Katrina & NYC

Today is the 5th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, the Category 5 storm that wrecked havoc on the Gulf coast and the city of New Orleans. A vibrant, exciting, wonderful American city was traumatized and nearly destroyed, and five years later it is still struggling to come back -- slowly but surely.

New Orleans had a population of roughly 450,000 at the time and today its population is about 350,000. While nearly the entire city was evacuated during the storm and most residents have returned, some didn't and found new lives elsewhere.

This includes NYC. Many former New Orleanians are now New Yorkers and have success and happiness here. Some of gone back to school, found new careers, made totally new lives. And it just goes to prove that NYC is a place where people can come from anywhere, no matter what their circumstances or the situation that drove them here, and forge new paths. A hundred years ago it was poor immigrants from Europe -- today it's refugees from our country.

Out of tragedy, hope.

That said, some are sad that they find going back to New Orleans impossible and others are thinking about going back someday. I went to New Orleans last year and while the city is still recovering, its magic still remains. Hopefully one day New Orleans will be as amazing as ever, a great sister city to our own.

Mr NYC in New Orleans

Being Mr NYC (pretentious I know), you might think I have no use for other cities. Quite wrong. I love all great cities and, after NYC and San Francisco, New Orleans is easily my next favorite. Last weekend my pals and I went to NO – home to Fats Domino and Lestat the Vampire – for a weekend of food and frivolity. So here it is, the long overdue New Orleans wrap-up:

Day One: NYC to NOLA is expensive -- hence the need for cheaper connecting flights (only in America are multiple flights cheaper than one). So we’re scheduled to go from NYC to Detroit to Nawlins. Flight from Dee-troi is dee-layed. Miss connecting flight. Rebooked to New Orleans through Charlotte, NC. Told I’ll get bumped to first class on both flights with one of my pals. Get to gate for Charlotte: THEY LIED! It’s coach for me to Charlotte (first class to NO only. Okay!) My classy friend in first class sends me back a complimentary glass of wine and a Twix bar (forgot how good chocolate and red wine go together; must make part of my decadence diet). So now we’ve zig-zagged from the East to the Midwest back to the East to get South. This is the kind of route only George W. Bush could love.

Touchdown in New Orleans. We meet one of our friends at the gate who had just gotten in on another flight. Apparently he caught the eye of one his flight’s flight attendants for she dropped him off a note that read:

YOU HAVE BEAUTIFUL EYES. I’D LIKE TO GET TO KNOW YOU.
CALL ME (NAME, NUMBER)

We congratulate him. If I ever got a note like that, it’d be ten years of therapy right there.

Cab it to our hotel in the French Quarter. It’s a great hotel, several old converted townhouses, and we got one with lots of space and a patio in the back. We meet up with our other friends from across the USA who had already gotten there and we head off to Jacques-Imo’s for dinner. Phenomenal food! I have the crawfish etouffee and we also have some delicious stuffed shrimp and the famous alligator cheesecake. Dinner done, we stroll through a pulsating Bourbon Street with lots of loud, partying people who prove that Mardi Gras never really ends. We stop at the legendary Pat O’s and order a round of Hurricaines in tall glasses.
While sipping our beverages and bantering, a young blond gal comes up to us. Why, she asks, did we get our Hurricaines in glasses while she and her friends only got them in plastic cups?

“’Cause we put out!” one of my friends jokes.

“I put out,” says the girl. Needless to say, we’re all ears.

She then formally introduces herself and invites us all to join her and her friends at their table. Playing it cool, we idle for a bit (don't want to look like dogs in heat) and then finally go over to their table. We talk to the ladies for a bit and are shocked to discover that they … are … boring … And when it’s finally revealed that nearly all the girls and all the guys in this situation are either married or shacked up with someone, the flames of conversation die out quick.
No worries, It’s now 3 AM, the bar is closing, and we’re tired. Back to the hotel. Day one is over – and already memorable.

Day Two: get up around noon and head over to the world famous Café Du Mond. What do we have for breakfast? Must you ask? Coffee and beignes are downed by all of us with gusto (naturally the powdered sugar gets everywhere). After that, it’s a stroll around beautiful Jackson Square, then a bunch of us are hungry again. We go to Napoleon House nearby and have some delicious Italian muffalettas. If you’ve never had these, they are sandwiches with multiple Italian meats (like Genoa ham, salami, sausage, etc.) plus melted cheese. Unlike a panini, these aren’t pressed and they also have some vegetable in them like chopped broccoli and spinach. They are out of this world delicious, a perfect mid-day snack.

Return to the hotel where we shower, change, and head over to August’s for dinner. We consume a five-course wine pairing dinner, and our meal consists of caviar, pork bellies, and Kobe beef amongst other delicacies. It was classy, and tasteful, and out of this world.

