“Never look down on anyone, unless you’re giving them a hand to get up.”
Monday, October 27, 2008
Pete Hamill, an Old-Time New Yorker
Our journalism class chatted with journalist and author Pete Hamill recently. Hamill was like that crazy old uncle everyone has - to announce his presence, he poked his head into the classroom to say, “I’m eating a cheese danish. Give me 15 minutes” - you know the type: the one with the amazing stories who you could listen to for hours.
He wrote Downtown: My Manhattan, which we read in class, and talked to us about his life, his writing career, and what went into his book. He’s covered New York City longer than my parents have been alive, so his memories in the Big Apple are incomparable. Who else can say they lived down the block from Jimi Hendrix or used to hear Thelonius Monk play a set at the corner bar?
Hamill’s musings in Downtown have a certain lyrical quality to them. They're a bundle of emotions and experiences and poetry. He confirmed that idea during his visit, and said he always asks himself as he writes, “What’s the music of this piece? What’s the beat?”
It was fascinating to hear that he still hand-writes parts of his books: he uses a yellow legal pad to pen down his initial thoughts, and then fleshes them out on the computer. He also said that the best way to get to know a place is by foot. Even though he’s 73 years old, he takes a walk every day, finding new marvels in a city he’s known all his life.
Hamill is old enough to remember life before the Twin Towers were even built, so I was interested to hear what he thought about life after the towers were destroyed. Since the Freedom Tower is an issue on everybody’s minds down here, I asked him about that. He said that it wasn’t the worst idea in the world, but with the economic crisis it didn’t look like it was going to happen anytime soon.
He also had a suggestion for Ground Zero re-developers: “I always thought they’d be better off with a park – a place for kids to learn how to play stickball. You could have one tree from every country that lost people in 9/11. That would give it some sense of privacy, some place where old guys can read Yeats and kids can learn to hit spaldeens.”
He wrote Downtown: My Manhattan, which we read in class, and talked to us about his life, his writing career, and what went into his book. He’s covered New York City longer than my parents have been alive, so his memories in the Big Apple are incomparable. Who else can say they lived down the block from Jimi Hendrix or used to hear Thelonius Monk play a set at the corner bar?
Hamill’s musings in Downtown have a certain lyrical quality to them. They're a bundle of emotions and experiences and poetry. He confirmed that idea during his visit, and said he always asks himself as he writes, “What’s the music of this piece? What’s the beat?”
It was fascinating to hear that he still hand-writes parts of his books: he uses a yellow legal pad to pen down his initial thoughts, and then fleshes them out on the computer. He also said that the best way to get to know a place is by foot. Even though he’s 73 years old, he takes a walk every day, finding new marvels in a city he’s known all his life.
Hamill is old enough to remember life before the Twin Towers were even built, so I was interested to hear what he thought about life after the towers were destroyed. Since the Freedom Tower is an issue on everybody’s minds down here, I asked him about that. He said that it wasn’t the worst idea in the world, but with the economic crisis it didn’t look like it was going to happen anytime soon.
He also had a suggestion for Ground Zero re-developers: “I always thought they’d be better off with a park – a place for kids to learn how to play stickball. You could have one tree from every country that lost people in 9/11. That would give it some sense of privacy, some place where old guys can read Yeats and kids can learn to hit spaldeens.”
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Around the Neighborhood
There's a bunch of free stuff going on in the area in the next few weeks:
Fritz Scholder's “American Portrait No. 46,” on display at the National Museum of the American Indian
On Nov. 1, the National Museum of the American Indian celebrates El día de los muertos (Day of the Dead), an indigenous Mexican holiday after Halloween, with dance performances, art installations, and the holiday’s staple treat, sugar skulls. The museum also debuts painter Fritz Scholder’s exhibit Indian/Not Indian that day.
