New York City

I Miss Mike Bloomberg

April 10, 2024 in The USA

I miss Mike.

Sure, he turned this city in a dirtier Dubai - a heaven for billionaires. But he defended reproductive rights harder than any US politician since this state legalized abortion in 1970. And he took the damn subway almost daily (when he wasn't piloting his helicopter to Bermuda).

Why is Eric Adams our mayor? Why couldn't he just be a bad landlord or a terrible crypto scammer? He's that elderly boyfriend who fancies himself a new age health food nut who still possesses the fitness of a man in his mid-30s. If he also owned a Corvette, you'd know the type. Maybe some of our parents are dating that guy today.

He's just not a good person. He would be better suited as a former cop who does private security and grift on the side, like all the others. He wears a bracelet on his wrist that reads HUSTLE. That's no mindset for the top elected position in New York City.

Should I run? Or does any smart adult in New York City care to run for this job no one wants?

The Best Beer Breweries In New York State (According To Mister Sterling)

January 31, 2024 in Culture

New York State is a lot of things. First off, it is a big, beautiful sate, geographically. Like Massachusetts, it has the ocean and the mountains. Being close to Canada, it potentially has more fresh water. Politically, it is a mess, full of corruption and leaders who undermine their own parties.

But briefly I will discuss something good and fun about New York State - its beer.

In my mind, New York State beer isn’t as elite as California, Colorado or Vermont (and increasingly, Australia, Japan Iceland and Denmark). But it absolutely goes toe-to-tie with my home state of Massachusetts and its next door neighbors, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Connecticut. And as you will see from my picks below, some of the beer here in New York is exceptional and significant in craft beer culture.

*Photo by Andpna’s, Ridgefield Connecticut*

When discussing New York State breweries, it is best to start with what is arguably the most significant brew, Flower Power by Ithaca. It brought a west coast style IPA to the state. Back then, it seemed dramatically over-hopped. But it is mild compared to the hazy IPAs that followed 10 years later. Before Flower Power, the hoppiest New York beer was Brooklyn IPA. But on the heels of Flower Power, we saw stronger ales like Bengali by Sixpoint. The race to release the next super-hoppy IPA in the northeast was officially on. And it hasn’t stopped. It needs to be acknowledged, that the contemporary era of northeast IPAs was started by Dogfish Head (from Delaware) in 2001. New York jumped into the game 3 years later with Flower Power.

Brooklyn has too many breweries. So much that some don’t really good breweries don’t survive, like KelSo, a maker of German and Czech style pilsners. But one has hung on on the northern tip of Greenpoint and bears the neighborhood’s name. While they survived the worst years of the pandemic, their beer selection has shifted more towards lagers and pilsners than the double IPAs and pale ales they used to make. But their quality and expertise comes through both on draft and in their cans. And they still have their kitchen in operation, which serves a great hot chicken sandwich, bratwurst and a massive 8oz burger.

Sloop Brewing operates in a big concrete factory building where IBM machines and semiconductors used to be made. It’s in the middle of an industrial park in East Fishkill, New York, somewhere between Poughkeepsie.and West Point. Sloop has a simple philosophy: just make hazy juice bomb IPAs. There’s no juice in these ales, though. The juicy flavors come from the genetically-modified hop varieties. They can emulate flavors like kiwi, citrus, peach, grass, and various variations of bitter hops. Whenever I see a Sloop can available at a venue, I know I immediately have a first or second choice. It’s easier to get larger volume brews in my part of Manhattan, like New Belgium. But Sloop is more popular than ever.

Five Boroughs Brewing Company has a diplomatic name, but they are based in Industry City, in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. Industry City is one of the nation’s first zoned industrial parks. The brewery is in a big, well ventilated warehouse building on 47th Street. With a wider selection than Greenpoint, I have to give the edge to Five Boroughs. They have summer and winter seasonal brews, as well as four core IPAs. I pledged my allegiance to IPAs in the early 2000s, and Five Boroughs is committed to that craft. I know the market for juicy hazy IPAs has cooled a little. But I’m sticking to the breweries that still develop them. I need to visit this taproom again this spring.

And finally, I can’t mention great New York ales without including Other Half, now in it’s 11th year. I didn’t buy into the hype and the breweries cult status 10 years ago when white bankers and tech bros were buying these cans by the caseload at about $4 per 16oz can. But I came around in 2017 or so when they started their local home delivery service. The ales they make are close together on the flavor spectrum. Most are New England style IPAs. Some, like All Citra Everything, are a little sweeter. Others, like Green City, are a little creamier (and they are even made with oats). And some of their best ales, like Stacks On Stacks, strike that perfect balance between bitter and juicy. All of them are hazy. All of them represent the best of New York.

JFK Airport Is One Giant Economic Stimulus Machine

February 26, 2023 in Economics, Architecture, The USA

New York State has officially started to construct a new Terminal 6 at JFK airport.

Over $4 Billion for a small International terminal with just 10 gates? That terminal had better include an AirTrain station!

And I'm sorry, 'final phase'? JFK is always being demolished or built. The governor said so. Nothing in NYC is a final phase.