Next, it’s back to Bourbon Street where we hit multiple bars and drink various beers and liquors. And how do we end the night? Why, with MORE food of course! Around 3 AM we find a funky little diner and consume burgers and apple pie. Then, all of us in a serious food and booze stupor, it’s back to the hotel.

Day Three: we wake up to CHAOS. The impending East Coast storms have canceled many of our flights. Cell phones are working overtime, airline 800 numbers are being called endlessly, some of us are lucky and get rebooked, some us not so much. This doesn’t stop us, however, from having a delicious farewell lunch back in the French Quarter. I have a Gumbo Poopa which is gumbo in a bread bowl. Did you also know that you can get a dozen fresh oysters on the half shell for $12 down in New Orleans? A steal!

Friends and I head to the airport. We fly to Memphis where we’re forced to spend the night in an airport hotel. That being the case, we take a cab to Corky’s and have a delicious BBQ dinner of dry baby-back ribs. They were so good and rich that I was unable to finish them all but WOW! They were awesome …

Next morning, we hear it’s snowing like crazy in NYC. We expect our flight to be canceled yet again. But miracle of miracles … it’s ON TIME. We’re good to go! One of our friends (the man who got the note) wasn’t supposed to be on our flight but he managed to get on, and lucky man that he is, GETS INTO FIRST CLASS! GETS A DELICIOUS MUSHROOM OMELETTE BREAKFAST WHILE ME AND MY OTHER PAL ARE STUCK WITH CRAPPY COFFEE IN COUCH. ARGGGGGHHHHH!
But no hard feelings.

Our flight lands in NYC on time, early Monday afternoon. You’ve never seen anything so beautiful as the sight of the whole city down below you, blanketed with snow. We land, bid adieu to each other, and thus ended one of the more memorable trips of my life.

Who Makes a City?

Recently I watched again the great 1974 movie Chinatown, the noir thriller about the battle for land and water in 1930s Los Angeles. While the movie itself is fiction, the story is based on the very real history of how William Mulholland brought water to -- and stole it from -- Los Angeles. He was a man of humble origins, a hardworker, an immigrant (!) from Ireland who worked his way up the economic ladder, and helped shaped the nation's second largest city -- while making himself rich and causing the death of 500 people in the meantime. A legend and a monster all at once.

History is made of such people, and the people who powered the growth of cities are no exception.

In NYC, the masterbuilder Robert Moses is the most obvious example -- a great builder of roads, bridges, parks, and everything else who brought this city into the 20th century -- and also destroyed neighborhoods and lives forever. But Moses was not the only transformative New Yorker -- think of the great artists and businesspeople who have shaped it -- Broadway producers like the Shuberts and the Nederlanders, filmmakers like Scoresese and Woody Allen, businessmen like the Rockefellers and Lew Rudin, the list of New Yorkers who built this city and made it rich (literally and figuratively is great). Some were great, some were awful, and many were both -- but they gave us our city, for better or worse. 

That's why I loved reading this excerpt from a book about the growth of New Orleans. It's about the various characters -- some inspiring, some frightening, many just down right weird -- who shaped the Crescent City in the 20th century. I love New Orleans and have blogged about my 2009 trip there as well as other things I love about. As a city, it couldn't be any more different from NYC but, like NYC, it has great characters over the years who made it the great place that it is.

And, if you're the mood for some good New Orleans grub, consult this list of the best canjun-creole joints in NYC.  

Classic Mr NYC

There's a new show on HBO called Treme, about a neighborhood in New Orleans trying to pull itself up from the ravages of Hurricaine Katrina. It was created by David Simon, the genius behind the brilliant shows Homicide and The Wire. There have been two episodes of Treme so far, both really good, and it's looking like this will be another great show.

Last year I had a memorable weekend in New Orleans which I lovingly blogged about. So as a tribute to this new show, you can re-read about that trip here. And while I didn't make it to the real Treme last year, I certainly plan on visiting it next time I get to NOLA.

Dr John RIP

The brilliant blues and rock'n'roll singer/musician Dr. John has died. 

The original New Orleans voodoo daddy, he was a genius songwriter and piano player. He produced over 30 albums, performed in every venue and on every stage, big and small, grand or humble. He even had a Top 40 hit, "Right Place, Wrong Time." He was the consummate performer, a one-of-a-kind talent, and he will be greatly missed.

Dr. John lived in New Orleans almost all his life but, for a while, he also had an apartment in Washington Heights in Manhattan so he was a part-time New Yorker. He was also a big part of my childhood: his recording of "Splish Splash" was on a childhood record (yes, vinyl!) that I had, he wrote the theme song for a childhood guilty pleasure TV show of mine ("Blossom"), and he was the inspiration for Dr. Teeth of Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem from The Muppets.

