Confession: I haven't seen the new Joker movie. But it looks quite good and I'll probably watch it once it becomes available through Apple TV.

I have, however, been reading about all the photographic attention that is now being paid to the "Joker Stairs" that feature prominently in the movie. These are a long set of stairs that connect W 167th Street from Anderson Ave down to Shakespeare Ave in the Bronx. I had no idea the area was so hilly. (Click here for Google Street View.)

Two things immediately struck me about this.

One, these are a perfunctory set of stairs that were previously not given much attention until they were showcased in a movie and ultimately imbued with new symbolism. Put differently, the stairs didn't change; the cultural context did. This is patently obvious, but it shows that architecture and urbanism are, at the end of the day, symbols.

Two, people, and more specifically local residents, are