2022 NYIAS: The Show Finally Opens Its Doors To Electric Vehicles

April 22, 2022 in Automobiles

Well that took long enough. 10 years after the sale of the first Tesla Model S, the dealer association that runs the New York International Auto Show has finally accepted our electric future. It was inevitable. Of course, Tesla is never invited to any auto show, nor would it need to show off its cars in a traditional show. Tesla, for now, is still big and attractive enough to sell its cars its own way.

Tesla aside, the NYIAS has fully pivoted away from big oil and towards full electrification. The impression I got in a lot of the discussions and presentations was that big oil wasn’t trying to stop this massive shift in energy sources for cars and trucks. It’s as if big oil is just running a “prevent” defense on the flight from gasoline while shifting to renewable energy themselves. And while the automotive industry doesn’t attract the best technology or marketing people, they can see the public demand for EVs become real and permanent. For the old dealers, it seems that they don’t have to waste any time choosing a side. Dealerships are doing really well these days, and a good salesperson can sell gasoline-powered cars until retirement. For the new generation of auto sales and marketing people, EVs are the only game in town.

This year’s edition of the New York International Auto Show (NYIAS) was the first in three long years. There was a wonderful relief to be back at the show as an invited non-credentialed media guest. But it was apparent that the number of presentations, attendees, and even the amount of security was lower in this return. Having said that, there was still a good number of New York car debuts, if you keep track of all the new cars that have ben released in recent months. Setting aside big names like the Ford Bronco, Mach-E and C8, the show saw the New York debuts of the Nissan Z, Subaru Solterra, Hyundai Santa Cruz, Hyundai Ionic 5, Kia EV6, Nissan Ariya, Ford F-150 Lighting, Volkswagen ID Buzz (the Bus), and Toyota GR (Gazoo Racing) Corolla without an event or presentation for any of them.

This week was also the first time the New York show got to see the Nissan Ariya in motion (it did sit at the Formula E race weekend in July 2021). And while not officially in production, New York saw a bonus electric car debut with the INDI ONE. Where is it made? When can we drive it? Why does it market to gamers and Tik Tok users? Why do the LED lights inside and out look like the strip light kits you can get on Amazon? All those questions remain unanswered.

Here are some photos from my miles of walking at the Jacob K Javits Center:

There were more things to do at the show this year despite it being smaller overall. Hyundai offered indoor rides of their beautiful Ionic 5 electric hatchback / wagon. Jeep was back with their Camp Jeep for the 16th time, with a new, taller “mountain” (which really made the ride down a thrill, like a slow roller coaster). Toyota had their safety road course again, featuring at least five different models. In the Javits lower level, there was an EV ride track featuring at least 6 manufacturers, including INDI and VinFast. Toyota had their game show trivia show again (which might be loudest booth at the show), and Subaru was back with their maze-like National Parks themed booth with an impressive LED display floor.

The list of manufactures opting not to appear the New York show grew as Honda / Acura weren’t there. Honda has a new HR-V that city people will surely like, but they will wait to market it. Now I was going to write that BMW, Mercedes, Audi, Porsche and Volvo were no-shows again. But that’s not accurate. Volvo was showing their electric XC40 and C40 on the lower level. BMW had their i4 on the EV ride track, also on the lower level. The Mercedes EQV and Audi e-Tron GT were nominated for multiple World Car awards, so the cars were there, as was the BMW iX4, another nominee. Lamborghini was technically there, with the latest Huracan, the Tecnica. And outside the show, things got interesting. BMW hosted a party after the first press day that quite a few automotive journalists weren’t invited to. I saw Lamborghini activity outside the show, as well as Land Rover / Jaguar. Companies might not be investing in the show, but they know hosting events around it has value. Are auto shows dying? I think they are diminishing in importance. But the New York show is supported by ticket-buying attendees who are always eager to see cars. Embracing electric cars was a very wise move. At $17 per adult ticket, the show should have another successful year.

I think the automotive press agrees that the new car presentations, aside from the Kia Niro and VinFast lineup, were all forgettable. Kia and Hyundai refreshed their big 7-seat family SUVs. Jeep made the Wagoneer and Grand Wagoneer a foot longer and introduced an inline 6 motor that all the Wrangler fans would love as an option. Chevrolet wanted to talk about the electric Silverado a little. Ford just wanted to show the F-150 Lighting and Mach-E in action, which will make a big impression on the show-going public. Nissan let the new Ariya and Z do their talking. Same with Volkswagen and their ID.Buzz. Same with Toyota and their soon to be sold-out GR Corolla. And that was about it. I will remember some of those cars, especially if I one day own an Ariya or Mach-E.

But it was the food that was more memorable. You can check out my food photos in the gallery above.

Here’s what anyone on the press day could have gotten. Lincoln had espresso and lattes, which I think they have had since the brand was given a thorough new look in 2014. Nissan handled the “coffee break” duty in lieu of lunch. They had big, sweet and doughy doughnuts, hot chocolate with rectangular marshmallows as big as Lincoln keyfobs, a tasty sweet and salty trail mix bar (for the new Pathfinder Rock Creek), lattes and virgin cocktails from Curious Elixers out of Tucson. And VinFast took the afternoon reception duties with simple cocktails and small plates.

