Tag: nyc

science

Manhattanhenge

Posted on

Twice a year the sun aligns directly with Manhattan’s east and west streets in a phenomenon known to those who live in the Big Apple as Manhattanhenge. Tonight happens to be one of those nights and gosh isn’t the weather just perfect.
One idea is to head as far east you can on any street with a clear view of the sun setting – 14th, 23rd, 34th, 42nd and 57th Streets are among the best viewing spots. Another idea is to just get outside around 8 pm or so as sunset is at 8:19 pm tonight. If you miss it, it will happen again on July 12th.
Sunset is in less than 5 hours – sorry for the short notice – but I’ve been meaning to post about this for the past 5 years and I’m glad I finally got around to it, even if its last minute.

ramblings

Subway Love

Posted on

I would like to start off by stating that I have been waiting to post until I have had enough time to write a super well thought out piece about something very relevant to the issues we face today. This has been a bad idea though because this amount of time either never comes or when it does, writing about the issues we face today often makes me either angry or sad, or sometimes both at once, which then discourages me from putting my thoughts down in a binary way. I mean, what kind of a world am I bringing a kid into anyway, right?
Well, to brighten things up on this rainy Monday (which as an aside is the name of a “Shiny Toy Guns” song that I love), it is a world that has subways! As a kid, I loved the subway – the machine’s motion mixed with all of the revolving human commotion that occurs on the platform and within – and I still do as an adult. I have loved living in both NYC and London – two cities with iconic underground systems – for this very reason as I flat out love not owning a car.
Regarding my home city’s system, in 1972, Massimo Vignelli developed a now famous map of the NYC Subway system. I was happy to learn that you can now buy an updated versions of this map but watch out, its a tad more expensive than the free ones the MTA distributes.
I was recently made aware of Eddie Jabbour’s attempt at building a better mousetrap so to speak called Kick Map which is pretty cool as well. Here is one critics take on it:

“The Metropolitan Transportation Authority might learn from Eddie Jabbour. After studying more than a century of New York train and subway maps, Jabbour concluded that the current map, which originated in 1979, has become obsolete. Jabbour started buying old subway maps on eBay and researched their histories. More than two years work culminated with his own, a smaller and easier to read map influenced by all its predecessors.

Indeed, his map is easier to read. It is clean, uncluttered and efficient. There is a folding, pocket-sized version, smaller than a calling card. Every train line is depicted with its own corresponding line on paper. It’s easier to tell what train stops where on his map.”

In summation, I promise to try and post more, even if they aren’t 5,000 word screeds about the idiocy of our war in Iraq, the looming recession, the mortgage crisis or other fun topics.

television

Sunday Jewy Sunday

Posted on

PBS’s NYC affiliate Channel 13 is going heebolicious this coming Sunday playing not one but four shows in a row that have the word “Jew” not only in the title but in caps no less.
First off is an encore of the recent landmark series The Jewish Americans. All three episodes will be shown in order, starting at 10 am and ending sometime around 5 pm. In seven short hours, one can see the entirety of the Chosen People’s US experience. It reeks of a pledge drive but should be interesting – luckily my TiFaux has one of those new fangled fast forward buttons.
Next comes The Jews of New York. I’m sure it only sounds like The Gangs of New York but who knows, maybe it will have a Meyer Lansky shout-out. I think pound for pound there are more great Jews in or from New York than in or from all the other US cities combined. Considering more Jews live in the Tri-State area than in Israel, that’s a pretty safe bet.
I’m kvelling already.

tech

Free Wi-Fi in Manahatta?

Posted on

If you love to connect to the net for free and you spent time in NYC, then CBS’s announcement that it will be developing a CBS Mobile Zone, a free Wi-Fi network for laptops and other wireless devices, in the heart of the Big Apple should make you very happy.
This zone will cover the area from Times Square to Central Park South, between 6th and 8th Avenues. It is an experiment between CBS and the MTA and I am very curious to see it if works, especially since Philadelphia has had such trouble proving free Wi-Fi.
Via See-Ming

politics

6 Years Later

Posted on

In everlasting remembrance of those who lost their lives on September 11, 2001:

Today is the sixth anniversary of when two planes flew into the Twin Towers, bringing with them destruction and death on a quiet and sunny almost Fall morning in the Big Apple. This is the first time that the anniversary has happened on the same day of the week [Tues] on which the disaster took place so I’ve had a bit of deja vu, maybe self imposed. While I have keenly been emotional today, I felt like I was the only one who knew what the day was as in my office, everyone that I came in contact with acted like nothing ever happened.
No one was especially somber, though no one discussed anything related to 9/11 so I don’t know who else but me was actually a tad down today. Time does and should move on but when unions do not have parades on Labor Day, its too much for me and this is similar because I went to the office today expecting a lot of things but dying in the office was not one of them.
I was living and working in NYC six years ago today as well and wasn’t expecting to die that day either but some people, people just like me, actually did. I sit in front of a window on the 8th floor that looks out over Houston Street towards Broadway. I look out my window frequently throughout the day but never expect to see a plane flying directly towards me, yet that is exactly what happened for hundreds of people that fateful day. I do no think I will never forget what I felt, saw, heard and smelt, not just that day but in the days and weeks after. Anytime I hear a plane that I feel is too loud, I still look up. Anytime I smell burnt rubber, I think of the stench that emanated north from downtown for weeks on end.
That being said, six years later “ground zero” is still a construction site, just like last year when the NYT wrote:

“Five years after Sept. 11, 2001, ground zero remains a 16-acre, 70-foot-deep hole in the heart of Lower Manhattan. High above it, a scaffolded bank building, contaminated during the attack, hulks like a metal skeleton, waiting endlessly to be razed.”

