This is the thread where we complain about New York.

New York is big.

Most cities are smaller.

I don't have enough money to live large in either.

Actually, I think NYC's been the epicenter of the universe for so long that it's virtually impossible for it to take itself too seriously, unlike...say....Seattle in the early 90's, which was deplorably high on itself. That party's over. HA!

But, it's invariably better than your hometown, haterz!

http://homepage.mac.com/alexinnyc/.Pictures/Photo%20Album%20Pictures/2005-03-30%2008.00.52%20-0800/Image-F65DA8A7A13311D9.jpg

-- ken c (pykachu10...), March 30th, 2005.

I know. *Rich* is the new *bohemian*.

As far as losing a sense of "history" -- I dunno, blame Robert Moses? I'm not sure NYC ever held onto any sense of history for very long.

OTM.

haha xpost

What I don't understand is the handful of tourists ("handful") who do seem to do that. Like, the ones that go to TGI Friday's or the Red Lobster instead of one of the real restaurants, a few blocks over???

xpost I'M SURPRISED THEY HAVEN'T DONE THAT YET but OTOH Chinatown is a "safe" "wholesome" curiousity, so it's safe. Until, like, the Mets wanna move to downtown NYC or something.

Sometimes I hate Brooklyn just as much -- the way someone can move there from Arkansas and then scoff at me for living in New Jersey. But I don't really hate it. It's a fucking great place. I'm just jealous.

I used to give tourists wrong directions when I was younger, and chase tour buses all through Soho with my friends, giving the finger all the way. Ah, those were the days.

"I'm a New York City cop. I think that's an important part of the job, not just being a cop, but being a New York City cop. The other day, I responded to a complaint, and there was a man on his doorstep holding an avocado. He wanted help getting a refund because the avocado he bought was too ripe. I told him, 'Sir, there are certain risks we take every day when we buy fruit.' I'm a cop -- sometimes I respond to robberies, sometimes I respond to people with avocados."

The way this cop talks embodies the essentialized New York that I'll always have in my mind. I get it from Woody Allen movies, from my parents' stories about living there, etc. Even though everyone comes there from somewhere else now, people still have this idea of being a "real New Yorker," talk about the moment when the first felt this.

HAHAHASHAHAHAHAHAHAHA that story is great.

Je4nne getting people to go to the bronx for anything besides a Yankees game has proven impossible to me over the past, oh, two years :(

no, you did not jbr -- yer love of NJ is longstanding and much appreciated ;-)

:-)

Hey, someone didn't want to go to the zoo. That person wasn't me. Plus we have LAX games up there.

so it's definitely not the worst. I can't believe I'm admitting this!

Ok then. STOP OPENING PRETENTIOUS TRENDY OVER-PRICED BISTRO/CAFE THINGIES WITH NO DISCERNIBLE CUISINE STYLE AND ONE-WORD NAMES LIKE "CLOUD" OR "QUIXOTIC".

See, ladies and gentlemen, I was spoiled because I went to school at F0rdh4m IN THE BRONX NOT LINCOLN CENTER THANK YOU VERY MUCH. For all the shittiness of the Bronx, and believe me, there were plenty (muggings anyone?), I ate so well up there, hot diggity. But the locals kind of hated us. My heart was broken when I found out a Starbucks opened on F0rdh4m Road after I graduated.

JBR, yes, we are married.

Not while they stand RIGHT IN FRONT OF subway entrances / staircases / pathways checking their fucking pagers / phones every fucking 5 minutes.

agreed -- pedestrians are teh SUXOR. esp. pedestrian tourists -- tourists should be killed!

Also Kenan if you were any more boring you'd be a sloth.

xpost I've been to Wyoming, it sucked! My dad thought it was awesome.

My girlfriend's dad loves Jackson Heights. He discovered a great Indian place there and insists on going there every time he's in a 100 mile radius of NYC. Once he drove us around the Indian district afterward and waxed poetic (in a thick Israeli accent): "Look, you see? LIFE! People going to markets! Women buying dresses! Children staring in the windows at toys. So much life!"

COWBOYS AREN'T DEAD!!!

xpost cowboys are ok. the west is ok. it doesn't all look like that. sometimes it's very plain and dirty and ugly.

(yet another cliche!!)

Everybody get a grip, pls.

I will fully support any hate for Washington DC, but I dunno if I'd rather live in Boston by any means. That's a little extreme. I am pretty sure I would hate the general population of Boston even more than I hate the general population of DC.

What the fuck do I know, I'm from Alabama. Is anybody posting on this thread anymore besides NYers, NJers, and me?

though to be fair, boston drivers are even WORSE.

If you don't like where you are, it's YOU that's the problem, not the place.

And everybody always unites together to help Spider-Man. I love when that happens.

This is also an x-post by the way. If you're a native New Yorker fine, but don't make fun of Philadelphia if you're a New Yorker who moved from a crappier city or town than mine.

amen!

Haha, but Sara, those are SOUTH Jersey-folk. Even people from New Jersey make fun of them.

i miss graffiti! that's an okay thing to miss, right?

??????????????????????????

But where the fuck did that strange breed of tight-shirted, slicked-haired thuggish pod-person that clogs old city in Philly every weekend come from?

north jersey = guidos, ghettos, gangsters AND gangstas, smelly petrochem factories, ASSHOLE NYCers

south jersey = hicks (a/k/a "pinies"), ghettos (camden and trenton)

xpost to jody

otm. while we're on the subject, cape may might as well be delaware. it's so NOT what people from other states would think of as "jersey."

haha my guess is that they weren't even THERE when the bistro was a crackhouse.

if i prefer the "crackhouse" era at all, it's just because rents were lower and small businesses (not just trust-funded bistros) could actually thrive. places like see/hear could actually afford to stay open.

and it hurts me in my heart cuz there are small cities where lots of independent businesses thrive and are in little danger of being crushed by 800-ton corporate gorillaz. i lived in one. it was great.

"I'm so fucking radical because I spraypainted a graphic of Bush with vampire teeth on a wall where everyone who sees it will already agree with me,"

and

"You know, I used to hate people who joined the army, but then I heard on NPR that some of them actually do it for the money for education. Maybe I can get one of those regular youngsters to come give a talk at my activist group."

I think I'm suffering from Second City Syndrome, which is a complicated thing, since part of it involves hating Second City Syndrome. I cringe now when the local news comes on, and they're like, "Such and such person did such and such thing, and if you stay tuned, we'll tell you about the very tenuous links to Chicago." WHO TH' FUCK CARES? Do they do this on the New York City local news? I don't know, personally, but I imagine not. New York doesn't have to try that hard. It's already New York.

kenan, meet the philadelphia media (probably THE worst offender of the "find ANY local connection with a big national/international story" syndrome that i've EVER seen).

