Mr NYC in an Undisclosed Location

 

Mr NYC: 500,000 and Counting

I don't obsess over the number of people who read or have read Mr NYC over the years -- this blog is such a niche thing and lives such an underground existence that it's amazing anyone besides me and two other people have read it.

But a lot more than two people have!

It took 15+ years but, as of today, Mr NYC has been read over half-a-million times. 

Considering that I certainly don't advertise, don't promote, or am heavily linked elsewhere, that's not bad. More people than live in the entire borough of Staten Island have read this blog and hopefully it won't take another 15 years to hit a cool million. 

Onwards!

Interview: Normal Bob Smith on the Wild Characters of Union Square

To say that there are lots of interesting and different kinds of people in NYC is an understatement -- and stating the obvious. But anyone who can find a way to capture of the life of NYC in a interesting and original way is always going to spark my interest.

One such person is someone who goes under the moniker Normal Bob Smith, who has run a YouTube channel for more than a decade, posting videos of the numerous and fascinating characters who populate Union Square. The videos are a combination of off-the-cuff interviews and observations of people who still dare to live offbeat, whacky lives in a city that's becoming more and more gentrified and square. 

Normal Bob Smith was kind enough to answer a few questions for Mr NYC about his channel and what he's learned watching the wild characters of Union Square. 

Who is Normal Bob Smith and what led you to create the Normal Bob YouTube channel?

Normal Bob Smith is me. And the YouTube channel was started after I moved to NYC in 2002 and started filming there. YouTube wasn’t born until 2006, but when it happened I realized it was a perfect place to start posting my videos from Union Square and elsewhere around NYC. 

How long has the channel existed and are still uploading new content?

The channel has officially existed since YouTube’s conception, however I did have two channels before that were deleted by YouTube back when their rules and regulations weren’t quite as clear. The present Channel has been around since 2012 I believe.

What is it about Union Square that attracts such wild characters?

Union Square has been attracting its wild characters (more than any other NYC park) because of its location. Between lower & upper Manhattan, East & West Village, along with being a major subway port and popular shopping area. Also the park faces out to the streets, where most of the other parks are fenced in or closed off in some way or another.

Your videos aren't just interviews -- it seems like each one is a narrative, a very short story, about the person you're talking to. Is that a good way to put it or are you trying to achieve something else?

All I was trying to truly achieve was documenting the things I saw unfold before my eyes every day as honestly as possible. I was dazzled by the show I went there for and knew I’d regret not capturing the people and stories.

What kind of unexpected wisdom have you learned from these people?

Honestly what I learned most from my time there was how to control my own behavior in wild situations. Trying to concentrate on documenting others while keeping my own opinions silent as well as I could. My earlier videos I do more trying to interject my opinions into the narrative, while later on I realized the stories are better the more background I remain. Restraining my ego was a lesson I learned, and continue to try and practice.

Thanks Bob!

If you want to learn more about Bob and particularly his art background, you can read his fascinating life story here.

New York Primary Results 2022

 

The Battle for NY-10

Earlier this year, in one of the most outrageous acts of judicial activism in the State of New York, a judge appointed a Republican to re-draw the New York State congressional districts which, naturally, gives the GOP an unfair advantage in an overwhelmingly Democratic state.

I won't get into the recent history of this (it's blood boiling) but it's resulted in several of New York City's congressional districts being bizarrely drawn -- including an all-new District 10 that spans Lower Manhattan and Brooklyn.

This district is hugely Democratic so, it's assumed, the winner of the primary will easily win the November general election (although upsets have happened before). Up to 10 candidates are running in the primary scheduled for August 23rd. 

While the focus of the political media is mostly focused on the battles between Democrats and Republicans in competitive general elections -- in NYC and elsewhere -- most elections, as we know, are decided in party primaries. And in NYC, once people win a seat at any level of representative government (city, state, Federal), they generally keep it for term-after-term, sometimes for decades on end thereafter. Yes, occasionally incumbents lose to challengers (AOC beating Joe Crowley in 2018, most famously) but those are very, very, very rare. More incumbents have left office early via indictment than defeat. 

So, in NYC politics, winning a primary is almost akin to a papal election -- you serve (almost) for life. 

Thus it's assumed that the winner of the District 10 Democratic congressional primary will serve in this seat for years and years to come. In a primary like this, there are basically no policy differences between the candidates, it's all about personality and turf and identity.

This is the future of the American democracy being determined on the streets of NYC -- and whatever happens in next week's primary could reverberate in, and define, our city and county's future.

Vin Scully, Voice of the Brooklyn Dodgers, in 1957 - RIP

The New York Botanical Garden

Recently my family and I visited the New York Botanical Garden up in the Bronx. If you've never gone there, I highly recommend it.

The NYBG is less of a "garden" and more of an oasis of beauty and calm, neatly tucked away in the northern part of NYC.

At over 130 years old, there are forests, vegetable gardens, walking trails, and so much more. There's even a tram that takes you around the enormous grounds, and you can get off and back on at regular intervals. 

