[SSR] - Pilgrimage to NYC

[charlie55]

I'm on vacation this week, so I took the day to travel to lower Manhattan to visit some of my old co-workers. It was very gratifying to see the number and variety of scooters down in the financial district, although the city deserves a failing mark when it comes to providing adequate parking spaces for them. The previous and current city administrations are always howling about traffic congestion, but it's obvious that they'd rather generate ticket revenue than actually try to foster some real solutions.

I was able to see the new Freedom Tower for the first time, and the thing is gorgeous. Unfortunately, the area around it has become less than hallowed ground, with WTC gift/souvenir shops and street hawkers all over the place.

To add to the entertainment, some loon with a busted mainspring latched onto me at Newark Penn Station and started rambling how "all these teenage boys wear T-shirts that only surfers have the right to own". We engaged in some pleasant conversation about remote mind control, talking lamp posts, and how pay phones were a plot to sterilize people. Harmless enough, but I gotta remember to pack thorazine-tipped darts and a blowgun next time I hit the city.

[Drum Pro]

I'm sorry but that story makes me think a lot of people in NYC are just crazy...Even though I know this is not the case, but wow!!!

[neotrotsky]

I used to work in Manhattan but lived in Brooklyn (yeah, I know... HATED the commute!). To this day, I wish I could of remained there! Aside from the draconian anti-gun laws, the city was AWESOME! Great energy, amazing people (both good and bad) and just a great place to be. I had a good job that didn't pay so well but I enjoyed it and my time there. There's just something to NYC. You either love it or hate it. There is no real middle ground.

[BootScootin'FireFighter]

Unfortunately, the area around it has become less than hallowed ground, with WTC gift/souvenir shops and street hawkers all over the place.

That's a real shame. The city should have an ordinance against street merchants within 1/2 mile of that site. I liked the scene of Rescue Me, first episode of season 2. Tommy Gavin goes on a drunken rampage on one of the those merchants selling WTC cookies. It's quite comical how he gets his point across, until he starts urinating on the tables and gets arrested.

Ground Zero is a sacred place, not a place to support junk merchants. Take a picture if you'd like, but remember how many people died there. Treat it like you would a National Battlefield.

Anyway Charlie, glad you enjoyed the city. It looks like a lot of fun, but you're right about the administration not doing enough to embrace and encourage alternative forms of transport. I still can't understand how DC got the first major bikeshare network in America, modeled after Paris. I thought for sure it would flounder and sink, but it's taking off better then most planners imagined. NYC needs to get with the program with cycling and motorcycles.

[charlie55]

The biggest problem I have with the city is that it's not the city of my youth. Weird as it may sound, I miss the grungy, seemy side of it. All of the buildings in which I worked have been turned into condos, and all of the greasy spoons I used to frequent now have names I can't pronounce and prices I can't afford.

Then there's that sugary-sweet abomination called Times Square. All of the color and pizzazz of gritty street life has been replaced by what Jimmy Breslin would call "f*ckin' DisneyLand". Mary Poppins? The Lion King? Pretty soon they'll need to sell insulin at the frankfurter stands (if you can even find one anymore).

Worst of all was when I took the kids to Brooklyn to see where I grew up. Turned down the block where I lived for 25 years only to find that all of the houses had been bulldozed for a project that, as it turns out, never was built. Would loved to have been able to get my hands around that bastard developer's throat and kept squeezing until I saw his lights go out for good.

[KABarash]

I was able to see the new Freedom Tower for the first time, and the thing is gorgeous.

Glad to hear this

Unfortunately, the area around it has become less than hallowed ground, with WTC gift/souvenir shops and street hawkers all over the place.

What a damned shame......
My father had his office on the 105th floor of the south tower from 1973 till 1988 when he passed away. I lost several still very close friends that Tuesday in September, one in particular from High School with whom I was re-kindling a very special relationship.
All these years have passed (not that many really) and I have still yet not been able to go back.
Would I go and see this 'carnival' like atmosphere I'd probably get physically ill........

[charlie55]

I was able to see the new Freedom Tower for the first time, and the thing is gorgeous.

Glad to hear this

Unfortunately, the area around it has become less than hallowed ground, with WTC gift/souvenir shops and street hawkers all over the place.

What a damned shame......
My father had his office on the 105th floor of the south tower from 1973 till 1988 when he passed away. I lost several still very close friends that Tuesday in September, one in particular from High School with whom I was re-kindling a very special relationship.
All these years have passed (not that many really) and I have still yet not been able to go back.
Would I go and see this 'carnival' like atmosphere I'd probably get physically ill........

I know exactly what you mean. I worked in lower Manhattan for 20 years, and was in the WTC very often. Even got to see Phillipe Petit do his high-wire thing back in '74.

My first post 9/11 visit to the area was after they had cleared the rubble, and the sight of the pit made me sick to my stomach. For years thereafter, the Staten Island landfill had an area where all of the destroyed police, fire, and emergency vehicles were held. Made you want to cry every time you passed it.

In a way, it's regrettable that UBL's payback was comparatively quick and painless. I would have preferred to have him taken to the top of the new tower, doused with gas, torched, and tossed off on New Year's Eve.