Rest in peace, John. Heaven just a lot more funky today.

Review: "Angel Heart" (1987)

Here's another flick in the cannon of movies about New Yorkers who find themselves far from home, getting into all kinds of silliness.

Angel Heart stars Mickey Rourke at the height of his short-lived 1980s stardom as well as Robert De Niro in a supporting role. Rourke is a guy named Harry Angel, an NYC detective in 1955, who is hired by De Niro's character Louis Cyphre to find a deadbeat singer named Johnny Favorite. Angel locates Favorite in a mental institution upstate, only to find that he left more than a decade ago, the records of his residency at the institution cooked by a drug-addled, corrupt doctor. Angel discovers that Favorite made his way to New Orleans so Angel follows him there -- and then is dragged into a labyrinth of murder, the occult, and gumbo, plot twists abounding.

When this movie came out there was a lot of controversy. Just before its release in March of 1987, the MPAA forced the director to cut time out of some of its nastier scenes. But most of the controversy came from the casting of a young Lisa Bonet as a young New Orleans woman who holds clues to the mystery of the plot -- and has a really wild love scene with Rourke. At the time Bonet was on The Cosby Show, playing a wholesome character on a wholesome family show watched by over 30 million people per week (obviously Mr. Cosby himself wasn't that wholesome but that's another story). Anyway, Cosby and many of the squares were critical of Bonet appearing in this film, and a lot of critics just hated it. But Angel Heart has earned its place as the kind of sexy, rough, sensational movie for grown ups that we just don't see much of anymore.

The movie is worth seeing, however, for the great acting by Rourke, De Niro, Bonet, and the always luminous Charlotte Rampling. It's a movie with a lot of atmosphere, a lot of exotic mystique, worth seeing if you're in the mood for something "out there."

Welcome to NYCHALand!

This blog is dedicated to the NYC of our hearts, minds, and souls as much as to the real city of metal, concrete, and pavement.

One of the fun things about this blog is exploring the undiscovered places -- both literal and figurative -- that exist within the city we love. Cities within the city, if you will, that thrive around us, next to us, and in which many of us live too.

But there is one city within NYC that most readers of this blog don't know about, including yours truly. It's a place that almost 92% of New Yorkers -- let alone tourists -- never go to. It's a city that exists in many neighborhoods but is separate from just about all of them. And it certainly doesn't thrive.

It's called NYCHALand -- otherwise known as "the projects", those enclaves of poverty.

NYCHA is short for New York City Housing Authority which runs all of the public housing projects across the five boroughs. It houses over 400,000 people, almost 8% of the entire city's population, but those are just the official figures; unofficially almost 600,000 people live there. 

Think about that for a second: while 8% might not be a huge share of the city's people and 400,000 a small slice of the 8 million plus folks in this town, NYCHALand houses more people than New Orleans or St. Louis. In fact, you could transport the entire population of the state of Wyoming into NYCHALand and still have room left over for more people. It's that big.

The Queensbridge Houses in Long Island City, one of the bigger neighborhoods in NYCHALand.

The projects have long been a controversial aspect of American urban policy. Initially they were seen as an improvement over the slums and tenements that used to warehouse the poor, places where people could live in a certain amount of dignity while they worked themselves into the middle class. But it all went wrong: the projects basically became exactly what they were might to replace, and became new warehouses for the poor. Few worked themselves into the middle, instead caught in a cycle of dependency on city housing and services, members of the permanent underclass. The projects became havens for gangs and drug dealers and violence. The sound of gunshots became a daily a occurrence for the young and old alike who lived there. When one thought of the projects, one could only think of menace.

The "projects" became a symbol for everything that was wrong with 20th century compassion.  If the road to hell is paved with good intentions, the projects seemed like their final destination.

Many cities in the last decade tore their projects down and developed new housing policies to deal with the poor. But here in NYC, the projects remain. NYCHALand exists today much as it did forty, thirty years ago. Over the last 20 years, people have talked about how NYC has come back, better than ever, from the turbulent time of the 1970s and 1980s. Yet when you go to NYCHALand, it's like stepping into a time machine back to that time in the city's history that so many of us want to forget. 

However, NYCHALand might not be much longer. This long, very informative article from this week's New York magazine tells us about ideas some have to permanently change the landscape of the projects. The costs of maintaining them has ballooned and many are saying that perhaps it's time NYC develop a 21st century housing policy.

But what will that look like? What will happen to the people who, as miserable a place NYCHALand is for most, feel like it's the best home they could hope to have? Will a new housing policy for the poor help or hurt them? 

In the years to come, NYCHALand might became yet another relic of the city's past, a place most of have never gone to and hope never to go to but that will be, for good or for ill, a city within a city that was part of the character of the greatest city in the world.

