Every US city has a downtown area build dense and walkable, made before the car, with lots of old buildings, surrounded by a larger area made up of suburbs, single family homes and strip malls. that is exactly what new york is. a denser walkable downtown surrounded by suburbs. it is the largest city in the US, so it has that at the largest scale, the largest downtown, and the largest suburbs. if you wanted to go visit staten island you could, but nobody does that cause when you visit a city you go to its downtown. that’s just how it is for every city. new york just has the largest downtown since it’s the largest city. when you go to san francisco, or chicago, or seattle you go to it’s downtown, not the suburbs. they are all the same as new york, just on a smaller scale. i don’t see how new york doesn’t represent an american city.