Best of all, this place is wonderfully free of tourists. The NYBG is a gem of the city, one of its never ceasing wonders.

Larry Josephson, RIP

When I was in high school, on those wild and crazy Saturday nights when I was at home, before watching Sisters and Saturday Night Live, I'd listen to a quirky show on WNYC radio called Modern Times, hosted by radio-lifer Larry Josephson.

Josephson has died at the age of 83.

Despite its august title, Modern Times was a freeform show where Josephson rifted on odd topics, occasionally playing music or comedy bits. Sometimes he'd interview people as well. Josephson's manner was calm, quiet, but funny. I remember that he played Bob & Ray's hilarious rendition of "Do you think I'm sexy?" whose career he was involved in promoting. One time I remember he told a scary but fascinating story about coming home one day and confronting a man with a knife who was going to rob him -- and instead they had a long conversation. I never heard a show like it, before or since.

Josephson had a long career in NYC radio, mostly at WBAI, and was part of the freeform radio-generation that included Joe Frank, Bob Fast and Steve Post. In many way, they were podcasters before podcasters, making radio interesting and showing what was possible with the medium of air, uncorrupted by commercial interests. He was a pioneer, and we won't see his likes on the radio ever again. RIP.

Nelson Rockefeller Sworn in as 41st Vice-President -- December 19, 1974

Before a certain orange failed businessman/reality show buffoon became President of these United States on January 20, 2017 (mercifully evicted from office on January 20, 2021), the last New Yorker to serve in high office was Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller -- or Rocky.

Scion of one of the richest and most famous families on Earth, Nelson Rockefeller was a four-term Governor of New York State, first elected in 1958 before resigning in late 1973. A year later, however, Rocky was "called to serve" as Vice-President by President Gerald Ford.

Rockefeller's journey to the Vice-Presidency remains the most dramatic in history. In the 1960s, while Governor, he ran for the Republican presidential nomination multiple-times -- and lost. His presidential dreams were squashed, in large part, by his divorce and subsequent re-marriage to "Happy", this at a time when divorce was more a political liability than it is now. Bored as Governor, his presidential dreams dashed, Rockefeller finally quit as Governor to return to a private and luxurious life.

But history wasn't done with him yet. The Watergate scandal subsumed the country and the presidency of Richard Nixon. In 1973, just a couple of months before Rockefeller quit as New York Governor, Nixon's Vice-President Spiro Agnew resigned in a bribery scandal. Agnew was replaced as VP by Gerald Ford, a genial Congressman from Michigan. And then, even more dramatically, in August 1974, Nixon quit as president under threat of impeachment and removal from office. Ford became president and, just like Nixon before, he needed a VP -- and so he called Rocky.

This special report of his swearing-in late 1974 is amazing, a glimpse at an extraordinary moment in time as the last New Yorker to become Vice-President takes office. Rocky's time at the top would be brief -- in 1976, Ford would dump him from the presidential ticket and Rocky would retire from politics completely. He returned to NYC, lived in his Upper East Side townhouse, and died in 1979 while banging his secretary -- oh, no, sorry, "working on his memoirs."

Enjoy.  

Ghosts of the NYPD Past

This blog, and others like it, love to reminisce about the old days in NYC, when the city was cheaper and funkier -- yes, it was much more dirty and dangerous but at least it was more accessible and more vibrant.

So often it feels, when you look at old movies, TV shows, and documentaries about NYC in decades past, that it's like looking through a fun-house mirror at a place that's both near and distance, familiar and foreign, so close and yet so far. And the feeling you get, or at least that I get, is that that NYC, that period in the city's life, whatever it is, whenever it was, is well and truly over -- buried if not forgotten. 

But what if the past isn't fully over, what if the ghosts of decades-old NYC are still haunting us?

Such is the case of a former NYPD cop named Bill Phillips who, in the early 1970s, testified for the Knapp Commission and helped to expose massive corruption in the department. Unlike his contemporary Frank Serpico, a truly honest cop who blew the whistle about his dirty colleagues, Phillips was as dirty as any of them -- but, when he got busted, he agreed to tell the commission everything he knew in exchange for immunity. Lots of corrupt cops got in trouble from his testimony -- and they got their revenge.

According to this fascinating article, a year after Phillips testified, he was charged with a double homicide. He was accused of bribing a hooker and her pimp who weren't, allegedly, paying him their shakedown money. He was convicted and went to prison for decades. But he has maintained his innocence and the evidence it making it clear that he was intentionally framed by his fellow cops. It's a heartbreaking story of an institution meant to protect us but that, like most, is only interested in protecting its own.

To this day, more than 50 years since the murders and more than 50 years since Phillips went to jail, he is fighting to clear to his name (he was released years ago but his conviction stands). He's a very old man now but he's adamant about fighting for his innocence. Even today, half-a-century later, the NYPD is resisting coming clean about this, delaying and denying him justice. Phillips may get exonerated eventually or not but it's reminder that some of the old problems of old NYC haven't gone away -- and that the present NYPD is still very much like the past NYPD.

And it's a reminder that the past in NYC is never fully gone.