 

New Orleans Hangover

Oh man ... New Orleans was great ... in fact, I'm still recovering from it ... haven't had the time or the energy to blog about it properly ... will do so this weekend ... hard for me to form a coherent, uhhh .... you know ... sen, cents -- SENTENCE! Look for a complete wrap-up this weekend ... stand by, your patience is much appreciated ...

Topless NYC

My previous post about New Yorkers of mystery included some info about a woman who is a topless advocate in NYC. She goes around town without a shirt, drawing attention (to say the least) to the fact that New York ladies can bare their breasts in public.

A true heroine of our age.

Anyway, my post prompted a comment from someone praising Ms. Johnston and indicating that on August 26th there will be a "topless freedom rally" in our fair city at Bryant Park from 12-3 PM. 

Yes, if you so choose, you may go and become a freedom fighter for breasts. Perhaps, even, the media will "cover" this rally and you could be on TV!

Will Mr NYC be there? Hmmmmm ....

Of course some of the more conservative elements in this town won't like this. "What are we? New Orleans?" they might cry. 

But New York is the place to do this. Fighting for freedom is in our history and our DNA. This is a city where we rallied for workers rights, for civil rights, against the Vietnam and Iraq wars, for freedom of all sorts. 

So why not boobs? 

Mr NYC in Texas

Twenty years ago a buddy and I took a road trip to Texas (followed by some other places). We drove south from college and, after a couple of days, arrived in this vast, fascinating state.

Texas is big. Real big. Like, crazy "wow" big. 

We drove forever, and forever (sometimes I think we're still driving through it). We drove through towns like San Antonio and Abilene, through small towns made up of nothing but trailer parks (I remember one called Sheffield), and through hundreds of miles of west Texas where there was literally nothing at all except roads -- no trees, no people, no houses, no stores, no civilization at all, nothing for miles and miles and miles and miles but flat land ... until you occasionally hit a much-needed gas station. 

Our destination was Big Bend National Park, and it was worth the drive. This is a massive and stunningly gorgeous place with mountains and canyons and stunning natural landscape after stunning natural landscape. We backpacked through the trails and came upon mountain views that went forever and simply stupefy you with their beauty. We did this for a couple of days, sleeping in a tent, until we took off for Houston en route to New Orleans.

Big Bend is not an easy place to get to -- in fact, it's the least visited national park in the country for precisely this reason -- but I urge you to go if you can, words cannot describe how life-changing it is to be there. It reminds you of how amazing the natural world is, how vast and overwhelming, and how us mere people are simply part of a greater design. You feel a great inner peace being in this gorgeous yet quite space. It's very special. (By the way, Big Bend is also the same place where Supreme Court Justice, and New York-native, Antonin Scalia died in 2016.)

We only spent a night in Houston and I don't remember much about it, we got there at night and left early the next day. We ate a Fudruckers and I had perhaps the biggest cheeseburger ever. However, I do recall we drove briefly around downtown and I saw a huge statue of a cello, a modern art exhibit, that seemed very Texas, very non-NYC.

So the saying is true: everything's bigger in Texas. A lot bigger. And, despite its politics, it's a place worth checking out. 

Oh, and if you want to see the definiate movie about Texas, watch Giant from 1956 starring Rock Hudson and Elizabeth Taylor, as well as James Dean in his last movie and a young Dennis Hopper in one of his first.

Thanks George

September 2. Maybe it's not a date that will live in infamy, but it's a date I'll always remember for a couple of reasons. Why? Hard to put into precise words. How would the great columnist Cindy Adams write about this date? Let me try.

September 2, 2004. Madison Square Garden, NYC. The august Mr Bush stands before the convention of his Grand Old Party, accepting re-nomination for a second term as President of these United States. Part of his speech's high-flying rhetoric: "People will look to the resurrection of New York City and they will say: Here buildings fell, and here a nation rose."

September 2, 2005. The Aftermath: Hurricane Katrina, the Gulf Coast. The re-elected Mr Bush surveys damage from the biggest natural disaster in US history, followed by the biggest failed Federal response to a natural disaster in US history. He looks at the former horse association lawyer Michael D. Brown, lately Director of FEMA, and declares, "Brownie, you're doing a heckuva job!"

Based on his statements and actions, I can only conclude that the President's mind works like this:

A. NYC = a good political backdrop (thanks to a terrorist event "we never saw coming") that will help me maintain power and responsibility for the security of the American people

B. Hurricane Katrina = an annoying natural event not in any way caused by global warming

C. New Orleans and the Gulf Coast region = black people and poor people and poor black people who don't vote or don't vote for me and who aren't campaign contributors therefore have nothing to do with me getting and/or maintaining power and responsibility for the security of the American people

A + B + C = a good time to play the guitar

"The Deuce" - An Appreciation

Very soon the final episode of the three-season series The Deuce will air. Created by David Simon, whose previous shows The Wire and Treme examined the criminal underworld of early-2000s Baltimore and the cultural scene of post-Katrina New Orleans (respectively), The Deuce was about NYC. 

