When you live in New York City you are dwelling in an ever changing environment and change includes how we speak. In most places things change very slowly or not at all, but not New York City; it’s a brisk, always pushing, accelerating, reaching for the future, building, growing and always striving to become new and improved.  Language is an expression of change that defines New York City.  Restaurant language, an amusing example, changes; uses of foreign words seep into our vernacular, expressions are replaced by new ways to say the same thing, words are spoken in English carrying the syntax of the speakers native tongue, and expressions that meant one thing years ago acquire different meanings today. And finally, there are words that we use today on a regular basis that, in the past, were unheard of.

Let’s start with “diner speak”. I recall when waiters and waitresses chanted their orders in a language that most people would not comprehend, for example: “Burn the British”, “Give me a radio down”, and “high and dry”, “Stretch a pair” and on and on. Translation, in order is, toasted English muffin, turn is radio “turn-a and “down” is toasted. “high and dry is no butter, stretch a pair is two Cokes, “stretch” is for the soda coming out of the fountain. Many of those phrases are no longer in use. Today we have “delux” for “‘burger deluxe that includes French fries, lettuce, a picle and a slice of onion, also known as “the works” and don’t forget about that tiny paper cup with the coleslaw! BLT is an obvious favorite and “hold the” for leave it out, and the forever popular “86″ for cancel which was derived from Chumley’s Bar at 86 Bedford Street in the West Village when it was a speakeasy.  The owners had an inside deal with some of the local police who’d call ahead alerting Chumley’s of an impending police raid. The shout “86″ would clear the place.

I was in an elevator recently with my daughter, in her mid-thirties, and a few others who were fellow beby boomers.  A conversation began, I take the blame for that, and I used an old expression in the context of the brief discussion, “you’re darn tootin’”. my daughter looked at me quizzically, and asked, “What does that mean?” “You don’t knonw what that means, you never heard that expression?” I asked her! ‘No!” she exclaimed. The baby boomers on board were all surprised too! That expression vanished from the vernacular, gone! For those of you who don’t know, it means, you’r darn right.

Another phrase that has vanished is “after all is said and done”. But, this one has been replaced by the ubiquitous, “at the end of the day”, a phrase that has been beaten to death by every standup comic, broadcast journalist and suited office worker leaning against a bar after business hours, not to mention during those endless meeetings at the office. I hate that expression almost as much as “phone tag” that worn out phrase describing two people who tirelessly attempt to reach each other getting the ususal voice mail, “I’m either on the phone or away from my desk” which is another invention of current linguistic geniuses.

“Hail a cab” is never used, now “grab a cab’ or “get a taxi” is the more current blurb. What newstand vendor shouts, “Extra, extra, read all about it!”? Do you ever hear, “Brother can you spare me a dime” the classic from the Great Depression? Today it is either, “change please” or “can you spare some change?” No one would waste their time asking for a dime even in these difficult times. President Obama’s mantra has been “change” and that inispired me to suggest to a number of panhandlers to alter or “change” their pitch to “It’s time for change” or similar words to that effect. Some have actually applied the idea with good results! I know because they told me, amazing. It’s not what you say or ask, it’s how you say it.

The most significant change in language is that people just don’t speak, face to face, as much as they have in the past. When was the last time that you were in an elevator and no one was wearing head phones, takling on a cell phone or emailing someone on a Blackberry? On many occasions, I’ve been in an elevator and every person was “connected” to their device including, but not limited to, reviewing their incoming calls on their “cell”, using some electronic marvel that didn’t exist a few years ago, texting, a new word in todays’ lexicon, listening to their ipond or MP3, checking the weather, making a reservation for diner or finding the best route to wherever they’re driving to today! If you wanted to ask someone about the weather, or acknowledge someone with a polite “hello” or “good morning” then you’re out of luck! Oh, and don’t forget the kids! They’re wearing out their thumbs with electronic “games”, killing peoople between the twelfth floor and the lobby or figuring out how to steal cars, “Grand Theft auto”. And for those who are not electronically inclined, there’s always Sudoku, another means to keep your mouth shut. It’s electronic now by the way.

I have watched New Yorkers crossing the street while emailing on a handheld device while the driver who they should have been consciously attempting to avoid was illegally taking on a handheld cell phone and running a red light. Are we moving in the wrong direction? I think so!

We have become a more disconnected society thanks to a technological revolution that’s mired with devices that we have made a part of our lives.  Although they are intended to increase our connectivity they thwart our personal and direct face to face contact with those who stand two feet away from us.  Is that what we mean by connectivity? Email me, don’t call me! People who express a desire to connect through the web on sites such as classmates.com, facebook, twitter, etc. reach out but do not call; no talk, no speak, no see, no closeup.  It’s an electronic world and even in New York City people may be losing their ability to have a conversation, write a letter, and have a spare stamp to mail it. Who needs stamps anymore, bills are paid on line too. Are we raising children who percieve communication as a lesson in typing? Those who have created these devices may have known all along that this would be the effect on direct, person to person communication but as corporate icons or titans it didn’t hurt the bottom line, bonuses, stock prices or perks.  Inventors and geeks, I believe, are out to change the world for the better and indeed they have given us the internet, the ipod, the PC, cell phone and the ability to move business and life much faster, but at a price. Who knows a 13 years old who won’t pay a price to wear out their thumbs instead of their tongue? I guess that remains to be seen, I mean heard. Are the basic communication skills of our next generation up to par with their predecessors? Have they tumbled back into the Stone Age? Are their face to face conversational skills falling into the abyss and their confidence in an interview hitting rock bottom? Perhaps the class of 2024 will be interviewed via email? If peers compete against each other, being raised in a society with the same “tools” then I suppose it’s a level playing field. Whatever happened to “The 3 R’s”? Reading ,writing and arithmetic?

We use tools invented by geniuses but at what price? Perhaps we should go back to the days of the busy signal or a ringing phone unanswered? Press one for English, preess two for Spanish. If you want to speak to an agent say “agent”. Does that annoy you? I want to speak with a person!!! What is this world coming to? We have become a disconnected society immersed in a world of technology that has reared its ugly head. With a myriad of nventions that have come forth intended to enhance our lives. Have they? In many ways yes they have but at a price with a big tag!

New York City is a place where direct communication will never ide, we’re too dense.  I fear that other places with greater distances between people will fall and fail to hold on to the graces and benefits of direct eye contact, body language and the nuances of old fashioned communication. So much is lost via emails; the emotions and intent that language fails to convey electronically will disrupt and distort communication causing irreparable harm to relationships, lost business deals and lost opportunities despite of the benefits that the electronic superhighway provides.

I’ll take my chances herre in New York City as the best place to ride out those changes and know that I can always find opportunities to communicate the old fashioned way, up close and personal. By the way, “How are you?”

Lisa Minnelli recorded a song called, “Ring Them Bells”. It’s a story about a fictitious woman named Shirley Devore whose parents are anxious becasue she was still a single woman at the age of thirty two! They encouraged her to seek a man for marriage and arranged for her to take a trip in pursuit of the lucky would be beau.  As the lyrics unfold, after not accomplishing her misson abroad yet, she was advised to try the Dubrovnik and off she went where she met a man who turned out to live in apartment 29F; she lived in apartment 29E in the same building at 5 Riverside Drive on the Upper Westside in Manhattan!

