The Al Smith Dinner 2008

McCain and Obama put on a good show at the Al Smith Dinner last week but forget about them for a moment. Al Smith was probably the greatest governor this state ever had and did so much to pull its citizens out of poverty. It's great to see that, each year, his legacy is honored.

The Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation

Colin Powell Endorses Obama

This is all the buzz this morning. How it will affect the election is anyone's guess.

Powell Endorses Obama

By the way, in case you didn't know, Colin Powell is a native New Yorker and graduate of City College. He was born in Harlem and grew up in the South Bronx. And today he made NYC proud.

The Brand Spankin' New TKTS Booth

Last week the new TKTS booth opened in Times Square to much fanfare. I went by it on Friday and it's really something to see. For those of you who don't know what TKTS is, it's the place where you can get same day, half-price tickets to various concerts and shows. Besides the big one in Times Square, there is another booth at South Street Seaport and also one at MetroTech in Brooklyn. Go here for more info.

This new "booth" is located at 47th street and Broadway and is actually more of a plaza now. The ticket windows are located on the northern part of the street and you check the available shows and prices on two large electronic monitors on either side of the block. The main attraction, of course, is the giant 27 step, ruby red glass staircase that encloses the booth. If you walk to the top, you can get a sweeping view of the whole blinking, vibrating, neon circus that is Times Square. It's also nice to know when there's another place where the public can literally get a new view of NYC.

Building this new booth took almost ten years due to numerous setbacks and various financial problems. It's great it finally came into being. See what other folks around town have had to say about it:

Atop the New TKTS Booth, Ruby-Red Stairs With a View of the Great White Way

The New TKTS Booth

New TKTS Booth to Take Credit Cards

Stepping Up: New Times Square TKTS Booth Finally Opens

Today in NYC

For a city that has existed for almost 400 years, there can only be a few single, solitary days that are worthy of the history books (January 1st, 1898 or September 11, 2001 spring to mind, obviously). October 16, 2008 will certainly not go down in the history books as a particular memorable day in NYC history. But it's a day that, in my opinion, shows the dynamism that is our city -- something comes, something goes, something is ... fought over. To whit:

The Queen Elizabeth II, one of the grandest transatlantic ocean liners to ever traverse the globe, made its final visit to New York harbor today. After over 800 visits, it left our city for the last time tonight, on its way to Dubai, the great Middle Eastern capital. There it will become a floating hotel, never to visit our shores or ports again. Something will never quite be the same in our city without the QEII docking here. But things change, and some things are lost to those changes. And life goes on.

Meanwhile, the City Council is hotly debating term limits. Should they be extended -- and how? By the council? By the voters? Should they be abolished? Should they be extended at all? Passions and voices are flaring, tempers reaching the boiling point. As I type, the council is hearing testimony both pro and con. How this will be resolved no one knows. To be continued ...

And yet, in the middle of losing the QEII and the maelstrom over New York City politics, there was a quiet triumph. In 2001, the Cathedral of St. John the Divine suffered a brutal fire and it's main organ was destroyed. But in the last few months, it was reassembled, piece by piece. And now a great house of worship has a great functioning organ once again. It took a long time and wasn't easy, but it finally happened. It shows that, while it may take time, problems can be overcome.

So on this day, NYC shows it's a place of constant change and constant drama. Never a dull moment. Would we have it any other way?

ABE BEAME FOR MAYOR 1965

This political season has made me think of elections past. In 1965 (years before I was born, thank you very much), City Comptroller Abe Beame ran for Mayor against Congressman John Lindsay and conservative pundit William F. Buckley.

Beame lost this race to Lindsay, who went on to be one of the worst mayors this town has ever had (he gave us the financial crises that took more than 20 years to dig out of). Beame was finally elected in 1973 and served one term, losing to Ed Koch in 1977. He died in 2001 at the age of 94.

Beame was the mayor when I was born and I've always felt a certain affection for him. A guy like this, a real salt of the earth New Yorker, could probably never get elected in Mike Bloomberg's New York but I would vote for him in a second. Go Beame Team!

Battle of Long Island Part II

Our dueling presidential candidates are going to be at Hofstra University tonight, squabbling about which one of them is best suited to lead the free world.

Call this the Battle of Long Island Part II. The last one was in 1776 between George Washington and William Howe. This one is between John McCain and Barack Obama and, thankfully, no one will get killed in this one.