Unlike those shows, however, it was a period piece set in the 1970s and '80s. Ostensibly The Deuce was about the adult business and how it quickly rose into an almost respected art form ("porno chic") in the '70s until AIDS and videotape ruined it in the '80s. But The Deuce wasn't really about the adult business, it was about NYC -- specifically the Times Square area, and how it turned from a sleazy cease pool into a developer's wonderland. It's about how the forces of big money, real estate, law enforcement, and politicians came together to transform this part of NYC -- and, eventually, the city as a whole. In The Deuce, the adult business is an exemplar of this time in the city's history -- a beneficiary of the old NYC, a victim of the new NYC. It shows how, in detail, through the stories of its various interrelated characters, the city changed into the gentrified, clean-cut jewel-box it is today.

As I blogged about almost exactly two years ago -- two years before this show even hit the air! -- so goes Times Square, so goes NYC. The Deuce dramatized this fact brilliantly.

I'm sorry that The Deuce is going off the air after three great seasons -- each one jumped ahead several years from the previous season (1971 to 1978 to 1985) showing how the adult business and the city had changed in the interim. It'd be cool to see this show jump ahead to 2000 or 2001 -- just as the Internet was changing adult film yet again and 9/11 would change the city forever. Maybe one day David Simon will make a reunion movie.

Many thanks for this brilliant, one of a kind, only-in-NYC show!

Louis Armstrong House

Recently we visited the home of jazz titan Louis Armstrong.

Although a child of New Orleans -- and a Man of the World -- Armstrong spent the last thirty years of his life with his third wife Lucille in a small cozy house in the heart of Corona, Queens.

Lucille was a native of Corona, and Armstrong fell in love with the neighborhood and her in the late 1930s. Even though he was a rich man, he had good but humble taste, and was perfectly happy living his modest house in a working class neighborhood of NYC. That said, it's beautifully decorated with gifts he received during his extensive tours -- he was on the road for 10 months of the year -- as well as other collectibles. And his bathrooms are, to put it simply, lit.

Borin 1901, Louis Armstrong died in 1971.

We were not allowed to take any photos of the house during our visit but you should check out the home's website or, better yet, visit it yourself. Across the street from the house is a small museum dedicated to the man's life. During our visit, one of the people on our tour was someone who had came all the way from Japan -- a country where they love jazz.

It's a reminder that, in this town, you can find cultural history in the most unlikely places.

Sidenote: my wife's father used to deliver groceries to the Armstrong house when he was a kid. He never met the great man himself (he was usually away or upstairs) but Armstrong's wife and housekeeper would give him pancakes.

You can read more about Louis Armstrong on Mr NYC here as well as my earlier picture of his grave here. 

The Corporate City

The media today is obsessed with the Republican/Democrat, Red/Blue, Liberal/Conservative, urban vs. rural socioeconomic/political/cultural divide. The two America's at war with each other, pushing and pulling the country apart -- one America wanting to make us more like Canada (the liberal urban Democrats) and the other wanting to make us more like Mexico (the conservative rural Republicans). This "divide" is at the heart of the current narrative of American politics, with NYC as the capital of Blue America (and I guess the whole state of Texas being the capital of Red America but there are many contenders for that title I suppose).  

But like so many simplistic generalities, this "narrative" is wrong. For NYC isn't really the bastion of liberalism that the media, the conservatives, and the rest of America think it is. And it's not just that we've just elected Republican mayors for the last 20 years (but that's part of it). It's that NYC has become, over the last thirty years, a corporate city, one where corporations and powerful private interests have acquired huge power over our city's government, dictating policies that affect our lives, all while eviscerating public power and crushing the middle while helping the rich.

Let the Free Market rule! 

Ad increasingly, since the age of Ed Koch and Ronald Reagan thirty years ago to the time of Mike Bloomberg and George Bush and Barack Obama today, the Free Market has been ruling NYC and controlling its destiny like never before.

Private money has never been more powerful than it is today in NYC. Same is true in other "hotbeds of liberalism" around the country like Chicago and Washington, DC. I could go on here and give example after example of how NYC today is a Corporate City and how it's "liberalism" isn't quite what it seems. But the always great Matt Taibbi and the brilliant David Sirota have written about it in such perfect language that I will simply re-post some of things they said about it here.

