Thursday, July 31, 2008

But at least now I have my own office.


I always kindof thought that I'd be there at Prudential looking down from the 16th floor at the R/W/1/9 transfer when it was finished.

This week I watched as the workers prepared the roof of the above ground part of the station for a future cement pour.

It's a future that I won't see because today was my last day. I'm moving to my new job in Midtown.

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Good looking out.



This is what I'm talking about when I talk about finding a way to make room for the new without erasing the old.
This is an example of bricks laid by hand for the facade of a new condo going up on Spring Street. I am comforted that for the designers the goal "is to recede into the neighborhood’s fabric rather than stand out, and to evoke the brickwork of neighboring buildings that have stood for a century."
I really appreciate that.
I hope that more owners take this route as they hire people to design and build their condos for people with money to spend to live in them.
It's the city of New York. Not the city of New.


Harlem sheds a tear

... for Dr. Barbara Ann Teer.

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Spiderman lives in our building!

So there was some drama in the our apartment building.

Yesterday someone posted a note on the glass door to the foyer and by the mailboxes admonishing a fellow neighbor for their loud music at 7AM. That did not go over well.
By the time I’d returned home yesterday evening someone had written a response. “Get a life.”

This morning, the sign on the glass down had been taken down. Someone had left a longer response on the sign on the mailbox asserting that it was their cultural right to listen to music at levels that some consider loud at 7AM and threatening even louder music over the Labor Day weekend.

Bighead and I talked about the drama while at work. She, being a lot more even about this than I am, maintained that posting two snippy signs in the building about our fellow neighbor rather than talking to our neighbor is passive aggressive. I maintain that passive-aggression and culture do not excuse inconsiderate behavior. Threatening your neighbors with loud music specifically to offend them in the the name of a cultural-right is just as un-neighborly as passive-aggressively trying to shame your neighbor into turning their music down.

Frankly though, we were both concerned about the escalating anger in the notes and the surfacing negative feelings about gentrification.

Personally, I think that rude is rude regardless of how you feel about what gentrification is doing to your building/neighborhood. I think that an inability or unwillingness to take into consideration the fact that you have neighbors (in fact to breach the tacit but unspoken rules of apartment living) is poor home-training to say the least. It’s irresponsible and just plain lazy to use, “This is our culture” as justification for that bad behavior. It’s bad enough that our neighbors on the street behind us routinely have parties featuring music blasted so loud that there is no place in the building to go to escape it. It was really frustrating to have to think about someone planning such aural assault when I’m trying to have a nice relaxing long weekend. I think that it’s also important to note that there are 14 units in this building. Our broker has personally turned over 8 of these units over the past 6 months. Whether our neighbor likes it or not the majority of this building has been gentrified and the majority has become the minority.

It makes me a bit nervous because I don’t really want to have to deal with the kind of hostility that can surround gentrification. It’s one thing to have it on the street. It’s another thing to have it in my building. I think that on the street I’m a little bit incognito because I’m brown (which makes me worry sometimes for Bighead) but in my building they know that I’m new.

Luckily our building’s got its very own super-hero. Sometime today a level head posted a note pointing out that 1. Talking to your neighbors is the easiest way to resolve a situations and 2. That different people need different things in the morning.

I don’t know who this masked man is, but I love him.

Monday, July 28, 2008

Everydog has his day (I wish the same could be said for humans).

Today one of my co-workers told me that this weekend he watched as his dog battled the undertow at the beach during his swim. He was a bit worried but realized when his dog reached the shore, that he (the dog) hadn't really noticed the effort all that much. The dog loved to swim and just had himself a heckuva swim.

His dog, it seems, was a lot luckier than most.

Sunday, July 27, 2008

Holy Namesake, Batman!


Also, last night we saw bats in Prospect Park.

Same thought, different day.

I know that I've said this before, but it really never ceases to amaze me that in New York City just by traveling a few blocks you can find yourself in a completely different neighborhood (or in some cases, country).

What strikes me the most about this City is how in some neighborhoods one almost feels completely removed from the postcard image of NYC. When you walk down the street in your neighborhood it often feels like you're walking down the street in your very own small town.

Tonight while waiting for our car service Bighead and I were sitting on the steps outside of our friends' apartment. Between 19th Street and the Prospect Expressway below and the Greenwood Cemetery we were in our own little world. The footbridge passing over the Expressway reminded me of a covered bridge in Vermont or like a portal in some children's fantasy story.

