‘Polishing the Apple’: The Systematic Eradication of ‘Otherness’ from the New York Crowd Polir la Grande Pomme : L’éradication systématique de l’altérité dans la foule newyorkaise

This article recognises Manhattan’s current precarious state as it seeks to evict ‘outsiders’ from its shores via a combined process of surveillance and gentrification. This ongoing filtering process will have a direct impact on the multiplicity of its crowds, as the presence and history of the ‘outsider’ is rapidly eradicated. Manhattan has been a partitioned space since its early beginnings as a metropolis. The rigid grid system was an attempt to impose order on a disorderly space. I examine the manner in which a potential for disorder has always been inherent within the grid, and how the current efforts to stem all forms of disorder at street level threatens Manhattan’s existence as a creative centre. I further examine the street as a performance space. The city’s density and complex network of social boundaries dictate a definite sense of place, in terms of insider and outsidership. In such a space, the performance of identity becomes an essential survival method for the walker when passing through multiple urban divides. I seek to critically reassess how strategies of social transgression employed by Manhattan’s community of excluded ‘outsiders’, such as ‘passing’, border crossing and flanerie have been appropriated and/or utilised by the State. As pedestrians come under increasingly heavy surveillance, I consider the manner in which the city’s nomads have taken refuge beneath the streets. My analysis of current trends portends the creation of an obedient, sterile cityspace where ‘outsidership’ itself is no more than a mere performance. Cet article prend acte de l’état précaire de Manhattan alors que les autorités s’efforcent d’évacuer ses outsiders par un processus combiné de surveillance et de gentrification. Ce processus continuel de filtrage a un effet direct sur la multiplicité des foules newyorkaises alors que la présence et l’héritage historique des outsiders se voit rapidement éradiquée. Manhattan a constitué un espace partitionné depuis les premières heures de son histoire et son système rigide de quadrillage des artères était déjà au départ un effort d’ordonnancement d’un espace de désordre. Cet article examine cependant de quelle manière ce système de quadrillage a toujours recelé un potentiel de contestation, alors que les tentatives actuelles pour contrer toute forme de désordre au niveau des rues menace le caractère de Manhattan comme centre de créativité. Cet article examinera par la suite la rue comme espace de performance. Le tissu dense et complexe des frontières sociales à New York dicte un sens du lieu qui définit les ap