"I'm so fucking radical because I spraypainted a graphic of Bush with vampire teeth on a wall where everyone who sees it will already agree with me,"

Where does this NOT happen?

bide-a-wee is a pretty cool NYC institution!

I say this because I have stepped foot in NYC for about, I dunno, 4 days, and its been my only time in the eastern USA.

It must be STRANGE not to see KOKOPELLI figurines nearly every day!

Crackhouse-era NYC provided almost affordable space for music clubs and ethnic restaurants.

Stinking-rich yuppie New York at least has some interesting shopping (even if none of it fits me and I can't afford it). The same cannot be said of the DC area's stinking-rich yuppie enclaves.

seems kind of strange to me to complain that nyc doesn't have small businesses. BUY ONE DELI COFFEE.

When is the most pleasant time of year? It was so crappy while I was in town, like freezing rain and snow and below-freezing winds. I think JtN and I went into like 9 Starbucks just to warm up. I also recall us just standing in Old Navy for like an hour. It was pretty grim.

also i'm happy whole foods is here now. now make with the trader joe's.

e.g., "westchester/long island/bergen county v. orange county v. the main line/bucks county/cherry hill v. naperville FITE!"

really, the complaint reflects more on the complainer than the complainee.

good thing Amazon.com exists then I suppose

"post-riot urban areas" sounds about right for my neighborhood then

I've lived in Monterey, CA and I bitched about that place too

although, if i lived somewhere with ONLY chains I'd feel kinda blah.. that's what I noticed about Dallas but I seemed to be confined to the burbs.

welcome to 95 percent of america.

don't look at me, i haven't bought anything on amazon in at least two years!

xpost except that 95% of America thing, it seems like outside of the proliferation of WALMART SUPERCORP all over the place a lot of non-urban areas are pretty untouched by chains.

the truth in all this is we all just see what we want to see. if you wanna see only chain stores and bullshit, that's all you're gonna see.

they are.

yeah but all those cool funky homespun applepie small towns (TM) still represent a tiny part of the united states. you know what most of america is, commercewise? fucking flying j's off the interstate.

(xpost) i don't think there's anything wrong with flying j either. i'm just sayin'.

I KNOW they coexist. WHAT I AM SAYING is that the community boards/city planners/et al have shown a MARKED RECENT DISTURBING TREND of offering very little help to homegrown businesses during redevelopment of neighborhoods and instead GIVING FINANCIAL INCENTIVES ALMOST PURELY TO GIANT CORPS. This needs to be far more balanced and this is what I, and while I don't want to put words in her mouth I believe jody as well, am getting at--not that small businesses don't exist, that they are increasingly being, uh, unfavored by people who could make a difference.

I can post statistics if you want, I'm basically writing my thesis on this subject!!!

also I don't think either of us are saying there is something inherently wrong in big chain stores, I mean we both like whole foods, dude.

see, e.g., goodly portions of pennsyltuckey, upstate new york, DEEP south jersey (i.e., salem/cumberland/gloucester counties).

there are literally hundreds of millions of grants for small businesses, minority-owned businesses, etc., etc.

i mean in general, at least with what you hear about, you're right - but it's always been that way. bloomberg is the logical conclusion of la guardia which is the logical conclusion of boss fucking tweed.

Oh please, neither do I. It still takes me 5 minutes to figure out which way is north. And there are a gazillion places I've never been to/never heard of that everyone else is a regular at. Then again, I'm a spaz/hermit, so I suppose I don't offer much comfort.

oops: i have, yes.

xpost I know they are logical conclusions to one another, I'm not saying stone Michael Bloomberg (though I'm not saying I'm opposed to that either), I'm saying that...

you know what, jorel, never mind. Would you like me to bring you some print outs of financial and demographic statistics this weekend? I'll trade them for a bourbon and coke. The situation is getting worse, not better, and yes while there are millions of federal grants out there (for example, that's basically what saved Lenox Lounge from extinction--savvy person getting literally 8 or 9 federal grants) they're not generally enough to start up in NYC on that alone and the more localized help has been extremely unhelpful towards smaller businesses. Not to mention how unevenly distributed "historical landmarking" is in this city, blah blah blah blah blah

Raze the whole thing and put up a goddamn mixed use condominium facility, 8 miles long.

yes. One tip, though, for when that happens -- don't ever buy juice or bottled tea or really any kind of beverage at Trader Joe's. TJ-brand cranberry juice is among the nastiest things I have ever tasted.

you make it seem like the people who open nice restaurants don't work as hard, or care as much about food as, um, your local greek diner.

oh yeah, right. al qaeda.

in a lot of cases they don't! i saw a documentary about a brooklyn startup restaurant where neither of the owners had any experience in food or business.

Restaurants are like anything else, I guess -- you have to look to find the good ones. Sometimes you pay $10 for a meal, and it's fantastic, and sometimes you pay $200 for a meal only to discover that you've been eating at the restaurant that Larry David and Ted Danson opened.

P.S. - fuck Charlie Trotter.

this is kind of a myth, the brilliant foreigners who all work only a year or two as a janitor and then suddenly have their own store. Most of them it takes a long time, a lot longer time than "a year or two." The ones who can do this came here with money.

When did this myth get transferred away from West Indians and to Pakistanis anyway? I've always wondered exactly what point that occurred, like which decade did the Pakistanis overtake the Caribbeans in immigration and then STEAL THE MYTH. THEY SHOULD FITE. ON PAY PER VIEW.

IMMIGRANTS BE STEALIN OUR JOBS OUR WIMMEN OUR HOMES

so much hatred and bitterness!!

LOAN$$$$$$$. Oh yes. Maybe you have heard of them. Most people use them just to buy houses and cars, but you can get one to rent a storefront and stock it with beer and magazines, too!

xpost - tombot otm. some of those loans are even gov't-backed/sponsored/paid for. sometimes there's even grants.

nobody ever attributes this to hispanic immigrants btw! wtf!

xpost uh try getting a loan in a red-lined area, Tom.

COSI to thread, the dotcom of cold overpriced sandwiches

TIFs, etc.

jody is OTM. Also HI WHY DO LARGE CORPORATIONS GET ANY GOVERNMENT SUBSIDIES AT ALL??

