another anono TR

[BC]

Anono,

yeah politics sucks..

Hope you will at least let some of us know how your quest turns out.

[al-c]

It was with great interest that I read your writings about New York.  It was fascinating to see the place I call home from the perspective of somebody who is used to something very different, and it will be helpful to me to remember your writings when my eventual Russian wife gets here and is "shocked" by all the things I see and deal with and accept as normal, everyday life.

Presently, I am living in the suburbs to New York City, about 25 miles from the city line, and mass transit here is a joke.  Without a car, you are screwed, plain and simple.  It is hard to believe that just 25 miles to the west is the largest subway system in the world.

A musician (Ann Wilson from Heart, if anyone is familiar) wrote the following lines about New York City, which are so true:  "Neon-concrete jungle, devours the weak, the humble".

New York has a fast pace of life, blindingly fast at times.  And it does not slow down for anyone under any circumstances.  It is not a good place to be lost.

The JFK Air Train is quite good, state of the art in fact, but just like our subway, if you don't know it, you can get very lost, very fast.  There is an outer train and an inner train. The inner runs a loop around the airport, but the outer also connects with the Long Island Rail Road, which takes you to the part of NY where I live, and the Howard Beach A-Train station, which connects you with the New York City Subway system.  If you are going north of the city, you need to take the A Train and switch at Fulton Street to a northbound 4 or 5 train to get to Grand Central Station.  There you will find trains to go to upstate New York and Connecticut.  If you are going to New Jersey, stay on the A until you reach Penn Station, and then take a New Jersey Transit or Path train.

This is all very simple to those of us who deal with this all of the time, but for outsiders, it is a frightening and intimidating experience.

American food is garbage.  This New York boy could not agree more.  Fast food joints abound, with the horrible poison they call food, and restaurants fill their menus up with poison, too.  Just look at one the next time you are there:  Juicy burgers (a.k.a. cholesterol), juicy steak, fat-laden fries, heart attack on a plate everywhere you look.  No wonder we die at 70 and Russians make to to 95!  There have been times in Russia when I could not identify what I was eating, but I ate it with confidence, knowing that I was giving my body a break from the American poison I normally subject it to.
 
BTW here in the Northeast, we are pretty much insulated from the violent weather that plagues much of the U.S.  We are thousands of miles from tectonic fault lines, so the chance of a significant earthquake is almost zero.  We are a thousand miles from the tornado belt of the mid section of the country.  And most hurricanes, even though many of them take aim at the Northeast, fizzle out in the cold waters of the North Atlantic.

Heating costs are very substantial, frequently approaching $300 to $400 a month, but still small compared to rent and mortgage payments in a place where houses cost $500,000 and more.  New York is one of the most expensive places in the world to live, and if you want to live here, you just have to deal with it.

 

[groovlstk]

[user=527]al-c[/user] wrote:

A musician (Ann Wilson from Heart, if anyone is familiar) wrote the following lines about New York City, which are so true:  "Neon-concrete jungle, devours the weak, the humble".

New York has a fast pace of life, blindingly fast at times.  And it does not slow down for anyone under any circumstances.  It is not a good place to be lost.

 

NYC is a kinder, more mellow place than it was prior to 9/11. I never thought the good will would last more than a year or two, I always assumed that people would return to their pathologically selfish manners, but I'm very happy to see it hasn't happened.

Two events this past month stand out: One night, just after Thanksgiving, I was stuck on a cross-town bus at rush hour and traffic was even more miserable than usual. As we inched along, one of the passengers began singing "Jingle Bells" (normally it's safe to assume anyone who sings on a bus or subway is getting off at the Kooksville station) and soon everyone else joined in. They were still singing Christmas carols when I stepped off the bus 20 minutes later. I've never seen anything like it in NYC. 

Then, one night last week during the transit strike, some poor fellow tripped and fell on a big pile of plastic bags containing God-knows-what type of garbage. Immediately 4 people stopped and righted him, brushed him off, and asked if he was OK. That sort of thing didn't happen, before.

But sure, NYC is not somewhere you want to get lost!

 

 

 

[Shadow]

I have good memories of New York, it still is one of my favourite places, I was there last in 1999. The fast pace and all suited me fine. Finding my way around the Public transport system was no probem at all... it seemed all logical to me.

One day I might settle in my penthouse in Manhattan....after I become the second immigrant President (after Arnold Schwarzenegger)

[al-c]

Well Mr. President, I thank you for the kind words about our great city.