But it was the Infiniti booth that has reclaimed its place as the place the press wanted to stay in for a while. In previous years (2013-2017 come to mind), they served red and white wine in the afternoon to lure in members of the media to hang out, sip the wine and recharge their lithium-ion batteries. The press day schedule didn’t list Infiniti as provider of breakfast, lunch, or anything else, but they served food from 9am until they ran out. Incredible. What did they have? They had breakfast sandwiches, like sausage egg and cheese on an english muffin, or lox, capers, cucumbers and cream cheese on an everything bagel. They had an excellent supply of Saratoga sparking mineral water. They had various hors d'oeuvres, including a little potato doughnut and a tiny beef filet on a flatbread chip. They had premium wine. For the red they had the 2019 ‘Artemis’ cabernet sauvignon by Stag Leap. And for white they had the 2020 chardonnay by Cakebread Cellars. Three days later, I noticed the same wines for sale at my local elite wine seller, PJ Wine, priced at $70 and $40, respectively. By my under $26 standards, this was premium Napa wine. And I estimate by 4pm on press day, the wine was gone. The loud parties at the high tables supported this. I heard a lot of alcohol fueled laughter.

But maybe it wasn’t the wine. Maybe it was the whisky. That’s right, there was a featured offering that was not only great, they had enough of it to last into the second press day. It was a trio of Japanese whiskys (yes, the Japanese distilleries are trying to enforce that spelling without an e, just like Scotland). Nothing special. There was no Hibiki. But I got a re-introduction to these whiskys. It seems I don’t have to desire top of the line Japanese whiskys at all. These three will do. They were Suntory Toki, Mars Iwai, and Nikka Coffey. I have long seen Japanese whiskys as finely made scotch-style elixirs. And that’s generally true. But with this sampling, I learned that Japanese whisky is more than that. They can fall on a wide range on the whiskey spectrum, with some whiskys tasking like bourbon, scotch and Irish whiskey.

I think this was a perfect introduction to Japanese Whisky. Toki is the ground floor. Sip it, or shake it into a Toki highball (which takes some skill). Mars Iawai has some poor reviews online, but I think the whiskey snobs miss the point. Iwai is really good at what it sets out to do. It is a young whisky that brings some bourbon character to the Japanese distillery scene. It’s totally mixable, and it’s good enough to drink neat thanks to hints of pear and general good balance. Plus, it is cheap ($30), unaffected by the supply shortages at the high end. I’d love to see Mars release whisky that has spent more time in the barrel.

The third whisky was probably the best, Nikka Coffey. Not only the most complex, flavor-wise, but also the most aged. If I had room on my bar cart, I’d get all three! But if I had to choose just one, I’d get the Iwai. Maybe it can make a good old fashioned. Maybe I’ll post about that.

So this wasn’t an auto show at all! It was a good food sampling in a socially-distanced, high ceilinged hall. Until next year!

We New Yorkers Are Fools

March 25, 2022 in Science, The USA

Yesterday, Mayor Eric Adams dropped this executive order on the heads of New York City residents. Somehow, it insults both the vaccinated and the unvaccinated. We're all fools. We've been so stupid, for different reasons.

The people who were ignorant, foolish, and reckless are those who refused the COVID-19 vaccine. They now see, a little over a year later, that our leaders carve out exceptions for entertainers and "performers." Any city employee who was involuntarily terminated for refusing vaccines (without a health exemption) now has grounds to file lawsuits.

And then there's the slap in the face to the majority of us, who got vaccines. We waited in long lines. We did our part to take pressure off of hospitals, and give society a chance to smother this raging fire. We trusted the medicine, as these vaccines (aside from J&J) were the most researched and tested vaccines in history. But here we are, a year later, with a mayor who basically just told us that our getting vaccinated to fight the world's first pandemic in 101 years was for nothing. Silly us. COVID-19 is just the flu. Anyone still advocating for vaccines and masking is now a raving crazy person. Since 2021 I have been told by strangers to “seek professional help” because I have been stressing the need for good people to get vaccinated and wear a mask.

The pandemic rages on, but Mayor Adams has declared it over. Throughout the press conference video above, he referred to the pandemic has having occurred in the past. The vaccines that the majority of us worked hard to get as early as possible are now just an option, like the flu shot. The only people who are getting vaccinated going forward are people who want to stay ahead of variants with boosters, children when they reach the minimum vaccination age, or college bound teenagers who realize that flu shots and the COVID-19 vaccine protect their interests to stay healthy.

The ongoing SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has killed between 6 and 18 million people, depending on which research methodology you choose. Millions of deaths should have made the vaccines mandatory for decades -generations, even. Instead, millions of deaths only led to the COVID-19 vaccines being mandatory for just under a year. Just under a year of fighting something no one alive has ever seen before, and requires a lot more than a year to defeat. Never mind, say our leaders. Just kidding, you fools! Get back to NBA playoff games and dining indoors. Get back to what’s important.

There will almost certainly be another respiratory disease pandemic in this century. When it hits, there will be PPE, vaccines and anti-virial medications to save lives. But none of it will be mandatory. None of it will be free, either. Theaters will stay open. Airlines will keep flying. Bars and restaurants will carry on. In the next pandemic, it will be every sucker for themselves. And millions of Americans who choose not to limit their exposure will die.

Mayor Adams let his friends in the entertainment industry set public health policy. I'd say "shame," but he has no concept of it.

Alec Baldwin Is So Fucked

October 25, 2021 in Culture

It pains me to write that. But it seems obvious. Alec Baldwin is totally, completely fucked. Everything bad that happens to him going forward is probably going to be traced to what happen ed to him l ast week.