That's all I'm saying. You're correct in theory. The reality is not quite the same as the theory.

xpost my favorite food start up is this dude I was acquainted with in Amherst MA who started his own business bike delivering paninis, that he made himself. I mean wtf?

(a) the bike or the paninis? (that he made himself)

(b) was this wheeler?

I think they just want the rims.

never. i don't wanna be my own boss. but i know plenty of people that are their own bosses. i've even worked for a few of 'em, believe it or not.

i'll have to tell her that everyone who starts their own business is a trust-funder, she'll like that.

keywords: with some partners

jody is OTM and private banks are just as bad. I got redlined on a student loan from a Large Bank I Used To Be Employed By. I'd hate to be trying to get money to start a business or buy a house from them.

and no the person in question with the paninis was not wheeler!

xpost no one said "Everyone who starts a business is a trust funder." What is being said here is that this process isn't the magical, easy process that you seem to believe it is, and depending on where you are/where your business is going to be located/who you are the process gets exponentially harder.

well, if you don't have the patience to fill out some paperwork, you probably shouldn't be doing anything like starting a business.

xpost she didn't say that you'd give up because of the paperwork, giving up and invalidating paperwork were two separate clauses!

well, you fill out the application the first time, which doesn't take very long and seems relatively straightforward. then you send it in and a month later they send it back to you, saying you filled out form xyz incorrectly (when you really didn't, it's just their own incompetence and lack of ability to read) and your application won't be officially filed until you fix it. lather rinse repeat at least two more times.

Uhhh.... the weather. Last time I was there, every friggin' Midtown lunch place had chipotle flavored something or other. Hopefully that was a fad which has passed. Cigarettes are very expensive. Otherwise, it seems all good to me.

jody, maybe we should go ahead and redo any previous work we've both apparently done on doing this and post the results, pictorially, on ilx?

you choose where you live. even if you're homeless.

je4nne, it's nothing compared to sham sui po.

long way of saying -- jody and ally OTMFM here.

i am not, ally. i chose where i live because (in part) it is quiet. and my rent is a lot cheaper than a lot of people i know.

A) It's not cheaper than mine
B) The homeless do not "choose" to be homeless
C) There is a difference between choice and lack of choice

My complaints about New York (as someone who was BORN here):

- Too many fuckin' tourists. Go home to your farms and pep rallies and die, please, thanks.
- Too fucking expensive. So much so that I'm invariably going to have to pack up my family and move....to the mainland ::::shudder:::: which SUCKS from an overflowing toilet via a GIGANTIC COCK-SHAPED STRAW
- Too many tourists....did I say that already?
- Gentrification.
- My favorite music venues and bars and record shops are all closing one by one by one, being replaced by tanning centers and Starbucks and sushi restaurants (hey, I like sushi as much as the next guy, but ALRIGHT ALREADY!)
- Even the decent/captivating grafffitti is vanishing.

Took this today, and it made me sad. I saw Julian Cope, Gavin Friday, Eddie Izzard, Skeleton Key and a handful of other great shows here. Doesn't look like it's reopening, does it.

http://homepage.mac.com/alexinnyc/.Pictures/Photo%20Album%20Pictures/2005-03-30%2011.37.32%20-0800/Image-4000B6BEA15211D9.jpg

http://homepage.mac.com/alexinnyc/.Pictures/Photo%20Album%20Pictures/2005-03-30%2011.36.16%20-0800/Image-0CF51F84A15211D9.jpg

http://homepage.mac.com/alexinnyc/.Pictures/Photo%20Album%20Pictures/2005-03-30%2011.36.16%20-0800/Image-0CF52DC2A15211D9.jpg

http://homepage.mac.com/alexinnyc/.Pictures/Photo%20Album%20Pictures/2005-03-30%2011.36.16%20-0800/Image-0CF4EA13A15211D9.jpg

xpost The homeless do not "choose" to be homeless

that is not what i said. i said they choose where they live, even if that's like saying "hey this grating vent's got heat!"

yeah, what the FUCK is it w/ NYC yuppies and sushi?!? it's just RAW FUCKING FISH ... it's good, but these folks are all like it's MANNAH FROM GOD ALMIGHTY himself. and alex is OTM -- why the FUCK are there so many frigging sushi joints all over the place wtf?!?

i loved that busted car picture!!

xpost I wish there were more, not less, sushi restaurants.

http://www.juiceenewsdaily.com/0305/travel/nyc_south.html

I think I have walked every street in Manhattan. I will run into u allz.

of course. this is sort of what i'm saying, it's just not coming thru well, so nevermind.

no dyker heights residents post to ilx.

so true.. and most of them are TERRIBLE. especially the ones in the east village and upper west side. but its a total boon for restaurant owners. incredibly high profit margins on sushi, and especially maki rolls. and 99% of their customers cant tell the difference between otoro and catfood anyways

chinese people

not yet, anyway.

anyway, even w/n stence's meaning of how "free" homeless people are they really aren't that free -- they don't exactly have their choice of ANY subway station or ANY grating vent in the city you know.

i have real ny things to do today but my head kills, fuck one going outside

jorel i think we both think basically the same thing and are playing devil's advocate against one another for no good reason. we should stop, and instead go outside and do ny things. like graffiti, and open crackhouses

It took merely thirty-six hours to realise that I felt more at home there than I ever will here in the Southeast. It's a shame things are so pricey there compared to here...I'm too much of a proletaire to afford to live there.

maybe i'll join stence and ally in making our own genuwine NYC crackhouse! or better yet, a bodega.

once i get out of my pajamas, i'm going to go deposit this check from my easy freelance gig, then go to barneys, and odin, and maybe get these awesome comme des garcons shoes, then get a couple of spicy thighs from popeyes, then stop by the place to pay the electricity bill, buy a new fingernail clipper since i lost my other ones, get $1 pork dumplings on eldridge street, on the way to open bar blackbook party my friend is dj'ing at, then to 151 rivington where other friend is djing and the party is called "pay to cum" but its not a gay party, then come home to my nice apartment in the lower east side that is a block away from housing projects and hope i dont get attacked again. thats my new york day.

i'm going to go outside and do ny things and brave the noize and the sunlight despite my decrepit condition. i have to drop off my laundry and go to the grocery store--the grocery store here is no good, sometimes i get tempted to subway down to fairway but am too lazy :(

And has anyone complained about people with baby carriages/strollers yet? Because I sure did when I was single and childless. Go ahead. Guilty as charged.

i still do ... though i am still single and childless. boo baby carriages!!

