The More Things Change...

Oh, hi. I've been rather quiet lately. Such is the case when one is working on a book project. I spend a lot of time lost in my own depth, in silent places like Butler Library up at Columbia. I come up for air -- and lunch -- at Community Food & Juice, but then go right back to my laptop. (Get the rice bowl with salmon. You're welcome.)

Don't fret. There is still much socializing. On Monday, while en route to brunch with some of my lady friends, I passed the office in the photo above. In the back of my head I always knew this guy and his newspaper delivery business existed, I just didn't realize he was still there. And on Great Jones Street, which has become a niche of fine dining and pricey loft apartments. I slyly poked my head through the door, because I'm a creeper, and it was business as usual in there, as if the internet and 347 area codes never happened.

(Note that his phone number doesn't have an area code. It is assumed that it is 212.)

New York City, Pre-Bloomberg

Now that Mayor Bloomberg is on his way out, a lot has been written about his legacy, focusing mainly on how he made New York City a cleaner, safer place to live.

Like clockwork, there are now lots of photo galleries popping up of pre-Bloomberg (and pre-Guiliani) New York City. It's the New York that was covered in graffiti and somewhat unsafe. And still very beautiful. I'm a late-90s arrival, so many of these photos are way before my time. But I still remember when the Lower East Side was considered edgy and the far West 40s were the last place you wanted to be late at night.

Click on any of the photos below to see the entire collection. Vintage Everyday is a wonderful source of old photographs, of New York City and elsewhere.

Around Town

If 90% of life is showing up, then 90% of getting nice photos involves just leaving the house.

Abandoned Davie Bowie record on 19th Street. (The others were in Russian.)	This man speaks the truth

The young urbanite

Discarded Santa set outside Macy's, 35th and Broadway. Sad face.

All idyllic after a run in Central Park

Summer Streets Is Back!

I'm a big fan of all things Summer Streets, especially early in the morning before it gets too crowded and all the free samples are gone.

This year there is an installation in the tunnel that links 33rd Street to 40th Street, one that is all lights and sounds. Very excited to check it out before run club tomorrow morning. The video above explains more.

The Unwritten Social Rules Of Manhattan

A few weeks ago some friends and I were talking about how the MTA needs to have an etiquette campaign on par with "If You See Something, Say Something." There's a lot of wrong every day on buses and trains, and usually via perfectly normal-looking professionals, en route to work.

It came up when a friend of mine, who has four-year-old twins and takes the 7 train from Queens every day, said she often had a hard time physically getting onto the subway because people stand in front of the sliding doors. Ever the clever woman, she now shouts, "Hot coffee!" whenever she needs to get onto the train. Miraculously, people move. (It should be noted that she rarely ever actually has coffee in her hands. She just wants to people to step aside.)

In addition to the unwritten life rules in the video above, there are a few other points I would love to see in this imaginary etiquette campaign:

1. Always give up your seat to a pregnant woman. Always. Even if you are also a woman. This is not about chivalry, it's about being thoughtful to someone who needs that seat way more than you do. (Creating life is exhausting.)

2.On that note, always offer your seat on a bus or subway to someone with a small child. It is infinitely easier to manage a toddler when they are sitting down.

3. Clipping nails and eating chicken on public transport is always no bueno. This needs no elaboration.

4. Be present: When someone is walking down the street, wearing headphones and texting at the same time, it is hard to feel sorry for them when they trip and/or bump into someone.

5. Cross on the green, not in between: This was a public service annoucement back in the 1980s, yet I seem to be the only one who remembers it. It's timeless advice: if you're not looking to get hit by a semi, wait for the green light. Jaywalking may not be an enforcable crime, but in Manhattan it can actually land you in the emergency room.

6. If you're on a Citi Bike, wear a helmet: I would love to hear an intelligent reason as to why anyone rides a bike in Manhattan without a helmet. If professional bike messengers wear helmets, we should follow their lead. Clearly they know something us bike rookies don't.

A Few From The Fourth of July

Fourth of July weekend was an unsupervised one for me. I had the apartment to myself and got quite a bit of work done. Notable was Friday evening's hop out to the Willy Wall in the New York Harbor. You don't really appreciate Manhattan until you see it from the outside.

The cast of characters:

Anastasia


Jenny:


And of course, Erin C.


