| modal shifts. |
[11 Jun 2009|10:44pm] |
One of the goals of the NYC transportation department is to increase modal shifts. Meaning, trying to get people to use a different mode of transportation. So if you currently drive to work, we want you to take the subway. If you use the subway, we want you to use the bus or bike. For a while now, one incentive to get more people to use the bus is allowing a free transfer from subway to bus, or bus to bus, but not subway to subway. Being fortunate enough to walk to work to work, I have a pay as a ride metro card rather than an unlimited ride. I've noticed this has forced me to walk much more (modal shift) or just not go out at all (don't ask me why $2 is too much to go out).
Most recently, I've challenged myself to maximize the free transfer option. I've discovered that I can go to Japanese class via subway and two hours later, take the bus home and not pay extra. It's just brought another challenge to navigating the highly unpredictable and service advisory filled MTA, but this time I don't mind waiting for the bus.
|
|
| csa |
[10 May 2009|11:48pm] |
|
Back when I lived in San Francisco, I joined a CSA. In theory, I liked the idea, but in reality, I found that I could only eat so much of the same vegetable each week and that picking up the box was actually inconvenient. Since then, 2003, I haven't joined another one. I'm thinking of joining one again, and it seems like either CSA systems have matured or they have it figured out better. Contracts do not extend through the fall and winter, and you can have your box delivered. Now that I also cook for two people, I'm thinking it might be time to join again.
|
|
| lunch. |
[24 Apr 2009|07:20pm] |
|
Yesterday, I attended this event called the Iron Designer, modeled after the Iron Chef. 4 teams of students were given a site, and they had one hour to come up with a design. Criteria included, school spirit, sustainability, publicness of concept, and some other one. It was held in a traveling bubble, called the Spacebuster (pictures soon on flickr), so the perpetual joke that night (for the planners at least) was: They are designing in a bubble. Initially, as I watched these people model concepts in Maya, I thought, isn't there a more analog way of doing this. To which my friend said: Such a planner, always reaching for the colored pencil. By the time the hour was up, all my planning biases were gone, the ideas were interesting, well conceived for one hour, and the renderings were way cooler than any analog approach.
|
|
| first day of spring. |
[19 Apr 2009|10:24am] |
|
I think it came pretty late in the year, but the first really warm day of spring arrived yesterday. I went for a walk through Central Park with a friend, and although it was crowded at some parts, we enjoyed an easy stroll. At one point, there was an argument between two dog owners ending with yelling and profanity. I just have to think that if you choose to live in a city with so many people that on such a nice day, everyone should relax a bit. Still, it seemed to befit New Yorkers, and a few steps later, we happened upon some "thespians" rehearsing. A cliche day in Central Park.
|
|
| incentive zoning. |
[15 Apr 2009|07:44pm] |
|
I don't know much about Los Angeles zoning, but I read this LA Times article about how a judge threw out an ordinance that gives developers a bonus for providing affordable housing. Opponents of the ordinance argue that such a bill would incentive developers to tear down existing low-moderate income housing and replace it with much taller market rate housing with fewer units of affordable housing. This may be true as harassment of existing tenants has always been an issue. On the other hand, in a city where increasing density is necessary to sustain its continued growth, it seems a shame that such an ordinance is repealed. It could've helped advance density in LA and provide affordable housing.
|
|
| seder. |
[14 Apr 2009|09:00pm] |
I went to my first seder last week, hosted by my friend Jacob. It was a great mix of people with catholics, muslims, jews, christians, and non-believers in attendance. There was a brazilian who had just become a US citizen a few days before (her friends took her to Olive Garden (!!) to celebrate, and we made her recite the pledge at dinner), and she brought her brazilian friends who were visiting nyc but had come from oslo where they've spent the past 2 years. We read from the haddagah, and I cooked a kugel.
I had a hard time with this kugel idea. I saw recipes with noodles and raisins which sounded pretty disgusting to me, but I thought maybe it would be a pleasant cultural surprise the way chinese beans on ice is to some people. In the end, I chose the safer cauliflower kugel, and although kosher, in the end it didn't matter because we dove into strawberry rhubarb pie and bread pudding which were much tastier than kugel. It was a nice event, and I hope always to be able to attend Jacob's seders even if he moves to DC in August.
|
|
| police taxi |
[13 Jan 2009|10:33pm] |
|
Yesterday, Chih and I heard police sirens. We turned around looking for the police car only to realize that there was a taxi that was operating undercover as a police car. It looked like a taxi with the NYC logo and all, but it had flashing lights and was pulling over an SUV. Although very cool, I find it to be a bit unfair.
|
|
| year of the rat. |
[28 Dec 2008|09:30am] |
At some point, one wonders if they should update their livejournal when nothing has happened on it for months.
