Rumblings at the Plaza

Interesting article in Vanity Fair about how turning the Plaza Hotel condo became a debacle.

Eloise Sheds a Tear

Eloise was a fictional girl created by Kay Thompson who lived in the Plaza and got into all sorts of adventures. It was actually turned into a TV movie a few years ago with Julie Andrews.

The Ravitch Report

The big news around town today is the Ravitch Commission Report. It proposes to save that glistening jewel of public service, the MTA (Richard Ravitch is a former chairman of the MTA FYI). This report has been months in the making and is one of these nonpartisan, apolitical commissions designed specifically to give politicians cover (in this case, our dear Mayor and Governor).

So what's in the report? Pain. Lots of it. It includes new taxes, service cuts, and "automatic adjusted" fare increases. Ouch!

But the proposal causing the biggest hubbub is that all East River bridges will now have tolls on them. This includes the Brooklyn, Williamsburg, Manhattan, and Queensboro bridges (the Triborough already has tolls on them so nothing will change there). So now, no matter how you go (unless it's by foot), it's going to cost you to travel between almost each borough (although I guess the Staten Island ferry and bridges between Manhattan and the Bronx will still be free).

Obviously people who commute between the outerboroughs and Manhattan by car will loath and despise this change. How could they not? Small businesses located in Brooklyn and Queens that depend on customers in Manhattan will take a brutal hit.

The only positive thing about this proposal (I guess) is that hopefully it will force more people onto public transportation. It's almost a back door congestion pricing tax like Bloomberg wanted.

Doesn't that guy always win in the end?

Attention Publishing Industry: You're Not Dead Yet

According to The New York Times, the publishing industry is not being destroyed by the Internet -- it's just "evolving."

How to Publish Without Perishing

That's a relief to those of us who work in publishing but that doesn't mean publishing jobs will still be plentiful in the future. Considering that publishing is a major NYC-oriented business, let's keep our proverbial fingers crossed.

I guess F. Scott Fitzgerald was wrong ...

Anyone can have a second act in American life -- or at least in New York life.

Meet Slate's New Columnist: Eliot Spitzer

Noah and the Whale @ Bowery Ballroom

I don't know if you've heard of Noah and the Whale but they're a relatively new band out of England.

They'll be playing the Bowery Ballroom this Thursday night and, if you're interested, you can get more info here.

Interestingly, Noah and the Whale took their name from the great 2005 move The Squid and the Whale, set in Park Slope. Noah refers to Noah Baumbach, the guy who wrote and directed the movie.

"Five Years Time" (shown here) is the band's big hit song and is a charming diddy about young, evanescent love. It's also currently being used in a car commercial so if the auto industry recovers, it'll be because of them.

And as Hillary and Holder move up ...

... Plaxico Burress goes down.

How did Plaxico fall so far, so fast?

He may be a Super Bowl winning player and I guess we Giant fans are lucky to have him (I guess) but this guy is a walking -- or limping right now -- disaster. Plaxico doesn't show up to practice, acts bratty on the field, has had various scraps with the law in the past, and now is probably headed to jail for shooting himself in the leg!

I know that American culture is all about winning, beating the other guy and basking in glory; we put this ethos above anything and everything else. And perhaps it's not for us football fans to judge any player beyond their performance in games (judge not less he be judged, etc.). Still, he's a an embarrassment for NYC and a poor role model for the young'uns. Sad.

New Yorkers In Da' Cabinet

Our gal Hillary, New York's junior senator, is leaving us and will become President-elect Obama's Secretary of State, thus vacating her senate seat. Now the race begins to succeed her and Governor Patterson will play kingmaker. Decisions, decisions.

Also, native New Yorker Eric Holder, a guy from East Elmhurst in Queens, will be our new Attorney General. A graduate of Stuyvesant High School and Columbia University, he's a really inspiring success story. Hope he does a good job.

Obama may be a Chicago guy but he realizes that some NYC grit is what's needed to turn this country around.

Near Rests the Lodging: Tales of China

Yeah!! I'm blogging again. Limited Internet access plus difficulties logging onto Blogger in China (think the government had something to do with that? Hmm? Hmmm??) made blogging impossible but I had a great trip and am here to tell all.

Right now I feel like Ross Perot's 1992 running mate -- who am I? More specifically, where am I -- and what time is it?

Got back from China last night and right now the body is suffering some major jet lag. My mind and the clock say it's 3:30 PM but the body says it's 4:30 AM and, like so often in life, the body will probably triumph over the mind shortly. Anyhoo, a short recount of my trip, then this blog will get back to its regular NYC-oriented business:

1. First stop, Beijing. Saw the usual tourist sites: the Forbidden City, Summer Palace, Temple of Heaven, Mao's Mausoleum, and the Ming Tombs. Climbed the Great Wall and walked around some of the city's lovely parks. Engaged in a Chinese tea ceremony. Beijing certainly has great stuff in it but, as a city as a whole, it's pretty dull.

Thing learned: the Dragon is the historic symbol of China's power, hence the Emperor's Dragon Thrown. The Chinese Dragon is actually a composite of the following most powerful animal parts: the head of a lion, the antlers of a deer, the claws of a bear, the body of a snake, the tail of whale, the wings of a bird, eyes of a hare, the scales of a fish, and some others I can't remember. Also, the number 9 is the symbol of power since it is the highest individual number. Go into any Chinese palace and most staircases will have no more than 9 steps. Hence the reason old world China didn't have many tall buildings.