Other photos: garbage, East Third Street style.


A different perspective of the Freedom Tower:


Manahatta

She Adored New York City....

A few weeks ago while at that wedding in Utica, I went on a bit of diatribe about how I could never live on the Upper West Side, because out of every neighborhood in Manhattan, it had the least amount of edge. And this was coming from a gal who lives in Murray Hill.

A friend rolled her eyes and said, "Who are you? You're like something out of a Woody Allen movie."

Perhaps. I've lived in Manhattan proper long enough to have legitimate opinions about the place. So today, I was thrilled to find this playlist of musical selections from Woody Allen films. It includes "Rhapsody in Blue," the music that plays during the opening scene of Manhattan. I know it is cliche to live in New York and say you love Woody Allen films, but few people capture the mundane details of the city like he does. (And everyone has a Woody Allen sighting.)




If anyone wonders what it's like to have spent the past 14 years in this town, which is long enough to have still used subways tokens and known when neighborhoods still had some grit, this perfectly sums it up.

"Manhattan" - Opening Scene from ajr on Vimeo.

When Flip Flops Flop

I'm always amused that the universal symbol for summer is a flip flop. When one lives in New York City, the last thing you should wear are flip flops. As much as Guiliani and Bloomberg have cleaned up Manhattan, lifestyle and culture wise, it is still a filthy town. With eight million people milling around, how could it not be? Eons ago, it didn't take long for me as a newbie to realize that wearing flip flops around town would do nothing but turn my feet black.

I have no love for the flip flop. They create an unflattering silhouette. No one's legs look longer or prettier in them. Apart from being a lifeguard there is no professional situation where they are appropriate and you are forcing people to look at your feet. And let's face it, no one has nice feet.

As much as I love summer, I don't love flip flops and I am constantly on the hunt for shoes that are easy to slip on and off. These are a good start. Small, delicate and not a lot of actual shoe. If you wear them your feet won't look like you just walked through a coal mine.

Ellen Lamb Flat (Comes in lots of colors!)	Clarks Women's Poem Journal Flat

Anne Klein Sport Women's Seana Flat	BCBGeneration Women's Agatha Slip-On

How To Anger Every New Yorker In 36 Seconds

Loving so much of Buzzfeed's content lately, especially whenever they take on the truths of living in New York City.

Laying Sod Is The New Black

One of the New York Junior League's signature projects is the Playground Improvement Project, in which they adopt a New York City playground for a year and use their volunteer manpower to improve it. During my five years in the League I've worked on four different New York City playgrounds. This weekend's, up at Fort Tryon park by The Cloisters, was probably my favorite. Myself and about 20 other women -- most of whom are in their early 20s -- sodded an enormous lawn.

Working with sod is hard work. It's heavy and the pieces have to fit perfectly against each other, like a giant game of tetris. It's preferable to sod in the fall, but when you have 20, very able-bodied young women on hand, you roll out the sod.

Sod is serious business. And heavy.


Gettin' it done...


Favorite photo from the day: my spring provisional group re-enacts American Gothic.


Sod is sexy!


Me with a giant knife. Possible Christmas card selection?


Almost there...


Finished product! The ladies are totally having a moment.

Tribeca Grand, Indeed.

As a long time New Yorker, I am fascinated by the untouched parts of the city. Despite the rush of development over the past 10 years, there are still parts of Manhattan that are as authentic as they were decades ago. The West 30s, Sutton, even Carnegie Hill are virtual time capsules in a city that prides itself on evolution.

Today while walking on Watts Street in Tribeca, I was admiring the slightly rough looking, but still intact brownstones, many of which still have the painted signs on their exteriors of what they were before the neighborhood got fancy. One particularly large building had its gate open, and inside was a garage. The garage clearly led to a backyard area as well. You know you've made it in Manhattan when your car literally steps from your front door.

Of course, this being Tribeca, someone parks their Mercedes in it. Keep it real, New York.

G Is Not For Genius

I've lived in Manhattan for 14 years and I've taken the G train all of one time. Whenever I see one, usually passing through some random station in Brooklyn, I consider it good luck, like seeing a unicorn. It's the most unloved train in the city.