First, Taibbi writes about Mayor Bloomberg, the ultimate corporate mayor, and how this incredibly reactionary mayor has thrived in "liberal" NYC for more than a decade: 

       [Bloomberg] is a billionaire Wall Street creature with an extreme deregulatory bent who has   quietly advanced some nastily regressive police policies… but has won over upper-middle-class liberals with his stances on choice and gay marriage and other social issues.

Bloomberg’s main attraction as a politician has been his ability to stick closely to a holy trinity of basic PR principles: bang heavily on black crime, embrace social issues dear to white progressives, and in the remaining working hours give your pals on Wall Street (who can raise any money you need, if you somehow run out of your own) whatever they want.

He understands that as long as you keep muggers and pimps out of the prime shopping areas in the Upper West Side, and make sure to sound the right notes on abortion, stem-cell research, global warming, and the like, you can believably play the role of the wisecracking, good-guy-billionaire Belle of the Ball…

Second, David Sirota notes what Taibbi wrote and also looks at the corporate city as a wider American phenomenon. Sirota writes about how Chicago has privatized its public infrastructure, selling off highways and parking meters to private interests. The big city Democratic mayors have been trying to destroy public employee unions with the same zeal as Republican governors (Chicago again, and Denver). The charter school movement that has been funded by big private interests -- including Wal Mart! -- has spread in "liberal" cities like LA, New Orleans, and DC (which gave us the odious Michelle Rhee, the schools head who wants to destroy every teachers union in America). Many "liberal" cities have been slashing city budgets and reducing public services while refusing to raise taxes on the rich but offering huge public subsidies for stadiums, office buildings, and public/private ventures (always making the argument that this will "create jobs" and "raise tax revenues" for cities -- but almost never doing that in reality and in fact costing these cities money in the long run).  

These are corporate cities if there ever were any, and NYC is at the forefront of it. But because our media is so obsessed with cultural issues over economic ones, a city is "liberal" if most of its people support abortion or gay rights or gun control -- not if its leaders are selling their people out to private interests and destroying the public sector. Sirota writes:

Though Taibbi was writing about Bloomberg specifically, his words aptly sum up what the American cityscape has become — yet more scorched earth in the successful assault of Limousine Liberals and Crony Corporatists on Lunch-Pail Liberals and Progressive Populists. In political terms, it represents the broader success of the transpartisan moneyed class in fully redefining “liberal” exclusively as “social-issue liberal” — without regard for economic agenda. 

So when you look at Occupy Wall Street you see a movement that is simply angry at money and the corporate state controlling our lives and our destinies -- and it goes beyond any party, any mayor, any city. It goes to the heart of what NYC and America has become -- and it wants to fight back. 

A good fight indeed. 

Et in Bohemia Ergo

NYC is the epicenter of wealth, glamour, culture, and power but it has also long been something else -- the capital of Bohemian American.
This city has always attracted the freaks and the funky, the artists and the thinkers, the dreamers and the strivers, and the weirdos who just want to "hang." Long before any place -- New Orleans, San Francisco, Austin or Portland, Oregon -- challenged us for the place where la vie Boheme thrived, this city, more than any other, was where Bohemians flocked.
Not all Bohemians are created equal, of course. Roughly categorized, Bohemians broke down into the following:

• Nouveau: bohemians with money who attempt to join traditional bohemianism with contemporary culture
• Gypsy: the expatriate types, they create their own Gypsy ideal of nirvana wherever they go
• Beat: also drifters, but non-materialist and art-focused
• Zen: "post-beat," focus on spirituality rather than art
• Dandy: no money, but try to appear as if they have it by buying and displaying expensive or rare items – such as brands of alcohol

Today, NYC is less friendly to traditional Bohemians (except for the Nouveau). But these two articles, one about the late Andy Warhol, another about the Chelsea Hotel, seek to put the Bohemian experience in NYC into some context and how this city might, just might, be able to retain its spirit in the era of the gentrification onslaught.

http://observer.com/2017/02/make-america-bohemian-again/

http://www.villagevoice.com/arts/thirty-years-after-his-death-andy-warhols-spirit-is-still-very-much-alive-9695838

Keep NYC weird!

International NYC Redux

A few years ago, my family and I visited China. Shortly after blogging about that trip, I blogged about the interconnected global village we all live. When you visit a KFC in the Beijing airport, you realize the world has indeed shrunk.

The world is big and small at the same time. Or flat, as others have called it. 

Living in NYC, you are acutely aware of living in the capital of the world. We are not just a great American city, we are not only an international city like London or Tokyo, we are the capital of the world because this is where the world comes together.