I looked across the street at the abandoned brick and mortar factory and tried to read its original name in the far past faded white paint. The street was quiet and, looking up, I became convinced that on a clear night you could see stars.

From their kitchen you can see Manhattan.

I love New York.

Saturday, July 26, 2008

And so it goes...


The 10th Street Tea Lounge is officially no more.

Bighead and I walked by yesterday evening on our way to see the X-Files movie. I didn't think that it was supposed to close until the last day of the month but it appears that due to disputes with the landlord, it was closed 6 DAYS EARLY on Thursday night.
I'm really bummed. I don't feel like I got an opportunity to say good-bye.

Friday, July 25, 2008

TGIF in NYC.



It's just another gorgeous summer day in The City.


Taxis in flight, skyscrapers are high and Liberty is greengreengreen against the blueblue sky.

Thursday, July 24, 2008

The prodigal son returns.

Nas takes to the streets of Manhattan to personally deliver a petition to Fox News.

Fox, by not accepting the position, finds itself caught in a media trap.

The S stands for Simply Delightful.


Okay, so maybe the MTA isn't all bad. In its favor is the Franklin Avenue Shuttle.

It connects Bighead and I in the PLG to our wonderful and fabulous friends in Prospect Heights (especially the one that we will miss when she goes away to grad school next month) in a efficient and pleasant manner.

It allows its riders to go through (at least) three distinct neighborhoods in Brooklyn in a short but sweet span of time and track. And yet, there's something refreshingly small town about it.

I'm glad the the NYTimes.com did this little pictorial on it.

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

I love a rainy night.

I have a friend who is deathly afraid of thunderstorms.
She believes that the lightening his a vendetta against her and she has, actually, quite frightening proof to back up her claims.

Having spent my formative years in Florida I can safely say that I believe that she is quite safe here. The lighting in a NYC thunderstorm is trapped by the clouds' prism. (At least in Brooklyn it is.) It is unable to put its finger on her. But it lights up the sky in ways hundreds of times more magnificent than the Macy's 4th of July fireworks.

(Un)Fare hike

The fare hike news has people hopping mad.
Especially the knowledge that after the 8% increase next July, there will be another 3% increase 18 months later.

The NYTimes blog post about this features comments with a bevy of suggestions. Some in support of the fare increase and some in dissent.

What is the most striking to me is the sense of betrayal that I infer when I read the dissenters posts. I mean, there is anger to be sure, but mostly these commenters, these fellow riders, feel let down by the system that runs their day (if not their City). I share with them (as I’ve made plain before) the frustration that the increases in fares does not mean and increase in service or appearance; that the MTA has been known to keep two sets of books and lose million dollar surpluses overnight.
This isn’t right. That’s the root of the feeling. This isn’t right and no one is standing up for us.

Now, some of the supporters, the ones not calling people “Communists” (which, really? Is that really still used as an insult?) raise some interesting points that 1. the NYC subway system is (ostensibly) 24/7 no other system in the world keeps that kind of a schedule making those other systems easier to clean and run.
2. The NYC subway system is over a 100-years old and repairing something that old is always quite costly and time consuming and 3. it is a fallacy to assume that higher fares mean an increase in service –that’d be like expecting a HUGE Bigmac personally brought out to your car whenever Mickey D’s raises its prices.
And finally, 4. that because the MTA is not wholly privatized (and many of it’s executives are appointed) it is not able to raise the fares to the levels that it really needs to raise them to in order to get things done because if it did that it’d have to deal with a whole lot of political fallout.

I was impressed with these arguments but that doesn’t change my feeling that:

1. The subway system could remain 24/7 and still have cleaner cars/stations. All that is necessary is a clear change in policy as far as WHICH lines will be running all day and when. If riders knew that at suchandsuch time suchandsuch stations would be closed for cleaning, repair and train servicing and if they could SEE the results they would learn to make the adjustment. This requires something that that MTA has historically lacked and that is clear, accessible and consistent information.