tourists are annoying b/c they walk too slowly, they crowd close together on narrow sidewalks and subway entrances (making it difficult to pass them w/t being rude), they're usually really loud, and many of them act as if they'd never seen a skyscraper before in their lives.

i am sounding like a real curmudgeonly asshole NYCer today, aren't i? shoot me now.

my tourist issue is more like bewilderment with them at times. the ones who stop and take a photo of a TOTALLY RANDOM building--i mean i understand taking random, cool photos, i take random ass photos all the time, but like i don't stop dead in the middle of a busy street in everyone's way to do so, i try to be more discreet. Or the tourists who spend their time at places they could easily have gone to at home, the whole "spending your entire trip in Times Square/34th St" thing--you could go to those same places, except the plays, anywhere! It's just more people. So that's always confused me.

but I guess it is different, being FROM ny...I've honestly never gone to barely any of the touristy things. I used to regular myself at WTC but that was it, never been to ESB, only a handful of ball games, etc etc. so maybe the problem is ME.

xpost there is nothing wrong with it, I am just saying I don't understand the instinct many tourists seem to have to stop dead in the middle of the sidewalk to gape at something, all I am asking is for people to just move over (this happens anywhere in the world tourists are, this is not a NYC vs the world situation).

I just got the image in my head of Ally with a camera, taking pictures of peoples' unsuspecting posteriors.

It is not like a situation about how NYC is this and tourists are that because it happens in London, it happens in Disneyland, it happens at Niagra Falls for christ's sake. It's just a matter of asking for politeness. Some people DO live here (well not Disneyland, though if you could, I WOULD). Some people DO have to get to work/school/errands. Just please be polite, is all I'm asking for.

City residents are by and large much more rude than tourists and much more likely to be in the way (hello, escalator blockers, loud cell phone people, people who bring children to midnight R rated films, people who keep their umbrella up all the way down into the subway station cos GOD FORBID YOU GET A DROP OF WET, people who don't wait for other people to get off the subway before shoving their way on, etc etc etc).

xpost Alex, I have done this before.

my podunk NJ suburb has skyscrapers now (or, more accurately, tall buildings). so maybe that's why i'm "higher than thou" wr2 tourists gawking at them.

i dislike more; people on cell phones talking while walking down the subway stairs and stopping suddenly right when they start to lose the signal causing everyone behind them to stumble to a stop.

yeah! this is a BIG peeve of mine -- what is so HARD TO UNDERSTAND about "let the passengers off the train first"? it's practically the ONLY instruction on the subway PA that's understandable!

but maybe this has to do with my biggest pet peeve being people RUNNING for the train. THE NEXT TRAIN WILL COME, VERY SOON. within minutes, even! why run?

How charmingly provincial of you.

- Too fucking expensive. So much so that I'm invariably going to have to pack up my family and move....to the mainland ::::shudder:::: which SUCKS from an overflowing toilet via a GIGANTIC COCK-SHAPED STRAW

I sympathise but being born somewhere does not guarantee you a right to always live there as many Native Americans can attest.

- Too many tourists....did I say that already?

Would you really like to deprive your city of their money?

- Gentrification.

When did we all get so conservative as to think that the many hundreds of years of NYC's (or any other place's) evolution would cease during our lifetime, like a bug in amber. The NYC whose passing you regret was the result of changes undoubtedly deplored by a previous generation. I'm not saying that people shouldn't fight to preserve their neighborhoods, but there are always movements in history that are essentially irresistable.

also i find that non-city people (or people from small cities) who come here have no idea how to deal with crowds and they freeze up like a deer in the headlights. they don't understand that the best way to get from point A to point B in a crowd is just to fucking MOVE and by moving the person in front of you will have to move too. don't just stand there, doofus.

OTM. NYC sidewalks move even faster than they do in SF and it's one of the things I love. Lollygaggers too dimwitted to realize that many fellow pedestrains have somwhere to go and know how to get there exceed my tolerance. By all means, ask questions, but not in the center of the sidewalk. You wouldn't stop in the middle of the freeway to consult a map, would you?

blame the sidewalks not being wide enough, not the tourists. heh.

U R BEING SILLY NOW, HAVE YOU EVER BEEN TO 5TH AVENUE SHOPPING AREA??? THE SIDEWALKS ARE LIKE SIDEWALKS FOR RIDING CAMELS ON OR SOMETHING!

xpost that last comparison to the freeway is totally OTM!

i think the spanish have it right on the pace of life thing.

xpost - ally, try chicago more

Had a great time in NYC this past weekend and my only two complaints were, yeah, the expense (yeouch!) and not being able to meet up with all, and the latter is not something I can lay at the feet of the city per se, that would be rude.

My own antipathy towards NYC-as-self-proclaimed-center-of-universe has long been stated so I won't restate (and Ally's responses were supreme anyway so read them instead, it's somewhere in the archives), but actually I didn't feel any of that vibe this time around, which was good. Spencer's still right, though, you guys built in the wrong spot instead of out here, closer to us. *flees*

I enjoyed the weather during my visit, the brisk cold air and clear skies on Saturday was wonderful. And Queens seemed great to me! Astoria and that neck of the woods along the N line is quite all right.

Oh, and Trader Joe's green tea is serviceable and *not* expensive at all -- a buck for a bottle, cheap! Unless it costs more there? (Then again how smug am I to have one both next to where I work and only a few blocks from where I live.)

People with baby carriages/open strollers AT RUSH HOUR badly
need shooting.

Noise pollution under my South Slope window:

1995 - fistfighting drug dealers
2005 - the riding-horsey music in front of the baby boutique

What will this guy play at 151 Riv, phil?

insert requisite "tell that to my boss" comment (i don't have a "boss" right now so i'll just chalk my impatience up to the fact that i like to be punctual and other people's lateness gets on my nerves just a wee bit).

Living in urban spaces forces the intelligent to think about their 'personal space' in relation to others'. It also seems to frazzle the dense ones, even if they're natives.

oh, i hear ya.

queens is great! it's my favorite borough right now.

i like new york.

same here. which is why when i'm not working (in manhattan) i don't spend that much time in manhattan.

same here. which is why when i'm not working (in manhattan) i don't spend that much time in manhattan.

Yes yes yes. I like to think that if I can't find something around me, I probably don't need it.

Machen Sie Google zu Ihrer Startseite!

I hate carrying umbrellas. And while this may indeed be a problem of stubborn idiocy on my part, the fact remains that someone with an open umbrella shouldn't be taking up much-needed dry, rainless space where someone without an umbrella (whether by choice or simple bad luck) could be seeking shelter. It's a matter of taking stock of your immediate surroundings and showing a little consideration.

