What is the future of New York City?
Cross-post from our sister publication The New York Times.
Every once in a while I’ll come across a title of an article that is better than the article itself, sometimes even on this very website. The book jacket is just better than the book. I’ve actually met a few people like this too, and after marveling at the beauty of the jacket and renewing the book a few times, I’ll come to the odd realization that the jacket may have atrophied the contents of the book.
With that complete digression I’d like to present you with an article I just read in the New York Times called New York Is Dead. Long Live New York. The title is very good and the content is kind of good. It basically posits five possible futures for New York: (i) a bankrupt, dirty ghost town; (ii) a progressive utopia; (iii) a party city; (iv) a concrete tech haven à la Silicon Valley; and (v) basically what it was before.
Chelsea resident Michael Musto offers some fun thoughts on option (iii):
“People will practically be mating in the streets,” said Michael Musto, the longtime nightlife columnist for the Village Voice, now back in quarterly form. “Fueling all that, cunning entrepreneurs will swoop into all the empty storefronts to reinvent them as dance clubs and other pleasure palaces.”
“People might even look up from their phones,” he added.
New York’s swingers clubs are already gearing up. Snctm, a members-only club, returns this month with erotic masquerades that recall the haute orgy scenes in “Eyes Wide Shut.” Killing Kittens, a London-based members-only club that throws lavish fem-dom erotic parties, returns later this spring, and the club’s founder, Emma Sayle, thinks that pent-up passions, along with more acceptance for non-monogamy and polyamory, will lay the groundwork for next-level indulgence. “As far as we’re concerned,” she said, “it’s go big or go home.”
The truth is probably somewhere in the middle, though I should say I have no real sense of what and where the poles are. Whatever it was, whatever it is now, whatever it will be in the future, long live New York.
An exhibit featuring paintings of NYC community gardens is currently on display at Ceres Gallery, between 27th Street & 10th Avenue.
Some things were just meant to be, my friends.
Above: “October Harvest” and “Bird’s-Eye View of Brooklyn Grange-Future” by Elizabeth Downer Riker.
I’m not much of a believer in fate or anything adjacent to it, but I suppose sometimes God or whoever is up there just feels like testing me. Currently on display at Ceres Gallery, on 27th Street between 10th & 11th Avenues, is a collection of paintings of NYC community and rooftop gardens by artist Elizabeth Downer Riker. I reached out to Elizabeth last week and informed her of our own serendipitous efforts to build a community garden at the vacant lot on 29th Street & 10th Avenue. She is rooting us on.
The New York Times uncharacteristically beat us to the punch in reporting on this: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/26/dining/elizabeth-downer-riker-urban-farming.html. Thanks to Susan Numeroff (as usual) for sending me the article.
Ceres Gallery is open on Tuesday-Saturday from 12-6pm, and this exhibit will be on display through May 22. I’ll probably stop by this Saturday to see it, because some things were just meant to be.
Alligators and the importance of how you say it.
Maybe love is cheaper than war, but still.
One thing I think we all learn relatively early on is that what you say can be just as important as how you say it. The sentence “I never said she stole my money” can, indeed, have seven different meanings based on what word you decide to emphasize.
And so it goes with “Love is cheaper than war.” If you say this to me in regular conversation, I will nod along agreeably while quietly wondering if you’ve been partaking in some activities that have recently been legalized in New York City. But if you spray paint it on the side of someone else’s tractor-trailer under a cracked-out alligator, and that someone else then parks his tractor-trailer outside of a pizza place on 28th and 10th, I will take a picture of it and think to myself that you may not be that cool of a guy. “I mean, really, dude?” said both me and the driver, I assume, after walking out with our pizza. So it goes, so it goes.
Minnie the cat lives at Pet Central on 23rd Street & 7th Avenue.
Finally, a cat on the front page.
One thing that has bothered me since starting this block association is the absence of cats on our front page. We have a whole set of Dogs of the Day at this point—if you’re new around here, allow me to introduce you to Macchia the Dalmation, Bosco the Mini Australian Shepherd, Jackson the Portuguese Water Dog, and Winston the Brown and White Dog. But no cats. Do you even exist on the internet if your page doesn’t have any cats?
That brings me to Pet Central on 23rd Street and 7th Avenue. On a recent late night walk around the city, I wandered across Pet Central, which is a small Manhattan chain that sells what it sounds like it sells, and I saw this cat in the window staring and then stretching back at me. I did a little bit of digging, and apparently her name is Minnie and she lives at Pet Central.
So Minnie is our inaugural Cat of the Day, and you are perfectly free to send in other Cats of the Day. Also, because our residence and species requirements are extremely lax, I’ve made the executive decision to add Minnie to our membership rolls.
What the hell is fly fishing?
Whatever it is, it’s filming on our block on May 3.
Fly fishing falls squarely into the category of things that (i) I’ve heard of before, but (ii) don’t really know what they mean. Given, however, that something called “Fly Fishing” is going to be filming on our block on May 3, I did a little research into it and here is what I’ve learned:
Regular fishing basically uses a rod, a relatively weightless line, some sort of bait like a worm, and a “sinker” or weight near bait. The weight of the sinker is what allows you to cast the bait and hook out into the water.
Fly fishing does not use an actual fly as bait, dork. It uses a rod, a weighted line (sort of like a heavy rope at the gym, I gather), some sort of artificial “fly” (made out of feathers or something that imitates an insect), and no sinker or weight near the hook. Because there is no weight at the end of the line, you sort of chop the fishing pole in a tomahawk-like motion to fling the “fly” away from you and out into the water.
