“THE CITY THAT NEVER SLEEPS.” I despise that tagline with the disdain I reserve for anything that is right for the wrong reasons—true in letter but disingenuous in spirit. New York City is indeed a hard place to sleep, and partly for the reason the maxim implies: There’s so much to do here! So much to consume! But crucially: To afford any of it, you can’t stop working long enough to rest. The cost of living makes this city the apotheosis of what art historian Jonathan Crary described in his 2013 classic 24/7: Late Capitalism and the Ends of Sleep, a coerced state of nonstop productivity. In such a state, economic demand is packaged as hustle culture; rest is squeezed into smaller and smaller slivers of time; devices keep us overstimulated and always on; and we simply cannot afford to unplug. I haven’t been to Times Square since I was a teenager, but I feel the bright lights of the big city blazing down on me in the perma-fluorescents in the subway car, the blinking red surveillance cameras on the street corner, and the constantly glowing screen in my hand.
I’ve lived…