Me hating umbrellas is another matter, and yes it's entirely stupid, but I just can't stand'em. I also loathe people excercise other forms of bad umbrella etiquette.

no, we even love teh gays

anyway, downtown IS much worse wr2 narrow sidewalks. stence can verify how crowded it can get in the wall street/wtc area.

times square/the theater district also get outta control. i blame the sidewalk vendors for that, as well as the pedestrians.

This pretty much describes the ENTIRETY of New York City, man.

My only real complaint is that it was nigh-impossible to find a non-minimum raise job there.

http://www.furious.com/perfect/graphics/residents.jpg

Tom you are the straw that stirs the drink.

Heck, not enough free anything. If you want to sit on something soft, look at things that have not been ripped to shreds, or not wade through trash, you must pay money.

There is nowhere near enough beautiful or human-scaled public space. Things that are left to the public are presumed to be in a war zone, and must be made of concrete and steel in order to survive.

Everything is always under construction. Walk through a subway station, there's an area cordoned off with plastic and plywood. Walk down a sidewalk for more than a block, and soon you will be walking through one of those wooden tunnely things festooned with Ipod posters. It all seems provisional, like the third world.

You have to pay to get into the museums. And you still can't sit on a cushioned piece of furniture.

Gum on the sidewalk. Gum on the sidewalk. Gum on the sidewalk. Gum on the sidewalk.

The fun is expensive. The rent on a closet-sized apartment is expensive. And once the closet-sized apartment's rent takes two-thirds of your salary away, then you are RIGHT NEXT to the fun stuff that you now cannot afford.

New Yorkers. Where to begin? Several of those I know cannot imagine that anyone living anywhere else is serious about liking where they are. They say, "How can you stand living in that backwater?" And then proceed to explain the great things about living in New York: you can get authentic Babylonian flirzkagribl at three in the morning. You can get a blowjob from a Puerto Rican transvestite prostitute wearing a Chiquita Banana costume.

Never is the logic allowed to be questioned: "Um, excuse me mister arrogant self-important New Yorker person, but what if I don't need Babylonian flirzkagribl at three in the morning, or don't care if it's frickin authentic?"

And my last complaint (for now): I go to a thread for complaining about New York, and I see YET MORE complaints about Washington. So often, praise of New York is inmixed with slams at Washington. And the way people criticize Washington is to list ways in which it is Not Like New York. So. The fuck. What? That's like saying what's wrong with a hamburger is that it's not like a pizza. They have different objectives. They're not trying to be the same kind of city. Deal.

you've never been to the third world. they got lots more bamboo.

The fun is expensive. The rent on a closet-sized apartment is expensive. And once the closet-sized apartment's rent takes two-thirds of your salary away, then you are RIGHT NEXT to the fun stuff that you now cannot afford.

Everything is always under construction. Walk through a subway station, there's an area cordoned off with plastic and plywood. Walk down a sidewalk for more than a block, and soon you will be walking through one of those wooden tunnely things festooned with Ipod posters. It all seems provisional, like the third world.

both apply to large swaths of DC as well, and

Heck, not enough free anything. If you want to sit on something soft, look at things that have not been ripped to shreds, or not wade through trash, you must pay money.

There is nowhere near enough beautiful or human-scaled public space. Things that are left to the public are presumed to be in a war zone, and must be made of concrete and steel in order to survive.

are simply bullshit, have you ever even been to the park at all? And

you still can't sit on a cushioned piece of furniture.

GEEZ OH CHRISTMAS MY HEMORRHOIDS

I really honestly prefer the density of NYC for what it offers!
If you want to defend parts of NoVA fine, if you want to defend the Mall and the Smithsonian and the Zoo and all that, fine, those are all great. I will even agree that the DC Metro is generally a much nicer experience than the piss-stained clattering hell ride that you get in NYC. But DC proper as a whole? I'm not in college anymore, I'm not an intern, it's not for me.

central park
battery park
ft. tryon park
prospect park
ft. greene park
sunset park
astoria park
flushing meadows-corona park
pelham bay park
spuyten-duyvil

that's off the top of my head and not counting staten island, which has some nice green parts.

plus green-wood cemetery and jamaica bay for bird-watching.

i hear in some parts of the "third world" they have LIVE GRENADES on the sidewalks! LIVE GRENADES ON THE SIDEWALKS! but yeah, you're right... nothing says impending armageddon like a piece of wadded-up juicy fruit.

I can see new(ish) films from Iran and Kyrgyzstan here. Nuff said.

attention non- new yorkers: NYC HAS FIVE (COUNT 'EM) BOROUGHS, AND NOT ALL OF US CHOOSE TO LIVE IN MANHATTAN AND SOME OF US CAN EVEN AFFORD WHERE WE LIVE SO PLEASE ADDRESS YOUR COMPLAINTS TO THE MORONS WHO MAKE $20,000 A YEAR AND PAY $2,000 A MONTH IN RENT JUST SO THEY CAN LIVE IN MANHATTAN.

Does it say "complain about New York, but restrict your complaints to things that cannot possibly be said about a different location"? No.

Does it say "defend New York"? No.

Does it say "complain about Washington"? No.

(KIDDING KENAN JUST GETTING YOUR NON-NEW YORK GOAT)

The subway in NYC consistently smells of rot and stale urine. And people should NOT BE ALLOWED TO EAT ON THE SUBWAY. That is FUCKING GROSS. unless it is me and I am eating pocky. but SO GROSS.

Also NYC has this incredible litter slash dog shit factor in some parts, it really does, though I'm not sure that my neighborhood would have much less of a problem if it had the same population density NYC does.

http://www.brooklynskyline.com/images/news/eatingdogs.JPG

The more I think about it I really have never seen any other metropolitan population-at-large act the way NYers do with their goddamn trash. Coney Island on a busy day Holy Shit.

The best was the grumbling he got from everybody who still had to walk to Bushwick or Gravesend in the dark.

amen -- see also Hudson County, NJ.

gravesend's a lot farther away than bushwick!

Jody, nice shot! Was that taken at the eating contest at Coney last summer?

dunno if it was last summer; might have been the one before that.

Sweet fucking Jezuz...CAN I GET AN AMEN?

fuck. seriously that sounds really hot.

this should also be the thread where i talk about seeing a businessman take a shit in the middle of essex st at 6pm on a weekday.

Now, I'm going to go, eat some super cheap sushi, go turn in my stupid ass econ homework, go for (good) cheap martinis down by 34th St, and return home to my $200 a month 800 sq ft apartment that overlooks a park, and think about my lack of open space and how broke living in NYC makes a person.