Importantly, because there is no sinker on the end of the line, the bait doesn’t sink, and you can catch fish like trout that swim on the top of the water.
So why on earth would anything involving this slightly altered form of fishing be filming on our block? I’m not exactly sure, but I think that the shoot is associated with the “Fly Fishing Film Tour,” which is basically a collection of 10 or so fly fishing-related short films that are produced on a yearly basis by a small film company in Boulder, Colorado. The films tell true, up-lifting stories about fly fishing from around the world. You can see the winner of the 2019 Tour here (it’s only 12 minutes long): THE MIDNIGHT MISSION - Award Winning Short Film - YouTube.
Perhaps the 2022 Fly Fishing Film Tour will feature gratuitous shots of fly fishing on the Hudson. If so, we’ll organize a fly fishing event in 2023.
Back to the rat problem.
Still talking about the area on 28th Street between 10th & 11th Avenues.
Last week I posted about the rat problem on 28th Street between 9th & 10th Avenues (Should we just go ahead and solve NYC’s rat problem? — High Line 28 Block Association). As I said then, I raised the problem with Susan Numeroff, who is the president of the West 400 Block Association, which is a few streets below us in Chelsea. Susan in turn raised the problem with the NYC Health Department in the context of planning a virtual “Rat Academy” training for both her and our block associations. That training was put on yesterday by the Health Department and was designed to teach residents and property owners about rat prevention methods.
During the training, the Health Department put on screen the above “Block Summary Report” for Block 726, which is Chelsea Park. It basically says that the Health Department has treated the Chelsea Park block three times for the rats, with the last time being on January 15, 2021. Additionally, the presenter of the training, Martha Morales, informed us that our problem has been forwarded up the chain to the Health Department supervisor for our area. I’ll post any further updates here.
Neighbor wants to start a group that discusses investments, markets, etc.
As if you weren’t rich and famous enough already.
The below is from a block resident named Lauren. I think we could get in-person discussions and a group chat going here:
Hey folks, I'm a resident of the block that's interested in investing in the stock market and wanted to reach out and see if there were others in the community who would also be interested in having a lively discussion over coffee, breakfast, brunch, lunch, snacks, dinner or second dinner, comparing notes and ideas about the general market outlook, industries and companies that folks are investing into. Maybe we could also dabble into a risky conversation about cryptocurrency as well if there's any interest in that area!
If any interest, please direct all communications to Brian! :) [Ed. note: You can text me at 585-200-2535 if you’re interested]
Should we just go ahead and solve NYC’s rat problem?
Pictured: 28th Street between 9th and 10th Avenues (is particularly bad).
This new block association has started out with some rather ambitious projects, including trying to build a community garden out of the vacant lot on 29th Street and 10th Avenue. We need to continue raising the bar here, and so our next project will be to just go ahead and get rid of all the rats in New York City.
Not really, though perhaps we can play a small part in helping with the problem. I imagine most residents would agree that 28th Street between 9th and 10th Avenues is particularly bad with rats. I raised this issue with Susan Numeroff, the leader of the West 400 Street Block Association, and last week she sent an email to a contact at the NYC Health Department notifying them that the area, along with a few other Chelsea areas, is problematic.
Also, Susan has organized a Rat Academy Training for next Tuesday from 5-7pm that will teach us about rat prevention methods. It will be put on by the NYC Health Department. You can click the image above to register for the training, which will take place over video. I will be in attendance.
What happened to the city that never sleeps?
Marquee asking the important questions.
Marquee asking the important questions.
It’s been a while since I’ve been rhetorically challenged by a sign outside of a nightclub, but I’m generally up for a challenge no matter who or what is serving it. What really did happen to the city that never sleeps? Our investigation continues, though as far as my high-powered team of consultants and lawyers can tell so far, everyone just started staying in their apartments or leaving this place altogether about a year ago now.
The more important question is, I think, what are we going to do about it? I’m not going to say something bland and corporate like “we need to come together as a community,” but I can tell you that some of my recent days have been significantly improved by just randomly bumping into a few people I’ve met through this block association on the street. That experience can be yours as well. Stay tuned.
Season 3 of the HBO Series “Succession” is currently filming at The Shed.
All those trucks outside 28th Street between 10th & 11th Avenues are the actors’ dressing/makeup rooms.
Season 3 of “Succession” is currently shooting at The Shed, which is the reason for all those trucks on 28th Street. I haven’t seen the show myself, but I have definitely heard of it and it has a 92% on Rotten Tomatoes. I gather that it’s about a family which owns a major media company where the family members are all vying to take over for the aging family patriarch. The trailer for the first season looks really good, and it features gratuitous shots of NYC, which I am always, always a sucker for: Succession: Season 1 | Official Teaser | HBO - YouTube.
Interestingly, the little yellow signs outside the trailer doors correspond to the names of the characters in the show, not the names of the actors in real life. So, for example, one of the signs is for “Shiv,” and “Shiv Roy” is the daughter of the family patriarch (Shiv Roy | Succession Wiki | Fandom). The actress who plays “Shiv” is named Sarah Snook. I probably would have thought that Sarah Snook’s dressing room would say “Sarah” on it, but what do I know. I suppose this is where they get into character after all.