Fact is stranger than fiction and any New Yorker will “buy in” to this story.  This fictional account of finding romance thousands of miles from home, with a next door neighbor, has had to happen time and again, especially for New Yorkers who often wouldn’t recognize their neighbor if they saw them on The Great Wall of China.

Living in building with over 400 apartments or as many as 800 apartments, this song tells a true story. While I lived in the Sheffield on West 57th Street, with eighteen apartments per floor, 50 stories high, I was never going to know the names of all of my neighbors. Would it be improper for an apartment dweller to consider that those who live in the same building but on a different floor as not being their neighbor? Humm? If I did consider them my neighbors then with 800 apartments and an average of two people per apartment then I had 1,600 neighbors, more or less.  That’s more than the population of most villages and small towns! Is an apartment building a small town? Who can get to “know” that many people, even casually or ever recognize them? People like their anonymity in large cities and the only way I could get to meet my neighbors was when and if we’re both waiting for the elevator at the same time or we are trashing the trash together.  Usually neighbors say “Hi” or “thanks” just for holding the elevator door.  Introducing yourself and providing your apartment number and all of that is most often not done, it’s looked down upon or seems “square” in New York City. People just go about their lives, plugged into an ipod or reading their emails on their way down to the lobby.

Today I live in a building that’s about one-half the size of The Sheffield and there are ten apartments on the floor. I have to admit that I know the names of eight people and that’s probably seven more than my wife knows, and she’s pretty typical.

Is that peculiar only in New York City? I don’t think so. Most people who lead hurried and hectic lives, especially in urban centers, are too busy and truly just not interested in who their neighbors are, where they come from, what they do and what they think. We want peace, quiet and security. Once the doors are closed securing us in our apartments our neighbors might as well be half way around the world for all we care. But, if they were in need of help or assistance in any way reasonable, we’d all be there for each other. Why, we’re neighbors and that’s just the way it is! By the way, if you need a cup of sugar, ring my bell, that’s quite all right!

Any city, large or small, thrives, shrivels or simply stagnates due to their crime rate. All other things begin equal, a well educated populace, good housing stock, necessary medical care and an efficient and well intended governmant will crumble if a high rate of crime compels its tax base to flee the city in large numbers.  This results in reductions of vital services and a continued acceleration of a downward spiral into an abyss.

The abyss for New York City was the 1970’s and early ’80’s. There was no foreseeable way out. The City was on the verge of bankruptcy, forcing it to turn to Washington D.C. for help, loan guarantees. Forget it! Albany, they didn’t love us either, even though New York City has always been a cash cow for the State! Taxpaying citizens”fled in terror” seeking refuge in the suburbs where schools were far better, streets were safer, taxes lower and the quality of life far, far better.  This mass exodus exceeded over 750,000 people, the largest migration out of New York City in history, it total numbers.

“The Bronx is Burning”, “Fort Apache”, “The taking of Pelham 123″, “The Con Ed Riots”. “The Son of Sam”, targeting the innocent and terrorizing the City randomly shooting young couples, committing a vicious series of heinous crimes that put a grip on a City already in shambles.  The Con Ed Riots, the result of a society on the edge, reacting to the “opportunity” to loot and burn neighborhoods and businesses that exposed years of pent up anger and hostility that festered in The Bronx, most of all.  It was the night of the most arrests and destruction in the history of New York City! New designer drugs, made on the cheap, given away to twelve and thirteen year olds, getting them “hooked” and then the inievitable conversioin to paid drugs pushed the crime rate through the roof.  Street gangs roamed, street gangs ruled and they used the subway as a tool to venture into the best neighborhoods, that’s where the money was, shades of Willy Sutton.  Places that attract the most wealthy and beneficial taxpaying solid citizens on the planet today would not have lured them back then even if their apartments were free! You couldn’t pay them enough to stay.

Streets were filled with trash, abandoned cars sat for months providing housing for rats and vermin.  Most of these “car-casses” were shells; no wheels, nor seats, missing fenders or various parts that thieves removed having found a means to sell the junk to undoubtedly fee their insatiable drug habits.

Discipline was a “joke” in the City’s schools; kids did whatever they wanted; the teachers and administrator’s hands were tied by mandates that limited their disciplinary tools diminishing expectations and morale.  Most children learned little or nothing.  Only a precious few who had the good fortune to be admitted to the City’s best schools or grew up in the dwindling number of good neighborhoods and solid homes where good parenting were able to compete for admission to the country’s best colleges, or any for that matter.

Massive layoffs by the City administration across the board were rife; fire, sanitation, police, health and hospital, health clinics, public assistance, referred to as “welfare” back then, transportation, infrastructure maintenance, potholes went unpatched, graffiti was everywere, public trash cans were left filled, parks were a mess, a no man’s land, and on and on.  This was a city on the verge of complete collapse, pure and simple.

Big MAC, not the kind that McDonald’s serves, was the first break in finding a solution.  The Municipal Assistance Corporation, headed by Felix Royhaton, with Federal guarantees in place, issued billions of dollars in bonds to fund the City, improve its credit rating and rebuild itself.

The ’80’s were somewhat of a disaster too.  Crack and crank were both big hits on the illegal drug shopping list.  In the late 80’s and early 90’s Mayor “Do Something Dave” Dinkins finally did do something about crime but it was too late to rescue his administration. He hired 5,000 additional cops but a little too late because he couldn’t get them trained and out on the streets before the mayoral election cut him down. That and the Crown Heights Riots exploded as he stood by idling and turning the other way, propelled Rudy Giuliani into his job.  And by the way, without Staten Island, the largest Italian-American population of any county, by percentage in The United States, whose overwhelming number of votes cast for Giuliani he would have lost the election. Dinkins was the first African-American mayor of any large American city to lose a re-election bid. Sorry Dave, you just didn’t have the goods man!

In January of 1993 Rudy took over the reins, rolled up his sleeves and began to take back the City from the criminal elements, from the street punks to the mafia who controlled unions, sanitation, construction, trucking and much more.

William Bratton, the Chief of Police of Boston was a vigorous advocate of an innovative new policing concept that was featured in The Atlantic Monthly, in March 1982, “Broken Windows: Restoring Order and Reducing Crime in Our Communities” by James Wilson and George Kelling.

The key elements of the crime initiative were these:

“Community Policing” a more direct approach to communication and concern projected the policy to change the routine of cruising in cars and assigned more of them to foot patrols. Projecting themselves as caring citizens and connectors with the community, they learned from the citizens what was going on, where the trouble was, who were the culprits and got to know the residents and experience the communities up close. Over time, they gainied trust and projected respect.

The police went after “quality of life” crimes such as public urinating, smoking and selling marijuana in the streets; alcohol consumption in public, jumping over the subway turnstiles (170,000 per day!); aggressive panhandling, “squeegee boys” aggressive men and boys who wiped car windshields for money, street prostitution, etc. Chief Bratton converted a number of buses into portable policy stations and streamlined the paper work for arrests as well.  Approximately one-third of those arrested were either carrying illegal weapons, had illegal drugs or were wanted for “priors”, prior arrests.  They were removed from the streets and they paid the price. Truly, the City initiated a “Tipping Point” as expressed by Malcolm Gladwell in his book that bears that title.

