Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Nightshift NYC



New York's popular moniker is "the city that never sleeps" -- but have we ever really thought about the people in our town who live and work through the night? Russell Leigh Sharman and Cheryl Harris Sharman have, and they are the authors of the new book and blog Nightshift NYC.

In both, they have interviewed some of the quarter million New Yorkers who keep this city going at night -- cops, EMTs, cab drivers, waiters and waitresses, you name it. I recently heard them interviewed on WNYC's Leonard Lopate Show and they told stories about the fun and scary things that our city's overnight workers do and encounter during their work "days." In addition, several callers talked about working the nightshift, and how it takes a toll on their lives and relationships -- but can also be strangely wonderful at the same time.

As someone with a shameless romantic nature, particularly for all things NYC, New York in the middle of the night has always held a special allure for me. Perhaps I've seen too many movies. Perhaps I'm naive. Perhaps, since I've never worked at night, I've had the luxury of visiting late night New York more as a tourist than a resident. Still, it entices me.

For when I think of New York at night, and all the people who inhabit it, I think about deliverymen flinging stacks of newspapers from trucks towards stationary stores and newsstands; I think about the illuminated diner on the corner that's a like a lively heartbeat in the otherwise dead calm of night, a place where you can always get pancakes and a bottomless cup of coffee and chat up a friendly waitress; I think about the cops and cab drivers patrolling our streets, keeping us safe and making sure we get home; I think about the 24-hour grocery stores and delis where you can get some chips and water and perhaps hit an ATM; I think about the bars where you can sit at a table with friends or a l'object d'amour and talk for hours; I imagine how the people working in hospitals, on the subways, at the electric and phone companies, the firefighters and the security guards, the people helping us to sleep soundly since we know they're there doing these jobs -- how these people are working hard and can't wait to get home to their families; and for some reason (again, too many movies), when I think of late night NYC, I always hear melancholy jazz saxophones wailing away somewhere far off and those first blushes of dawn that warm the city and take us into a new day.

Again, I've never worked at night and I'm sure the reality of it is really tough. That's why I'm grateful for all those New Yorkers who do and keep this city whirring. And that's why you should check out Nightshift NYC. There's a whole other city out there, a reality that exists while most of us are dreaming.

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