2. Next stop: Pingyao. This is an ancient city, almost 3000 years old, surrounded by a 700 hundred year old wall. A UNESCO World Heritage site, the city is largely preserved as originally built. We visited the enormous Wang family compound and walked on top of the entire city wall, looking at this amazing piece of living history from every vantage point. We also visited numerous temples and learned more than I can remember about each Buddhist god. As we were leaving, we visited another old compound where they filmed the movie Raise the Red Lantern. To top it all off, this city surprisingly offered some of the best food on this trip. Pingyao Beef is easily one of the very best dishes -- Chinese or otherwise -- ever created by man. In NYC they'd charge $40 a plate for it or something but it was less than a $2 a plate in Pingyao.

Thing learned: Pingyao is located in Shanxi province, one of the most polluted places in the world. If you ever go there, take a mask for your face and lots of facial and body scrub.

3. Yantai: my family has some connections there and this was the most emotional, happiest part of the trip. I may write about this sometime in the future but, for now, would prefer to keep private.

Thing learned: Chinese Communist officials can be very nice people.

4. Tsingtao: this a gorgeous coastal city that was once a German colony until WW1, then later was occupied by the Japanese until after WW2. Thanks to German influence, Tsingtao is most famous for Tsingtao beer and the highlight of our time here was a visit to the Tsingtao Brewery where, amongst other things, we saw the bottles being processed, went through the drunk walk, and samples some beer. We also visited the German Governor's mansion (beautiful) and Mount Lao which is one of the highest points in all of China.

Thing learned: people off the street in China will come up and talk with you like they've known you forever. Be prepared.

This short recap doesn't do justice to the full experience of this trip but it gives you a good idea. I hope that every person in the world has a chance to visit China once or twice in their life. It's a life changing experience.

P.S. You might be wondering about this blog entry's odd title "Near Rests the Lodging." This was from a sign I saw in Pingyao giving directions to a hotel. Most store fronts and street signs in China are both in Chinese and English but the English translations are poor and sometimes incomprehensible. Hence we saw signs directing us to "Beauty Saloons" and other interesting non-existent things. A couple of other favorites:

• A beauty salon in Beijing that was probably trying to say it was a unisex salon but, instead, billed itself as "a sex shop."
  
  
• Another sign at a restaurant in Pingyao sold what it simply called "a round mass of food."

A good English proofreader could make a fortune over there.

Mr NYC Goes to the Orient

Wheresoever you go, go with all your heart. - Confucius

So I'm packing my toothbrush and a pair of comfortable shoes and getting ready to leave for the land that invented ink and paper (and the noodle), China.

For the next two weeks I'll be walking on the Great Wall, wandering around the Forbidden City, sampling beer at the Ching Dao brewery, visiting the Ming Tombs and Temple of Heaven, and seeing lots of really amazing stuff. Obviously blogging, particularly in a country that likes to sensor the Internet, won't be easy to pull off but I will try to if possible.

Otherwise I'll be back on December 1st, ready to tell all. New York City will, I'm sure, do just fine without me. So for the next fortnight call me Mr China!

Welcome to NYC: The Real America Starts Here

The always great Kurt Andersen has a wonderful article in this week's New York magazine about the election of Barack Obama. You might also want to read my exclusive interview with Kurt from January where he said that this would be the most fascinating presidential election of our lifetime. How right he was.

One of the points of Kurt's article, and of a blog entry I did the Friday before the election, is that NYC and big cities in general have largely been marginalized in America politics. Cities like ours might be rich and fun to live in but, when it comes to influencing les affairs d'etat, we've taken a back seat to mostly rural states and the South for the last few decades.

Until now.

Think about it: the President to be is from Chicago, the Speaker of the House is from San Francisco, and two of the powerful people in Congress are Charlie Rangel (Chairman of House Ways and Means) and Senator Chuck Schumer -- New Yorkers both. The electoral map indicates that America is swinging in a more liberal direction, and the South and rural areas -- the "real America" -- are becoming less and less powerful in American politics.

Naturally people in the real America are freaking out. "Oh no!" the Republican culture warriors cry. "What's happening?"

Well, it looks like the "real America" is shrinking. Or maybe they aren't the real America anymore -- we are. Might need to dig up those signs in the boonies that say "The Real America Starts Here" and plant them in NYC.

They're losing the culture war.

Starting with the election of Richard Nixon 40 years ago, the culture war has been effectively used by the Republicans to divide America and put them in power. Play on middle class fears and hatred of taxes, gays, abortion, race, immigrants, and losing their guns -- plus throw in a lot of jingoistic chest thumping and religiosity -- and that'll get people to vote against their economic interests.

The late, great George Carlin put it perfectly: "That's the way the ruling class operates in any society -- they try to divide the rest of the people. They keep the lower and the middle classes fighting with each other so that they, the rich, can run off with all the f******g money. Fairly simple thing, happens to work."

And it worked for a long time. The Republicans won a lot of elections using the culture war. But now Americans are sick of it. They've seen the horrible economy, disastrous war, and broken government the Republicans have given us and they've run gagging to the polls to throw them out. That's why conservative places like Virginia, Indiana, and Colorado have been swinging hard to the Democrats in just the last few years. They're leaving the "real America" behind and coming over to us.

Now we're the real America and they're not -- nah nah nah nah. The culture war, like the Iraq War of the War on Drugs, is not "over" by any means. Sadly, it'll probably never end. But for right now, we're winning. And let's pray -- haha -- that this continues.