This tragic case is extraordinary in every worst way:

1. I will start with the fact that Alec Baldwin is New York’s resident asshole celebrity. He’s been an asshole to just about everyone for the last 30 years or so. You might cry that this isn’t relevant to the tragedy, but of course it is. This is part of how it’s going to be remembered. It is far too soon to write it, but I wrote it.

2. No asshole deserves what happened to Mr. Baldwin. What astonishes me is the level of horrifying trauma he is going through. If you believe in karma, or if you think sometimes the universe comes to collect from bad people, you have to agree that Baldwin’s punishment is disproportionately large for what he has done as an adult. He must be going through the worst hell, unless, he is unfazed and sleeping peacefully at night, in which case, re-read #1. No one deserves such an overwhelming punishment for being an chronic asshole. Not even Donald Trump, who must be thrilled that this happened.

3. Baldwin is no longer an A-list actor. Personally, I will remember him for Beetlejuice, Miami Blues, Glengarry Glen Ross, Malice and The Royal Tannenbaum's (I forgot he’s the voice of the narrator!). He’s in the twilight of his career, unable to star in a theatrical release. So he took a role (and an executive producer credit) in a Blumhouse production that was marred by a labor dispute and a total breakdown of safety protocols. This led to him becoming a victim of one of the worst cases of negligence in the history of movie production. I want to repeat that. What happened last week was arguably worse than The Twilight Zone movie helicopter crash in 1982, or Brandon Lee’s death on the set of The Crow in 1993. That’s because it is currently believed that the gun used was a revolver, which is easier to empty. For a rehearsal, it should have been empty of any and all cartridges. It goes so far beyond ‘inexcusable.’ It should never have happened. And yet, a series of shocking errors and terrible chances led to a tragic death. Somehow a live round found its way into that gun, and that gun ended up in Baldwin's hand.

4. The inexcusable, violent death of Ms. Hutchins was the fault of many people. Primarily, the liability rests with assistant director Dave Halls and an inexperienced armorer. But in order for this to become the horrible manslaughter it was, there had to be a string of consecutive failures, including the final failure from Mr. Baldwin. He violated a critical rule: never point any gun, real or replica, at anyone. It would have been bad enough if a live round was fired during rehearsal, but hit no one. People would still be fired and banned from Hollywood. An investigation would still happen. The unions would send stern reminders to armorers and assistant directors. But this horrific tragedy is one in which a series of terrible things happened, including Baldwin pointing the gun at two principal crew members.

Are you a fan of Alec Baldwin? Did my words hurt you because I said something harsh about the star of of the insanely overrated and self-referencing 30 Rock? Well, don’t be upset at me. Just watch what happens next.

New York City now has two celebrities on death watch. Which one will go first, Alec Baldwin or Rudy Giuliani? Or will Robert De Niro crash the party with a surprise passing?

It might seem that I find some pleasure in this. I don’t, really. One person is dead and another is having his life completely ruined.

I do admit to being slightly evil and twisted. I have to be a little evil in this cruel nation.

The Park Is Fine

July 12, 2021 in Human Rights

Washington Square Park is fine. There is no out of control noise, drugs, violent crime, nudity or sex problem in the park. A minority of residents near the NYU campus, who are mostly white and wealthy, seem to have a problem with young people - particularly brown young people - having some fun in a public park.

Yes, there are lots of young people. Yes, there are artists. Yeah, there are people putting on dancing and music performances. There are tons of sunbathers. Some people play chess. Others smoke pot. A tiny minority of people shoot up. None of this is a reason to shut the park down at 22:00 with the iron fist of the NYPD.

The park is fine.

Know what isn’t fine? The wealthy people who claim to live near Washington Square Park and want it cleared out. Let’s take this resident as a prime example:

Alan Silverstein, a 59-year-old who lives near Union Square, told Gothamist that police were right to exclude dissenting voices from the “Build the Block” meeting.

He lives “near Union Square.” So at minimum, he lives four street blocks up University place, some 0.2 miles away, and out of earshot of Washing Square Park. And he thinks that the police were right to commandeer a community meeting on June 16, and keep defenders of public space out.

People who say that Washington Square Park is "unsafe" with a straight face are either arguing in very bad faith, or they weren't alive in the 1980s. They also equate 'dirty' with 'unsafe.' I moved to NYC 26 years ago, just after Kids was filmed in the park. While I, like anyone, was approached by a weed seller ("smoke, smoke"), I was never not safe. It is ridiculously safe today. I repeat: it is safe.

I am not surprised but still disgusted by the comments from most of the local, millionaire residents. They drop the word "skateboards," as a code for brown people. Also they speak of skateboards as if they are a new phenomenon- as if there hasn't been a skate culture since the late 1960s. No one has been killed in the park. The park is one of the safest places to be in the city. I prefer a city that has people outdoors into the night hours. Washington Square Park is world famous. It's up there with the best public outdoor spaces in Paris (the French love Washington Square Park, by the way). Leave our young people alone. They are keeping the neighborhood safe simply by being there. I've seen sunbathers, not "crack" (Crack!!! What a lie). And if you are so sensitive to the noise, please move to another ZIP code.

Some light Google searches shows that the battle against young people and their skateboards in the park made the news in 2019. This is not news, nor is it a big problem.

