NYC Poll Locator

If you're planning to vote in NYC today but don't know which poll site to go to, here's the NYC Poll Locator for your convenience. Just plug in your address and it'll tell you where to go (assuming, of  course, you're already registered to vote). 

Happy Election Day!   

NYC Marathon 2017 - Verrazano Bridge Timelapse

Vote Tomorrow

Tomorrow is election day in NYC and New Yorkers will be voting for Mayor, Comptroller, Public Advocate, their City Council members, District Attorneys, and judges.

I'll make this simple -- please vote the straight Democratic ticket. 

This has never been more vital. When a fascist president and political party control all the levers of power at the national level, it's extremely important to fight back by asserting our power here at the local level. 

I know, I know, you're probably thinking that voting a straight party-line is brain dead. "I want to vote for the candidate, not the party," you're probably saying to yourself, "and I want vote for someone I believe in."

That's a lovely idea -- and that's what enough people said back in 2000 and voted for Ralph Nader and we wound up with eight years of President George W. Bush. Then in 2016 such people again voted for gadflies like Jill Stein and Gary Johnson and now we suffering with President Trump.

Enough. Voting is not about your feelings, it's not an act of therapy, it's not a luxury -- it's business, specifically, the business of our city, our state, our nation, and our world. And when you vote for people who can't win for selfish reasons, or if you're one of those people who thinks they're above it all and doesn't vote at all, then we wind up with bad people like Trump and others running our world. And that's bad. 

So please, please, please vote tomorrow and vote Democratic -- it's our only choice.

By the way, if you want more info about how politics works in NYC, listen to WNYC's great segments The People's Guide to Power. You're learn a lot!  

Louis Armstrong in NYC

The legendary jazz musician Louis Armstrong lived in NYC for decades and can you guess where?

Somewhere in Manhattan? Harlem, perhaps, the African-American capital of the USA and a cultural mecca? No.

Brooklyn, that forever funky borough? Nope.

Maybe he had a nice house in Riverdale, up in the Bronx? Wrong again.

Actually he lived in Corona, Queens and you can visit his house there. How cool is that -- and how un-touristy?

Louis Armstrong loved to smoke marijuana and someday we may have legal weed here in NYC. If so, I hope the Louis Armstrong house and museum will open a dispensary in tribute to the great man. 

Oh, What a Twisted Web We Weave ...

... or, at least, a twisted president we made.

By we, I mean New Yorkers. 

Ironically, it may also be New Yorkers who help un-make him (and it can't happen soon enough).

Confused? Well ...

Normally, on this blog, I like to pontificate about stuff but -- and forgive me for using this annoying social media trope -- I'll just "leave it here." Please read the two articles below and think for yourself about the craziness of the times we live here, how we got here, and how, maybe someday sooner rather than later, we might move on to a better place. 

Trump - We Made Him but New York Bloggers Might Defeat Him!

Blue Ribbon @ 25

The quintessential downtown NYC hangout, Blue Ribbon, opened twenty-years ago -- interestingly enough, on the very same night that Bill Clinton was elected president (*sigh*, good times). It's the ultimate nighttime brasserie, 

When it opened Blue Ribbon in 1992, down on Sullivan Street in Soho, it was a different, rougher city and Soho at night was not always the safest place. But Blue Ribbon planted a flag, made an investment in the neighborhood that, in every way, paid off.

Here's a great oral history of Blue Ribbon and it's a great prism to see how food and NYC, and food in NYC, have evolved over the last quarter century. 

NYC Mayor's Debate #2

We're New Yorkers

We've been here before. We'll be here again. It's the price we pay for living in the world's greatest city. 

I don't think this young man who came from elsewhere to commit an act of terror in NYC yesterday had any real goal in mind besides terrorizing people. 

And he did. But however many he people he killed or hurt, ultimately he failed -- as did all those who came before him and all those will inevitably come after him. 

They fail because New Yorkers are tough and strong. We've dealt and will deal with much worse.  We don't live in fear. And a moron like this won't change who we are or how we live (the only thing that will change is how he'll live, namely in prison for the rest of his life). 

We go on. We survive. We thrive. It's who we are. It's what we do. We're New Yorkers.

Think this city would be so great if we weren't?

Halloween in NYC 1974

Classic Mr NYC

Today, in case you missed it, people who worked for Donald Trump's 2016 president campaign were indicted, and another one already pleaded guilty to, money laundering and collusion with the Russian government. It's a big legal and political morass and how it'll play out is anyone's guess: either it'll destroy Trump politically (massive election defeats for the Republican party and Trump in 2020) or legally (impeachment, resignation, etc.) or he and his party will survive it and live to fight another day. Who knows? Only time will tell, it's impossible to make predictions.

That said, the fact that all of this is going on is a tragedy for our nation. This man and this party should never have taken power in the first place and we're all paying the price everyday.

What's hard to remember is that it all started out as a joke!

Back in 2011, more than five years before his Orangeness was elected the 45th POTUS, I blogged about the living reality show that is Donald Trump. I compared him to Charlie Sheen and the cast of the Jersey Shore, and how, like them, all he wants, all he really wants, the only thing he  truly, deeply cares about ... is attention. 

The only thing he thinks about is: Look at me! Pay attention to me! Love me! Love me! Love me! Sweet lord, my five year old kid is less needy for attention than this 71-year old narcissistic fascist with access to the nuclear codes!

And here we are, laughing yesterday, crying today, scared for tomorrow, all because of this ogre. He got what he wanted, he got the eyes of the world on him, and now we're all paying the price.