In summary, some observations of NYC.
-NOISE: Airplanes, helicopters (the flight path from lower Manhattan to East Hampton follows our street, St. Marks Ave. with the 32 min. flight costing $795 unless you have a commuter pass for $295), sirens, compressors, honking horns, trains (subterranean & elevated), people & their dogs…
- Plastic refuse; the trash & recycling are in plastic bags plus there’s plastic floating around the streets
-We didn’t see a Tesla until our 9th day in NYC as opposed to here in the Bay Area where they are a dime a dozen. About the same time we saw a Polestar. Never saw another Tesla nor Polestar. Some Prius’ (Pri - The Toyota approved Latin plural) are used as taxis. The other day I spotted 4 Pri clustered together on a residential block in Berkeley.
-Many more bicycles than ever before. There were many Dutch style bikes with front carriers, cargo bikes, & e- bikes. The infrastructure for them, begun under Bloomberg’s tenure, continues to improve but there are still too many bicycle deaths. The delivery guys on e bikes (& not pedal assist) were numerous, often ridden illegally on sidewalks, the wrong way on streets, & where with no lights or exceptionally bright lights at night. In any case, pedestrians beware. Also, the rides had to be wary as many of their bikes are being stolen from them as they’re being ridden.
-More dogs & dog poop to be cautious of. Plus, many owners appeared to be incapable of controlling their pets. One woman struggled to untangle herself from the dog’s leash while the dog was jumping on another dog, etc.
-New Yorkers still tend to be inconsiderate with an “I don’t care about you attitude” (see trucks with school bus below). This 1954 scene of NYC from Amor Towles The Lincoln Highway captured the feeling, “He’d been ignored by the commuters on the subway trains, by the pedestrians on the sidewalks…chalking it up to the inimicality of city life.”
We felt a thawing. One day as we were walking in Clinton Hill, we were passed by a woman who said “Good morning!” That was unheard of a few years ago. Or, there was even reciprocation of greetings. We also were showered with many thanks you’s & excuse me’s. All of this was most delightful to experience in NYC. And, people were considerate, with space & mask wearing in this time of COVID 19.
-Not as many for lease signs as we expected but plenty of signs for workers wanted. Encouraging were the number of businesses we recalled from previous visits that were still in operation. Restaurants were busy. I don’t know what will happen with it gets colder & the parklets become uncomfortable as Mayor de Blasio is not allowing propane heaters in them. You do need to show proof of vaccination to eat indoors. We were asked the one time we did eat indoors. We were the only patrons in the cafe.
-A lot of construction; new & repairs everywhere. The skylines of Manhattan & Brooklyn had changed a lot in our almost two year absence. Pencil-thin skyscrapers had taken over.
-The diversity that we saw everywhere was heartening; biracial families, people of different genders, ages, races & ethnicities interacting seamlessly.
-We relished taking prolonged showers & sometimes two a day. We know we’d be returning to drought stricken Marin County.