Now if the noise and drugs are a real problem, I'd have officers handing out noise citations, and make sure the 8th Street area has a safe injection site. The overall problem of noise in the park, which isn’t a big deal, will simmer down, as it does with each NYU semester cycle. The park is both public and is a part of the small NYU campus. In terms of wealth to campus acreage, NYU has to have one the highest ratios in the world.

Do none of the olds complaining about drug use remember Needle Park? Or even Washington Square Park in the 1980s? What's happening now is cheerful and positive in comparison. In the objectors’ alternative reality, attractive young sunbathers are described as naked hooligans having public sex. Pot smokers are crack addicts. Skateboards are tools of menace and intimidation. These NIMBYs are exaggerating, embellishing, and making stuff up.

New York Deserves Eric Adams

July 11, 2021 in The USA

This blog is going to post a few redundant posts this year. This is because we’re acknowledging a common theme: Americans don’t give a shit. They don’t care. That's how this empire dies. No one cared to protect it and put smart people in charge.

New Yorkers, who see themselves as special and above all other Americans, also don’t care.

How else to explain the next mayor, Eric Adams?

We know he’s a lunatic. We don’t care. We know he has no real policy ideas. We know he’s not even a Democrat. We don’t care. We know he doesn’t even live here. We don’t care. We know he sides with landlords and real estate developers, and has the audacity to blame young arrivals from Iowa and Ohio for gentrification. And we will never care.

So of course, New York City, confused by two progressives in the race for mayor, tripped, fell and let Eric Adams walk on through by less than 20,000 votes, thanks to very low turnout and a big case of not really giving a shit.

Enjoy your victory lap, Mister Adams. No, you are not the face of the Democratic party. No, you are not a rallying cry that moderates will prevail. No, you are not evidence of some sleeping giant of black power. Not the black power I prefer anyway. What utter horseshit. Fuck Errol Lewis.

Know why it’s all horseshit? Just look at how right wingers are reacting to Adams. They are already trashing him as a ‘corrupt,’ big city politician (read: black). They are trashing him using the same terms they use to trash Joe Biden, another moderate Democrat. See, the Democrats will never learn. You can declare yourself a moderate all you want, you are still going to get trashed by the same Republicans, at the same intensity, over the same non-issues. Democrats who are sincerely moderate in this era are living their dreams to be a popular 1980s Republican. Enjoy it while it lasts. Because it won’t. This republic will soon collapse.

Adams cannot wait to take over from Bill de Blasio in January 2022. He’s going to let the NYPD trample on peoples’ rights, let the real estate developers continue their profit-making run, and keep his voters happy by trashing people like me who live in Manhattan.

Trash Manhattan at your peril, asshole. And Fuck Brooklyn.®

So liberal, progressive town this is not. Look at Buffalo. What a triumph for India Walton and the DSA! Meanwhile we're heading into a dark four years of scandals, insane tirades and incomprehensible speeches. Warren Wilhelm made promises he couldn't keep, was corrupt, made his wife a city employee with a bloated staff and budget, and generally made every press conference an exercise in excuses and squirming about "unfair questions." Adams is going to take incompetence and Trump-like zaniness to a new level. Anyone unfamiliar with the history of the office being a dead-end is going to see it in action. No contemporary NYC mayor ever goes on to be congressman, senator, governor or president.

Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OWA)

High-End Housing Sits On Decaying Cities And We Have Questions

July 09, 2021 in Architecture, Science, The USA

Specifically, Samuel Stein has questions, and his piece in The Baffler is a must read.

I have pointed this out before. In 2014, I wrote:

what we are seeing are overpriced luxury homes being built on top of decaying infrastructure

I don’t think anything will wake-up educated Americans to this fact and want to change anything. I don’t think even Chicago becoming uninhabitable could wake people up. So be it. We’re doomed. And millionaires can enjoy their towers for about 10 more years. Have fun.

Mayor de Blasio's Lack Of Courage And Vision Failed His CIty

November 10, 2020 in Human Rights, The USA

Mayor de Blasio is an excellent portrait of political cowardice!

Why there's such fear of the police unions remains a mystery to me. I've belonged to a union for 52 years, and I believe unions are one of the keys to empowering workers and redistributing the wealth that labor creates. But police unions are qualitatively different from all other labor organizations. In addition to the usual efforts to increase salaries and benefits, police unions pursue, and nearly always acquire, virtual immunity from either criminal or civil sanctions for their members' atrocious behaviour. Especially with respect to black men, the police have acted with impunity, assured that even murder will never bring the punishment of the law upon them. Until it's clear that the officers of the law are subject to its penalties, American police will kill unarmed black men, brutalize anyone who antagonizes them, and laugh at attempts to restrain them or hold them to account.

Which brings us back to politicians, and white voters. Since 1993, New York city has had three mayors. Rudy, a crackpot fascist, defended every atrocity committed by the police, including cold blooded murder and sexual assault with a broom. His successor, a billionaire, bought three terms in city hall, and massively violated the constitutional protections guaranteed to all residents by pushing "stop and frisk". In other words the voters in America's largest city, put known violators of constitutional rights in power for 20 consecutive years!