You can catch the New York Scandia Symphony for free too (a $2 donation is suggested). Conductor Dorrit Matson will lead the strings ensemble in pieces by Grieg, Roman, and Wagenseil, as well as in the U.S. premiere of Andrew Ackers’ Pastoral Peace. Check it out on Nov. 6 on the corner of Broadway and Wall Street.
Also on Nov. 6: The AKO Gallery in the Seaport is holding a poetry reading and exhibit reception. Poet J.M. Barnes will be on hand to read his “Villa lovis,” the inaugural publication of the recently launched Tennyson Press. And the library’s always a good place to find free events. The New Amsterdam Branch of the NYPL (on Murray Street) is screening the Marilyn Monroe and Tony Curtis classic “Some Like It Hot” on Nov. 12.
Though it’s not free, the Seaport’s Halloween celebration should be a fun time. Anyone can tour a haunted house, but you can tour the haunted USS Peking, “the Ship of the Dead.” Tickets are $15-20, but it’s not a bad price to pay for a good scare.
And because I’ve always got food on the brain, here’s a quick restaurant update:
As I reported earlier, Todd English’s Libertine opened a few weeks ago on Gold Street, but reviewers from the New York Daily News were not impressed.
MSNBC.com reports on the difficulty of opening a restaurant during these trying economic times, and talks to Australian restauranteur Shaun Hergatt about his slated opening for SHO Shaun Hergatt at the end of the year. Hergatt’s chic restaurant will be in The Setai New York building on Broad Street, and will most likely be upscale. Hopefully the economy will have rebounded by then, though Hergatt mentions in the MSNBC article that he’s looking into less expensive menu options. I’ll keep you posted as more details come out!
Fritz Scholder's “American Portrait No. 46,” on display at the National Museum of the American IndianOn Nov. 1, the National Museum of the American Indian celebrates El día de los muertos (Day of the Dead), an indigenous Mexican holiday after Halloween, with dance performances, art installations, and the holiday’s staple treat, sugar skulls. The museum also debuts painter Fritz Scholder’s exhibit Indian/Not Indian that day.
You can catch the New York Scandia Symphony for free too (a $2 donation is suggested). Conductor Dorrit Matson will lead the strings ensemble in pieces by Grieg, Roman, and Wagenseil, as well as in the U.S. premiere of Andrew Ackers’ Pastoral Peace. Check it out on Nov. 6 on the corner of Broadway and Wall Street.
Also on Nov. 6: The AKO Gallery in the Seaport is holding a poetry reading and exhibit reception. Poet J.M. Barnes will be on hand to read his “Villa lovis,” the inaugural publication of the recently launched Tennyson Press. And the library’s always a good place to find free events. The New Amsterdam Branch of the NYPL (on Murray Street) is screening the Marilyn Monroe and Tony Curtis classic “Some Like It Hot” on Nov. 12.
Though it’s not free, the Seaport’s Halloween celebration should be a fun time. Anyone can tour a haunted house, but you can tour the haunted USS Peking, “the Ship of the Dead.” Tickets are $15-20, but it’s not a bad price to pay for a good scare.
And because I’ve always got food on the brain, here’s a quick restaurant update:
As I reported earlier, Todd English’s Libertine opened a few weeks ago on Gold Street, but reviewers from the New York Daily News were not impressed.
MSNBC.com reports on the difficulty of opening a restaurant during these trying economic times, and talks to Australian restauranteur Shaun Hergatt about his slated opening for SHO Shaun Hergatt at the end of the year. Hergatt’s chic restaurant will be in The Setai New York building on Broad Street, and will most likely be upscale. Hopefully the economy will have rebounded by then, though Hergatt mentions in the MSNBC article that he’s looking into less expensive menu options. I’ll keep you posted as more details come out!
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Meet Asma Mohamed, A Local Street Vendor
Asma Mohamed has never complained about running her halal vendor business. The hours spent standing in the rain, cold, or extreme summer heat were hard, but the 20-year-old didn’t mind.
