is New York City dead?

He was a populist in the same way that Trump is a populist i.e. actually an absolutist dictator.

These are exactly the ways that he sucked, not "despite some ways that he sucked he also did these things." They are the things.

we've been hiking in parks upriver and in jersey, been able to visit my parents in the suburbs, and even occasionally further (we went to acadia for our honeymoon). parking has been annoying, but worth the price of freedom.

i am certainly not convinced that i would need a car in a non pandemic situation. it's a different kind of freedom to not have to worry about a car.

― boz conspiracy by toby hus (voodoo chili),

recommendations please

I am actually thinking about a car in the next year-ish timeframe bc my bf lives 2 hrs away and right now I'm depending on his chauffering me around and it would be nice not to be. I rented 2x over the summer for various trips and it was a heady freedom. Still, what Doc Casino said about the common welfare is otm.

Also because I'm newly contemplating maybe not being in NYC forever but that's another whole thing and at least several years down the road.

if you're getting a car to use less than once a week and you live in nyc then there are probably cheaper rent/share options just in terms of the $$$ (planet death and opposite side parking notwithstanding).

In the dc area we get suburbanites arguing that “not owning a car is privilege” to argue against any rebalancing of the car vs. other use allocation of space.

100% aware of all that and my post was grossly understated. But just making the point that prior to all that it was pretty hard for the non wealthy of any race to get out of the city. Maybe a better way to put it would be that there was an optimistic view of cars at the tome as personal freedom machines.

i mean ... that's true? car culture is a poll tax that only people who can afford to live in the most expensive parts of the most expensive cities in america can choose to avoid paying.

(xp)

xxxxp I'm sure you're right, caek! But the rental places are all like 10 miles away so even after I get the rental car back here I still need a ride home. :)

No question doc casinos post is otm. Sometimes we need large scale policy solutions to become our better selves though. It’s always hard to swim upstream.

don't they have share cars on the street? xp

recommendations please

How about the Ramapo-Dunderberg trail in Harriman State Park, it's a 10 min walk from the Tuxedo rail station. It's insanely beautiful there, def one of my favorite hikes in the area.
There's also an affordable AMC campsite in Harriman with glamping options that will pick you up at Tuxedo station in their shuttle bus. Open to non-members of course.

if i was still in new york i would be into one of these https://electrek.co/2020/05/04/niu-nqi-gts-sport-electric-scooter-launch-usa-america/

it's cheaper than most cargo ebikes!

(ah lol charging. nevertheless!)

I use my scooter lots but of course they're terrible for emissions! And there's a big bridge up here that I can't always safely ride on, with traffic and wind concerns. (I'm in the country mostly these days.)

recommendations please

― calstars, Thursday, January 7, 2021 2:28 PM (nine minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

hudson highlands has bull hill and breakneck ridge, though they can be crowded on nice days. harriman state park is pretty, there's a lake plus a 10-mile trail (ramapo-dunderberg, as deflatormouse mentioned), and another 5-mile trail (plus more, those two are the ones we did, though). there's also bear mountain park, which has some beautiful trails, some more strenuous than others.

all of those are about 90 mins from brooklyn.

man alive why did you even live in the city in the first place

in orbit where are you these days?

Xxp metro-north is obv super convenient to breakneck/bull hill as well

I never really feel like going more than 2 miles from my house in gosh darn Seattle so I can’t fathom where it is you New Yorkers are driving to exactly.

Back and forth between my place in Bk and here: www.facebook.com/VillageOfWalden/

oh cool

man alive why did you even live in the city in the first place

― is right unfortunately (silby), Thursday, 7 January 2021 19:53 (one hour ago) link

I mean, it was fun when I was younger, but I wanted to get out for at least the last five years.

