What Makes Someone A New Yorker?

I love hearing why other people love New York (or their own favorite city), especially when it's from someone I wouldn't expect. Like actress Kathy Najimy in New York Magazine:

What makes someone a New Yorker? 
A rusty battery in their heart that never runs out? An insatiable unending current of desire to create and be astounded? An unwarranted excitement for spring clothes that people in normal-weathered places take for granted? A pull to stop and really listen to and appreciate the guy in front of the McDonald's in Times Square playing "Moonglow" on his sax? When they are hideously mean one moment and then the next they would give their life for you? That's a New Yorker.

image via

To Sparkle or Not to Sparkle?

One of my earliest memories is driving over the San Francisco Bay Bridge at sunrise, wrapped in a blanket in the backseat of the station wagon on the way to the airport. I crane my neck to look up, up, up at the cables stretching towards the pink and purple sky. The sight of that bridge, especially early in the morning or late at night, always spurs a feeling of anticipation. For most people, the Golden Gate is their iconic San Francisco bridge. For me, it's always been the Bay Bridge, the one that took me to the city and home again.



So when my friends in the Bay Area started talking about the new Bay Bridge light installation, I wasn't so sure about it. The Bay Bridge, sparkling? I don't know about that. The installation (by artist Leo Villareal) adds 25,000 LED lights to the bridge that will create a nightly light show on the bridge for the next two years. Similarly, I'm in the minority (at least among my friends) who doesn't think the Eiffel Tower needs to sparkle nightly, and I was dismayed when I heard that they were adding an LED light system to the Empire State Building. These structures are beautiful and iconic on their own, do we really need to guild the lily?





Though I do have to admit that the Empire State Building lights turned out to be cooler than I thought they'd be, and they didn't take away from the classic view of the building like I worried. What do you guys think of adding sparkle to architectural landmarks? Fun or frivolous?

Top photo by Ben_Cooper on Flickr, second photo by me (a very long time ago).

Indoor Snow

New York had its first (ill-timed, early) snowfall last week, but it'll probably be a few weeks more before we see much more snow. In the meantime, there's the new Hudson Lodge at the Hudson hotel. Their park space (insulated with glass and heaters) is outfitted for winter with an "apres ski" menu, cozy decor and...nightly snowfall! Indoor snow! It could be either exceedingly cheesy or wintery awesome. What do you think? There's a hot chocolate bar!

Image via Morgans Hotel Group

Your Own Personal Skyline

{manhattan from the george washington bridge, 1936}

There are a lot of things that could be said today, on this anniversary. But I wasn’t here, I didn’t belong to New York yet, so they’re not for me to say. Instead, I’d like to point you to a beautifully written essay from 2001 on the city that never ceases to move forward. Here are some of my favorite bits...

The city has spent a considerable amount of time and money putting the brochure together, what with all the movies, TV shows and songs -- the whole ''if you can make it there'' business. The city also puts a lot of effort into making your hometown look really drab and tiny, just in case you were wondering why it's such a drag to go back sometimes.

The New York City you live in is not my New York City; how could it be? This place multiplies when you're not looking...Before you know it, you have your own personal skyline.

We see ourselves in this city every day when we walk down the sidewalk and catch our reflections in store windows, seek ourselves in this city each time we reminisce about what was there 5, 10, 40 years ago, because all our old places are proof that we were here. One day the city we built will be gone, and when it goes, we go. When the buildings fall, we topple, too.

Photo by Jack Rosenzwieg. All quotes by Colson Whitehead in The New York Times. Story via Longform.

NYC before AC

{licking blocks of ice on a hot day, circa 1910-1915}

This absolutely amounts to a first-world problem, but the air conditioning has been broken for two days in the office where I’m currently working. It's hot, to say the least. As we all fanned ourselves, scoured the office for small, silly, USB-powered fans, and complained, it made me think of this fascinating old New Yorker article about life in the city before AC.

Arthur Miller (yes, that Arthur Miller) writes about a particularly warm summer in the late 1920s when his family was living in Harlem. He describes how, to escape the heat of their apartments, people took to sleeping in Central Park.

{battery park on a hot day, circa 1910-1915} 

Even through the nights, the pall of heat never broke. With a couple of other kids, I would go across 110th to the Park and walk among the hundreds of people, singles and families, who slept on the grass, next to their big alarm clocks, which set up a mild cacophony of the seconds passing, one clock’s ticks syncopating with another’s. Babies cried in the darkness, men’s deep voices murmured, and a woman let out an occasional high laugh beside the lake.

It’s completely understandable (especially in my current predicament) but also totally wild to think about from the perspective of a modern New Yorker. If it were safe, sleeping in Central Park sounds pretty magical...

Both photos via the Library of Congress. 