That changed in August, when Mohamed gave birth to a daughter. Try operating a food cart with a baby in your arms!
Mohamed manages three food carts in the Financial District. She operates one of the carts from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. four days a week, and supervises all three when she is not vending. Maryam, born only 43 days ago, stays with a babysitter sometimes, but it is common to see Mohamed carrying a pink bundle in her arms as she oversees her business.
“It’s too hard with the baby, but what can I do?” she said. “We need the money.”
“We’re Arabic,” she said. “Nobody stopped.”
Business has since improved. A stream of regular customers chat with Mohamed in Arabic and smile at her sleeping baby.
“All the people here like me,” she said with a laugh. “All the customers know me now. There’s lots of business.”
She passes the long hours joking around with customers and her three employees, who are mostly friends of friends.
Ataf Ali runs Mohamed’s cart when she supervises the other employees. The 25-year-old juggles college courses at LaGuardia Community College in Queens.
“She calls me, and whenever I have a chance, I come in,” Ali said. “She’s the wife of my friend, so I work when I can.”
His cart is on the corner of Broadway and Cedar St., next to Mohamed’s larger halal cart. Mohamed also has a smaller stand on Broadway and Liberty St. The carts sell anything from pretzels to hot dogs to bottled water, but Mohamed’s favorite is halal chicken with rice, the business’s top seller.
“All the business gets f---ed up in the winter,” she said. “When the rain comes, nobody stops. In the snow, nobody stays in the street.”
Usually Mohamed returns to Egypt in December. This year, because of the newborn, she will pass the season in her New Jersey apartment.
“It’s too hard for me with the work and the baby,” she said with a small smile. “[Hopefully] I make time for the baby.”
That changed in August, when Mohamed gave birth to a daughter. Try operating a food cart with a baby in your arms!
Mohamed manages three food carts in the Financial District. She operates one of the carts from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. four days a week, and supervises all three when she is not vending. Maryam, born only 43 days ago, stays with a babysitter sometimes, but it is common to see Mohamed carrying a pink bundle in her arms as she oversees her business.
“It’s too hard with the baby, but what can I do?” she said. “We need the money.”
***
After 9/11, Mohamed’s father left New York to return to their native Egypt, and Mohamed and her husband Saif, 40, took charge of the family’s food cart business. It was rough. There was little street traffic by Wall St. and customers were wary of Mohamed’s ethnicity, even though she emigrated from Egypt at age 10 and graduated from high school in Queens.“We’re Arabic,” she said. “Nobody stopped.”
Business has since improved. A stream of regular customers chat with Mohamed in Arabic and smile at her sleeping baby.
“All the people here like me,” she said with a laugh. “All the customers know me now. There’s lots of business.”
She passes the long hours joking around with customers and her three employees, who are mostly friends of friends.
Ataf Ali runs Mohamed’s cart when she supervises the other employees. The 25-year-old juggles college courses at LaGuardia Community College in Queens.
“She calls me, and whenever I have a chance, I come in,” Ali said. “She’s the wife of my friend, so I work when I can.”
His cart is on the corner of Broadway and Cedar St., next to Mohamed’s larger halal cart. Mohamed also has a smaller stand on Broadway and Liberty St. The carts sell anything from pretzels to hot dogs to bottled water, but Mohamed’s favorite is halal chicken with rice, the business’s top seller.
***
As we talk, a wind gust ruffles Mohamed’s headscarf, a reminder that the weather will turn cold soon. She frowns.“All the business gets f---ed up in the winter,” she said. “When the rain comes, nobody stops. In the snow, nobody stays in the street.”
Usually Mohamed returns to Egypt in December. This year, because of the newborn, she will pass the season in her New Jersey apartment.
“It’s too hard for me with the work and the baby,” she said with a small smile. “[Hopefully] I make time for the baby.”