The year of the Rat has not been kind to many of my friends. I think we're all ready to move on to the Ox, but it has been for the most part very good to me and Chih. There are many great things that happened to us (we got a great apartment, we still have jobs, we had great weather, we got to see lots of friends and family, I rediscovered the library.)
Every year, my friend holds a thanksgiving weekend party where she orders pies from the former pastry chef at chanterelle (one of the best restaurants in the city) and buys lots of champagne. I never know many people at these parties, and I'm left to either be a wall flower or to make awkward conversation. In 2006: "Well, as I understand it, I hear the credit derivatives market could disappear at any time." He was appalled and offended by my suggestion that he would become obsolete, but who knew that I was predicting the future. In 2007, if I didn't leave soon, I would've eaten all of their pie. This year, though, I found random people coming up to me every few minutes. "Hi, I'm ..... How do you know so and so? Do you work in finance? No?" Dead silence. Awkward shifting of feet away from me. What I realized is that this year the party was more of a networking party for ex-Bear employees than anything, and my response of being a city planner would not offer a huge end of the year bonus. Ever. I don't feel it much in NYC since most of my friends are phd students, but of the few friends I have in finance, one worked for Lehman, one for Bear, and one for Madoff. I have high hopes for the year of the Ox and next year's thanksgiving weekend party.
|
|
| secured commute. |
[28 Sep 2008|11:11am] |
Outside most of the major wall street banks and law firms, in the late evenings, there is usually a row of "black cars" waiting for their next customer. Lawyers can walk straight out the front door and directly into a black car. As a normal person on the street, it all seems very rich and powerful to have a car waiting for you and to have a picture into the lives of some new yorkers. (After living here for seven years, I have finally met some real wall street and I realize how so many of them never take the subway!) My friend used to work at one of these law firms and rather than head straight for the car, she would walk through quiet but glowing times square and wait for the subway even if it delayed her commute by an hour. She said that if she didn't, her life would consist of her apartment to the office and back to her apartment, and in that case, it didn't matter if she lived in new york city or not.
My new commute is maybe 7 minutes door to cubicle and that's on a day where I hit a red crosswalk light, resist jay walking, and my building's elevator is trapped on some upper floor. (City facilities are dire.) Not only that, my commute is on these streets that are closed to vehicles. If I go straight from my office, down the police controlled streets, and to my apartment, it's not very different than a life of a chauffeured lawyer in terms of the experience of the city (not in terms of where I can eat and being sheltered from bad weather). Except that on a misty evening, all quiet, with sky bridges over head, and car free alleyways, it can feel sort of like a turbulent, moody, Gotham. Then, I walk past one of the police security booths, vehicular barricades, and dogs that can sniff out a bomb, and instead, it's a post 9/11, terrorism proof, neighborhood killing street.
|
|
| parking. |
[22 Sep 2008|08:49am] |
Our building has a public parking garage. It's never that busy. On Saturday night though, I spent 20 minutes watching complete chaos as SUVs and Minivans with New Jersey plates turned from all directions into our already backed up garage. I saw a near accident with another car or a person or a stroller every 2 minutes. My guess is that much of New Jersey came to the annual 11 day San Gennaro festival. This is when Little Italy becomes part festival and park nightmare. Ferris Wheels, that aren't taller than the 5 story buildings next to them, light up the street and also the neighboring apartments. Restaurants take up the entire street with outdoor seating surrounded by picket fences. And zeppoles, italian sausages, and grilled corn are sold by the pound. At the end of the night, the rats probably take over.
My parking garage made more business that night in the month combined probably. I can't figure out the rates though. That night, it was $10.94 an hour, the next afternoon it was $14.54, and this morning it's 11.83. Maybe the garage is already being paid by the mob.
|
|
| chinatown. |
[06 Sep 2008|10:32am] |
Our new neighborhood could be characterized as more of a "residential" neighborhood although in terms of residential services and the number of housing, I don't think it really has more than where we used to live in the east village. It's hours of operation, though, are more on the residential side where the park across the street is filled by 9am, and the markets and vendors are probably open by 8am (I've never verified this.) In my old neighborhood, if I got out of the house before noon, the streets would have the same quiet as at 7am. The thing is, we're probably less than a mile from our old neighborhood.