And then came DeBlasio. He ran as a liberal and promised an end to the abuses of the police. But, when push came to shove, he displayed a yellow streak in the face of the police unions . Why, I don't know. Maybe, after the gruesome murder of George Floyd, real change may be possible. I've been waiting for racial justice, waiting for white politicians, and above all, waiting for white voters to do the right thing.

Cowardice, denial, indifference-whatever the reason- the result has been dismal.

A map from the Esri COVID Pulse dashboard

Stay In Your State Until 2022

November 01, 2020 in The USA

When will the pandemic end? SARS-CoV-2 will remain with us forever. But the pandemic will one day end. I think it will end in the spring of 2022. We have to assume that the first generation vaccines will only be 40% effective, and that only half of American adults will get them. By the way, thanks Trump and anti-vaccine idiots for turning people against the vaccine. Trump spoiled public opinion by promising it was coming in October 2020, and through his denial of the pandemic overall. He really thinks the media will stop reporting about it next week.

I don't have any travel plans until June 2022. I have nothing booked yet. But I hope to be in Vieques, PR that month. Oh, and I am never going to stop wearing a mask outside my house and car. If nothing else, I will catch fewer colds. I am never going back to a life without face masks. Not after something so traumatic and world changing as this.

2021 will be another year locked in my home state of New York. Thank goodness it is a big, beautiful state. With a car, road trips are possible. I will rent other people’s houses if I want a chance of scenery. I will endure another 18 months.

Let’s see if I’m correct.

Can These Two Rats Just Fuck Each Other To Death?

October 14, 2020 in The USA

A different kind of ratfucking. Is it possible for it to occur across party lines if both candidates are rats?

Staten Island is a shithole. And most of the people on it are shit.

Max Rose is the current Congressman who represents Staten Island (and the slightly less racist Bay Ridge, Brooklyn). He is a piece of shit. He is one of the most right-wing members of the Democratic caucus. Whenever he poses for a photo, it is almost always with cops, soldiers or union leadership, and those people are almost always white. Just look at his Twitter feed. Max Rose is a white supremacist. He just doesn’t realize it. He’s a pro-war, pro-cop, pro-white, right wing Democrat. And he has to be in order to hold his seat in his district. If he wasn’t a de-facto Republican, he’d be gone.

His opponent this cycle is Nicole Malliotakis, an ultra right-wing politician who unsuccessfully tried to defeat mayor Bill de Blasio two years ago. I don’t have to elaborate about her. She is objectively far worse than Max Rose. She’s anti-woman, anti-immigrant, anti-poor, and pro-Trump. Fuck her.

Tonight is their one and only debate on New York 1. I will not watch.

But my wish is this. I want these two rats to fuck each other to death. They are both despicable and deplorable. And I want Staten Island to join New Jersey, where it belongs.

Staten Island does not belong in New York City, culturally nor politically. It is more aligned with the Jersey Shore. It is right wing, white supremacist, full of STDs and addicted to artificial tanning. It needs to go. It needs to die. And so do these two winners.

2 World Trade Center, in its second design proposal by Bjarke Ingels / BIG

The New World Trade Center Is An Even Bigger Failure Now

October 13, 2020 in Economics, Architecture

The plan to build the most architecturally interesting tower is dead. 2 World Trade Center, if it is ever built, will not be the Bjarke Ingels design shown above.

Norman Mailer once said that modern architecture is “collective sightlessness for the species.” He included all of the 20th century greats in his assessment. I wouldn’t go that far. I think a lot of architecture becomes misguided when it attempts to make a statement on our relationships to buildings, landscapes and cites. Maybe if we just designed buildings that were appropriate for their environment and purpose, we’d have generally better architecture. There’s no need to have elaborate themes or statements. Architecture is not filmmaking. Yes, it is art and engineering. But let’s not overthink what it means.

I have architect friends and surly they will disagree with what I wrote above. So let me me make a less controversial and more obvious point: the new World Trade Center (2006-) was a failure the moment it was decided to rebuild the square footage of office space that was lost in 2001. And now, in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is even more of a failure.

New York City will never die. But it is no longer a port town. It is no longer a manufacturing town. It has a thriving real estate industry, tourism, financial services, and still has healthy legal, advertising and marketing sectors. It also attracts film and television productions, but long lost its film production edge to Hollywood and London. Most people in the city are employed by hospitals, restaurants, banks or the city itself, which operates within a social service economy. The city spends what it collects, and when the economy goes south, the city and its people go broke.

The shift to online retail dominance has been ongoing since Amazon launched 25 years ago. The COVID-19 pandemic has instantly changed some corporate HR policies to allow permeant remote work agreements. Again, New York City won’t die. But the corporate real estate landscape in the city has changed and may remain in this state for a generation or more.

We should house the homeless with all the unused square footage we have.

Hudson Yards Is Terrible

August 06, 2020 in Architecture

It’s been about 18 months since it opened, but I think it’s fair to acknowledge that a verdict that has already been rendered: Hudson Yards is terrible. It was terrible before the pandemic that killed our city, and it is even more terrible now. It isn’t just the Vessel. The whole thing sucks.

Well, not Mercado Little Spain. That’s great. Tapas, gin and tonics, wine and genuine Spanish atmosphere.