Well, maybe politically one of them will. This is one of John McCain's last chances to "turn this thing around." He must say something so brilliant that it wins over the mushy middle and/or Obama must say something so damaging that it torpedoes him with this same demo.

Right now Obama is a thumpin' the grouchy old man in the polls but, as the pundits say, the only poll that really counts is the one on election day.

Good luck to them both (well, not really but let's not go there).

Hofstra debate cards: McCain vs. Obama

Hofstra's hosting of debate a costly affair

Mr NYC to Tourists: Please Get a Subway Map!

I truly love and adore anybody and everybody who visits our fair city during these rough times and drops money into our city's economy. Keep it coming, your business is very much appreciated. But ... would all of you tourists, for the love of all that is holy, please look at a map before you get on our subways?

Today, a woman comes up to me before I'm just about to board an N train: "Can you tell me how to get to 125th street?"

"West Side or East Side?"

Big shrug. I sent her to the 2/3 line, hoping that'll get her to her destination.

This isn't even the worst of it. Past examples:

• While on an R train, uptown: "'Scuse me, will this take me to Rector street?"
  
  
• Tourists on a train in Queens thinking it was taking them to 39th street -- in Manhattan.
  
  
• "Where's Canal Street?"
  "Downtown?"
  "Where's that?"
  
  
• Or once when I was in Soho. "Excuse me, I need to go to Midtown."
  "Take the 1/2 train. The entrance is right there."
  "But that goes to uptown."
  "Midtown is uptown from here."
  "Oh ..."
  

When I went to London and Paris earlier this year, I made sure to look at the underground maps of those towns and plotted my journey around town. Looking at a map -- that exhausting, mind-numbing exercise -- has helped me get around on the Metros and subways of other cities like Chicago, Rome, DC, and St. Louis. Can't our tourists do the same? The subway map is not that hard to read, most routes, particularly in Manhattan, just go up or down, one way or another.

So, again, Mr NYC, like most New Yorkers, loves our tourists. I just ask them to look at subway map before getting on it.

Central Park Zoo

During these lovely fall days and tough economic times, the Central Park Zoo is a fun and affordable treat for you and your friends and loved ones.

Located at 64th street and Central Park, it's $8 for adults, $3 for kids, and $4 for seniors. It's a small but easily navigable space and provides a breezy and enjoyable hour and a half of fun. The highlights include the polar bear and the penguins exhibits, as well as the rain forest exhibit where you exotic birds and some of the most beautiful reptiles (yes, you read that right) I've ever seen.

The sea lions, located in the middle of zoo, are the most fun attraction and at 11:30 AM and 2 PM every day you can see them getting fed. This is more of a show where the zoo workers direct the sea lions to dive off the big rocks and perform various tricks. In between, the zoo workers masterfully throw fishes of various sizes down the sea lions throats.

Check out the zoo website for more info.

Fait Accompli?

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn has thrown her support behind Mayor Bloomberg's plan to extend term limits. It's not clear if the bill they want will actually pass but when the richest, most powerful people in the city are behind it, is there any stopping it?

Speaker Pledges Support, but Mayor Needs More

To be continued ...

Frugal New York

In these tough economic times, with money tight, it gets a little harder to enjoy NYC. There's lots of great to do here but, of course, a lot that costs tons of money. That's why you should read this article in today's times, about fun things to do and good places to eat that are either free or cheap.

Frugal New York

Some things I learned from this article: there are a lot of Indian restaurants on Lexington Avenue between 25th and 30th streets and I've gone to several of them (including a Kosher Indian place once). What I didn't know is that this stretch of restaurants has a name: Curry Row. Also, there's a second Chinatown in this city, out in Sunset Park in Brooklyn. Apparently there are some great, cheap restaurants out there. Check it out on Chowhound.

Did you also know (this isn't in the article but I'm just remembered it) that the area between 5th and 6th avenues between 31st and 36st streets is called Koreatown? Some friends and I went to a restaurant there once and they actually cooked the food in a stove in our table. You order something, then they bring out the food and throw it stove, and then you eat it right off it. From what I'm told, this is very typical in Korean restaurants but I hadn't experienced this before and it was very cool. I don't remember the name of restaurant but highly recommend going to Koreatown and checking one of these places out.