New York City
13 posts
Log on and chat a while. Continue reading
Strive on, Crassers. Continue reading
I got to thinking about the heavy crack days. New York’s, not mine. Crack was like a tidal wave crashing across the city. I lived uptown, in the 120s. You know how, when you walk in the country at a certain time of year, you hear the leaves crunching beneath every step? It was like that in my neighborhood. Not leaves, though, crack vials.
I would get the train at the valley of 125th Street most mornings, at the only elevated stop on the original Manhattan IRT lines, thanks to the island’s sudden dip in altitude between Morningside Heights and Hamilton Heights. I was usually the only person not jumping the turnstile. Continue reading
In a new article released by the New York Times, sources confirm that Michael Bloomberg didn’t want his reign over New York City to end with ushering in some regular schmoe politician. Oh, no siree. On the contrary, since being mayor of New York is akin to being an Egyptian Pharaoh, he wanted to find a successor worthy of the magnanimous role of presiding over the entire world of New York — and by extension apparently the boroughs of Atlantis, Valhalla, and Narnia — and that person would be soon to be retired Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton.
Bloomberg, who’s had a good relationship with Clinton, placed a call to the Secretary of State to encourage her entry into the 2013 mayor’s race. Continue reading
Maybe we can file this under “Only in Manhattan” or “Things only the insanely rich will think of?” At any rate, Beverly Taki and her husband, Louis Maione of Park Avenue feel they should be reimbursed by their co-op board for $27,000 worth of takeout meals. And I’d like my co-op board to pay me in diamond stud earrings for every grass clipping that lands on my welcome mat. Yes, thank you. Continue reading
Air passengers flying into LaGuardia or JFK, take note: New York City police commissioner Ray Kelly told 60 Minutes anchor Scott Pelley on Sunday that the New York City police department has both equipment and trained personnel to shoot down a plane over New York in case of another terrorist plane threat.
“In an extreme situation, we would have some means to take down a plane,” Kelly said on Sunday night’s broadcast.
After the show aired, sources told the New York Post that the weapon is a Barret .50 caliber rifle, which can be mounted on almost any police chopper. The weapon, according to the Post sources, is stored in an NYPD safe and is deployed only for “special occasions,” such as when the president is in town.
September 11, 2001 meant many things to many people. When it occurred to me that I wanted to write something about that day, I had a hard time coming up with a subject that I felt I could confidently tackle within the confines of this space. Should I address the war on “tear“, as Bush pronounces the word? The discrimination imposed on Muslims? How we started a war against a country that had nothing to do with the attacks based on faulty intelligence?
I had second thoughts on even writing about this subject at all. Between the news this past Friday being all 9/11, all the time, and the round-the-clock Very Special Episodes of coverage on practically every channel, those doubts persisted. The supposed “credible threat” about an attack on NY and DC on the tenth anniversary did nothing to ease the media frenzy. I ultimately decided to just share what the day was like for me. Continue reading
The Lower East Side has always been food-centric with its pickles and bialys and kosher bakeries. But only in the past few years has it become foodie-centric.
The biggest changes to the neighborhood have occurred below Delancey Street, which used to be a ghost town but is rapidly becoming a destination. Below are a few places that I recommend your taste buds get better acquainted with: Continue reading
For those of you who know me, you know that I have done a good deal of living, working, and studying abroad. In fact, I’ve spent almost two years of my life outside of the States. But every time I travel domestically, it becomes painfully obvious that New York has ruined the every other city in America for me. It’s not hard to see why Paris or West Africa or South India cannot be realistically compared to New York – those cities are different worlds, and as the old saying goes, “I want a damn apple, why did you give me an orange?” Well, it’s something like that. It is also not hard to separate New York from American suburbia, where the vast majority of people think it’s bizarre to use one’s own feet as a means of transportation. What is hard, I’ve discovered, is figuring out how to not apply the New York standard to any other urban metropolis in the 50 US states (and maybe Canada).
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