Governor Pataki initiated legislation to stiffen the sentencing rules for criminal convictions and hardened the “suspended sentence” rules resulting in the incarceration of thousands of criminals, getting them of the streets as well.  Those criminals were now off the streets and their ilk knowing now that they could be next in a City that just wasn’t going to take it anymore!

One of the theories that complimented these efforts was the legalization of abortion in The United States in 1973 (Roe v. Wade). By the early 1990’s many unwanted children that would have been born, largely by impoverished mothers in blighted urban ghettos never “hit” the streets.  Certainly, Roe v. Wade was not decided on the basis of reducing crime however, there are statistics that will bear out that this was a side effect of the Supreme Court decision.

It is unfortunate that not enough cities throughout the world have adopted these methods of policing. The results speak for themself; with the reduction of crime in New York City by over 70% due to the efforts of Mayor Giuliani and Mayor Bloomberg, New York City has enjoyed a spectacular renaissance, hopefully for many years to come. One hopes that when New York City falls on difficult economic times, such as we are experiening in 2009, that our leaders will not permit a backslide by attempting to balance State and City budgets by slashing those very same strategies that got us out of that mess nearly a generation ago. Sure, you can save money today by slashing budgets, however when the tax base flees, businesses close and unemployment rises, people become desperate and do desperate things that will in the long run cost us all much more.  The lessons of the past are clear, investing in the City is the path to prosperity and the failure to “fix broken windows” is the inevitable failure of urban life.  Let’s hope that history doesn’t repeat itself and that our governments will find the funds and the guts to propel New York City forward.

Where is the troll of neighborhood names? Could it be a secret that someone is paid by the City to sit in a closeted office, in City Hall, and appears promptly at 9 AM, sits behind an old oak desk, wears a translucent green head shade beneath an old copper lamp made of BX cable and cranks out names of New York City neighborhoods for $65,000 per year plus about $50,000 in annual benefits? Certainly, with all the new neighborhood names cropping up, this official is underpaid for all the good work that is done as the list keeps growing.  But what is the value of this commissioner’s job? “The commissioner of Neighborhood Identifying Classification” What does all this effort add to the meaning of our town?

How boring it was when just a small handful of neighborhood names dotted the City supplementing the names of the boroughs. We were limited and confined and as neighborhoods grew in size and number so too did the diversity.  What’s in a name? Neighborhood names can serve merely as a label or a destination and create a sense of belonging, an identity, or a test for a cabbie, “take me to DUMBO!” (Down Under Manhattan Bridge Overpass, Brooklyn side) serve as a sense of pride for people who proclaim, “Now I live in BoCoCa, no longer Cobble Hill, Boreum Hill or Carrol Gardens!” Isn’t it a little insane, or just a little New Yorkish? We, as New Yorkers, find new ways to define ourselves in our organic City, always moving, always changing necessitates redefining neighborhoods with odd and unusual place names.  Because we too are a part of it we change.  Place names of the past won’t do; “Hell’s Kitchen” is now Clinton or Midtown West; The Financial District is “FiDi” to the shiek or trendy and up to date, not everyone would agree with that new name, most New Yorker’s, no doubt, ever heard of FiDi!; The Flower District, what’s left of it is suddenly “Floma”, meaning flower market and Viaduct Valley, you can now get away with “ViVa”! “The Photo Disctrict” in the Flatiron area now “The Fashion District”, a technological change; perhaps it should be Digital District and south Harlem has anointed itself, “SoHa” South Harlem, and “SoCa” a new label for Inwood in northern Manhattan which means, South of Canada!

And now there’s West Chelsea, which you can call “Wechee” if you like. Interesting, we have an Upper Eastside and a Lower Eastside but no Middle East, hum. Instead we have Murray Hill, the Murry family, owners of huge tracts of land, back in the 19th century, in that neighborhood at one time who were residential developers, is adjacent to Turtle Bay, becasue the British perceived that that bay on the East River, which is not a river but a tidal straight, was shaped like a turtle, along “Blood Alley” another neighborhood, where slaughter houses reigned right where the United Nations Complex stands. Interesting that the World’s Peace Keeping Institution stands on what was once known as “blood alley”, ominous, eh?!

Neighborhoods have been given names of prominent former New Yorkers such as Carnegie Hill, Hamilton Heights, Washington Heights, Stuyversant Heights, Bed-Sty, Ft. Greene, the Revolutionary War General, Nathaniel Greene, who orchestrated Washington’s retreat after the disastrous Battle of Brooklyn. Willimasburgh, the h is gone now, named after the surveyor of the property of Williamsburg and others less well known such as Clinton Hill, Farragut, the Admiral, Morris Heights, Bedford Park, Astoria (Astor). Douglaston and on and on.

Although many New Yorkers simply cite the name of their borough as their home eliminating the pride or shame of their space place, where they actually live, it’s too bad.  I’m never satisfied with the borough as the answer to a person’s neighborhood becasue boroughs are quite huge and diverse; it virtually tells you very little. Why say you’re from Queens when you could be a citizen of the more glamorous Forest Hills, or historic and diverse Jackson Heights, why not Jamaica Estates, sounds much better. But Queens residents, be careful because, Queens is the only borough not recognized by the U.S Postal Service as a proper mailing address and your postal address must have your neighborhood name if you expect to receive your mail. No one addresses a letter or package to Manhattan, New York, it’s New York, NY and our friends in The Bronx, Brooklyn and Staten Island can do so, use their borough name, so why not Queens? Do you feel sorry for Queens? They’d better know where they live, we, who live life in the other four needn’t be bothered but we do. It could be that Queens is the largest borough in square miles, 102, but certainly Manhattan and Brooklyn have more people or commercial businesses receiving mail. Basically, don’t try to figure out the Postal Service.

Now there are three Villages, once called The North Ward; The West Village, Greenwich Village and The East Village which Alphabet City claims to be a part of, but we’d better check with our imagined commissioner, it may become “East East Village” down the road, who knows?

If I were the naming commissioner I’d chose names that reflect what’s going on there now, not what went on there way back when. For example, Midtown would be Midcity, uptown and downtown signs would be changed to downcity and upcity, because we are no longer a town, we’re a city! Greenwich Village is not a village so it should be Greenwich period! The Lower East Side should be Chinatown, the Chinese have virtually taken over the entire neighborhood and Little Italy needs to be remaned Tiny Italy, with three blocks of restaurants and souvenir shops, many Chinese owned, who’s kidding who?  Battery Park City is another example, the only batteries that you’ll find there are Duracell and Eveready, and the canons are long gone! How about Times Square, that used to be Longacre Square before Adolf Oaks convinced his pal August Belmont, the subway owner back in 1904 to name the 42nd Street station Times Square. Hey, Herald Square was named after a newspaper too. But The New York Times, a print media company, has fallen on hard times and regrettably may fall altogether. What then? Have any suggestions? How about Metro Square or AM New York Square, Post or Daily Square? Google Square sounds good! Humm.

