The Morning News has compiled a guide
The Morning News has compiled a guide to NYC etiquette. See also my rules for the NYC subway.
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kottke.org posts about NYC
The weatherman throws up his hands
Right now, “Unknown Precipitation” is falling from the sky in NYC:
They must have some idea what this stuff is. Maple syrup? Soylent green? Pepsi Cola?
Update: Alright, this calls for some intrepid investigative reporting. I just stuck my hand out the window of my apartment and can tell you that the mystery liquid is not hydrochloric acid. I repeat, not hydrochloric acid…I still have the full use of my hand.
Update: Feeling emboldened that my hand didn’t melt off, I stuck it out the window again and let some of this unknown liquid pool in my palm. The liquid is clear and flavorless, which rules out whiskey, transmission fluid, honey, and pig’s blood. It’s too soon to tell for sure, but I’m guessing the precipitation is some form of water.
Manhattan, the greenest of cities? Not so
Manhattan, the greenest of cities? Not so fast says Tyler Cowen: “Praising Manhattan is a bit like looking only at the roof of a car and concluding it doesn’t burn much gas. […] Think of Manhattan as a place which outsources its pollution, simply because land there is so valuable.”
Pairing San Francisco neighborhoods with New York
Pairing San Francisco neighborhoods with New York neighborhoods. For instance, North Beach —> Little Italy, Hayes Valley —> Chelsea, and Mission —> Wiliamsburg.
British celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay had high
British celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay had high hopes for his new restaurant in NYC, but it garnered only two stars from the New York Times on Thursday in a review that called the restaurant cautious, polite, predictable, and timid. NYC food site Eater reports that copies of the NY Times distributed at the hotel in which Ramsay’s restaurant is located had the Dining section, and therefore the disappointing review, removed from them.
In today’s NY Times, Robert Sullivan argues
In today’s NY Times, Robert Sullivan argues that NYC is falling behind the rest of America in making the city hospitable for pedestrians, cyclists, and takers of public transportation. “London now charges drivers a fee to enter the core business area, but here such initiatives are branded as anti-car, and thus anti-personal freedom: a congestion fee, critics say, is a tax on the middle-class car commuter. But as matters now stand, the pedestrian is taxed every day: by delays and emissions, by asthma rates that are (in the Bronx) as much as four times the national average. Though we think of it as a luxury, the car taxes us, and with it we tax others.”
Andy Warhol would have loved this round-the-clock
Andy Warhol would have loved this round-the-clock webcam view of the Empire State Building…it’s like a sequel to Empire that never ends. (via cyn-c)
Calvin Trillin, parallel parking expert, parks a
Calvin Trillin, parallel parking expert, parks a self-parking car. “As you ease up gradually on the brake, the wheel turns on its own to make one reverse swoop into the spot. Watching the wheel turn by itself is a bit like watching a player piano, except in traffic.”
Photos by Bill Sullivan of people going
Photos by Bill Sullivan of people going through NYC subway turnstiles. I love the moments of recognition depicted here. (via dooce)
Ho. Ly. Shit! Muji is planning on
Ho. Ly. Shit! Muji is planning on opening “two Muji stores in New York between July and December”. Anyone have a sub to WWD…email me the text of this article? Got it, thanks Nixta! (via the cap’n)
For the Designing the City of the
For the Designing the City of the Future contest held by the History Channel, New York-based architecture firm ARO developed “a vision of New York recovering from massive flooding in low lying areas of New York as a result of global warming”. Photos of their entry are available on Flickr. “In order to co-exist with fluctuating sea levels, ARO proposed a new building type called a ‘vane.’ Part skyscraper, part viaduct, ‘vanes’ are built in, on, and over flooded streets, reconnecting to the classic street grid and making up for lost square footage.”
Photograph of every advertisement in Times Square.
Photograph of every advertisement in Times Square. Somehow I thought there would be more.
Adam Gopnik on the current health of
Adam Gopnik on the current health of New York City. “This transformation is one you see on every street corner in Manhattan, and now in Brooklyn, too, where another local toy store or smoked-fish emporium disappears and another bank branch or mall store opens. For the first time in Manhattan’s history, it has no bohemian frontier. Another bookstore closes, another theatre becomes a condo, another soulful place becomes a sealed residence. These are small things, but they are the small things that the city’s soul clings to.”
NYC plans to allow people to send photos to 911 and 311.