There are also shocking levels of poverty in Chinatown. I once volunteered at a event where we would ask residents to take a survey. Many of the responses were returned with the income "less than 25,000" circled, and these responders had kids! Every once in a while, later in the evening, I'll come across an organized queue in completely random places. On the sidewalk, in a random parking lot, in a square. The first time I saw the queue of grandmas and middle aged men, I said: Look, that guy is handing out red envelopes! I swear I saw a Chinese person jump out of a van and hand out envelopes to the line on the sidewalk. Another time, we saw two lines (one male, one female) form outside of vans, and people would walk away with a plastic bag which I think was filled with 2 oranges and a pint of milk. I'm not sure how these people know about the queues since they aren't organized in any fashion, but maybe that is the Chinese way, to be disorganized but still get the work done.
|
|
| thinkers. |
[31 Jul 2008|05:41pm] |
This seems to be the summer of biking. I haven't biked much yet except for over the Brooklyn Bridge once, but biking comes up an awful lot everywhere I go. My friends biked across the brooklyn bridge to City Hall to get married. When they biked back home, they put a JUST MARRIED plate on their bike, and all the tourists stopped to take pictures of them. It is one of the best ways to get around the city and one of the best ways to see the city. My problem is that I like the idea of biking, and I like it when I arrive at my destination and have stopped biking, but I am miserable when I am actually biking.
Work is becoming a drag. The push for the completion of projects before the end of the administration is putting an intense pressure to make decisions like never before. People are saying: "There are only 500 days left in this administration and people are taking vacations?!?!" It feels like we will no longer exist at the end of 2009. Bloomberg has been a rockstar. I can remember when I woke up to NPR in 2001 and heard them say that Bloomberg was the next Mayor. I was in utter shock. Now I'm wishing for another rich business person to take the reins.
|
|
| real world. |
[18 Jul 2008|05:14pm] |
In some ways, I'm hoping that NYC gets hit hard with layoffs so all the wall street analysts can go back to school, and not every restaurant in NYC has to be a production. I've discovered that waiting an hour for a table is normal and have heard of friends waiting for 2 hours.
Real World MTV's next location is in Brooklyn. Instead of choosing the hipster-gentrified Williamsburg, Brooklyn, though, they wanted to make sure it was in a brownstone which lands them in Carroll Gardens. Carroll Gardens certainly has its own flair, but I find it more akin to San Francisco or Rockridge, Oakland, then anything else. It'll be a great season if instead of going to the new 500 person club, indie rock band concerts, or multi-floor bar, lounge, aquarium, they end up instead with episodes on yoga, the Park Slope co-op, vegan barbecues, and biking marathons.
|
|
| longest post ever. |
[03 May 2008|10:05am] |
So we closed on our apartment. The closing was one of the most, what I think is, New York moments ever. First, there was the seller's attorney who was a middle-aged women from Long Island who worked at (cheesy) Jones Beach for nine summers. She looked like she just came back from the beach with her sunburn and blonde(ish) hair. Then there was the shy, very diligent, and very nice managing agent, who looked like he just got back from the 1970s time machine, named Scott Simon. It turned out LI attorney and Scott Simon volunteered at Jones Beach at the same time but the LI attorney was much older. Then there was our attorney who was probably in her late 20s and a total powerhouse. She was not even 5'0 but ordered everyone around and commanded the closing like it was a war zone. And then would speak nicely and softly to us explaining everything in a clear fashion. She had a ring that was at least 3x bigger than her finger, and she was from Staten Island originally. Then there was the seller who was a totally sweet Korean woman with a 13 month old boy and who worked as a Gap Designer. She was moving back to Marin County with her husband who was one of the engineers who created Avid. Then....there was the bank attorney. I later discovered in the course of the confusion and this woman's craziness, that she wasn't really our bank's attorney. She was probably hired by the bank's attorney to attend the closing, and she really worked for a title company.
It started with the Jones Beach "do you know so and so conversation." We waited for the bank attorney.
Then this woman shows up with 2 FedEx packages, bright red lipstick, mumbling something about how security wouldn't let her in, how they were going to send her to Park Row, and how upset she was.
After she calmed down, my attorney asked her if she had the certified checks.
Crazy woman: No.
Power attorney: What do you mean no? We're at a closing. We don't close without giving the sellers their money. Where is it?
Crazy woman: In white plains. They're messengering them now.
(We had to close that day. Our lease was ending, we had nowhere to spend the night, and we had movers coming the next day. The Seller's husband was already driving across the US, and she was flying out Saturday. It would be a nightmare to schedule everyone again.)
Power attorney gets on the cell phone, calls the bank attorney, and yells at them. It turns out the messenger had not even arrived in White Plains yet to pick up the checks. Our attorneys start speaking another language to figure out a solution, and in the meantime, the bank attorney has collected all the forms, leases, whatever else, and is leaving the room. She looks to us and says: So we're adjourned?