Williamsburg, I’d change to Bar-burger, for obvious reasons, on second thought, maybe Condoburg would be better, we’ll have to wait until the depression is over, yes depression, let’s be honest. Coney Island to Coney Peninsula, Turtle Bay to No Turtles Bay, Spanish Harlem to Mixed Harlem, Greenpoint to Warsawville and finally Kips Bay to The Middle East because that’s where it actually is!

No one knows exactly how many neighborhoods exist in New York City as boundaries are constantly changing and ethnically there’s an ebb and flow. But we do know that whenever New Yorkers call home it’s their neighborhood and all of them in some way contribute to making our City the diversse andfascinateing place(s) that it is. Got any names you’d like to offer? Just call the Commissioner!

No one likes to wait in line, or the “queue” as they say in the U.K. New Yorkers are especially unwilling to do so, not surprising! Whether it’s a show, concert, nightclub, restaurant, sporting event or store opening that features free giveaways or fantastic bargain opportunities, New Yorkers are notorious for finding a way, any way, to avoid lines. I’ve found a way that works almost every time but, promise you won’t tell anyone. You’ll ruin my secret and the consequences could be fatal! If you do tell, you just may find me waiting on line, behind you, not a safe place for you!

Jazz clubs featuring the best performers frequently have very long lines, usually extending down the block and at times around the corner; that’s New York! Many do not have reservations, they just present themselves with the hope that perhaps some do not show up or they are resigned to settle for a seat at the bar. Others are content to be admitted and have a place to stand as long as they are in earshod of the music; they’re satisfied and find that the wait is well worth it. I for one, have another method that, most of the time, works quite well. I avoid the line and find the best seat in the house! Here’s how.

I showed up at The Blue Note, a very popular jazz club in Greenwich Village with my wife one evening when Tony Bennett was appearing for a one shot make-up performance due to a cancellation because his fabulous scratchy voice had become too scratchy due to a bout with a cold. The line was nearly endless and to make matters worse the rain was teeming. Not all had umbrellas, enhancing their distaste for the wait on line. There were brass poles with velvet ropes that blocked gate crashers from entering and a tall, grim, well suited gent stood guarding the entrance. Ah, I just love a challenge! I removed a $20 bill from my pocket and folded it a few times with the number twenty prominently visible. I removed the hook from the brass pole disengaging the rope and extended my right hand, with my thumb securely holding the bill, palm up and said in a loud and confident voice, ”Hey John, great to see you again!” I looked down at the bill, encouraging him to do the same. He saw it, clasped his right hand in mine, we shake hands and I lean over and whisper in his ear, “Friend of the house!” He gets it, and scam and the bill. I had no idea what John’s name actually was but I use a name to convey the impression to the “liners” that we knew each other. That adds credibility to the rouse. We’re in!

Shouts burst from up and down the line, “Hey, what’s up here!”, “Who the hell are they?”, “I’m waiting in this line for over two hours. I’m soaked!”

“Friend of the house!” My new found friend shouted back and let us right in. He mentioned something to his cohort inside and we were seated up front and center. Tony was terrific that night, not too scratchy!

Do you recall the scene from “Goodfellas” when Ray Liotta escorted Barbara into the Copa Cabana through the kitchen instead of using the front entrance? Well, one evening I took my wife, to be, to La Mela, a fun, energetic Italian restaurant on Mulberry Street in Little Italy in Manhattan. Our first date began at La Mela, very popular with the locals and tourists.

“There’s a big line darling!” Aline exclaimed.

“Don’t worry, it’s not a problem.” I replied

Wearing a black turtleneck, black suit, black leather trench coat, slick gelled hair and of course a toothpick poking out from between my lips I was dressed for the occasion. She was very elegant, nicely painted and quite the attractive lady, a perfect pair for the caper that was about to unfold. With hands clasped we politely bucked the line and simply walked right in moving confidently to the rear of the restaurant and entered the kitchen, filled with chaos. We simply stood there and waited. Within five seconds all eyes were upon us. Everyone was thinking; who are these people? Hey, you never know what people are thinking. I could have been a “made man” for all they knew or some hot shot that they wouldn’t want to mess with, know what I mean?

“Who’s in charge ‘ere?” I asked with a well pronounded voice, somewhat voluminously.

The manager stepped up and smiled at us. He look into my eyes intently.

“We need a table, you wanta help the lady out or what? Great to see you again my piasan!” I said.

“Good to see you too, follow me” he chimmed in and promptly escored us to an empty table for four, the only available table in the place. As we got seated we noticed that the line had grown longer and our waiter glently placed a red and white bottle of wine on our table. I looked outside and saw the line not feeling sorry for those folks because a “friend of the house” will, always perceive his right of passage; having the guts and ability to pull it off! It’s not for everyone. This time our entry didn’t cost us a dime. Are you a “Friend of the house” kinda person? Try it, you never know!

Cliff Strome (cliffstrome@gmail.com) is a licensed tour guide, with an exemplary rating from the City of New York. He and his staff of professionals provide Custom & Private Tours of New York City.  1-212-222-1441 www.CustomandPrivate.com

If I told you how many times I run into people on the sidewalks of New York City, who I “knew” you would not believe me! Strange as it may seem, it happens quite often. It never ceases to amuse me that in this City with over eight million people, and visitors, it is not that unusual to meet people, by chance, that you “knew”, on the street. This isn’t Main Street in Podunk, Iowa! Even though I enjoy these chance encounters, I do have a major problem with it.

The problem is the chance of embarrassing myself and insulting the person who I encounter. The encounter may be with someone who may have had a meaningful relationship with me; be it a former employee, a nurse, a neighbor or the woman at the bank who cashed my checks or perhaps a former student who I taught. I’m not fearful that I’m losing my mind, it’s just that over a lifetime there are hundreds and hundreds of faces that are catalogued in our past. Surely, there’s not a person on the planet, especially in New York City too, who can remember them all, right?

Suddenly, from behind my left ear I heard, as I was standing on the corner of 96th Street and Amsterdam Avenue, the shout, ”Cliff! Hi, how are you?”

I dread this because what do I say when I haven’t got a clue who this person is or more appropriately, was! I responded with the customary and usual, “Hi! How are you?” Where do I know you from?” I go directly to the core, why have a five minute conversation before I admit that I don’t remember who I’m about to have an unavoidable conversation with? On the other hand, I’ve tried concealing my ignorance as to who they are a number of times before the the conversation ends, it hits, me, “Ah yes, that’s Amanda”, or “Steve”! And, I suddenly recall what the connection had been. It turned out that in this instance she was a former employee of mine. Having employed hundreds of people over a period of approximately thirty years, I let myself off the hook; guilty, but free of indictment.