My favorite was one of the guys who stands on Midtown corners and hands out those little promo cards for strip clubs. Instead of offering me a strip-club card, he just peeked inside the stroller, gave a big grin and said, "Aw, he's sleepin'!"

Also, to add to the list of greenspaces above:
-- Carl Schurz Park (used to live just up the block from it -- the best reason to live in Yorkville)
-- Morningside Park
-- Riverside Park (excellent clay tennis courts right on the Hudson, for just $5 an hour)
-- Orchard Beach!

jeanne, did you go to 151riviginton last nite? i kept an eye out for you, but i remembered that i dont know what you look like, so im not sure exactly what i was looking for

And honestly guys, the ones of you who say "New York has parks," have you ever been to, like, any city in Europe? New York doesn't have SHIT for parks in comparison. Yes there is yr Central Park. There are the winsome vales of Prospect Park. There are some stars, among parks, in New York. But get down underneath these phenomenal monuments, to the billions of square feet that people actually live and work and there's BUPKIS beyond a few 1/2 block playgrounds and 1-block grassy mounds. Oh yeah there are the excellent riverbank parks that overlook freeways and fetid dockland, forgot about those. The first thing I noticed about London, "The Big Smoke," notorious for its grey depression, was that relative to New York it smells delicious! There are ladybugs and things flying about! There are little patches of green positively EVERYWHERE, and the scent of cut grass and flowers is always close to hand. New York is TERRIBLE for this. Remember "a tree grows in Brooklyn"? What's changed since then, besides Giuliani selling off some of the few remaining city-owned community gardens?

huh? what?

thats what i was going to say!!

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority's board today unanimously chose the Jets' $720 million bid for the rights to build a stadium over the authority's railyards on the West Side.

THANKS FOCKERS!

OTM!

thank you! i was going to mention riverside park and orchard beach, but for whatever reason i didn't. oh yeah, i thought that if i mentioned orchard beach someone would complain about what a dump it is and why the fuck would someone want to go all the way up to the bronx.

*yay for me, i live in a roach-free building and the worst i get is a spider once every six months or some moths in the summertime

The actual beach is separated in two halves -- or at least was in the mid-90's (last time I was there) - one where radio playing is allowed, and one where silence is the rule (as such, that means the former half is predominantly black and Latino, and the latter half is for uptight whitey). In any case, I was there with my excellently-named friend Brent Butterworth, and we were hanging out in the no-radio area (`cos, y'know, we're uptight white guys). And along comes a gaggle of teens, loping along with a VAST boombox playing hip hop at a volume that could probably have been audible on the next nearest continent. In any case, this apparently sends an older gentleman sitting to our left into a tizzied orbit, so he marchs over to the group of teens, and extends an angry finger in the direction of the "CLEARLY MARKED" sign that reads, in bold face type, ABSOLUTELY NO RADIO PLAYING BEYOND THIS POINT, barking furiously at them to "TURN THAT RADIO OFF!" etc.

Center youth cooly looks up at the angry man and says -- and I'm not making this up, I promise -- "relax, man, it's a tape!"

http://www.nycgovparks.org/sub_your_park/vt_van_cortlandt_park/images/10_van_cortlandt_golf_cours.jpg

God, I feel old now.

I actually don't mind it, I'm starting to find I prefer them to businesspeople.

i'm still not convinced that wyoming exists. right, so dick cheney is "from" there. like i'd believe that dude.

considering this thread was started by a texanchicagoan, i can say that its entire premise is about non-valid complaints.

ok so why is it that certain nouveaux-chicagoans seem more defensive about it than i do? in fact i'm not defensive about it at all. i'm just from here, it's home, it's a nice place, i'd be happy to stay or move, whatever. i love new york too. whatever.

- toledo
- bridgeport, conn.
- meriden, conn.
- shit, almost any town along the connecticut river

yes it is.

also, people getting so much fatter these days & taking up LOTS of seating space = just as annoying and space-consuming as people putting their bags and other shit on the subways.

http://www.people.virginia.edu/~jdm2z/assets/images/db_images/db_DSCN01491.jpg

women who have to carry a purse, gym bag, yoga mat bag, dry cleaner bag, groceries on the subway.

but, it is too fucking dirty if you compare it to europe.

that's nuts. in my experience, there are much fewer bugs in london. we can have every windown in the house open here, whereas in new york it would be one or two because of moths/flies/wasps/bees/mosquitoes.

xpost - hi, phil!

Oh, and to add to this thread, the fact that the 4/5 isn't running between Manhattan and Brooklyn on weekends seemingly until 2009 sucks. And last week when it actually was running, some douchebag coming up from Wall Street dropped a french fry on my lap as he was munching away. THEN he started to reach down to pick it up after I gave him a "are you fucking kidding me look?" to which I said, "Just leave it."

Otherwise, New York roxxx.

Aaron, where were you all last week?

Mark and Melody Lanes

Tonic you're going to have to visit quick because it's in a very precarious financial situations.

Record shopping is for shit. Satellite's stil open and there's a couple of good places still open but my favorite techno shops are long gone. There's good old vinyl around, disco and rock n roll, Dan Selzer can fill you in there, and others too.

My favorite diners are still: Tom's restaurant on Washington, in brooklyn, and Eisenberg's on 5th and like 21st or so in manhattan, near the flatiron. Two poles: friendly and curt.

Tonic was pretty good. I just want to visit again before it closes. (Although I heard rumours they were able to get money or something. Crossing my fingers it'll stay open.)

I did like some shops, even Tower Records was pretty good. That said, my town's completely shit, so anything is better than the (lack of) shops here.

:-)

do people know the Lexington Candy Shop?

Err...no it isn't. I left a place around 7:30am today. There's plenty of afterhours and/or bars that just kinda keep going as long as they feel like it. It helps to have friends who know about that sort of stuff.

like where? please tell me i dont have any friends who know about that sort of stuff! except those awful canal&broadway parties that were never much fun.

On weekends, Ruby L0unge goes late. Get there before 3:30 because after that you'll have to pay $10-$20 (if you're a guy) and/or say who you know (which isn't going to fly if it's no one).

"let's tear down chinatown and put up a p.f. chang's!"

-- jody von oy (theundergroundhom...), March 30th, 2005.

Analog Roam's Kenan Hebert is right that Interpol's first impressive full-length, Turn on the Bright Lights, is the album of the year thus far.