The crowds at Breakneck Ridge get kind of crazy because it's so close to the train stop and such a nice hike. Probably less so nowadays. Still, go early in the AM or go on a less than nice day.

i mean ... that's true? car culture is a poll tax that only people who can afford to live in the most expensive parts of the most expensive cities in america can choose to avoid paying.

i have been running in the middle of the streets lately toward traffic and it definitely ups the adrenaline. hope i don't die! most people give me lots of leeway but every so often there's one crazy who wants to make a point who all but swerves to clip me. haw haw look at that guy running on an empty street so that he doesn't freak people with their kid out by not wearing a mask because he's trying to exercise and still socially distance, think i'll maybe kill him

Great job

Vaccination lines across NYC are moving slowly. The reason: lots of restrictions about who is eligible and a disorganized delivery system. As a result it's often difficult, to schedule enough people at once to justify opening a vial of vaccine. https://t.co/Z0EcmPP1AZ

— Joe Goldstein (@JoeKGoldstein) January 8, 2021

related: Mostly Apolitical Thread for Discussing/Venting our Rational/Irrational COVID-19 Fears and Experiences in 2020

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/11/nyregion/andrew-yang-manhattan-apartment-new-york.html

‘“Can you imagine trying to have two kids on virtual school in a two-bedroom apartment, and then trying to do work yourself?” Mr. Yang said in the initial interview.’

This fucking guy

Whoops

see also De Blasio: I Have Too Much 'Going On' to Ride the Subway to Work

Man, that was boneheaded. Honestly if he had just left out the “can you imagine” part it would have been nowhere near as bad. “We have an autistic son and it was becoming very hard to meet his needs in our space while also working full time.”

Good point.

nobody's doing their best communicating right now and everyone's angry is how i break it down to an extent. this will likely be forgotten in a few days but yang is fighting an uphill battle under the best of circumstances and he ran headlong into an inauspicious beginning.

de blasio lives in an 8 bedroom villa in park slope iirc

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/12/nyregion/hudson-yards-suicide-vessel.html

The Vessel, the spiraling staircase at Hudson Yards on Manhattan’s Far West Side, was closed to visitors on Tuesday, a day after a 21-year-old man jumped to his death in the third suicide in less than a year.

It was unclear when the 150-foot structure, the vast development’s centerpiece, would reopen to the public. A spokesman for Related Companies, the developer of Hudson Yards, said that the structure was “temporarily closed” and that the firm was consulting with suicide-prevention experts, including psychiatrists, about how to limit the potential for more suicides.

The structure was considered a major tourist draw for Hudson Yards, a $25 billion project that is the largest mixed-use private development in U.S. history. After opening to great fanfare in 2019, the development now faces an uncertain future as a result of the pandemic’s effect on everything from tourism to office work. It has been largely empty for months.

Visitors and critics had raised concerns that the Vessel’s design could pose safety risks. Audrey Wachs, the former associate editor of The Architect’s Newspaper, wrote in a 2016 critique: “As one climbs up Vessel, the railings stay just above waist height all the way up to the structure’s top, but when you build high, folks will jump.”

The community board first contacted Related Companies about taking steps to prevent additional suicides at the structure last year after the first one.

“Because the Vessel’s chest-high barrier is all that separates the platform from the edge, the likelihood of a similar, terribly sad loss of life cannot be ignored,” Mr. Kern, the board chairman, wrote in a letter.

Mr. Kern said on Tuesday that the board continues to believe that the best way to stave off further suicide attempts is to increase the height of the barrier.

“That’s the only thing that’s going to work,” he said.

He added that he understood there was hesitation to alter what is considered a work of art, but that should not be a priority now: “After three suicides, at what point does the artistic vision take a back seat to safety?”

wait why are they consulting psychiatrists about a building other people are jumping off

they wanna know how they really feel about it.

Sarah Jessica Parker Says NYC is 4th Character for 'Sex and The City' https://t.co/zkyybdOcGA

— TMZ (@TMZ) January 13, 2021

the only more annoying co-star than catrall

This reminds me of Lars ulrich’s line “I am my own best friend”

who the hell was asking for a SITC reboot in 2021?

hbo apparently

that's like when magazines say the person of the year is YOU or whatever

The adoration of SJP has always been completely baffling to me

Doesn’t she have a shoe store at the South Street Seaport?

You can kind of see it in that Twitter photo.

Oh sorry, thanks, didn’t click to see/zing