Dead silence. This woman was out of her mind. What!?! Thankfully, our brilliant power attorney calmly tells her no, we aren't adjourned, and thinks of an alternative plan that I still don't understand. They left the room to fax checks to someone to get them approved. In the meantime, we and the seller start chatting about lives, jobs, the apartment, California. She says, well since we have time, why don't I give you the keys. She brings out this Barney's box, and inside, folded in bright green tissue paper is a silver key chain and all the keys. I'm stunned by the presentation and her thoughtfulness.
When the attorneys return, we start signing. Everything in on track. Then the bank attorney says: We need two forms of ID. No credit cards.
I have my work ID, but Chih didn't have anything. No health insurance, work ID, Social security card, nothing. So I'm scrambling, and then say: Well, we got married this morning, can we use our license?
The whole room: WHAT?!
I was still focused on the ID dilemma, but Chih said that even the bank attorney was shocked. We had to explain that we got "married" last year, but it wasn't official, so we decided to have a "bureaucracy" day since we already took the day off.
At this point, the LI attorney says: Wow, I don't want to leave the room. Something else might happen.
Finally, we sign everything. People are calm, and the last few things are being filed. I look over at the crazy attorney, and she's reading a book with a Campbell's soup can on the cover. On closer look, it says: The Philosophy of Andy Warhol. She's crazy.
Then, the seller says: Well, I want to thank everyone so I brought little gifts. I never met you (looking at our attorney) so I didn't bring one for you but I would have.
She distributed bottles of champagne to us, the broker, and her attorney. My attorney keeps saying: Wow, I've never seen this before. I've never seen this before.
The seller really was the sweetest person, and I could tell that she was really torn about leaving her apartment and NYC.
We went into the closing while it was raining, but when we left, it was a post-rain sunny. We went and sat in Bryant Park since we were nearby, drank coffee, and reflected on the cast of characters that made our closing that much more interesting. And now, everyone should really come visit us.
|
|
| food. |
[06 Apr 2008|11:44am] |
I have been trying to learn to cook. I'm certain I must have it in my genes growing up with Sue and Mom, but I'm not consistent, I have a hard time at the grocery store, and, everything comes out looking kind of ugly. I spend hours on recipe blogs (there are so many out there), but all my food still comes out kind of bland. I'm paranoid about using salt.
My apartment building is filled with left-over east village anarchists and young analyst bankers. The other day, my friend was commenting on how the east village is filled with frat boys in baseball caps and jogging girls. I told him that we could count on the wall street layoffs to weed them out. They'll all be applying for business school soon.
It turns out that the impromptu skate park across the street from me is actually sponsored by Supreme, Vans, and other skate companies, and that someone is filming a documentary on it. I learned this through the notice posted in my lobby by a concerned neighbor encouraging all of us to be call the city hotline and community board president to protest the "noise" and the taking over of our "beloved community park." I appreciate the concern and the activism of my neighbors, but I find the skateboarders harmless, and this a classic case of NIMBY.
|
|
| photos. |
[23 Mar 2008|03:30pm] |
We had an amazing time in Malaysia and Hong Kong. And we have pictures! But I can't post them until I finish scanning pictures from Chih's camera of England.
While we were gone, Spitzer resigned and Bear Stearns collapsed. I had such high hopes for the dynamic duo of Bloomberg and Spitzer and now it feels like all of Bloomberg's plans (that needed state support) are dead in the water. Not only that, with the end of quick financing, all of the innovative projects seemed to have stalled.
On a smaller scale, our block has changed dramatically over the past six months. After the flea market closed, the quiet park across the street has now become central for local skateboarders, a record store opened up, and a new wine bar did too. If we do have to move, it will be sad to leave a neighborhood where everybody comes to me. I think it takes at least a year to get used to a new neighborhood even if it is one that we often frequent.
|
|
| january. |
[02 Feb 2008|11:24am] |
I was convinced into throwing a Chinese New Year Party. I invited 30 people, and it looks like all 30 people will be able to make it. WHAT?!?! Don't people have laundry to do or something? So now, I have no idea how I will fit all these people. My friend had a good suggestion on the lay out of moving our dining table, but then we wouldn't be able to throw all the coats in the bedroom. What a disaster.
--
I started this long entry about tourism in Harlem, gentrification, and the City's 125th street rezoning, but I never finished and that was the end of that.