But this city within a city sucks. Why not start with the public plaza that hosts the Vessel. It’s designer, Thomas Heatherwick, created one of my favorite things, the New Routemaster bus for London (TFL). But the Vessel is easily one of the worst things in New York. It’s an anti-social, $200 Million dollar vanity project for a pro-Trump billionaire developer. It’s pointless. And it’s not New York. Well, actually, it is. New York happily allows parts of itself itself to be destroyed for projects like this. The Vessel is like the middle finger to both the city and state governments which sold the site for too little, spent too much to assist the construction, and gave-up too much in future tax revenues to allow the site to be built. In addition, Hudson Yards sits at the northern end of the High Line, a sunny open space that, while enjoyable on weekdays, is really a device designed to inflate land values and make luxury condo developers more rich. It’s a neat private park, built from wisely-preserved infrastructure, designed to promote real estate appreciation, for 11 years and counting.

But back to the public outdoor space at Hudson Yards, which is still incomplete. Does Mayor Bill de Blasio remember saying that it “will be one of the great public squares of New York City”? Does anyone? It’s a car passenger pickup/drop-off point and a pointless sculpture. How full of shit can a New York mayor -and this city- be? I used to think that Los Angeles was full of shit. But I’ve seen recent scholarly works, mainly by Mike Davis, that make the case the our nation’s second largest city should be taken seriously.

It’s a driveway. They have their place, like hospitals and Vegas resorts. But it’s a driveway to a mall and a vanity sculpture.

Theses and books can and will be written about Hudson Yards, the Billioaire’s city within a city that was enjoyed for just over a year before our economy and our city collapsed. I will not write a book here. But I want to repeat a key argument that is at the heart of the failure that is Hudson Yards: it’s not for us locals. It’s for billionaires. One of the first things people noticed about the shopping mall inside Hudson Yards was that it is devoid of places to sit and has a woeful lack of public restrooms, aside from those inside the upscale restaurants. If you visited its architectural sibling, The Shops at Columbus Circle, before the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, you would see restrooms on all three upper levels, plus renovated outdoor seating inside Columbus Circle. Both The Shops at Columbus Circle and The Shops And Restaurants at Hudson Yards were designed by Boston based Elkus Manfredi Architects. It’s not the most welcoming place, but it has places to sit. Not so with Hudson Yards.

It only gets worse from there. The people who over-payed for luxury condos in Hudson Yards mainly don’t live in New York. Retired Chinese tennis player Li Na was the final example I could find before the economy collapsed, and she most definitely over-paid.

The residential real estate at Hudson Yards is cynical in my view. These are investment properties, not a practical place to live and work -not anymore. I could see myself living there, sure. I could walk to my Midtown East office from there. With no children, I wouldn’t have to worry about the lack of schools in that area. Being a West Sider, I would continue to reply on the 1 and A trains to get to other parts of the city I frequent. But the fact remains, these properties are not for us locals. A wealthy New Yorker would probably look at Long Island City, Greenpoint, Williamsburg or downtown Brooklyn before seriously considering Hudson Yards.

It amazes me that we are not easily impressed anymore by engineering or architectural feats that were radical 50 or even 30 years ago. Slurry walls? A “bathtub” of concrete? Massive steel plates to support tall buildings over hollow spaces? A hidden network of service tunnels? Pneumatic garbage chutes and underground garbage collection? A full fiber-optic network? Hudson Yards has all of those. These engineering feats got some attention, but overall, they didn’t generate excitement.

Hudson Yards hoped to be welcomed the way we were in awe with the original World Trade Center. But instead, it’s been greeted by locals with a shrug. And now it is dying, like this rest of this once-great city.

All Local Governments Are Broke

June 01, 2020 in Economics, The USA

Back in 1975, New York City almost went broke. Quite a few people, myself included, thought it did. But actually, New York was able to narrowly avoid a city bankruptcy in a famous 11th hour move that is still studied by urban scholars today.

However now, in 2020, as we reel from the first wave of the global SARS-CoV-2 outbreak, we find that the vast majority of city and state governments across the United States are running out of cash. As I see it, it’s not a matter of if municipalities and states declare bankruptcies, but how soon. Once in a while. Democrats remember this looming crisis. and ask for bailouts. But just like the looming collapse of the US Postal Service, it is quickly forgotten.

The COVID-19 crisis is only beginning. Most of us escaped death in the first round. Nearly 40% of us lost their jobs. Some of us are on the brink of a mental breakdown. Now our governments are running out of cash as a second wave of the pandemic creeps closer.

We’re in a world of hurt, and the pain is going to get worse. And very few outlets are reporting it.

New York City Doesn't Need A Mayor

September 29, 2019 in The USA

Mayor Warren Wilhelm’s dismal, embarrassing presidential campaign taught me something: New York City has too many elected positions. We got on just fine without a mayor for four months. We don’t need a mayor. We also don’t need borough presidents, who are basically cheerleaders for their respective boroughs. All we really need is the City Council, the CCRB and the City Comptroller. Maybe the Council can appoint a city manager -a de-facto mayor- that they can hire and fire at will. But the Council has the power. The Mayor is just a public face and figurehead. The mayor of New York has always been a dead end job. But now I realize it is an unnecessary job. Let’s revise the city charter and get rid of the office.

An interesting footnote to de Blasio’s four-month vacation, er, I mean campaign, is that he was tailed and harassed by the PBA and the NYPD. The police decided to do a little work slowdown in response to the firing of one of their own who murdered a low-level offender on the street. And what happened? New Yorkers had a slightly better summer as a result. Up until to the UN General Assembly, I saw fewer cops, and I felt no less safe.