It's really far more infuriating when you have no idea why you are being fucked with.

i thought dc was better at this, people at work subscribed to the wmata website to get emails re delays, and were good about forwarding them. when someone killed himself jumping in front of a blue/orange at metro center, we all knew about it.

The only use would be to change to an alternate route and even that is not that common / helpful.

NY is supposedly going to institute this same system!

xpost.

However there are several subway stations with minibodegas/newsstands in them. This is helpful, when there is a delay. Unhelpful is the lack of ability to smoke.

xpost Jon it IS completely stupid because it's not at all helpful. It'd be helpful if they put those signs before the turnstiles. Or, like, spend the $10 trillion on actually improving the system instead of electronically informing people that it sucks...

hahaha are you kidding, allyzay??!?!?

Heh, no, tried that. And ok, the fact I walked in the wrong direction for 20 minutes first didn't help, but still, it's quite a long way. Recently realised that changing from the A to the G at Hoyt ahd taking it to Clinton-Washington can be helpful though.

Didn't realise you were so close though! I really should make more of an effort to force you people to come and FAP with me. I want to try out Beast on Vanderbilt sometime this weekend, it looks nice...

I can bike over to Vbilt in about 5 mins so let's do brunch this wkend, maybe? Or at the Tavern on Dean or Purity Restaurant (both at Dean & Underhill). Bring book/newspaper, we can eat and read -- how does that sound? Anyone else in Park Slope/Heights/Clinton Hill/etc?

I'm not obsessed, but thank you for once again dramatically overstating one of my casual opinions. I am accustomed to excellent public transport from living in Japan and perhaps a bit spoiled by it, but I think it's a bit archaic that the NY system doesn't have the ability to tell you when your train is coming. It is useful, if for example you want to run up a level and make a phone to tell someone you're running late without missing a train (as I did recently). Or if you're trying to plan out your schedule re: making connecting trains etc. Or perhaps if it's a long enough wait and a short enough distance you might decide to say "fuck it" and walk. Buses at least have schedules at the stops that you can read.

What the hell are you talking about?

xpost Stence, BOO! I'm on clermont ave, so yeah, only about five mins walk from there...

This is the thread where we complain about bouncers who act like rock stars in New York.

(This is the thread where we complain about club patrons who act like rock stars in New York.)

Why would they post it when they could instead force you to ask for it from a token-booth clerk, assuming the station you are in has one?

Precisely.

The little signs telling you how long you have to wait are TREMENDOUS and while I agree that having them mirrored upstairs next to the turnstile is a stroke of genius and needs to be instituted in every metropolitan city worldwide, having them on the platform itself is a whole hell of a lot better than nothing. You can't smoke, you can't grab a magazine or buy a snack (unless you're at W. 4 St or one of a few others that have newsstands on the platform), but dude, you're about to get on the subway. You should have gotten that snack/magazine anyway, preemptively, do you just assume you're going to get lucky with the trains every single time or something? No, the reason why wait-time indicators on the platforms are so great is that at one stroke they would eliminate the nervous pacing, the periodic, mindless craning of one's neck out over the track in the hopes of catching the advance glimmer of your train's headlights. None of that. It will add years to people's lives.

Well, I tend to get defensive because when I present relatively casual, benign opinions you aggressively attack them and behave as though they are utterly absurd. Which might lead one to believe that you are actually the one who cares the most. BTW, I've only mentioned it when you've brought the subject up.

Although I admit that I do help perpetuate the arguments once started because as noted, we both like to argue!

but tonite!!!

7pm-10pm - The Pony Project reception 7pm-10pm. Milk Gallery 14th/10th Ave. My friend is showing her disco ball pony. other ponies by betsey johnson, annie liebovitz.
also tonite:
Rapture & Cutcopy at Bowery
Greg Wilson (Hacienda) at APT
TWITCH from OPTIMO at Don Hill's. With Tim Sweeney (beats in space / dfa)

As for MTA employees, I dunno -- I'm sorry, but I've lost all sympathy for them. It's not really fair, but still: they're the only customer-service face of the MTA, and they not equipped or inclined to actually do that job. They don't get any useful information to pass along to people and don't want to talk to anyone anyway; I'm not even certain what the point of having them there is, and neither, so far as I can tell, does the MTA. Most annoying to me was when the R ran over a guy in Queens and pretty much shut down all lines -- after like 45 minutes trapped underground, they sent everybody up to try a bus that didn't actually exist, and when everyone lined up to ask the booth guy where it was, his response was incredible: "I dunno, I've never been up there." Worse has been week-long every-other-month closings of the 1 in my neighborhood; they never manage to get a sign up until like Wednesday, and any questions about what's going on (like, umm, "how long is there no service," or "where's the nearest working station," or obvious shit like that) get met with lots of get-off-my-jock how-the-fuck-should-I-know kind of attitude. Nothing is more bizarre than the idea that a pre-planned construction outage should create total confusion, and employees with nothing better to say than "no trains here, that's all I know."

Yeah, re the MTA: the construction workers hanging arount the tracks & platforms are usually more helpful (by several orders of magnitude) than the MTA spokes-people. Also? More courteous. And it's really saying something when NYC construction workers are more polite than ANYONE.

We can see the Roosevelt Island tram from our apartment windows. I'll just be sitting there reading or whatever and then this thing will glide across the skyline. Feels very Fritz Lang.

Laura, what would have to happen in a big US city to create a social train-riding system like in Japan? I mean, half of their efficiently seems to depend on the way that people actually use the trains. Though maybe if your trains are clockwork-regular people just naturally start using them in clockwork-regular ways?

So what the hell are they DOING all the time with the L?!?!?!

that said -- i think that the MTA works surprisingly well, given its sheer size.

Also, I get a sense from a lot of people in NYC that they think the subway is shitty, but, uh, that's just the way things are and that any attempt to better it would be futile. In short, I think people would need to change both their behavior and their expectations.

It's actually funny to imagine this to mean "I've never been above ground EVER."

One nice thing about the PATH is that it seems to stick pretty closely to the schedule most of the time. I know exactly what time to start walking from my apartment to get to the PATH station in time to catch the next train into the city, and it's rarely off by more than +/- a minute or two. Of course, the PATH only has a few lines to deal with, so it's orders of magnitude less complex than the Subway. I think the complexity and arcane protocols of the Subway are actually kind of fun - I mean even when the system is all shot to hell and there are 5 trains running local on the 3 track and nothing seems to make any sense, you get a sense that there is an inscrutable logic behind it. Also, it's kind of cool that there are these strange connecting tunnels that you sometimes get to use on rare occasion: like who knew that there is a track that connects Bowling Green to South Ferry? It's not on any of the regular service maps, but the other day I was on a re-routed train that went on it.