Chatting with Sean Basinski, founder of the Street Vendor Project
As the thermometer takes a turn south, you’ll notice that the streets get a little less crowded. Asma Mohamed’s halal cart is not the only one that disappears: There are fewer t-shirt vendors crowding the
Where do the street vendors, so omnipresent during warmer times, go during the “off-season,” the bitter
To find out more, my journalism class chatted with Sean Basinski, the founder and director of the Street Vendor Project, an organization that advocates for street vendors across the city. Basinski, 36, described the Project as a union of sorts: independent individuals using collective action to take on their adversary, namely the New York City government.
He said that though the cold might force vendors to close for a few months, the city presents a litany of other problems.
Vendors face issues with permits, with the police, or with policies that limit where they can set up shop. Basinski said that the Project helps vendors realize their rights, because often vendors do not understand that the city is taking advantage of them.
“We envision some of what we do as opening vendors’ eyes to problems that they can’t see because they’re so in the middle of things,” he said.
The biggest thing that the Project focuses on is giving vendors a voice. Its goal is to get vendor customers involved as well. Anything as small as a letter or a signature on a petition could help countless people, and let’s not lie: You need that 50-cent cup of coffee. Check out the website at streetvendor.org, and visit the Project’s offices if you get a chance. They’re located right in the neighborhood, at
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
So much to do...
The Waterfalls exhibit on the East River ends soonThe culture calendar is stacked the next few weeks:
A few summer holdovers end soon. The Waterfalls exhibit along the East River goes down for good Oct. 13. The fall weather is perfect for a stroll along the river, so check out one of the city’s largest public arts initiatives before it’s too late.
Speigelworld, the traveling party currently in the Seaport, features performances, live music, cocktails, a restaurant, and Tuesday and Thursday night DJ sessions. It ends Nov. 2, so party under the stars before it gets too cold!
A few exhibits debuted at local museums this week. The Museum of Jewish Heritage opened “Woman of Letters: Irène Némirovsky and Suite Française” on Sept. 24. The exhibit examines the life of the Russian-born Jewish author, who was deported to Auschwitz in July of 1942 and died a month later, leaving her only novel unfinished.
The National Museum of the American Indian celebrates Mexico with a film series that started yesterday, and runs until Oct. 28. There are daily screenings of the short films that focus on the indigenous experience in Mexico. The museum also hosts a Traditional Dance Social, featuring the Thunderbird Indian Dancers and Singers, on Oct. 18.
The Lowdown
Here's a rundown of what's going on in the neighborhood:
Obviously the recent financial crisis is wreaking havoc on the neighborhood. With lots of companies downsizing, if not going under completely, there’s a lot of empty office space and no demand for more growth, which is bad news for FiDi development.
Over at Ground Zero, Port Authority officials signed a security contract for the Freedom Tower for a jaw-dropping $20 million. The security system will reportedly include a video analytics system that can “detect abnormal situations,” whatever that means.
Not everyone is feeling the effects of the plummeting economy though. A penthouse in the luxury condominium building The Setai, New York sold for a record-setting $7.82 million. The most expensive single unit in the Financial District is about 3500 square feet, and has three bedrooms and three-and-a-half baths.
Also undaunted by economic woes? Restaurateur and celebrity chef Todd English, of “Cooking with Todd English” fame. English opened Libertine at the Gild Hall Hotel last week. The restaurant serves haute American cuisine with, according to martiniboys.com, a seriously Anglophile vibe. The Libertine doesn't have a website yet, but I'll keep you posted!
And in completely unrelated news, ABC’s hit show “Ugly Betty” premiered its third season last week. It’s the first time the Manhattan- and Queens-based show has filmed in the city. The Woolworth Building is the stand-in for the fictional “Mode” magazine’s offices, so expect to see camera crews crowd the Wall Street area.
Obviously the recent financial crisis is wreaking havoc on the neighborhood. With lots of companies downsizing, if not going under completely, there’s a lot of empty office space and no demand for more growth, which is bad news for FiDi development.