Recently, my wife and I were approaching Tom’s Diner, of Seinfeld fame, about to enter when a couple emerged from within and the gentleman shouted my name with a smile. I had no idea who this guy was, so I had thought! I remarked to him, “Same face, different place!” That was aconfession, right away, that I knew the face but couldn’t place him. “I’m Ira, I’m Susan’s partner in the eyeglass business.” Sure that was somewhat embarrassing for us both however, I escaped that awkward moment by explaining my failure to recognize him. Although I had seen and spoken with Ira many times, but not for a few years, I always saw him in the optical store wearing a tie, without a hat, as he was when I met him in front of Tom’s. Ira has no hair, bald as a peach, and that was the predominant feature that distinguished him to me. What I should have done is have introduced my wife, This is Aline” and omited his name, and then, quite likely, he would have introduced himself and as soon as I had  heard the name, bingo, I would have put him “in his place.” Next time, that’s what I’ll do.  When, not if, you are a New Yorker, keep that in mind, your opportunity will surely come. Others may not be as understanding or forgiving as Ira.

In a city the size of New York, and smaller ones too, I suppose, there are so many secondary and tertiary  relationships; a dry cleaner, a bus driver, a waiter, a street vendor who pours your coffee for two years and you never know his name or a subways station clerk who you see every day and never a word is exchanged between the two of you. In the normal course of time, when you are “connected” by happenstance, you “know” that person, where they fit into your daily existence, they’re part of your routine and you’re part of theirs. But, when time goes by, and your routine changes that results in a passage that prevents the two of you from seeing each other and then suddenly you see that individual in a different environment, wearing different clothes, doing something other than you were used to seeing them do, it’s difficult to connect and to recall who they are or were in your life!

I believe that this is stricly an urban experience. It is unlikely that people from small towns will experience such encounters. Aren’t they supposed to know each other and their business, who they eat breakfast with, who got a new car and who has been promoted at the insurance agency? Are urbanites paying a price for living their lives in big cites like New York, by having these embarrassing encounters? Are we reminded, by this, that there is a shallowness to our existence, a transient streak, that we carry and on occasion we’re reminded that we live life at a pace that is a little bit too hectic and perhaps somewhat superficial.  No, no way. Honestly, I wouldn’t have it any other way. The more people whose lives I touch and who touch mine, the more enriched I feel, the more complete and content I become. If I had to trade this in for the comfort and familiarity of small town life, I wouldn’t. I love living here, in a city where I don’t know everyting about everyone else and visa versa. There’s an endliess stream of people, past, present and future and that’s just part of the excitement of New York City.

If you think I know you please be a little forgiving if we should cross paths on the streets of New York City please don’t be insulted if I don’t know your name. Certainly I will forgive you if you remember my face but just can’t recall who the hell I am.

Cliff Strome (cliffstrome@gmail.com) is a licensed tour guide, with an exemplary rating from the City of New York. He and his staff of professionals provide Custom & Private Tours of New York City.  1-212-222-1441 www.CustomandPrivate.com

Throughout my years, living in New York City, opportunities to be alone occur often; especially as a man who always enjoys the company of others and not often enough the company of himself. Living in a very dense environment, not always with a friend handy and not being much of a “phone person” I’d frequently leave my midtown apartment and ply the pavement in search of a good restaurant, one with a good bar, a bar with an empty seat or two with numerous people, well dressed, seated there. I’d peer through the window or open the door, do the casual, cursory inspection and ask myself the question, “Is there instant funship here?”

Seating myself on one of the vacant seats, a deliberate choice, based on the neighboring patrons, I’d order a drink and demonstrate my chatability with the bartender. “So what’s uppah?” or “So, where you from?” or “What’s goin’ on?” I’d make an effort to overhear the conversations within earshod, gather my impressions of those engaging in their discussions. Are they smart, comfortable within their skin, seem pleasant, do I like what I’m hearing, did they interest me and would I interest them? I’d make my evaluation, plan my intro, an opener, a line that would evoke a reaction or some comment that would dovetail with the ongoing conversation in order for me to get involved.

Over time, I got good at this and pleased with the skill that I had developed; a nearly perfect record of friendly and engaging people who welcomed me into their chatter. I had mastered the art of playing a role in steering the conversation in all directions that were of interest to all.

Perhaps there’s an art to it, or maybe there are those who have a seed that enables them to just open their mouth and create a connection; “a connector” one who truly likes people and is interested in them and wants them to be interested in them as well. The joy of conversation with a complete stranger who you suddenly like and enjoy being with and the mystery of it all; sharing your experiences and opinions and with each other is, with the right person, lots of fun.

But, that’s not something you would want to try anywhere. There are places where it just won’t work in New York City. I’ve been “around the block a few times” and trust me, you can’t do this anywhere but New York City is the place to be if you are an instant funship person. People here are ready and willing to give you a shot, that’s New York! “What’s this guy got to say?” “Okay, perhaps this fellow is interesting and will add to the conversation.” Body language is important too. Avoid being aggressive, be expressive, use you hands, sit comfortably, self-assured, take an interest in the conversation before you jump in, be agreeable, complimentary and listen to what they’re talking about and by takng it all in you are gathering points and as such they begin to ask you questions: “Do you like here?” “Do you come here often?” “Are you a local?”

Then, after five to ten minutes of engagement, they dig deeper; “Who are you voting for?” “What do you do?” Whether it’s deep or on the surface, the conversation begins to flow as if you’re old friends. Toss in some humor and you’re off; instant funship, you’re no longer alone and on your way to engaging a total stranger, or strangers, in what may become a lifelong friendship, you never know! Who ever warned you; “Don’t talk to strangers?” It’s not the first time I didn’t do what my parents demanded of me!

These encounters serve a purpose in a city the size of New York. Even a New Yorker with family, friends and business relationships will find themselves in the occasionally lonely moment and instant funship is the cure. I’ve had countless conversations with strangers, found in good places, who have interesting experiences to relate, things we have in common and beliefs that we share or differ but can discuss in an engaging and interesting exchange, it’s all good.

In New York City people are willing to express their thoughts, ideas and beliefs.  They want to be heard and will shut their mouths and listen to you too.  It’s something truly special about this town; its an engagement, the sense of community, trust and acceptance. I can always venture out and find the right environment that fits my quest for instant funship more than any other place on earth. Give it a shot, who knows, perhaps I’ll be the guy sitting next to you waiting for you to begin the dialogue the first time you try it.  Sure, it’s okay, talk to strangers, and don’t tell your mama!!

Cliff Strome (cliffstrome@gmail.com) is a licensed tour guide, with an exemplary rating from the City of New York. He and his staff of professionals provide Custom & Private Tours of New York City.  1-212-222-1441 www.CustomandPrivate.com

Isn’t it sorta like a playground incantation? “Na-na-na-na-na NAH!” remember that? “So, I live on the Eastside” and “I enjoy the Westside, that’s where I live”. How many times have we all heard one version or another of that ubiquitous flim-flam, back and forth with residents extolling the benefits, praises and justifications for living on one side of the other? More than we’d like to admit, surely. But of course, it goes without saying, but I’ll say it anyway, we are, of course referring to the Upper of each, no Lower Eastside included in this conversation, that’s a given!