Noon on suday is fine, yep. So is the tavern. Woo Trace! Looking forward to meeting y'all. Phil, don't be lazy, come! (Ponies tonight sound...er...intriguing. But I'm busy reading bedtime stories to kids I'm afraid).

Also, back on topic, for all my bigging up of the london underground, late nights don't happen at all, everything shuts at about midnight. So yeah, on that, NY wins.

Please talk more about how you don't like tipping and service industry people should be happy to serve you!

megaxpost!

Tracer, oh right, I remember hearing about that. Man, they should fucking put an express in :(

xpost - and i've got a little show going on tonight too but i guess it's not cool enough to mention.

NB - I got into a really funny semantic argument with this booth woman the other day about the difference between a "delay" and "no service" -- possibly my favorite conversation of the past month.

The one major expansion that is being planned is the Second Avenue Line. This line has been planned since the early days of the system, and construction was started in the 1970s, but as yet no usable sections exist.

...

* 2009: Phase 1 complete
* 2011: Phase 2 complete
* 2013: Phase 3 complete
* 2014: Phase 4 complete

Also, there is a tooth fairy.

Holy crap JW and Stencil on verge of dumbest semantic argument of all time! They can't open it because it's not functional! But it's like getting close to being ready to make it functional! Okay! All settled!

Who actually buys "normal" metrocards?

Again, way to totally pervert my original idea. I said that I expect a basic level of courtesy from service people, as I expect it from everyone that I meet in life. If a waitress treats me with outright disrespect (something which I am generally far more forgiving other people about than you, btw) I'm not particularly inclined to leave her a significant tip. P.S. I have had way more jobs in the service industry than you, Jon.

Also, stop being a dick.

They did - well, actually I think they added extra days to them, but same thing.

xpost

http://miqque.50megs.com/images/Jameson.jpg

AT THE CHILL OF NIGHT,
AT THE SCENE OF A CRIME,
LIKE A STREAK OF LIGHT, HE ARRIVES JUST IN TIME.

SPIDERMAN, SPIDERMAN...
FRIENDLY NEIGHBOURHOOD,SPIDERMAN
WELCOME FRIENDS,HE'S IGNORED,
ACTION IS HIS REWARD,
HEY THERE...
THERE GOES THE SPIDERMAN!

I think people should have pride in themselves, and should attempt to do their jobs well. I don't have a lot of patience for people who don't even try, or who are rude or purposefully unhelpful. I understand that it sucks to make shit money, as I have made shit money in pretty much every job my entire life, and will continue to do so long after you have tripled my income, Jon. But making poor wages doesn't mean you have to be lazy and incompetent by choice. I don't accept terrible service as normal, because I believe in expecting more from people. Go ahead and keep your standards low, since that seems to be what works for you.

I don't really know what your issue is about this, but stop projecting it onto me. Go eat an apple to raise your blood sugar and stop being a dick.

Laura, I thought you read funny books. The man has a name.

JOLLY JONAH JAMESON

xpost, Eisbar ... are you [email protected]?

Does J really stand for Jolly??

xpost, you have way too high standards for service; that's all!

I have high standards for everything in life, particularly for people and things I care about, but most of all for me. I don't demand anything from anyone else that I wouldn't demand two-fold from myself.

As a side note, maybe you should concentrate more exclusively on pissing off people who do not live with you and/or go out of their way to be nice to you and/or that you want to borrow money from. FYI.

those were the lyrics to the theme song from the original "spiderman" TV cartoon. it's a pretty cool cartoon!

From the little I've read of subway engineering, there are basically two ways to build a subway tunnel: one is to build it deep enough underground that the load is naturally displaced around the tunnel (this is how the London tube works), the other is to build it shallow - ie., directly under the street - and prop up the street with steel supports (this is the NYC subway). I think the reason they can't go with the first approach in NYC is that the ground is too hard (basically rock) to make deep tunneling feasible.

xposts

I have high standards for everything in life, particularly for people

I was going to make a joke about how I would fire you if you were in charge of approving loans for my bank but eep.

Off Topic Good/bad news:

Bad news -- check doesn't clear till TUESDAY
Good news -- I can overdraft up to $100 with no fees.

I hope you aren't seriously upset about this. I really do think you have hugely unreasonable expectations for service.

If I put this here does it make you less hateful?

:-D YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY

It could be a matter of cost - it is possible to tunnel through rock, but it's costly. I think the way they've historically done it is with explosives:

Set off explosion at end of the tunnel. Clear out the rubble. Plant new charges. Repeat. But each explosion only advances the tunnel a few feet, and meanwhile you've got to get all the workers in and out of the business end of the tunnel each time.

Digging up streets is relatively cheap.

Nabisco to thread.

Jon, no but I am dying to, although I think urban exploration is a very different thing post-9/11. Know any useful grafitti-type people who can get around down there and would take me along?

Immigrant slave labor, babe.

Jonah Jameson = descendant of Walter Burns in "The Front Page" archetype

"The Sixth Avenue line, the last major piece of the IND system, opened in 1940."

- http://www.mta.nyc.ny.us/mta/centennial.htm

that would've changed everything.

xpost

Well, those were almost the lyrics.

CAN HE SWING FROM ABOVE?
TAKE A LOOK OVERHEAD,

That doesn't even rhyme! It's "Can he swing from a thread?"

WELCOME FRIENDS,HE'S IGNORED,
ACTION IS HIS REWARD,

That's "Wealth and fame, he's ignored."

haha

i'm always surprised when londoners unfavorably compare the nyc subway with the underground. nyc subway: cheap, 24hrs, large cars, air-conditioned. london underground: expensive, limited hours of operation, claustrophobic cars, no air conditioning and generally poor ventilation, plus lines go out of service if someone so much as looks at them funny.a little rainfall? whoops, there goes the central line. dodgy signal at walthamstow? better suspend the victoria line for a while. to me, it's no contest.

the ponies were awesome. they had like 30 giantsized my little ponies that people got to design.

but here's a complaint: the sushi here is DISGUSTING.

-- Eisbär (llamasfu...), October 21st, 2005.

Yeah, and it's you and your damned Broboken bro buddies that are crowding it for us Jersey City-ites. In a couple of years, we'll be just as gentrified as you, and then we'll get our OWN late night line.

i know! it's not like we don't have access to great seafood.

I missed this before, but yeah, I used my unlimited metrocard thingy and got on for nowt.