So thank you for the work slowdown, NYPD! Our hearts are breaking for the poor, unappreciated NYPD rank and file. To my knowledge, the police have never been held accountable for their behavior. They have been groomed to expect that incompetence and even murderous misbehavior will-and should-be dismissed, with no ill consequences for the police. If that really begins to change, it will constitute a revolutionary moment in police/community relations.

Imagine a New York with fewer cops and no mayor. One can dream. I dream of just that, in federalized city known as the District of Gotham.

New York Gives Away Too Much, Again

February 10, 2019 in Economics

Last November, New York announced that it was going to take from its residents and give billions to Amazon.

If Amazon was going to open a large office in New York anyway to support its original programs ("streaming content"), then New York should never have offered incentives or tax breaks aside from the lease of city land. New York offered Amazon far too much. And we’ll be reading articles supporting that in the years ahead.

And that’s if this deal sticks. Perhaps it won’t.

New York attracts smart, energetic people to live there, just as it called me in 1995, when I was just 22. They know what New York has to offer. Pity Amazon didn’t see any value in my city without corporate welfare and publicly-financed handouts. Or maybe, New York isn’t as great as it thinks it is. Maybe having some of the best museums, parks, bars and cultural institutions in the US is not a draw at all. We don’t have the best hospitals and universities in the US. That’s Boston. We don’t have the best mix of dominant professional sports teams in the US either. That’s also Boston. Maybe New York doesn’t realize that it’s not number one in anything aside from population and local taxes. It’s just another desperate city begging corporations to rent space. That’s what this process revealed.

This is classic welfare for billionaires. States and cities should stop giving taxpayer money to the richest corporations and individuals on Earth, and spend it on public projects for the benefit of the people. Wouldn't that be a radical idea. Having a contest between cities intensified the madness and showed the intelligent among us how destructive it is..

This isn’t the first time that New York State has thrown taxpayer money away in trying to attract new companies. The Start Up New York program blew a big budget ad campaign and tax breaks to net either just over or under 1,000 new jobs, depending on which report you choose to believe.

Considering how much Albany was willing to give, one has to wonder if New York’s economy is not as strong as Albany tries to make it appear. Upstate unemployment is a Mississippi-like 11%. The city is now made up of luxury towers full of millionaire families and absentee billionaires built over crumbling infrastructure. New York is not well. And I think Albany showed its hand and its future economic forecast in this deal.

There is strong resistance to this deal. It has already exceeded exceptions in that it has forced Amazon to reconsider leasing land in Queens. And the resistance has proven that the Democratic base in New York has shifted to the left. Governor Cuomo and Mayor de Blaso are not progressives, and the base knows it.

And as a footnote to this ordeal, I hope that Mayor de Blasio has killed one of the worst buzzwords of corporate America in the last 20 years: synergy. When he and Cuomo did their rare joint press conference to announce the Amazon deal, de Blasio was asked wouldn’t it be awkward for Amazon to build a corporate campus next to a public housing complex. He answered that having the rich and poor next to each other on the Long Island City waterfront would produce extraordinary “synergy.” In other words, both sides would benefit from each other. Bullshit. Get out of here with that word. That buzzword is now dead. And hopefully, so is the Amazon tax break and subsidy from Albany. Amazon can reconsider Virginia or North Carolina now.

New York Needed Congestion Pricing 10 Years Ago

February 09, 2018 in Automobiles, Architecture

There is no doubt New York City needs congestion pricing. It it is to remain a World City, like London, it must. But we can see that this proposal will fail. There is too much resistance from the counties outside the city. Just one more reason for this city to be its own Federalized district, like DC. New York is too important to this country to be ruled by Westchester, Long Island and Albany. Paris, London and Tokyo are national capitals. They don’t have this chronic political problem that New York has. Let’s fix it. New York is the economic capital of the United States. And it can’t have people driving into midtown who don’t NEED to.

New York's Income Disparity Worsens

August 27, 2017 in Economics

The income gap in New York City has gotten worse again. It's been particularly bad since the collapse of Enron and the 2001-2003 recession.

The most successful revolution of the past fifty years has been the "revolt of the haves". Between 1940 and 1970, taxes on the rich were very high. The marginal tax rate on incomes over $1,000,000 was at least 90%. Yet these were the years when the American economy grew steadily, and productivity gains were matched by solid increases in average wages and salaries, and a narrowing gap between the very rich and everyone else. So what happened? The Republican Party convinced millions of ordinary white Americans that black people were prospering off of them, and far too much money and effort was being diverted to the unworthy poor. By 1980, with the Pied Piper from California spinning his fantasies about out "bright, shining city on a hill", and how government was the problem, not the solution, the people were willing to buy the nonsense that massive tax cuts for the rich would translate into prosperity for all, as far as the eye could see. And here we are. The top 0.1% are taking in nearly ALL the additional GDP bring created by the economy. And Trump the simple wants MORE tax cuts, and yet less regulation! Sure, why not?

United States, 1776-2017

February 03, 2017 in The USA

When a favorite magazine of wealthy white people publishes a dark cover, you know times are BAD. It's the final chapter of the USA. Of course, this chapter started with Bush v. Gore. But we finally get it now, at the end.