Over at Ground Zero, Port Authority officials signed a security contract for the Freedom Tower for a jaw-dropping $20 million. The security system will reportedly include a video analytics system that can “detect abnormal situations,” whatever that means.
Not everyone is feeling the effects of the plummeting economy though. A penthouse in the luxury condominium building The Setai, New York sold for a record-setting $7.82 million. The most expensive single unit in the Financial District is about 3500 square feet, and has three bedrooms and three-and-a-half baths.
Also undaunted by economic woes? Restaurateur and celebrity chef Todd English, of “Cooking with Todd English” fame. English opened Libertine at the Gild Hall Hotel last week. The restaurant serves haute American cuisine with, according to martiniboys.com, a seriously Anglophile vibe. The Libertine doesn't have a website yet, but I'll keep you posted!
And in completely unrelated news, ABC’s hit show “Ugly Betty” premiered its third season last week. It’s the first time the Manhattan- and Queens-based show has filmed in the city. The Woolworth Building is the stand-in for the fictional “Mode” magazine’s offices, so expect to see camera crews crowd the Wall Street area.
The Neighborhood
We might not be tourists, but we wanted a picture in front of the Charging Bull too!That might have been true a few years ago, but
Lower Manhattan is the oldest part of
Though close to four centuries have passed since the Dutch first arrived, they've left footprints all over the neighborhood. Take
Tourists also flock to this area that is so often ignored by
They flock to the New York Stock Exchange and Federal Hall, crowding the Grecian columns where George Washington was inaugurated in 1789. They peruse through the “I Love NY” T-shirts and caps that vendors proudly hawk in front of
New apartment buildings and restaurants open daily. Probably the biggest indicator of the changing neighborhood is the rumor that Whole Foods might open a store on Broad Street.
There is much more to the Financial District than finance. Sure, money is its backbone, but there is so much more to this area than that. Here, there is tourism, there is housing, there is history.
About Me...
The Financial District gets a bad rap among young people. Sure, most places close at 6 p.m. and it’s hard to find fun, young places to go to down here at the tip of Manhattan. But there’s a lot more to Wall Street than meets the eye. I’m using this blog space to find and explore those places. I’m sure they exist somewhere!
I’m a senior at NYU, and a Journalism and Spanish major. I just spent the spring studying abroad in Madrid, which got me really into traveling. And I love food, so there will probably be a lot of restaurant and café chatter. There’s nothing better than a strong cappuccino and a good book on a Saturday afternoon, so I’ll be looking out for good coffee down here. I’m also big on shopping, so you can expect to see a lot about that too. I’m on a limited budget, but I think the best part of living in New York City is finding those offbeat stores that sell weird things.
My biggest goal with this blog is to show that the Financial District is a lot more than offices and business people - there’s a lot going on down here! Lower Manhattan was the site of the original Dutch settlement in the seventeenth century, and there’s a lot of history among the high-rise office buildings. This blog is an exploration into one of the city’s more overlooked neighborhoods, one that is dynamic and rapidly changing.
I’m a senior at NYU, and a Journalism and Spanish major. I just spent the spring studying abroad in Madrid, which got me really into traveling. And I love food, so there will probably be a lot of restaurant and café chatter. There’s nothing better than a strong cappuccino and a good book on a Saturday afternoon, so I’ll be looking out for good coffee down here. I’m also big on shopping, so you can expect to see a lot about that too. I’m on a limited budget, but I think the best part of living in New York City is finding those offbeat stores that sell weird things.
My biggest goal with this blog is to show that the Financial District is a lot more than offices and business people - there’s a lot going on down here! Lower Manhattan was the site of the original Dutch settlement in the seventeenth century, and there’s a lot of history among the high-rise office buildings. This blog is an exploration into one of the city’s more overlooked neighborhoods, one that is dynamic and rapidly changing.
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