This is the home of Ellis Island and the United Nations. This is a city with whole neighborhoods defined by the nationalities that populate them (Little Italy, two Chinatowns, Koreans in Flushing, Greeks in Astoria, Russians in Brighton Beach, Orthodox Jews in Williamsburg, and on and on). This is where the Statue of Liberty sits, a symbol not only of our nation's liberty but a beacon to the world -- Lady Liberty, that Mother of Exiles, calling the poor, tired huddled masses from Ancient lands yearning to be free.

As much as I write about NYC on this blog, I also like to write about wherever I travel to in the USA and the world. So far I've traveled to, and blogged about, China, Venice, Paris, London, Portland, New Orleans, and Kansas City. I've also blogged about the various exhibits at the Met that have an international flavor. And the neighborhood I live in, Astoria, is not only the Greek capital of NYC but also the Egyptian capital of NYC -- and the Arab Spring has not only taken place in Cairo and Libya and Tunisia but also on Steinway Street. 

NYC is the world.

And learning more about the world is always fascinating. 

Increasing, like a lot of Americans, I've gotten sick of watching the TV news because so much of it is dumb and cynical. Also, American news poorly covers the world. But if you live in NYC (and have cable), you not only live in the capital of the world but the world can literally come into your living room. On our cable system, we have some of the best international cable channels available. Now a lot of them are in other languages but several of the best ones are in English. Specifically, CNN International, Al Jazeera English, Russian Today, and CCTV (the Chinese English service). Also, you can find BBC World News on most PBS stations. 

If you want to find these channels on your dial, go to the Time Warner website or flip around on the remote.


The quality of the reporting on these international stations is vastly superior to regular network and cable news. You learn so much about the world in which we live that you feel much smarter after watching it. And when you live in NYC, the capital of the world, it's great to have these international cable channels to compliment this international city. 

Bobby Jindal as Kenneth the NBC Page from 30 Rock!!!!

I'm not just posting this video to be snarky. I'm also posting it because I will be heading off this weekend to the city in the state where Mr. Jindal is governor. So there will be no posts this weekend. When I return, I will give you a full New Orleans update.

Heavenly Riverside Drive

One of the defining features of great cities is that even its streets and avenues are famous: think Saville Row in London, the Champs D'Elysee in Paris, the Via Del Corso in Rome, Bourbon Street in New Orleans, Mulholland Drive in LA, and many others. 

In NYC, especially Manhattan, Wall Street, Park Avenue, Fifth Avenue, Central Park West, and Sutton Place are famous the world over because they posses some of the most expensive real estate on earth. These avenues are synonymous with wealth, power, fame, glamour -- you name it. The richest and most famous people in the world live there, its architecture and streets exude the 1%. Tom Wolfe wrote a whole book about it back in 1987. 

'nough said.

So what about Riverside Drive?

Unlike those avenues, it doesn't have anywhere near the fame and pedigree. But what's crazy is that Riverside Drive is probably more beautiful than any of them. Nestled next to the Hudson River, running quietly from 72nd street up to the top of Manhattan island, it's an amazingly peaceful avenue right next to one the most frenzied places in the entire world. You just walk a block west from the loud craziness of Broadway onto the leafy, zen-like Riverside Drive and it's like you've stepped out of one world into another. 

I know a lot about Riverside Drive because, well, I grew up there. And I've always felt like it never got the respect of Manhattan's other great avenue. But that's changed a little recently: there's now a book about it called Heaven on the Hudson that chronicles its amazing history. Riverside Drive is full not only of beautiful buildings, it's not only across the street from its own park with sweeting views of the Hudson River, but it's also full of monuments and also contains some of the last remaining free-standing mansions in NYC. You should read the interview with the author. I can't wait to read the book.

If you want to know more about what makes Riverside Drive so magical, you should read this 1998 essay "My Manhattan: 44 Blocks of Enchantment." I remember reading it when it was published -- I was in college, far from NYC, and it brought me right home in my mind. 

You can read all of Mr NYC's Riverside Drive coverage here.

I never say things like this but I'll say it here: Riverside Drive is the best avenue in NYC!

The Epitaph of Our Times

I recently saw George Will on TV say of the Bush Administration that "We didn't see it coming" would be its epitaph. I think, more accurately, it's the epitaph of our times. In the last five years I've heard politicians and public officials (basically) say ...

We didn't know the subways would flood in a huge downpour ... didn't see it coming.

We didn't know the levees in New Orleans would break ... didn't see it coming.

We had no idea that people would high jack planes and fly them into buildings ... didn't see it coming.

We had no idea that if we invaded an Arab country that there would be an insurgency ... didn't see it coming.

We had no idea that our veterans were being housed in terrible conditions at Walter Reade ... didn't see it coming.

We didn't realize that if we deregulated and had lax oversight of corporations that debacles like Enron and Wordcom would happen ... didn't see it coming.

"Didn't know, couldn't have guessed, didn't see it coming."

It's their job to see things like these coming! That's what we elect and pay them to do!

