Going Green

Pros vs. Cons? Seems like we have a lot of issues regarding public programs these days...

New York is going green, well as green as a city of this size can. This past Memorial weekend 2013 a bike share program was initiated. Join the program, get a key, and on your way. 

Public programs are always met with resistance and this one is no different particularly here. If you have experienced the streets of New York, the gridlock, the crowded sidewalks, the masses, it is important to see a government program try to bring relief. It is too early to tell if it is going to be successful because the streets here can be unforgiving. 

I like living here for the simple reason that I don’t need a car. I haven’t had a car in over 22 years. I don’t have to deal with parking, oil changes, and my only concern about the price of gas is regarding the toll it is taking on our society and earthly resources. Therefore, giving it a chance is my attitude. 

A walking tour is a specialty at One Token Tours. 

The Food Experience no. 3

Tomato & Lentil Soup w/ Samosas 

        When I first moved to New York, my mother said to me, she said, “Sean, I know that you will talk to a brick wall, I want you to go to dinner with a college classmate of mine that lives up there.” I said, “OK.” 

We made it a date. Being so new to ‘the city’ I said, “you choose,” thinking she would pick a burger joint or something simple until we were standing in the doorway of an Indian Restaurant. I was a little overwhelmed. 

Chicken Tikka Masala

We were seated immediately and I was handed a menu that I could not understand. It was at this moment that I had to have a little conversation with my 25 year old self and in my head, I said, “Sean, you are an adult now and you have to eat what is put before you.” 

Rebecca, my mothers classmate noticed that I was unfamiliar with the food. I said, “you’re going to have to order for me because I don’t know what this is and she said, “what do you like?” In a heavy southern accent I said, “chicken.” My Mom’s friend ordered everything with chicken; however, lamb is the protein for this cultural cuisine. 

Today, my neighbor Helga and I wondered into Little India not far from our apartment building here in the East Village because I had a craving for some Chicken Tikka Masala. It brought me back to that lovely moment and I remember those first dishes, they looked strange but my goodness were they good!

We enjoyed the lunch special that offered appetizers of Samosa, no not the champagne drink, Mimosa. A Samosa is a pastry filled with a light curry blend of vegetables or beef. The soup was a delicious surprise, a mildly spiced tomato, lentil puree. 

I think it is true that one must be brave to try new things and I thank my friend Rebecca for helping me along the way and my Mom too. Thanks Mom! 

Now, lets talk about the Chicken Tikka Masala, yum! It is a plate of velvet and Basmati rice. The cubes of chicken marinates in yogurt before being combined with tomato and exotic spices, the orange color is so intense. It is creamy heaven. If you like spicy go with a Vindaloo. Don’t discredit the Sag or Saag, depends on the region, it doesn’t look pretty but it sure is tasty. 

I love Indian Food and let me share with you they eat with there hands and they know how to sop it up, the breads are an integral part of each meal. Naan or poori two different breads that will not disappoint. 

Join me at One Token Tours and let’s try something new.  

New York is for Lovers

Grand Central Celebrates 100 Years

After Sandy, Finding the Hot Spot!

I have seen the future and this is what it looks like; a generator with a power strip. 

In the days following mega storm Sandy the northeast coastline continues to suffer with power outages, demolished real estate, and downed trees. We lost power in the East Village at the point of high tide on Monday evening, everything below 40th Street became what I coined as the ‘blackout zone.’

Since Katrina, forecasters here have been preparing for storm serge and high winds. Public officials papered the streets of New York with evacuation regions, the most significant, Zone A to B and C as warning of low-lying areas. Surveying the neighborhood, the waterfront was hit hard, lots of downed trees and the power station on the East River failed at around 9:00pm, I was cut off immediately from friends and family but I had my candles sitting ready. 

For the most part, I think a majority of New Yorkers carried on with great perseverance; however, with storms of this nature rare, there are those few that make a difficult situation worse. Compassion and curtesy are lost when common sense is disregarded and individuals cannot be bothered with inconvenience. 

In this new wireless, handheld society the demand for electricity is the new crisis when power fails and what I witnessed Day 1 of the aftermath, I call it, “The Great Outlet Migration.” 

I am not sure which word is more appropriate, covet or hoard, it is a matter of perspective as my neighbor along with hundreds of others made our daily pilgrimage to civilization, but once we reached the lighted zone, it was anything but civilized. Trying to find an unmanned outlet was like the proverbial ‘needle in a haystack.’ It was interesting to see forward thinkers carry power strips because they have multiple devices that require juice. 