The New York Observer ran a piece today about how the G train can ruin your relationship because it runs through a few non-gentrified parts of Brooklyn, and is incredibly unreliable, as far as public transportation goes. Unless the MTA does something to improve service, the G train, and its loveless riders, are doomed to be alone.


And then there is this video, about how the G train really can muck up an otherwise lovely date.

A Dose Of Reality

I came across this piece by Molly Jong-Fast this morning, which is running in this month's issue of Scooter magazine. It's a refreshing take on competitive parenting in Manhattan, and how we all need to take it down a notch.

Jong-Fast grew up in what I consider real Manhattan, the island of the 1970s and 1980s when the city's problems actually were life-threatening: violence, crime, AIDS, etc. Now that the city has cleaned itself up, parents don't have anything real to worry about, and so they compete over schools, vacations, etc.

We all know those parents who use schools as status symbols or who act as if they are continuing some great family dynasty, but if you follow them home for the holidays you will find them in a boring, Midwesterm suburb, not a Connecticut mansion. It's refreshing to read a piece that calls parents out on their nonsense, and puts things into perspective.

A Whole Lot Of Inconvenience Going On

Manhattan, at least south of 39th Street, has no power. I live on the 21st floor of a building. I have made two trips already today to go up and down for supplies. Followers of this blog know that I like running and exercise, and all that training comes in handy around floor 15, when I am panting and wishing for a death that never comes.

This is me, with my new best friend, my Dora The Explorer flashlight. It was the last flashlight Walgreen's on 36th Street had in stock two days ago. It goes with me everywhere. I love her.

Apologies for not wearing any make up in these photos. But we're in a state of emergency, and I mentioned my numerous romps up and down the staircases. For some reason, I seem to be the only person I see going up. Everyone else is always coming down.

Electricity is the ultimate commodity these past 24 hours, and East Side residents, such as myself, wander like meth addicts looking for a fix. (I've seen people charging devices outside of buildings, attached to utility outlets.) A deli on 41st Street and Park had power strips set up, in the hopes that we would buy some snacks while we waited for a charge. Well played.

Now I am at Bar & Books, where I snagged a table before the joint became packed. I will be leaving soon, full of Pimm's Cups and electricity. I still need a shower. Help?

Moon Over Manhattan

Last night there was a gorgeous clear sky and moon over Manhattan. I took out my camera and tried to capture it. Shooting a night sky is much harder than it seems. After many tries and settings, I got the following two shots.

Mission accomplished.

What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?

The ladies and I are still trying to work out some New Year's Eve plans. (And by ladies, I mean attractive ones.) I love a good New Year's Eve party. I'm not of the ilk that likes to stay home and be mellow. Donning a cocktail dress with spirit in hand is my natural state.

Until it's all ironed out, enjoy Harry Connick Jr.'s version of "What Are You Doing New Year's Eve." Lovely arrangement.

Today was turning out to be a real snooze until I got an e-mail to check out this four bedroom penthouse over on East 57th Street.

Full floor and every room has floor to ceiling windows. Eat-in kitchen, two balconies and the biggest living room I've ever seen. Triple exposures.

Full specs here.



And me, on one of the two balconies, trying to get a shot of the amazing view. I bet it's even better at night.

SJP, On Why She Stays In Manhattan.

This month's issue of Vogue has a great profile of Sarah Jessica Parker. It covers a lot of ground, but she nailed it when she explained why she stays in New York City -- with three small children.

"I can't imagine living in seclusion. We flirted with it. We went outside the city and troubled all these Realtors and stood in these homes and fantasized and then I kept picturing nine o'clock...The beautiful thing about New York, is that you have to expose yourself to other people the minute you step outside the door. There is no choice. And I love that."


It's not that the suburbs aren't pretty and spacious with lots of nice people. When night falls what are you supposed to do with yourself? Watch Dancing With The Stars? Eat?

In one paragraph she explained why people stay in Manhattan and deal with space issues, expensive everything and the crowds. It's because we need it. People who are meant to be in the 'burbs wash out early. The rest of us armadillos stay, because there isn't anywhere else we'd thrive.

New Huffington Post Piece

I'm at it again over on The Huffington Post, with a piece that explains why the vacancy rate in Manattah has tightened up and why rents have gone up more than most expected this year.

Three Reasons Why Vacancy Is Tight in Manhattan and Rents Are Higher