Since last year, little progress has been made and the bank building mentioned above caught on fire which lead to another 2 firefighters losing their lives – I know, when I heard it too for the first time I said, “Are you fucking kidding me?!”. This is beyond asinine at this point: for the love of all that is holy, rebuild the site!
While others may simply go about their business today, I just laid some flowers down in front of my local firehouse tonight to honor the 9 guys they lost 6 years ago today. While my wife and I were there placing the flowers in a plastic bucket vase already brimming and overfull next to many others just like it, we were next to a father who had two little kids with him, a boy and girl, and the girl looked younger than six, so she wasn’t even alive when this event first happened. Time marches on. Never forget.

ramblings

Swamped!

Posted on

I’m singing Neil Young’s “Helpless” to myself right now – the entire NYC transit system is currently shut down due to flooding and most of my office is working from home – good thing we have a slick VPN set up where nothing is really affected. MTA officials are instructing people to “stay home for now if you can – we cannot support you at this time.” At least they are honest: it’s all about managing expectations in this world, right?
This situation creates a good chicken and the egg type debate: is the horrible weather the cause or is the system not prepared for horrible weather? With the way the world is going (i.e. global warming), more instances of horrible weather are on the horizon so the MTA better do something.
Let’s review the past year: Big Dig tunnel failure in MA. A bridge fell down in MN. The mass transit system is down (for now) in NYC. Is this a USA infrastructure apocalypse or have I just not had my morning cup of coffee yet?

ramblings

Right Rides

Posted on

I learned yesterday of a very interesting option for women in New York City who need a safe way of getting home after a long night out. A non-profit called Right Rides runs two programs about which I will spreading the word, through this site and through my own word-of-mouth, because they might save someone I know from a potentially horrid situation.
These programs are RightRides, where they offer women, transpeople and gender queer individuals a free, late-night ride home to ensure their safe commute to or through high-risk areas, and Safe Walk, where they offer walking escorts for any one who doesn’t want to walk alone. The cars are donated by ZipCar and the organization even won NY1’s New Yorker of the Week award last month.
If you wind up using either of these services, drop me a comment and let me know what they experience was like, how long it took to get picked up, etc.
Via Kirsten

ramblings

It Came Fron New Jersey

Posted on

A horrible smell best described as “gassy” invaded NYC yesterday. It concerned many, closed buildings and forced a PATH station to evacuate. It was actually so bad and people were so freaked out that Mayor Bloomberg held a press conference to say basically, “everything is fine – its not terrorism – go about your business.”
After much investigation, a marsh around Bayonne is being blamed and the news outlets are having a field day with their headlines. NY1’s “Who Dealt it?” is one of my favorites. In case you were wondering, Bayonne is in the “Garden State,” aka New Jersey. It seems that NJ smells so bad these days that it can’t even contain itself anymore, – sort of how I felt in while on vacation after eating Israeli salad, cabbage and choumous at every meal of the day…

sports

Donnie Baseball moves up the Ladder

Posted on

Donnie Baseball is now one step closer to being the Yankee manager when Joe Torre resigns. Although “The Hitman” (a nickname I never really loved – it implies violence and Donnie is such a nice guy) is my favorite baseball player – or athlete for that matter – of all time, the Yanks never have won a championship when he has been in uniform (1983 – 1995 / 2004 – 2006) so I’m not sure this is a good thing… Read more after the jump.
Major League Notebook: Mattingly Moves Up Yankee Ladder by Tyler Kepner
ST. LOUIS, Oct. 26 — The line of succession for the Yankees’ managing job might have become clearer Thursday.
Don Mattingly has been promoted to bench coach for Manager Joe Torre, with Kevin Long replacing Mattingly as the hitting coach. The moves leave Lee Mazzilli without a job on the major league staff for 2007.
Mattingly has spent the past three seasons as the Yankees’ hitting coach and has long been viewed as a possible successor to Torre, 66, who is entering the final year of his contract. Torre has often said that Mattingly will be a successful manager, even though Mattingly has no managerial experience.
Long has spent the last three years as the hitting coach for the Yankees’ Class AAA affiliate after previously working in the Kansas City Royals’ organization.
Mattingly will be Torre’s fifth bench coach in five years. Don Zimmer left after the 2003 World Series, giving way to Willie Randolph, who became the Mets’ manager after the 2004 season.
Joe Girardi was the bench coach in 2005 before leaving to manage the Florida Marlins, who fired him after one season. (Girardi is likely to return to the Yankees as a broadcaster for YES.)
Mazzilli took the bench-coach job last year after a season and a half managing the Baltimore Orioles, and he may be offered another position in the Yankees’ organization.