--
I almost made it through the month of January without eating fried food, and then we ordered Deep Fried Pork Belly from the Filipino restaurant. Sigh.
|
|
| practice versus research |
[20 Jan 2008|09:55am] |
One of the oldest questions in planning is what to do about the disconnect between research and practice. Planning is often considered an applied science given its foundations as a technical and professional field. Following the ultra-technocratic systems of planning in the mid-1900s, however, there was an increase in planning theory and community planning literature. Universities often struggle to establish a curriculum that balances both the practical skills based courses, typically through a studio format, and also the theoretical underpinnings of why, what, when, and even can we plan, typically through reading the work of urban sociologists.
City agencies would find value in the research and reports that universities generate if they weren't fraught with political deadlines and tensions amidst the pressures of agency priorities and interagency conflicts. Universities would find value in "real-world" situations if they could provide implementation paths that ignored bureaucracy or even larger systems such as the global world economy. (I still love my neo-marxists though.)
That said, my friend who is doing her dissertation on the role of the budget in planning Brazil and I have found that Sao Paulo and NYC could be comparative studies in her research work and my day to day work. Both cities are structured in such a way that the budget office and planning office are lacking in effective tools of measuring costs and benefits. She talks about it, I have to work with it.
Unfortunately, she also read that in early 1900, this was already the problem. (As I always tell her, no idea is an original idea.) And as we walked through the Met and marveled at the Egyptian tombs circa 3000 BC, we agreed that the budgeting and time horizons of planning and development were probably misaligned then. Maybe it's best that there is a disconnect between the two as otherwise both sides might be confronted with existential crises on their role and reason for engaging in any discussion or bureaucracy.
|
|
| chinatowns. |
[13 Jan 2008|08:14pm] |
|
I went to look at an apartment right on the border of Chinatown this weekend. It was a good price for the space, but we seemed to think that it was slightly overpriced. It was maybe at its peak price and probably couldn't be sold for much more especially since they did a wonderful gut renovation already. It feels that as the rest of Manhattan has been overwhelmed with glass and steel towers, Chinatown has remained vastly untouched. The rental buildings are probably being reorganized and chinese grandmas are being replaced with hipsters, but there aren't many new condo buildings. So, I'm not sure if that's because Chinatown is dirty and congested (but it's still downtown Manhattan) or because all of the property is protected or because all the property owners are Chinese and they don't want to invest or what. I'll find out.
|
|
| 5 years. |
[06 Jan 2008|01:04pm] |
After a delightful Christmas in Birmingham with my whole family including, recently-introduced-to-the-world nephew-Alex, we went on to London. Apparently, Chih said that I kept comparing London to New York. That is really annoying of me. I don't remember it that much, but I guess I wasn't paying attention.
We spent some of the time talking about goals for 2008. This is what I've come up with:
1. Do not eat fried food for the month of January. (Why be ambitious with all of 2008?) I just want to see if I'll feel any different, more energetic, more grumpy, more hungry? I've already had to refrain from picking at Chih's fried chicken, but I think the cornbread that I took a bite of was fried. But I won't count that since I was ignorant.
2. Think about Planning issues. When I told this to Phan, I think she was a little surprised since my job is to think about planning. And her job is too. The truth is, I want to try and live in another country sometime in the next 5-10 years. But I don't want to work in this other place. I want to be able to hang out. This means I'd have to get some fantastic grant. And I'd have to do research on something. And since I like planning, and since I think being the planner for Lower Manhattan gives me some leverage, I might as well research this. The problem is that I'm way out of the planning loop. I don't read any of the articles, I'm not a member of the national or local planning organizations, and thinking about planning outside of Manhattan makes my head spin. So, at this point, I would have no way of hanging out in another country.
3. Use livejournal to write regularly about planning. So, some of my research interests are the role of culture in planning, and I'm not talking about arts redevelopment. I'm talking about why is the harlem renaissance important in planning for harlem? why are historic buildings and landmarking valuable to planning and real estate? Or the topic of governance structure in implementation. Boston's planning group is structured differently than New York's, but both structures have their advantages and disadvantages. And I thought if I could log weekly my work and ideas, it might help.
So I guess, really, I have a goal for January 2008, and a goal for 2008-2013. Wow, 2013 sounds really far away. But Sue and Danny will be married for 10 years this year, and Bert and Phan have accomplished a lot in 5 years, so I guess 5 years will be here in no time. I guess If in five years, I'm still working for DCP, and living in this east village apartment, I think I'll be just fine with that also, provided I get to eat fried food.
|
|
| navigation |
| [ |
viewing |
| |
most recent entries |
] |
| [ |
go |
| |
earlier |
] |
|
|
|
|
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
hamachi's journal