New York Bucket List: NY Aquarium & Coney Island

Thanks to a friend with corporate passes, I got to check off another place on my New York bucket list: The New York Aquarium. A friend had free corporate passes tothe Aquarium so it was the perfect opportunity to check it out.





The aquarium turned out to be rather small (it didn't take us more than an hour and a half to see everything) but it was still fun to see sea lions, weird deep sea creatures, and a giant walrus that gently smashed his huge belly into the glass. If you can avoid it, I wouldn't recommend going on a Sunday—it was super crowded!





The Aquarium is all the way out in Brooklyn, near Coney Island. Coney Island is also on my New York bucket list, so we walked around the boardwalk and got a Nathan's hot dog. I'd love to come back for the Mermaid Parade or to ride the Wonder Wheel next time.

A Birthday Date

Earlier this week I took some of my favorite kiddos out for a belated birthday date. I've been taking each of my friend Kristen's kids on a special little outing for their birthdays, and it worked out well that the youngest two, Jones (now 6) and Lael (now 4), were born two days apart.

Since my camera died, I snapped a bunch of photos on my phone that I wouldn't normally post here because they're lame cell phone photos. But now that Instagram is available for my Android phone, I thought this would be a good opportunity to play around with the app!



When I originally asked Lael what she wanted to do for her birthday date, she said "Go to Shake Shack, then Starbucks, then my house." I decided to stick with just Shake Shack :) After picking them up, we headed over to the bus (them on scooters, I was on foot) and took a short ride over to the requested destination.



While we waited for our burgers and frozen custard, I pulled out the one trick I had up my sleeve to make it a "birthday" date: rainbow striped party hats. I was really not expecting the excitement that followed, they were thrilled! Lael ripped off her warm hat (which we put back on a little later) to wear the party hat, while Jones went for an over-the-helmet look.







All in all, a lovely time with this hilarious brother-sister duo. And a fun first try with Instagram!

Remember the Illustrated Missed Connections? The illustrator, Sophie Blackall, illustrated a poster for the MTA's Arts for Transit program. The poster will be in subway cars throughout 2012. I can't wait to see it in person, her characters are so fun and so full of life and story.

NYC Dating in the Movies

After watching Annie Hall this weekend, it was interesting to see this post on Brokelyn that calculates the cost of dating in popular NYC movies.



The dates in You've Got Mail were the cheapest, mostly because they don't technically "date" each other for most of the movie. Upper West Side guys, take note: you can make a gal swoon with You've Got Mail-themed dates and spend less than $20!

The Etiquette Police

Walking around the city today, I happened upon a few of these awesome signs from the "Metropolitan Etiquette Authority." Turns out it's a project from artist Jay Shells (who put up these genius subway etiquette posters last year—yes, people really do clip their nails on the subway).

The signs are pretty great, and hit on two of my pet peeves. First, why is it ok for smokers to litter? And second, watch where you're going, I'm walkin' here!

Images via Joe Holmes on Flickr and Laughing Squid.

Cookies & Ice Cream

The Northeast is in the midst of our first real heat wave of the summer (we're supposed to have 100 degree weather this weekend!), and I've been craving ice cream sandwiches. (This one is my favorite.) For something a little less messy, I'd love to try a cup of je & jo's organic ice cream with cookie dough. It comes in flavors like mint ice cream with lemon lavender shortbread cookie dough, cinnamon ice cream with oatmeal raisin cookie dough, and peanut butter ice cream with peanut butter cookie dough. Yum!

Bonus: In addition to their Hell's Kitchen store, they have an ice cream tricycle riding around the city. I'll be on the lookout for sure.



above image via You Are My Fave

190 Bowery

Since I moved to New York, I've been playing a little game with myself that I call the buzzer game. When I see a particularly nice brownstone, or a mansion-sized building that could be a museum or an embassy, I look for the buzzer. If there's a series of buzzers, the building's been converted into apartments. If there's just one buzzer, someone very lucky has a lot of space to themselves. I always end up daydreaming about what the inside of the home might be like.

So I was floored by this New York Magazine story about 190 Bowery. It's a six-story former bank built in 1899 that photographer Jay Maisel bought in 1966 for $102,000 and turned it into a home. The whole building! Can you imagine? The pictures are fascinating.







This might be the ultimate "single buzzer" home in New York.

All photos by Leigh Davis for New York Mag.

Before & after

My friend Abby posted these before and after Instagram photos that she took from her office window above Bryant Park. The first is before people had arrived for the outdoor movie, and the second is after the park was full of people and blankets. Isn't it funny to see the transformation?

PS - I'm completely considering getting an iPhone just for the Instagram app. Is that silly? The retro photo apps for the Droid just aren't as good or as social. Would you switch phones for an app?