21 posts tagged “nyc”

I witnessed a really ignorant tourist interaction with a local when I took the Air Train from JFK.

In this picture below - I am sitting across from this tourist who is sitting in the most unsightly manner. The black kid sitting next to me saw this guy's wallet fall out of his pocket. His two friends didn't tell him. It was pretty obvious all 3 of them were drunk.
So the kid said,"Sir, your wallet  - it's out."
The guy's friend says, "you mind your own business - there's no money in it and who's gonna rob us - you?" Then the guy across me picks up his wallet and says,"who is going to mess with us?"

I was so disgusted at how they reacted. The kid was a being a good new york citizen by warning them that they should be careful with their items - and they blow him off and assume that the kid had motivations to rob them.

I looked over at the kid and said, "those guys might actually get jumped just because they are assholes"

I've never seen the unemployment line this far at the Brooklyn downtown office on Fulton. The line starts from inside and snaked down the block.

I love bodegas - they are a staple in the NYC landscape - from borough to borough and hood to hood - every section of nyc has a local bodega. Well we have to save them - buy something from your local bodega! in this NY1 report, we find out that bodega owners are suffering from the worldwide econ crisis. Watch the ny1 video about a bodega in Hamilton Heights. "The U.S. Bodega Association reports about four shops close each month. At that rate, they say there could be half as many bodegas in the city within two years."

It is absolutely critical that we support our bodegas!  The  best thing about moving into a neighborhood is developing a relationship with the local bodega owner. They keep you safe - they love you - they watch out for you - they are your morning smile or grump - they are your local friend and they let you cut when the line is long and you need to catch the train and they let you buy on credit if you're short a 1buck.  I've always believed that before you move into an apt in NYC - you should scope out all the local bodegas near you and talk to the owners. Especially talk to the ones that you walk by on your way to the subway.  Bodega owners are Jane Jacob's "eyes on the street." They are community members who know every individual who walks - they know every crackhead to every business person to every mother and to every teenager.

  I remember when I first moved to Sunset Park - the local bodega owner educated me about the gangs of my block. Little did I know - I had moved onto the turf of the Latin Kings - the most violent block of the family-like community of Sunset Park - i guess 61st between 2nd and 3rd was not the safest ;) I later saw my block on a documentary by DCTV on the Latin Kings on PBS! :)

My next bodega was my favortite one of all time Louie - who proclaimed himself as the King of Classon Ave!  - he already sold his store to a new owner who put a on a new face when the neighborhood started seeing higher rents  - see in this picture below - this is the new face of the King of Classon.  Louie was  the first one on my block to tell me about the crack house down the street and when I should take the 26 bus and when I shouldn't. He educated me on the crime patterns of my block and the best route to the train. 

Bodegas are a unique landmark and each borough has something special about their bodega. I love the ones in deeper brooklyn that have their great pre-fab signs that sell NOTHING that is written on the sign. Like this bodega below on Fulton and Franklin (which has been sold to a new owner and renovated) - it didn't have a sandwich counter so no heros - DEFINITELY no fruits or flowers in the summer.  But one thing it did have - cold beer!

Bodegas also are indicators of major neighborhood changes. I remember the time that I spotted a true williamsburg hipster in my block in this picture below with his super hipster haircut and florescent earrings and street find clothing -  and I realized that Biggie would not have been happy - 2 blocks down from where NOTORIUS B.I.G was born - and 6 blocks down from my house - was a hipster citing at a bodega - and I knew it -at that moment I knew this area was being taken over by developers. Surely  - within 2 years we have renovated condos up and down Washington, a beautiful cafe with the best almond croissants where Gossip Girl is filmed and an organic supermarket. Now i work in community development organizations - so I 'm not against neighborhood revitalization but my beef is when it's community growth ignores and tramples over the very people who have made a community vibrant in the first place. Anyways - my point is that this hipster was not from our hood - super weird super weird.

soho, nyc
do not imitate this cut, hair dye job or style!

chinatown, nyc
despite all the new condos and touristy-tificationess of chinatown - you can still buy an used drill on lafayette and canal.   I stood on the corner through two walk lights to witness the streams of people walking up to this man.  Each potential buyer would walk straight up and grab the drill with no exchange of words.  Then he would let go of the drill and let someone else grab the drill - and after watching a few men hold the drill then if a buyer was still around he would ask the seller what kind of drill it was.  It was so obvious that the drill had been through a lot - it was filled with dry wall dust and it had white paint splattered all over the rubber handles.

The seller managed all the potential buyers while keeping an eye out for the street cops because they consider this corner activity to be  illegal.   I hope this never changes!  chinatown please don't let soho crawl all over you!