NYC plans to allow people to send photos to 911 and 311.
Notes from Apartment #5. “Dear Neighbor. When you
Notes from Apartment #5. “Dear Neighbor. When you arrive late every night, you are probably concentrating on your chores and don’t realize that this building, this street, the traffic, the people are all very still, very quiet.”
How the newspaper gets made: 1. The Washington
How the newspaper gets made: 1. The Washington Post runs an article on Dec 24, 2006 about how the New Yorker picks its cartoons, which article mentions in passing that several of the magazine’s cartoonists gather weekly at a Manhattan restaurant. 2. Three weeks go by. 3. The NY Times publishes a piece profiling said weekly gathering of the cartoonists at the Manhattan restaurant.
Profile of “radical chef” David Chang and
Profile of “radical chef” David Chang and his restaurants, Momofuku Noodle Bar (one of my favorite restaurants) and Momofuku Ssam Bar, an Asian version of Chipotle. After a vegetarian customer threatened to sue Chang for not offering vegetarian broth, he took all but one of the veggie options off the menu. “We added pork to just about everything[…] Fuck it, let’s just cook what we want.”
New York magazine tracked the media diets
New York magazine tracked the media diets of 3 New Yorkers for a week. Lightweights. (via fimoculous)
Power Washing 188 Suffolk St., a photo depicting
Power Washing 188 Suffolk St., a photo depicting how dirty NYC is. (via eliot)
Wesley Autrey jumped in front of an
Wesley Autrey jumped in front of an oncoming subway train to save the life of a man who had fallen on the tracks. I read this before I left for work yesterday and imagined the scenario when my train pulled into the station. I’d hope I would do the same thing as Mr. Autrey did, but that train moves awfully fast…
Shopsin’s, who closed their beloved eatery in
Shopsin’s, who closed their beloved eatery in the West Village last month, has updated their web site with plans to open in a stall at the Essex Street Market on the Lower East Side. (thx, janelle)
Faces of New York. Photographer Simon Hoegsberg
Faces of New York. Photographer Simon Hoegsberg asks people about their faces and then photographs them. “Essentially I would say I have made a drastic change the last three years. Age caught up with me. Good times caught up with me. Wild parties caught up with me. And what I see now is a truly aging woman. I no longer see the spontaneous, witty, charming…I see an elderly woman. And I find that difficult, but in a way very freeing.”
A nearly continuous wire that encompasses 150 city
The Orthodox and other observant Jews living within this ‘home’ are permitted certain actions outside their literal homes — pushing a stroller to the synagogue, carrying keys, walking a dog on a leash — that would otherwise be forbidden on the Sabbath.
Scans of the New York City Transit
Scans of the New York City Transit Authority Graphics Standards Manual from 1970. (thx, jake)
Santas riding the NYC subway in 1987. Seeing
Santas riding the NYC subway in 1987. Seeing graffiti on the subway always amazes me.
Quirky West Village eatery Shopsin’s finally closes
Quirky West Village eatery Shopsin’s finally closes for good. Once more, with feeling: the Shopsin’s menu and Calvin Trillin’s classic piece about the restaurant in the NYer.
Update: James Felder wrote a nice remembrance of eating at Shopsin’s on its final day for Serious Eats. (thx, adam)
Prewalking
Prewalking: walking down the subway platform so that when you board the train, you’ll be close to the exit or transfer point when the train reaches its destination.
Update: Photo of the Way Out -> tube map, which marks which side of the train to exit from and where exits/transfers are for each station. (thx, tom)
Update: Exit maps are available for the Toronto and Toyko subways. (thx, adam)
On a recent visit to New York,
On a recent visit to New York, writer Will Self walked the 20 miles from JFK to his hotel in Manhattan…and this was after walking 26 miles to Heathrow to catch the plane to JFK. “There were not many pedestrians out at 11:30 in the morning, and dressed all in black and snapping pictures with a digital camera, Mr. Self was a sight sufficiently exotic that he was tailed for a while by a black S.U.V.”
The Shapes Project by Allen McCollum. “I’ve
The Shapes Project by Allen McCollum. “I’ve designed a new system to produce unique two-dimensional ‘shapes.’ This system allows me to make enough unique shapes for every person on the planet to have one of their own. It also allows me to keep track of the shapes, so as to insure that no two will ever be alike.” Part of McCollum’s project is on display at the Friedrich Petzel Gallery in NYC. (thx, scott)
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