There was a huge snowstorm on the North East coast of the US last weekend. New York got off relatively lightly and the city enjoyed a weekend of playing in the snow. Central Park was beautiful and whilst the snow was soft and powdery, people managed to make the most incredible snow sculptures. We saw a snow horse, lots of snowmen and on one park bench a man had sculpted a woman reclining on the bench, she was possibly a mermaid, I couldn’t quite tell. It’s now Tuesday, the temperature is up and the snow is melting. People cleared the pavements leaving great mountains of snow like the sides of canyons. Now they are no longer pretty, but dirty from exhaust fumes and muddy footprints. The city looks ugly as it shakes off the snow and what it has revealed is the rubbish: mounds and mounds of rubbish lining the pavements where the snow is melting. It is horrible, great bags of recycling and household rubbish piled up and added to by the ubiquitous coffee cup and take out bags. I don’t know how long it takes for the rubbish men to resume their schedule, but I hope it’s soon, otherwise the rubbish will be taking over Manhattan.
Category Archives: Environment
I don’t think we’re in Manhattan any more
There are five boroughs in New York, with Manhattan being the most well known. Staten Island suffered horribly in the Hurricane and is often forgotten as the island off the bottom of Manhattan. The Bronx is at the other end of Manhattan and whilst I have discovered there is a zoo and a botanical garden there (to be visited on warmer days) it still makes me think of scary New York of the 70s. Ed Koch, Mayor between 1978 and 1990 died recently and was credited with transformation of the Bronx and other run down parts of New York. This leaves Queens and Brooklyn. The latter is of course well known because the Beckhams called their eldest son after the borough – it’s certainly up and coming now, with Park Slope known as the nappy valley of New York. I visited the Transit Museum today and got my first glance at Brooklyn. I only saw the civic parts around city hall and the MTA (transport authority) but it was a world apart from Manhattan. Lower built and more interesting to look at than the high rises of the Upper East Side. And as for Queens, well, I wouldn’t go there again unless there was a good reason. We went to Astoria, which is across the East River from the Upper East Side of Manhattan and it is pretty unloved and run down. The Museum of the Moving Image has been there for 20 years but it hasn’t led to any regeneration in the neighbourhood a la Tate Modern in London. The museum is great, hosting a computer games through the ages exhibit (or excuse for middle aged men to play with computer games dating back to their teens) and it did make me laugh to see the Wizard of Oz as part of the permanent exhibition, when the first thoughts I had when we emerged from the subway were “I don’t think we’re in Kansas any more, Toto”.
Central Park sojourn
It is absolutely beautiful in New York today. It is cold and crisp and apart from a slight haze in the far distance, it is clear and bright. I walked across Central Park from west to east at lunchtime and whilst there’s no leaves on the trees and much of the park is cordoned off with signs saying ‘closed for the season’ to let the grass rest and grow back for the Spring, it’s a real pleasure to be walking through it. Despite the size of Central Park, you always know you’re in a city because wherever you look you see the border of buildings running down the East and West side and when you look north and south you see the buildings cluttered and close together. As usual there are dogs everywhere, every shape and size. Women with buggies, older couples and one man basking in the sunshine. And for the first time in my life I see a man taking a bird for a walk in a cage. Is that normal here?
Ready, willing and able
All around the streets of our bit of New York I have noticed men in bright blue trousers and jackets emblazoned with the phrase ‘ready, willing and able’. There is a reference to the Doe Fund, which I assumed was the Department of Environment. Turns out it’s actually a charity that helps the homeless who have problems with drugs and alcohol get back on their feet through a 9-12 month programme with the Fund. The guys (I have yet to see a woman) in blue are picking up rubbish (that would be trash here) from the pavement (sidewalk) and emptying bins (trashcans). In one year they pick up 9,000 tonnes (tons) in the city. I can’t work out if they are under contract to the Dept of Sanitation who deal with residential rubbish, or if the city does this as well. As well as working, the guys in blue also get a lot of support to help with addiction and get themselves back on their feet and back into the workplace. It’s impressive. At the other extreme I have seen some people carrying, usually on a knackered old buggy (stroller), massive plastic sacks of empty plastic bottles and drink cans. They are getting to the bins before the guys in blue and picking out the bottles and cans from the general rubbish (trash) and then taking them to machines dotted around the place to make a few cents on each one. I am pretty sure this doesn’t exist in the UK. It seems very old fashioned to make money on old bottles and years ago you could get money back on returned bottles, but that wasn’t necessarily about recycling. I find it deeply depressing that in this city of wealth and the land of opportunity, people are driven to do this.
nw3 to nyc 