The Electric Egg Cream

We’ve experienced (and still are experiencing) a turbulent weekend here in NYC. A nor’easter, of exceptional sound and fury signifying everything, ravished the NYC area with winds gusting at over 60 mph, toppling trees and power lines. Power was knocked out for 126,000 residents in the five boroughs while commuters were left stranded due to discontinued transit services.

Yesterday, during the worst of the storm, the Coast Guard suspended the Staten Island Ferry. Several train lines were also discontinued because of downed power lines, fallen trees or flooded subway tracks. Flights in and out of JFK and Newark airports were delayed for three or more hours

Neil Armstrong couldn’t attend a scheduled appearance, along with other veterans of space flight, at the Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum because his flight was canceled out of Boston. “It’s unbelievable to see all these kids here waiting to see the first guy to walk on the moon,” said Museum President Bill White. [The aviators and astronauts] are miserable,” he said.

And when you have a man like Armstrong, who was able to land on the moon but not in the Big Apple, you know it’s serious and there’s good reason for despair. We’re indeed soaked to the whiskers and soggy to the rafters.

NY Daily News

Manhattan’s carriage horse industry is being faced with two alternatives: substantial modifications or costly restrictions for an industry on the verge of complete obsolescence. The other day, members of Teamsters Union Local 553 and animal rights activists exchanged heated words and related contentiousness at a hearing before the City Council’s Consumer Affairs Committee. While one side argued for job protection the other argued for animal protection…neither side came away very happy.

Under discussion is whether or not carriage horses receive an annual five-week vacation while their drivers receive their first pay increase in 20 years. However, more rigorous activists are demanding that horse carriages be limited to Central Park; hence, not exposing horses to the dangers of vehicular traffic. The industry argues that this may be good for horses but bad for business by limiting the scenic qualities of the carriage ride.

Most of the council members at the hearing indicated that they supported an industry-backed bill that would require better working and living conditions for the horses and would increase the rate a horse carriage driver could charge to $50 for a half-hour ride, from $34.

The industry-backed bill, sponsored by Councilman James F. Gennaro of Queens and others, has the support of the Bloomberg administration, and a deputy health commissioner spoke in its favor on Friday.

Opposed to all of this is Councilwoman Melissa Mark-Viverito who is pushing a bill to phase out horse carriages entirely and replace them with antique automobiles by 2012. She insists that this move would make NYC a leader in “eco-tourism” and the motorized vehicles (or horseless carriages) could be operated by current carriage drivers…their hands on the wheel rather than the reins, in this day and age of horsepower.

NY Times

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Wearing futuristicly stylized attire, Fergie and her Black Eyed Peas took over Times Square in New York City last night (March 10, 2010) performing a surprise concert.  The music event was scheduled to promote the launch of Samsung’s new 3D TV’s which are available this week.  Starpulse.com reported that though the concert was lip synced and not publicized it still drew in throngs of people…… {read more} Examiner

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You could have knocked me over with a whisper when I learned that Midtown, Manhattan (of all places) was the quietest part of town…well, select parts of it at least. Whether this is based in fact or delirium, phenomenon or pure irony, is unknown to current science and logic. The bizarre fact is that complaints, if not noise, have decreased in Midtown as well as in Tribeca, the Financial District, Battery Park City and the Seaport sections.

The Brick Underground says that “these relatively quiet zones logged around 93 percent fewer residential noise complaints than the loudest area—Washington Heights/ Inwood—where 6,439 such grievances were filed last year.”

Harlem and the East Village ranked 2^nd and 3^rd respectively in noisiest areas with intrusive noise being a constant thorn in the side of residents there. For your added study, NYC’s noise codes are found here and the daily grind of noise emanating from non-residential sections here.

Nonetheless, I don’t believe that any area of this city is quieter; if anything, noise is as predominant as ever and maybe more so. What I do believe, however, is that New Yorkers have simply resigned themselves to the inevitable and stopped listening.

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The Brooklyn Public Library is going the way of high-tech fund-raising, similar to that used to fund Haitian earthquake victims. “Support Our Shelves” will accept tax-deductible donations of $10 via text messages at “books” 50555; the donation charged to the donor’s cellphone bill.

“It should make a difference on two fronts,” said Jason Carey, a library spokesman. “It’s a new way to get people involved who might not have gotten involved before. Plus, it allows us to keep communicating with people if they opt in.”

Whereas the Brooklyn Public Library is the nation’s fifth busiest, it’s also one of its most cash-strapped. “Support Our Shelves” raised $315,000 last year, used to purchase 27,617 books, DVDs and CDs; this year, with implementation of the text-messaging feature, the BPL is aiming for $500,000.

The Brooklyn Paper

NYC’s oldest living resident has witnessed much history that has come and gone and faded off into infinity…she is 111 years old. Her name is Jane Gilsenan and she was born on Amsterdam Avenue and 98^th Street in Manhattan on May 8, 1898; the very year that the City of New York emerged with the consolidation of its five boroughs.

The solemn, ill-fated William McKinley was then President of the United States, while no one had expected that the supercharged Theodore Roosevelt was destined to succeed him. A New Age in America was, in fact, quickly approaching and Gilsenan would see the 20^th century’s (and beyond) entire spectrum of hope and despair, dreams and nightmares, progress and destruction, unfold.

She was the second eldest of six siblings of an Irish-immigrant family; they lived in the two-bedroom Upper West Side apartment rented for $16 a month. While Jane’s father worked for Macy’s, her mother worked as a cook for the New York Herald Tribune (she once cooked a meal for Mark Twain).