All around Grand Central Terminal uniformed officers try to initiate a very limited transportation program with the  Subway system crippled by flood waters. Long lines, lots of yelling, and chaos as officers use megaphones to direct crowds to buses assigned to assist workers back to their homes in the outer boroughs also in the mix flashing lights and tireless sirens. 

Crossing wide avenues without red lights felt like a game of chicken, worrying if vehicles were going to slow down to allow pedestrians the ‘right of way.’ We were not in a state of lawlessness nor were their reports of looting that triggers memories of news reports of the blackout of the 1970s. We worked together, pooled our resources, and made the best of the situation here at 45 First Avenue. 

Each day of the blackout my neighbor and I walked forty blocks to and from for a warm meal, to restock, and to power our devices. Each day there was a new source of the humble collection of people trying to bring to life humanity in it’s best light even in the darkness. The hum of generators began to bring little hot spots to each neighborhood affected by the storm and it became more bearable for the East Village everyday.   

What it means to ‘trip the lights fantastic on the sidewalks of New York.’

 John Milton wrote in 1637:

            Come, knit hands, and beat the ground,

            In a light fantastic round. 

Milton was referring to dancing: To dance, especially in an imaginative or ‘fantastic’ manner. “He must have liked the imagery, as he used it again in the poem L'Allegro, 1645:”

           

            Haste thee, Nymph, and bring with thee

Jest, and youthful Jollity,

Quips and cranks and wanton wiles,

Nods and becks and wreathed smiles

Such as hang on Hebe’s cheek,

And love to live in dimple sleek;

Sport that wrinkled Care derides,

And Laughter holding both his sides.

Come, and trip it, as you go,

On the light fantastic toe;

And in thy right hand lead with thee

The mountain-nymph, sweet Liberty;

And, if I give thee honour due,

Mirth, admit me of thy crew,

To live with her, and live with thee,

In unreproved pleasures free ...

This poem reminds me of every summer session’s night filled with such frivolity and fancy-free fun --- We would polka, dance a jig, as games were played we laughed and our hearts were filled with the exuberance of DRS!

But it is in the writings of James W. Blake (1894) that reminds me most of DRS:

            ‘East Side, West Side,, all around the town,

            The tots sang “Ring-a-rosie,” “London Bridge is falling down”;

            Boys and girls together, me and Mamie O’Rorke,

            Tripped the lights fantastic on the sidewalks of New York.’

To my teacher, to my mentor, to my guide, to my friend, I will always ‘trip it, and go, on the light fantastic toe... You have inspired many, shared everything you had, and gave us not only your love but you have set an example with your passion, integrity, and joy. 

Thank you, DRS your energy will never expire and just like the sidewalks of New York, they will never be silent because you have left your mark ‘on the sunny side of the street.’

In loving memory of Dorothy Rainer Sellars

One Way Streets

Ever felt as though you were living in your own ‘Groundhog Day,’ living the same day over and over again? One might say this is the pattern of living within a routine. I think this may be one of the most unique things about New York because it is hard to consider anything routine in this town.

Living in New York for over 21 years, I have become conditioned by the rhythm and the pattern of this great city. Creating a logical system for getting around, my routine benefits from the city planners that organized the Grid Plan of 1811. In the past two hundred years the streets of New York have changed from muddy, rutty, horse manure trenches to brick laid paths, and now paved blacktops. Through the ages, the streets like a rushing river moves constantly, the ebb and flow of traffic, the lullaby for ‘the city that never sleeps.’

Never taking my day for granted, traffic may be the only given in a city with a population over 8 million people. I rarely pay attention to the white noise, the friction of the streets, until today. Today started like any other, my mind was set on the task at hand, my eyes following concrete sidewalk anomalies as I leave my apartment and turn onto 2^nd Street, I stepped into the 1950s.

It is odd because, I wasn’t born until 1965 but I was clearly in the 50s. The street lined with cars from the past. It wasn’t the vintage cars that I recognized first, it was the fact that the cars were parked in the opposite direction of traffic. New York has a flow that is ingrained within me and seeing these cars parked backwards gave me pause. This is when I realize that I am standing in the middle of a movie set.

I would love to hear your street experiences, and if you have never experienced the streets of New York City, One Token Tours will help you change that!