And just wait ... you'll hear something like that again soon from a public official. And I do see that coming.

Mr NYC in Portland, Oregon

One of the reasons for my not blogging lately is that last weekend I was out of town -- in Portland, OR.

I'd never been out there before and had no idea what to expect. (Being from NYC, most other cities are underwhelming, to say the least.) However, after spending just a couple of days in this Northwestern ville, I can happily report that Portland, OR shoots right to the top of the list of my favorite American cities (along with San Francisco and New Orleans).

So here's a brief recap o' my trip.

Unlike those other cities, which are fun and colorful, Portland is fun and ... chill ... It's also very beautiful. Driving from the airport, we saw the huge, gorgeous Douglas-fir trees that make the Pacific Northwest famous. There aren't a lot of tall buildings in this town but the architecture is pretty, contextual, and tasteful. Like NYC, Portland is very compact -- even more compact, actually, because it's smaller and only has a population of two million people. Portland is divided into four quadrants and people there talking about living in either NW, SW, NE and SE. Driving across the city takes about twenty minutes from end to end, and about it's half an hour from any spot in the city to PDX (the airport). Unlike a lot of American cities, Portland has decent public transportation -- no subway but trolleys and a very good bus system. Apparently you can get from most sections of the city to downtown in about twenty minutes. All in all, a pretty easy city to navigate.

Our time in Portland was busy. We actually got out of town and drove up into the mountains nearby. The views and vistas there are stunningly beautiful. We drove to the top of the Columbia River Gorge which inspired us to do "downdogs" and "sun salutations" and other yoga moves, so Zen was the experience. Then we went hiking up several trails, passing several lovely waterfalls (one of which sprayed us and felt wonderful).*

Later we went to dinner at a very good restaurant in town called The Farm Cafe. They serve fresh, organic food along with excellent cocktails (this is a very popular spot so either go early or make reservations).

We then hung out for a little while at a great, great place called Voicebox Karaoke, easily the most upscale, classy karaoke bar I've ever been too. You can rent private rooms, each one very comfortable and unique, and they have great drinks and dumplings on tap.

Then we saw a show. Not a concert or a play exactly but what is apparently a live action sitcom called "Fall of the House." It's basically a raunchy version of Friends set in Portland but with lots of different characters and wacky situations. Shocking thing? It was good! And funny! And very well written! The characters were well developed and dimensional and we really enjoyed it. If you are ever in Portland and this show is on, I suggest you go.

Next day we went downtown and walked along the waterfront. Portland is cut in two by the Willamette river and bound together by several bridges, each one distinct and interesting. Then we had brunch at Mother's Bistro, a popular restaurant with very good food. After that, we went to Powell's, the largest bookstore in the country. Simply put, Powell's has lots and lots and lots of books. If you go, make sure you get a map. It has nine rooms (each with its own designated color) and four floors. We bought a few books, including a huge history of the world for our friend and host, and even managed at one point to get lost in the huge place.

After this, we went rollerskating ... and even did the hokey pokey!

Dinner that night was pizza taken out from a place called Dove Vivi. A very good organic pizza place, we had a sausage pizza and one covered with corn and red peppers. Mmmmmmm.

On our way the airport, we stopped by Voodoo Doughnuts for dessert. This is the first time I've ever had donuts made by punk rockers but they ... were ... awesome! We went there at 5 PM on a Sunday evening and there was a long line outside the store and it took almost half and hour to get in. I had a basic jelly doughnut but you can also get things like the Maple Bacon donut (you read that right) along with other exotic pastries. It goes without saying that if you like donuts -- and I love 'em -- and you're in Portland, you must go to Voodoo Doughnuts.**

And then, after a wonderful whirlwind trip, we came home to NYC on the red eye.

So, to sum it up, Portland is great. If you love NYC, you'll really like Portland. What impressed me most is that Portland still has vibrant neighborhoods and a downtown that doesn't shut up at night. We stayed in a neighborhood called Clinton which has lovely small homes with beautiful lawns but is also within walking distance (literally, just minutes away) of bars, restaurants, movie theaters, grocery stores, banks, and park space.

Portland is a real city, not just a "metro area," and if you live there you feel like you're in a community. It's a very chill, relaxed city, where people work to live, not live to work, where time is as important as money, where the cost of living is reasonable, and where you feel like everyone is a good neighbor.

Cheers.

*For those of you who might hike these trails with a significant other, there's a book called Pokin' Round the Gorge that suggests secluded spots that are good for a little outdoor nooky. I have not read this book nor did our hike include this activity but I thought both of my readers might like to know about this publication.

**Voodoo Doghnuts is next door to a place called The Paris Theater. Unlike our Paris Theatre, however, they show different kinds of movies.