2. Many riders, particularly those in the outer boroughs can appreciate the age of the subway system. They needn’t be lectured about it after they’ve probably just endured an uncomfortable hour-long commute. I don’t need some sometime-y rider telling me about the age of the system and about how it’s unrealistic of me to hope each and every day as I wait for the Manhattan-bound Q at Parkside that the cracks in the tunnel (helpfully outlined in day-glow orange spray paint) don’t decide to burst. Again, if riders could see what kind of maintenance was being performed they wouldn’t be as upset about it.
The fact that one gets on the train in Brooklyn where many stations stink and the tracks are laid too far away from the train causing huge (and dangerous gaps) and where stops are often skipped without so much as a whathadhappenedwas and then travels in Manhattan where many stations are clean and beautiful and the trains stop regularly and there are MTA employees actually being useful in the booths is grating. It makes a person feel like the shit, not the money, rolls downhill. Because, I would argue, that the tunnels and lines of rail in the outer boroughs not nearly as old as the olds in Manhattan proper, and therefore should be easier to service and repair. The fact that costly cosmetic changes are consistently being made to stations in Manhattan trumps the logic that the system is too old to easily do anything with.

3. I, for one, am not asking for an increase in service. Sure, I’d like to be able to sit down during my commute and I’d like to have a little bit of air circulating every now and then but that’s not what I would consider an increase. That’s what I’d consider a modicum of service. The MTA needn’t increase the number of trains if it actually committed itself to the effective management of the trains and buses and the schedules that it already has. I’d be happy to continue to stand if I knew that after my time packed in like a sardine I’d at least get to work on time. Better yet, I’d feel better knowing that I WASN’T going to get to work on time because an MTA employee let it be known about what was going on during the rush hour. The thing about the Bigmac analogy is that even though you’re paying more for the Bigmac you know what you’re going to get and you know that you’re going to like it. You also know that if you feel like Mickey D’s has really caused you grief you can lodge a formal complaint and get some sort of recompense. Straphangers don’t really have that option.

4. I think that the MTA had an opportunity to raise the fares where it needed them to be to move forward: the 70’s and 80’s and early 90’s when the system was for shit. It does not make good political or business sense just to raise them so-so to do so-so work. Frankly, I think that the MTA doesn’t make the dramatic fare hikes that it needs because it realizes that then it would be even more beholden to the consumer to give them their money’s worth. It’s awful convenient to be able to say, “Hey, you’re only paying $2 a swipe. That’s a great deal. Sit down and shut up.” If we were paying $5 a swipe would the MTA be able to guarantee us that anything would change? I’m going to bet, no. The MTA is not raising fares to cover increases in service. The MTA is not raising fares to really meet its day-to-day operating costs. The MTA is raising fares to cover bad business decisions made 20 to 30 years ago. Even at $5 a swipe we’d have to wade through 30 year old financial bullshit before we even began to address today’s/tomorrow’s needs.

My suggestions?
1. A thorough audit of the MTA’s books by 3 independent external agencies.
2. Experts from all of the major cities with comparable transit systems analyze the NYC system and make suggestions.
3. Public hearings about the different suggestions.
4. Search for a new transit authority.
5. New transit authority is not staffed by officials who are not appointed by the riders.

What’ve you got?

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

I miss Bagel Bob's too.


When I was at NYU there was a homeless person that used to rule University Place between 10th Street and the Washington Square Park (East side of the street). More often than not he would be in front of Bagel Bob's (which is no longer) particularly on Monday nights when they'd have their Baker's Dozen special.

He would say hello and ask us about our day. Jenny and I never had any money but we'd give him and food that we had and he'd chat.

He is a clear marker in my memories of those madcap days.

He's no longer there. Neither is William T. my favourite homeless schizoid personality who used to sell semi-precious mineral rings in front of KMart.

Their consistency in the fast-paced changing landscape of The City was comforting and made me feel safe. I miss them.

There is a homeless man in Park Slope who hangs out in the vestibule of the Citibank on 7th Avenue. I never have money for him (even when coming from the ATM) but lately I've taken to giving him whatever foodstuffs I have on me at the time.
Tonight I gave him tomorrow's dinner. Well, at least that's how I thought of it. To him it was probably yesterday's breakfast.

Boss' office

From the corner office one can see both of the waterfalls and the whole (I believe) of the a harbor that is always busier than I expect it to be.






On a humid day like today mist hangs at the tree line of Governor's Island and even in Brooklyn outlining what at one time there were hills that rolled.

You know how I said in the last post that I take the subway...

I'm not sure for how much longer.

The NYTimes reported today that the MTA was proposing yet ANOTHER fare hike. I mean, for serious?