Her memories date back to when she was 10.

“I remember learning to skate by holding the railing at St. Michael’s Church [in Manhattan] and skipping rope,” she said.

She’s similarly sharp with details on the following 10 decades. She can recall the belt-tightening during the Great Depression and her brothers serving in World War II.

Gilsenan never married (she claims that she “didn’t meet the right guy”) and remained a lifelong “working woman” well into her 80s as a legal secretary.  Her oldest sister lived to be 102, another died at 98, and her mother lived until she was 99.

Her age-defying genes may have been aided by a few habits. She has a soft spot for cream sherry and has swallowed a pharmacy’s worth of vitamins A and D over the course of her life. She also kept her mind sharp reading murder mysteries by authors Agatha Christie and Mary Higgins Clark.

Now living in a convent on Staten Island, Gilsenan was recently asked about her longevity. She replied, “I can’t say I regret it, but I wouldn’t want to do this again.”

NY Post

“Sailor Pondering”

Source: epc, Flickr

Nothing Like the Real Thing

This bike-guarding “pooch” didn’t pass a reality check outside the Clark Pet Shop, 57 Clark St., Brooklyn Heights, this past weekend. Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Most New Yorkers do not like to share anything: be it money, time, information…or, especially, their taxi ride. The Share-a-Cab program (still in its beta phase) was yet another good idea, in a long list of good ideas, which might have looked good on paper but couldn’t fly in the real world.

In this day and outrage of snarled traffic and twisted nerves, NYC’s Share-A-Cab allows up to four passengers, charged $4 each, to share a taxi ride (car pool) from designated stands along three set routes. Thus far, the fledgling project hasn’t fared very well:

“The stands, marked by small yellow signs, were without cabbies and passengers alike. According to the authorities, only six shared trips took place.”

The inevitable communication breakdown occurred: Some people didn’t know where the designated stands were and/or (I would presume) what particular routes the cabs were set to take.

Dalbir Singh did not know where to go on Wednesday when he arrived at the corner of East 72nd Street and Third Avenue, seeking one of the Taxi and Limousine Commission’s new share-a-cab stands.

A sign at 72nd Street and Third Avenue explains the share-a-cab idea.

“I asked the T.L.C. officer, ‘Where is the taxi stand here?’ ” Mr. Singh said later, crossing Central Park in a yellow cab. “He said, ‘I don’t know, I’m looking for it too.’ ”

While group taxi rides are popular in cities such as Washington, D.C., they’re a curiosity bordering on mystification in free-for-all New York. Many years ago, while making an urgent delivery for my insurance firm, I was desperately searching for a cab along a crowded and stormy Broadway. Traffic was bumper-to-bumper and I hailed a nearby cab, thinking it was available through the blur of rain. It wasn’t; but the very attractive passenger signaled me to join her, marking the first and only time I shared a cab ride. The passenger turned out to be Shari Belafonte, who was extremely pleasant to chat with as we rode along; but life is usually surprising and generally mystifying in this city.

NY Times

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Hey Jude Times Square Subway Station from 39forks on Vimeo.

Video: “Hey Jude” Subway Sing-a-long

Reader Scott caught this moment on tape at around 10:30 last night in the Times Square subway station—it’s sort of similar to the “Hey Jude” sing-a-long that went down during the Newark kissing bandit/security breach episode. Maybe the Beatles song is the official theme of delays?  Gothamist

Personally, I believe that it’s every person’s God-given right (indeed, their duty!) to go as absolutely nuts as they possible can. In fact, this may very well be what keeps everyone relatively sane.

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William Jay Gaynor served as Mayor of New York City from 1910 to 1913. He is among this city’s plethora of former mayors who are now mostly forgotten, even though a bust of the mayor sits in Cadman Plaza. In his day, his brief yet impressive term was notable for unprecedented reform; an initial set of measures to undermine Tammany Hall’s grip on city politics. Nevertheless, Gaynor’s mayoralty would have been entirely forgotten if not for one incident: an assassination attempt that he would die from three years later.

Despite being tied to Tammany Hall, Gaynor broke with the political machine upon his election as mayor in 1910. He shocked his Democratic colleagues by hiring qualified over Tammany-generated employees. While gaining many admirers among average New Yorkers, he naturally gained many enemies…not only among Tammany Hall bigwigs but also among workers who benefited from their patronage system. One of these workers was a man by the name of James J. Gallagher.

Shortly after his election, while Gaynor was vacationing on-board the SS Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse, Gallagher shot the mayor. The bullet ripped through the back of his neck; a photographer for the New York World caught the incident on film (above photo). “He took away my bread and meat. I had to do it. Really, James?”  shouted Gallagher as police led him away. Gaynor recovered from his injuries but the bullet remained lodged in his throat.

Gaynor’s near-death experience, together with his reformist actions and affable personality, allowed his popularity to skyrocket. Many of his supporters wanted to run him for president, nominating him as an Independent since (of course) his tenure with Tammany was finished. Unfortunately, on September 14, 1913, Gaynor boarded yet another ocean liner, the SS Baltic, for yet another vacation at sea. He was found dead in a deck chair six days later, having finally succumbed to his injuries. Gallagher, the mayor’s would-be assassin, died a few months earlier in an insane asylum.

Galapagos Arts Space Presents “‘Swingin’ At Jack’s’”

BROOKLYN — The year is 1947 and Jack’s gin joint is the hottest place in town. The saucy French maitre-d orders you to take your seat as the flirty cigarette girls try to sell you a jujubee along with your cigarette. {read more} Brooklyn Daily Eagle