Here's a look at Joseph's past titillations.

it was only today - Day #4 of the San Diego fires - did my friends on the East Coast start calling me to make sure I was not on fire and that my house was not burning down.   This map demonstrates how truly catastrophic this 1 fire  (of  8 other large fires) is- not because it shows how big this 1 fire is is, but because it shows how it compares to the city of Manhattan.  Oh my NYC-Centric friends - the world doesn't make sense unless it is put into the context of your world? (I am not being 100% sarcastic, I am one of those NYC-centric people)

The stupid media has only been focusing on LA's celebrities up until today - and then they realized - wow the Malibu fire is sooo miniscule compared to the fact that the ENTIRE COUNTY OF SAN DIEGO IS BURNING DOWN!

Even my friend Roger in Sweden knew about San Diego's fires before my friends on the East Coast. That's horrible!  He said the video he watched of the SD fires on  Day #2, Monday - reported that the SD fires were worse than the LA fires.  This is SWEDEN!!!!!!  Can you believe that?

What's worse - I and many other bloggers in SD have been posting about what we are going through - so it's not like we've been silent.  This clearly shows a need for more sophisticated and different levels of information reporting - if I and many others have been flickring and voxing about this for days and the large media conglomerates failed to pick up on the seriousness of this - it is clear something is wrong with how certain news is highlighted while some are ignored - and this also shows that we need a different outlet that focuses on first-hand accounts from bloggers and etc.   
This happens all the time around the world - bloggers were posting about the recent Myamar/Burma killings of civilians - but it took a while for "official" news outlets to pick on it.  This happens all the time in Africa and China.   Just because people are writing about it online does not mean their information will get picked up. We need a new kind of media outlet that will be good at doing just that - specializing in first-hand online accounts.  There is nothing democratic about the internet. hmm this sounds like just the kind of service Kenyatta has been talking about creating!

You can read my other thoughts about the distortion of wildfires here, emphasis of LA over SD here, and what a Sociologist would do during a fire here.

this was photo overlay was created by tim

I always walk down E. 3rd st. and this is the first time I've seen any Hells Angels outside.
I was wondering if they were good neighbors, and someone wrote on NYC's City Noise, "Safe neighborhood, courteous meth dealers, what more could a New Yorker want?"

Well I wish they were my neighbors - regardless if they are a combo of charitable fuzzy thug meth-dealers soft bears protectors-of-neighborhoods archivers-of-motocycle-culture lovers drinkers.

I love that on their website it says "HELLS ANGELS and the DEATHHHEAD LOGO ® are trademarks owned by Hells Angels Motorcycle Corporation, registered in the United States and various other countries. Should we find you using any of these we will hunt you down and hurt you."

This post is for you katie!  congrats on your openingin nevato!

you never know what you find on the streets in nyc.  I was walking down 1st ave when I saw this man - I was taking a picture of a tag I liked, and when I looked over here he was - just lying there.  I am sure he was already mugged and drugged up on something.
 I don't usually post pictures of junkies or people on the streets- but I want to show that it is a big stereotype that the only people you find on the streets are blacks or latinos.  What is striking is that this guy has leather shoes, khaki pants, and very light skin - people from all classes and backgrounds find themselves in troubled times.  It is my hope that we have no more mercy for this guy then any other person we find on the street who has darker skin than him.

Ever since Meisha's mentor, Emilia, introduced me to her - I also fell in love with the Meisha magic.  Since Emilia is my good friend - I had heard about Tymeisha for years.  I remember I first met Tymeisha when she interned for a conference I organized at the Bronx Museum of Arts - she managed a crew of 10 other youths and never lost her cool with hundreds of people demanding information from her.  Tymeisha, it's an honor that I also get to be your mentor - Emilia and I are sooo proud of you - we hope you are keeping the AMish in check ok! 

The photos below are from my most recent shoot with Tymeisha at Cafe Grumpy - another amazing davidjacobs introduction for the most fabulous coffee that is just as good as San Francisco's Blue Bottle - but I still think cafe Grumpy makes the BEST ICE COFFEE EVER!!!!
Here are links to other shoots with Tymeisha - Black and White Shoot, Chinatown Shoot, Bronx Shoot.

"If New York can be a hostile but ultimately rewarding environment for an artist, Los Angeles is often the opposite: easy and glittering until you suspect that it all may be a cruel illusion."

This quote really resonated with me.  although it refers to artists, I think it refer to any profession. I think you have to be equally steadfast about making sure your soul continues to blossom in both cities - but they key is to to not impose your success from one city on the other.  The same humility and drive that you brought to NYC, must be practiced in LA (or vice versa)   - or else you will become frustrated.  I see this again and again with friends who move  from NYC to LA - and the one who don't get eaten alive are those who continue to innovate and continue to work with their new york skin while maintaining an extreme sense of humility and humor.  (i.e. go go jetset steve and zadi!)

I read this quote in Conspiracy of Two in New York Magazine, an article about the double suicides of two NYC based bohemian artists who moved to LA and back to NYC.  the next paragraph refers to Nathanael West's movie The Day of the Locus, which is about the glittery deceptiveness of LA.  In the movie,  "nothing happens.  they don't know what to do with their time...The boredom becomes more and more terrible.  they realize that they have been tricked and burn with resentment."