This is getting out of control. We had a fare hike earlier this year (which, as has been pointed out in the article, did not raise the base fare but instead raised the Unlimited fares
[to the point where the benefit of purchasing a monthly unlimited card is seen in the barest of bare margins:
A 30 day unlimited MetroCard costs $81.
If you use that card twice a day for 30 days you pay $1.35 per swipe.
However, if you use that card -as I am willing to go out on a limb and say that most commuters do- twice a day for 20 days a in a month you pay $2.025 a swipe. <~ That's more than a regular $2 swipe.
If you use that card twice a day for 6 days out of the week, 24 days out of the month, you end up paying $1.6875.
At most (at least 60 swipes per month) you get nice bit of change back. To you I say, "Bravo" and "Why the hell are you on the train that much?"
On the {generous, I think} average (48 swipes per month) you get a whopping $0.3125 back for each swipe.
If you're like me and don't really need to use your card that much on the weekends if you're not in rehearsal, you're fucking screwed.
...]) and I'm still feeling the pinch. I can only imagine what this next hike will be: a $2.25 base fare and another hike in the Unlimited cards. <~ And that's just my conservative estimate.

The frustrating part of all of this is (and I know that I've said it before) is that this hike is just to cover the MTA's existing overhead, NOT to increase service or the conditions of the trains or the buses or the stations.

It's like we live on a island and in order to get to the mainland we need to give our first born to the Ferryman.
Oh wait, that's probably next year's hike.

More accident info.

This just gets worse and worse. Two motorcycles. One NYer dead. And one man must live with the knowledge that he killed someone.

No matter what he's punished with for driving while "impaired" he has to live the with fact that he's killed someone.

Driver's like this (and accidents like this) are one of the reasons that I'm glad that I can't drive and live in a city where I can take the subway (nearly) everywhere.

My condolences to all of the families affected by this accident.

Monday, July 21, 2008

In Harlem there is no such thing as still life.

At least not as this man sees it.

I would much rather have seen any of these images than today's accident.

This one is my favourite.

It really speak to the time and the place and I just cannot get over the young man's grin.

Sometimes living in NYC is like a movie. Sometimes that's not a good thing.

Today leaving work I noticed a crowd of people gathered just South of the Whitehall Street R stop on the East side of the Staten Island Ferry. They were looking past the yellow and red tape that cordoned off the street and at the car which had accordioned into the barrier and at the mass covered in tarp.

I didn't think any of it as I scurried down the steps to the train. Earlier in the day on the other side of the building, I'd pointed out the trailer and tech trucks for some sort of filming that was happening. I assumed that whatever was causing people to mill about while I was trying desperately to make the next train had something to do with a movie that I would probably never see.

It wasn't.
This is the barest of information but I am sure that there will be more info later tonight or tomorrow. I'll try and post it.

Sunday, July 20, 2008

Sometimes I don't mind the reggae.

Sometimes when the breeze is blowing just right on these steamy summer days and the smell of jerk is wafting just so through the windows and I can sit and relax on my couch and sip my water or my iced coffee, the neighbors' reggae sounds gentle and soothing and like a vacation of the best kind.

The kind of vacation that doesn't require me leaving The City but being transported, almost wholly, from it.

Saturday, July 12, 2008

This may be petty but whatevs/

Perhaps Mr. Rangel should think about his tenuous bounty a bit when defending possibly legal but definitely unethical housing situations.

Friday, July 11, 2008

It's a family affair. And that's not good.

This evening on the Brooklyn bound Q a man got on the train at Canal Street with his three sons. He sang and strummed "Getting Better" with one of his sons on the bongos and another harmonized with him.

He solicited money from us and admonished us to help him feed his children while they sighed and sat upon the floor.

I was paralyzed.
I thought about how I was, in fact, just a couple of missed paychecks away from being in really dire straights. I thought about how my mother kept the three of us in house and home and occasionally kudos while making roughly what I make right now (and am j.u.s.t. pulling through on). I thought about the shame he must feel about needing us and about how angry he was with those of us who did not reach into our pockets.

I did not. I often do not (I am not not proud about this. I am not even resigned to this fact. I'm just not going to pretend that I do when I do not.). Usually it is simply because of the fact that I carry very little cash on me and that I need that cash to get through the day. Sometimes it's because I don't trust where my money is going. Sometimes it's because I'm just frustrated that I have to be presented with this scenario. It's kind of like how I feel slightly frustrated when traffic is held up because of a funeral -because it forces me to stop and contemplate my own mortality (but mostly because it forces me to stop and think and I end up thinking about that family and their loss and the pain that they must feel). And this is a scenario, especially with the housing and mortgage crises in The City, is increasing in its frequency. But this was the first time that I'd ever seen children.