Although the distinction is discussed in good humor, by most, the Upper Eastside has traditionally been known to be more moneyed, old money derived from smokestack industries, coal, steel, railroads, iron, copper and such. Finance, banking and the “well-heeled” have settled in the wealthiest zip codes in the United States on the Upper Eastside. Fifth Avenue, long referred to as the “gold coast” contains coop apartments that run into the tens of millions of dollars with very unreasonable and demanding boards that scrutinize the wealthy and in many cases requiring twenty times or more net worth, liquid, in addition to paying cash, no mortages, for their apartment. Madison Avenue is the Rodeo Drive of New York and its wider terrain, stretching from Fifth Avenue to Eastend Avenue, in places puts the Eastside as a much broader place, east-west, than the Westside, therefore many are much further from Central Park on the east. Their East River park is a pinch park compared with Riverside Park on the Westside which runs the entire distance. Just take a look at Fifth Avenue, a one way street, narrow by comparison and with far less human activity around. Sure there are dog walkers, people going to work, generally from other places and the usual flock of museum goers but the neighborhood doesn’t have the energy, on the pavement as Central Park West.

“White, bright and polite” a phrase that has characterized the Upper Eastside, tongue and cheek has truth, it is far less diverse than the Upper Westside and more inclined to be snobbish dotted with its more costly restaurants, boutiques, banks and shops. Bloomingdales, Dylan’s Candy Bar and such give this neighborhood less of what New York City is all about, democratic politics and diversity. It is a well loved part of town, for sure, but the Westside is:

It seems like a higher energy, more beautiful environment claiming most artists, producers, writers, musicians, actors and people of popular culture. It tends to be younger, has wider shopping streets, Broadway has it all, more subway lines, red, blue and orange, theatres, Columbus Circle, Time Warner Center, better and less costly food stores and no shortage of fine dining, movie theatres and great housing stock, which is, cost wise, just about parallel to most of the Upper Eastside. Its diversity is its primary distinction from the Eastside. There seems to be more friendliness, non-judgmentalism and acceptance of every ethnic group. Ever since the construction of Lincoln Center and the re-making of Lincoln Square, the Westside has shed its stigma as a poorer and more hostile environment.

So, one is not better than the other, they’re different and depending on who and what you are, either is a better fit for you. I do believe that the Upper Westside is more of a bastion of liberal wealth, one of the few left in the country, so if that suits you, better “go west young man (or woman)”

Cliff Strome (cliffstrome@gmail.com) is a licensed tour guide, with an exemplary rating from the City of New York. He and his staff of professionals provide Custom & Private Tours of New York City.  1-212-222-1441 www.CustomandPrivate.com

New York City is the only city in the world that provided express subway lines when the subways were built; we also conceived of Air-rights; escalators, a New York invention (an amusement ride at Coney Island); we built the first landscaped park with public money for the benefit of all and of course, Sweet ‘n’ Low, another New York City invention!

Here’s that fascinating story:

Mr. & Mrs. Benjamin Eisenstadt ran a small family business on Cumberland Avenue in Brooklyn, packaging tea in individual packets. As the story goes, they were having coffee at the local diner, in 1957, taking a well earned break from the stresses of running their business. As Mrs. Eisenstadt, about to dip her spoon into the sugar bowl that sat on the table, she remarked to Ben,
“Look at those disgusting clumps of brown sugar, from the prior users. That’s unclean! Why don’t we put sugar in those tea packets instead?” And that was the origin of Sweet ‘n’ Low!

An idea is worthless, until someone takes it to a place, does something, acts. As a result of this incident, they began to market sugar, individually packaged, and it was, unsurprisingly, a sweet success. But, that was a time of health consciousness, weight loss and calorie counting. Saccharin, the primary ingredient, at the time, was commonly used as a liquid food additive in food manufacturing, not yet available for direct consumer use. They asked their son Marvin, a chemist, if he could re-consititute the compound into a granulated format. He succeeded. They were granted U.S. Patent 3,625,711 and U.S. Trademark number 1,000,000!

For over thirty years they had held a monopoly over the sweetner market in the United States. Over the years they battled with the Food and Drug Administration as laboratory tests revealed that the sweetener was carcinogenic and other compounds were formulated over time.

The name Sweet ‘n’ Low was derived from an 1863 song written by Joseph Barnby, whose lyrics were based on William Lord Tennysons’s poem called, “The Princess: Sweet and Low” and that was the song that the Eisenstadt’s danced to when they were “keeping company” a term from WW II days for being engaged or “dating”.

Take a look at the back of the package and if you have your eyeglasses with you or are young enough o read the fine print, check it out, Cumberland Packaging, Brooklyn, New York!

Cliff Strome (cliffstrome@gmail.com) is a licensed tour guide, with an exemplary rating from the City of New York. He and his staff of professionals provide Custom & Private Tours of New York City.  1-212-222-1441 www.CustomandPrivate.com

One hundred years ago everybody went to Coney Island for everything! With over 1,000,000 visitors on a typical summer Sunday this place rocked like no other in the history of New York City, that’s a fact! With the merging of this “island” to Brooklyn with landfill it actually became Coney Peninsula, so to speak. And where did all that landfill come from, the subways, where else? And when the subway was built out to Coney, Island or Peninsula, whatever, you’d get there for a nickel. In an age of no air-conditioning and no highways to take you further east, who had cars then anyway, Jones Beach didn’t exist yet anyway, you had one choice that’d take you away from all the grit of urban life, if you want to call that “life”!

With a virtually endless boardwalk, Atlantic Ocean beaches, with bodies that one could walk on from one end to the other never touching sand, but be careful what you wish for; a sea of humanity basked in the sun, enjoyed the ocean breezes and took a respite from the city and many from each other. Yes, families by the thousands spent their nickels and trekked to the oasis of New York and for one, maybe two, days a week in the short New York summer had brief vacations on the cheap.

Mr. Handworker opened his first Nathan’s Famous there in 1916 on the corner of Surf and Stillwell. and it’s still well, right there on the southeast corner selling those delicious ‘dogs, for more than the original price of ten cents, but still a bargain, if you’ve ever tasted one. And, at a nickel across the street he slammed his competitor. How? He gave out free coupons to the doctors and nurses at Coney Island Hospital and they all came. People “knew” that Nathan’s ‘dogs were healthier, sure! It’s just another New York story, fascinating.

I peered out the front window of the first car of the B train on my way to Coney not too long ago, my first trip there. My escape, as a baby boomer was not Coney, ever, but Jones Beach, the Hamptons or off to some airport for more distant places. The amusement parks, all three of them, had fallen into disuse, The Cyclone roller-coaster, was a toy compared with what Six Flags had to offer, the neighborhood had become somewhat blighted, overused and uninviting. Why would anyone, like me, want to go there?

Curiosity, adventure, to learn, to experience, to take a walk back through time, a time before my time, and to hear the “ghosts” have a hotdog and fries at Surf and Stillwell perhaps. It was a New Yorker yearning for a taste of the past, whatever I could get. Just to be at a place, that was tired, worn and historic, to smell the air, meet a person or two who’d share their experiences, tell me of the ol’ days and provide a glimps of the past that is gone forever, or is it? Plans have been made, investors have come forward, locals, community groups and politicians are lining up to re-create this wonderful place, this vital piece of New York history. With a beach ocean connected by subway to millions of people, the right vision and opportunity will arise; it’s just a matter of time. And next time it will be even better, vibrant, reborn, and morph into the greatest playground that this City has ever known, In the meantime, perhaps there are others, just like me, who go out to Coney for “Nothing” or maybe, more then those who sweltered in those subway cars and for better reason.

