacy you will be telling your kids and grandkids. I believe that all our transportation centers should have the same experience. This forever will be a point of pride for all New Yorkers.”
Out of the airport, New York reminds me of the many literary works that have been set there, such as Akwaeke Emezi’s “Your beauty made a fool of death”, and Mbolo Mbue’s “Behold the dreamers”. Incidentally, Emezi’s book is the novel that I started reading shortly before leaving for New York City, and the one I completed reading on the trip.
For some reason, it was Mbue’s New York I kept seeing. Her book is a frank dissection of an average illegal immigrant’s experience in the city nicknamed the Big Apple. The novel tells us about Jende, a Cameroonian, who is in New York in search of the golden fleece. His Limbe hometown could not give him what he wanted. So, he applied for an American visa and lied to the consular that he would only be gone for three months, when he was sure he was only going to return after catching up with the elusive American dream.
When we first meet Jende Jonga, he is on the way to an interview with a Wall Street executive. He knows nothing about the troubles of the man nor is he aware of the troubles of the firm the man works for. His desire is to get the job, and he does get the job. It is in his moment of excitement that we are introduced to his wife, Neni who has a son, Liomi, for him. We soon find out the trouble he went through before he could marry her because her rich father did not see the good in him.
As we read on, we discover Jende is trying to get a United States permanent residency through asylum. A Nigerian lawyer, Bubakar, is the one helping him. The immigration sees through his cooked-up story and denies his application. When Bubakar breaks this news to him, his sadness knows no bounds. Neni is crestfallen when he breaks the news to her. With time, he finds out from Bubakar that immigration issues in America are never straight-jacketed, and there are avenues that can be exploited to keep him in America for years and years. He relaxes on hearing this news and concentrates on his job as a chauffeur to Mr. Clark Edwards and his family.
While on his job as a chauffeur, Jende discovers that all is not well with the firm his boss works with. Amid this, his wife stumbles on Mrs. Cindy Edwards in a condition that suggests she is on drugs.
The novel, in the main, is the story of Jende and Neni but, on another level, it is also the tale of the Edwards, whose travails unveil as Neni takes a short term job in their vacation home and learns that this seemingly perfect family is far from perfect. While her husband discovers that all is not well with Clark Edwards’ career, Neni is let into the dysfunction in the family. First, she stumbles on Mrs. Edwards in a drugged state, which leads to the rich woman letting her in on her rough background and all she had to endure to make it in life, including an abusive mother. She also discovers that the duo had had cause to see therapists for one challenge or the other. Second, she discovers their son is leaving home. His decision to abandon law school and move to India fittingly unravels this otherwise enviable family.
The heavens soon fall when the firm at which Mr. Clark Edwards works collapses like a pack of cards. The collapse comes with implications for Jende and Neni because their lives are intertwined with the Edwards. It is at this point that the centre finds it impossible to hold. Things have indeed fallen apart for the two families; difficult decisions have to be made and loyalty is put on trial and rigorously tested.
With the turn of events, Cindy puts Jende in a difficult position. She orders him to give her a written report of everywhere he drives her husband to. His reluctance makes her threaten his job and leaves him in a dilemma. How that is resolved is one of the many beauties of this amazing read.
The background to this well-heeled book is the mess that sometimes happen in the corporate world. In this case, it is Wall Street. Executives manipulate figures and by the time the secret is out, the damage sometimes leads to recession and other negative economic indexes. The fall of this giant firm, where books are cooked, is linked intelligently to the global financial crisis experienced between 2007 and 2008.
My final take: New York will always be a beacon for other American enclaves. Like Lagos the city, New York will never carry last. Its place is in the front row. And I always remember the words of a poet: “New York, New York so good they call you twice”.
Yishau is a newspaper columnist and author of ‘In The Name of Our Father’and’Vaults of Secrets’.