I looked at the men sitting in the seats adjacent to mine. They were completely unfazed. I wasn't. I wanted to be anywhere but there. I wanted that family to be anywhere but there. No, that's not true. I wanted them to be in a home. Safe. With food to eat tonight and certainty about where it would come from tomorrow.
I wonder if that calm in the face of struggle happens in time. I'm not sure though, I've been in this city for years and it hasn't become easier for me yet. There's always a little bit of guilt (even if I give... there's always a feeling that I didn't give enough) and a lot of sorrow. As much as I love what The City has given me, I kind of hope that it never gives the the ability to remain unfazed so that I can recognize the tenuous bounty that I have.

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Summer Street Scene

On Hawthorne Street, between Flatbush and Bedford, all of the girls sit outside of a house on the South side of the street and call across the street to the boys where they (laze luxuriately as the slender black boys of Summer generally do) call to them from an apartment building on the North side of the street between laughter and the sound of skateboard wheels on asphalt.

I do not believe that I was ever young like this and I doubt that they believe that they will ever be old like me.

In the News


For the past two and a half years, this has been my newsstand. It’s on the corner of Whitehall and Water streets and from it you can see the 1/9/4/5 line projects, the Starbucks and NY Sports Club and the Au Bon Pain. I’m pretty sure that if the windows could open I’d be able to see it from the conference room.

I don’t know if this is an “I took this for granted” moment. It’s true I never really thought about it much.

Sure, occasionally, I thought, “This job must suck in the Winter,” or “My, what a nice selection of mints,” or “’Classy’ magazines in the front, booty magazines on the side –the American Way.” But it never occurred to be until this article that this wasn’t just a job for the Newstand man.
This was his business. He owned the stand (until recently) that I passed nearly each and everyday. He knew this street. He knew the predilections of his regular customers. He was there when the plan for the 1/9/4/5 project was merely dream. He remembered when the office workers used to use the payphone for actual calls as opposed to standing near it while chatting or texting on their Blackberries. His little red establishment is an important part of the tapestry of The City.

What makes me sad is that I this realization has only now come to me, just as The City’s PowersThatBe decide to take it away.

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

I guess I have to stop dogging it now.

Wellwellwell, I finally read a New Yorker that made me want to keep reading luckily, my first free issue of New York Magazine arrived before I became too highbrow even for myself.

Friday, July 4, 2008

July 4th


Happy 4th of July NYC.

Happy 4th of July to all of my fellow NYers. Especially those on Prospect Place who've dedicated their evening to lighting the street afire with illegal fireworks.

Thursday, July 3, 2008

Lady Liberty and her crew.

Today the office was released early because of the holiday, but not before I got a glimpse of Liberty from the conference room windows.


Wednesday, July 2, 2008

I'll chase the waterfalls if I want to Paul.

UPDATE:
The waterfall is back on at Governor's Island.

Also, did you hear the rumor about a possible replica of the Old Globe on Governor's Island? It's being called the New Globe and fundraisers are busybusybusy and it looks like getting the okay for it is an uphill battle.

I happen to think that it's a GREAT battle.

And if the waterfalls have taught us anything it's that people are interested in seeing new things a Governor's Island.

GOlympics!


I don't know yet, why I haven't enthused on this blog about the Olympics seeing as how I'm a HUGE fan and every night this week (since she discovered the nightly coverage because she's the best that NYC has to offer) Bighead and I have been sitting down to watch the trials.

Which trials?
ANY trials. It really doesn't matter to me. If it says "Olympic" in front of it I am there on the edge of my couch rooting for these athletes to accomplish their grandest dreams.

Perhaps I haven't talked about the Olympics because I haven't found a way to connect it to New York City (though now that I'm thinking about it I can let you in a the little secret that I was really pulling for NYC to win its bid for 2012 even though I knew that the traffic and everything else about it would be a total nightmare. Despite all of the CRAP that it would meant to my fellow NYers, I believe that NYC can throw down the most awesome Olympics yet. 2016. 2020. 20whenever don't give up on your dream NYC!) until today.


The NY Times gave me this little NYC-Olympics link and I am terribly pleased.

A hearty GOOD LUCK to Lesley Higgins as she steeple-chases her Olympic dreams!

This sometimes happens when I take a shower in the new apartment.

The waterfall at Governor's Island is off and I really kind of miss it.

I wonder if the rest of the waterfalls are off.
Mostly, I wonder why it's off.

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Hawthorne Street

One of the things that I really love about my street (Hawthorne Street) is that the buildings are very much higher than the trees that line it.