Cliff Strome (cliffstrome@gmail.com) is a licensed tour guide, with an exemplary rating from the City of New York. He and his staff of professionals provide Custom & Private Tours of New York City. 1-212-222-1441 www.CustomandPrivate.com

If you lived in London and someone here in New York City asked you where you were from you’d say, “London”! Right!? That’s a no brainer. If you were asked the same question in London, would you say, “London”? Probably not. You’re answer would we Marble Arch, Picadilly or Barkley Square, etc. When we conceive of a city from afar we are not looking at it under a microscope, London is London, right, and New York, well, is New York.
But, when you understand and recognize that a city is the sum of its parts, a collection of neighborhoods, an answer, such as London or New York, if the inquiry occurs in the city, is like saying I’m from The United States, instead of replying Colorado, Maryland or Wisconsin. And even in such cases, people from any of those states will agree that Denver is not nearly like Colorado Springs or Steamboat. But, New York City is so much smaller then any state, in size only. The diversity of its neighborhoods is vast and varied, far more different then any places you can name in most states, cities or even countries for that matter.

When asked the question:
“Hey, where you from New York?” when asked in New York, that tells me that this fellow is not a New Yorker, but there are exceptions. If I had been asked,
“So, do you live in Manhattan?” that would have been more New Yorkish but not a dead giveaway.
If I had been asked, “Do you live in the neighborhood or you seem like a New Yorker, what part of the City are you from?” then I’d know that this guy is a New Yorker.

In most cases, people who I encounter in the City will respond to the question citing their neighborhood or less frequently, their borough, Brooklyn or Staten Island, etc. A borough answer is usually a sign of lack of pride in their neighborhood. Who lives in Brooklyn Heights, perhaps Brooklyn’s most historic and beautiful neighborhood, with the answer, just “Brooklyn”? Who lives in Manhattan who’d answer the question, “Manhattan” who lives in Tribeca or Soho? However, those who live in Inwood, Washington Heights or El Barrio would more likely respond with “Manhattan”. I’ve never taken a poll about this but I have found that there is some truth in this. What’s it about?

Many who have been raised and still live in their old neighborhoods” tend to have a greater sense of pride where they live, their roots are there, their friends, the local grocer and they have become a part of the landscape, feel that it’s their comfort zone and truly their home, they’re familiar with the landscape, peoplescape and know their way around. But, for the new residents, many who have had to settle there in lieu of their neighborhood of choice, usually for economic reasons, there is a sense of shame or disappointment to make the announcement, “I’m from Mott Haven!”

Times are changing. Neighborhoods that in the past had been measured by crime and grit are changing and many no longer carry the stigma that they’ve carried years ago. Many Harlemites or residents of SoHa, south Harlem, are filled with pride and so it is with Bed-Sty, Greenpoint, Woodside and Alphabet City. We are a forever changing City and as we welcome newcomers we know that many must settle for less than they want. As we look back we have evidence that this is nothing new. The Lower Eastside (LES) is a newer and more vibrant place, just look up! The East Village is a voluntary choice for many, great location and lots going on there now, a lot safer too. Look around and you’ll agree, the list of so called “bad” neighborhoods is vanishing. “Where you from?” that’s a question that every New Yorker should be proud to answer! “Nah, I’m not from New York, I’m from . . . . !” And proud!

Cliff Strome (cliffstrome@gmail.com) is a licensed tour guide, with an exemplary rating from the City of New York. He and his staff of professionals provide Custom & Private Tours of New York City.  1-212-222-1441 www.CustomandPrivate.com

The true litmus test for a New Yorker is the refrain, “Oh, I remember when that was there!” or “Oh, I remember when this was there!” The marvelous writer and editor, Pete Hamill expressed those sentiments, better than I can, in one of his terrific books. New York City is nostalgia. That’s one of the emotions about this town that I have to admit that attaches me. Even though I have lived here, since day one, a little more than half a century ago, I can recall so much that defined the images and imagination that lightened my childhood that no longer exists. I too have morphed into one of those who walks down the streets of Manhattan and I silently say to myself, “I remember when that was there!” I fear that if I utter those words out loud I will be giving myself away as an elder, and in New York, there’s a risk, the risk that I am putting myself in a category, a long time New Yorker, one who has a life behind them that is sketched in the stone and steel of a City gone by, but I’m still here!

Today, I walk the streets and have the notion that I am pacing upon the pavement of a city that differs from the one that I knew forty or fifty years ago. Although I know that I have changed, the City has changed too, never static or constant. I look at everything, everyone and wonder. How would I feel if it were the same as it had been in 1960? Boring! What would be the thrill of venturing about in a town that stands still? Why would I have a desire to venture out in a City that doesn’t change? I might as well go to the park and stroll through the paths, smell the roses, glance at the trees and evaluate the condition of the grass as compared to last year. Why would I rather experience a constant, a natural wonder that is a wonder such as The Grand Canyon, Niagara Falls or even The Hudson River Valley, as beautiful as they are?

But, I’m a New Yorker, the blood in my veins is filled with its energy and juice, it energizes my and lifts my spirit because it changes, moves forward, lurches to the future and embraces its opportunities and expresses itself in thousands of ways, the imagination and innovative drive of its people, the culture that we’re created here is amazing!

I remember when Pennsylvania Station stood, and when The Coliseum was built in 1957 in Columbus Circle, such a big deal that the U.S. Postal Service issued a stamp commemorating the event; gone; I rememberewhen The Met Life Building was once The Pan Am Building and I recall working on Sixth Avenue between 47-48th Street, peering out the window and seeing brownstones with makeshift store fronts across the street where huge structures of concrete, glass and steel tower over fifty stories high. Frequently, I pass by that block, I enter the deli that occupies the place of business where I had worked, a camera store; I enter, purchase my coffee and glance across the street and ask myself, “Where has it gone?” or “Why did it change?” and a number of other questions. I reflect on the past, the bygone days when men wore hats, and skirts were lower, the subway was a dime, a 50% increase so I was told and those who told me were experiencing the same thing, “My how things have changed!” I imagined that if Abraham Lincoln had seen those brownstones he’d have marveled at the transformation, five story buildings replacing two or three story wooden frame structures, “well, it’s about time!”

But, try to imagine the next series of changes there. Who can imagine the destruction of such towers, the endgame is at hand, yes? No, I don’t think so. Look at every block; notice the older structures that line the Avenues and side streets. There’s plenty of room for more “Going, Going, Gone!” and if I were able to come back in one hundred years I’d feel as through I’d never been here before. That’s one of the magical tours of New York, the tour in time, like nowhere else it moves, it shakes and it is an ever changing place, its people, its environment and its morays, but never its character. That’s the only constant in New York City, a vibrant people who are always reaching for its future, one that will hold more than we can ever imagine.

