Walked over 10,000 steps this morning in Central Park. I passed tourists feeding squirrels, an old man playing John Lennon on his guitar, and an engaged couple posing for photos beside Bow Bridge, framed by red, orange, and yellow trees.
I even made it to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Below the towering steps, made famous by “Gossip Girl,” a long line of red, blue, and white arrows stuck to the sidewalk, guiding New Yorkers to an early polling site within the museum.
Only in New York City would voters cast their ballots in one of the world’s most famous museums. Meanwhile, in my rural hometown outside of Philadelphia, less than 100 miles away, people like my parents — farmers, firefighters, teachers, lawyers— vote in the basements of public libraries, middle school gymnasiums, and old town halls.
New Yorkers are lucky. That’s all there is to say. On my way out of the park, I took a final break on a bench near the 72nd Street exit on Central Park West. An older woman with blonde hair, a thin frame, and a swanky green pantsuit worth well over $3,000 walked by. She held her left lapel proudly, bearing a sticker that read: “I voted.”
She was walking into the park, meaning she’d entered from the Upper West Side, a distinctly blue neighborhood, even by New York standards. Across the park on Central Park East, where the Metropolitan Museum of Art stands, politics tend to swing more conservative.
The Upper West Side — home to prominent artists, journalists, academics from Columbia University, along with a large Jewish community — is a Democratic stronghold in Manhattan. By comparison, the Upper East Side is known for its white, wealthy elites — Rudy Giuliani, Rupert Murdoch, Betsy DeVos, Donald Trump Jr., and the late David Koch, a conservative businessman known for meddling in U.S. politics.
Earlier, as I walked outside the Metropolitan Museum, I noticed David Koch’s name engraved on the side of a sculpture. Knowing his impact on U.S. politics, it felt sacrilegious to see his name so near a voting site. But then again, it’s the Upper East Side.
Notice: Don’t take my words to heart. This is a literary essay meant to reflect the thoughts and words inside my mind.
Care to leave a comment? My email: aem2317@columbia.edu
Photo Essay Today From The West Side Rag (Upper West Side Paper): “UWS Smokers During Those Vanished Years of the 1970s and 80s“
Ashley Elizabeth Miller 
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