Cliff Strome (cliffstrome@gmail.com) is a licensed tour guide, with an exemplary rating from the City of New York. He and his staff of professionals provide Custom & Private Tours of New York City.  1-212-222-1441 www.CustomandPrivate.com

Walking down 23rd Street between 6th and 7th Avenue, I was reminded that there was a residence for the unsighted, or “legally blind”. What’s the difference you may ask? Well, that was my question when I heard the term, “legally blind”! Once upon a time, I operated a One Hour Photo Store on 23rd Street, a dinosaur business now, and I had noticed, prior to signing my lease, that there was a huge residence for blind people. Hum, I knew that I was opening my business in the right place, how could I fail with a residence for the blind right down the block? Well, as it turned out I got a lot of business from that place, don’t ask me how! But, “legally blind” is not blind as we know it. “Legally blind” is blind enough to obtain federal aid but not blind enough to take pictures. In fact, one of my most talented customers was “legally blind”, living there, and was she some terrific photographer! On with the story. . .

So, I’m walking down 23rd Street, approaching the blind residence. Two men are standing, leaning against a storefront, each with one leg propped up against the storefront, smoking cigarettes, chatting and not noticing the octogenarian, a women about 5 feet tall, tapping a white stick from side to side, obviously unsighted is passing by unnoticed by the pair. She, unknowingly, taps one of them in the shin with her stick attempting to navigate her way home.

“Why don’t you look where you’re going?” one of them shouted at her.

“Why don’t you blank blank yourself?!” she retorted in “kind”.

“Yeah, sure! Why don’t you go and blank yourself!?”

I had to hold back my laughter. Although there was a huge dose of tragedy here, I had to take stock.
New York! Here’s the best example of the day, that a tiny elderly woman, unsighted, can shout out her defense, rise to the occasion and roar expletives in her defense without the ability to see her adversay(s), without the ability to defend herself physically, without the ability to take anything with her back home except her self-respect and that is everything. That is a lot and for that she won the battle on the pavement, a blind old woman against two young men and good for her. She took what they had to throw at her and she stood tall and moved forward in dignity and pride. Wishing her well, we all applaud her courage and conviction.

Cliff Strome (cliffstrome@gmail.com) is a licensed tour guide, with an exemplary rating from the City of New York. He and his staff of professionals provide Custom & Private Tours of New York City.  1-212-222-1441 www.CustomandPrivate.com

We were all tired, strained and just into our own worlds, exhausted from the pressures of another day. There was no talking and no eye contact; noise yes, the roar of the “C” subway roaring uptown whisking us away from the pressures of our day, one collective mass of humanity, another day at work in the big City!

Suddenly, the train came to a halt, without warning, in between the 81st and 86th Street stations! Oh O! What’s going on? At first it was amusing, then amazing and finally a little scary!

“There’s an emergency! It’s in the train ahead of us. We are stopped until the emergency is cleared. The first car of the train has entered the 86th Street station, so if you want to leave the train, walk to the first car and you will be able to exit the train in the station.” barked the conductor.

Well, just about everyone, out of good sense, had made their decision; the decision to exit the train at 86th Street. Several hundred people walked forward, from car to car, toward the first car, I included. When I reached the third car I noticed that it was packed! Upon venturing up to the front of the car I realized that the log jam was caused by a locked front door in that car. I placed my hand on the handle of the front door and it was evident, it was locked!

Immediately, I walked back, through the crowd, back to the fifth car where the door conductor, who had made the announcement could be found.

“Hey, the door in the front of the third car is lock!” I told him.

“Okay, let’s go.” he said. They have all the keys, that’s a given.

Following the conductor, close behind, as we all do in vehicular traffic behind an ambulance to better the rest, I was glued to him, throught the fourth to the third car, weaving our way through the mob.

He inserted his magical key into the lock and opened the door. I was the first person through the portal and on to the second and out the first, into the station and I ascended the stairs to the street.

Being December, I quickly wrapped my scarf around my neck, zipped my coat and put on my gloves, glad to be out of the underworld, safely on the street.

“Hey! Whas uppa witch you? You hadda be the firs’ one outta da train, man! Whas so special ’bout you man?”

“Good for you guy, you got out number one and aren’t you special!?”

Two comments that rang in my ears as I was ready, buttoned up and off to my final destination, home!

“Well, thanks folks, just want to let you know that if it hadn’t been for me, the one who got the conductor with the key to the door, then we’ll all be down there still. Merry Christmas!”

“Hey yeah! You too, sorry guy, Merry Christmas to you too!”

Cliff Strome (cliffstrome@gmail.com) is a licensed tour guide, with an exemplary rating from the City of New York. He and his staff of professionals provide Custom & Private Tours of New York City.  1-212-222-1441 www.CustomandPrivate.com

A ninety plus year old man entered the B train, that’s a subway line, a few days ago, just prior to December 7th, Pearl Harbor Day. He sauntered in, keeping his balance as the train accelerated out of the 59th Street Columbus Circle Station. Had the train not been so packed surely he’d have fallen. At the time I only know that this guy was in great need of a place to sit so I got up and offered him mine. I made him aware that the seat was his and without hesitation he smiled and parked himself safely down, resting comfortably, assured that the lurches, starts and stops of the “B” would not be a threat to his fragile frame.

After he had seated himself I noticed the red baseball type hat that he was wearing. It was adorned with about fifteen of those little medal ornaments, the type that can be purchased at the Army Navy Store, no heroics needed, placed haphazardly on the front, just below the stitched on yellow lettering, “WW II”, a dead, or should I say live, giveaway that this gent had fought in “The Big One”. I asked him, “Pacific or Europe?”

“Pacific” was his reply.

“Iwo Jima, Midway, Pearl Harbor or elsewhere?” I inquired.

“Bataan!”

I knew enough about that War to know that Bataan was one of the most brutal and horrific battles of the War. “The death march” provided slim odds even for the most hardy and determined among our committed and well trained troops. The survivors were far, far too few.

“I want to thank you for my freedom, thank you!” I told him with a salute.

“And I want to thank you for thanking me.” he responded with his voice shaking from age and emotion.

How often do people’s sacrifices go unappreciated? When we consider that more likely than not, we go about our business without a thought that our precious freedom is a gift from those whom we never bother to thank and from those who are not “with us” to thank. We all need to seize opportunities when they arise to express our gratitude. It made him feel good and it gave me a feeling of warmth and pride, happy that this fellow was there for me to surrender, to surrender my seat. I only wish that it could happen more often. Gentlemen, New York salutes you!

Often people that I tour are quite confused, navigating Manhattan. Why? I just don’t get it! This City was laid out by a bunch of geniuses between 1807 and 1811! DeWitt Clinton, the many time Mayor and Governor of New York, who conceived of the Grid Plan that laid out the streets of Manhattan from 14th Street north up to 155th Street before those streets even existed. He knew that the City was expanding northward and that a logical, practical and navigable plan had been needed to be put into place. South of 14th Street was a nightmare to navigate because the Dutch and English built streets around the rocks and created little hamlets that reminded them of their environs back home. I still get a little lost in the West Village and for the visitor its a nightmare! The gridplan of 1811 provides for parallel and perpendicular streets that are all laid out neatly and one of the prerequisites of the plan mandated that the rocks be cleared so that we live in a flat city, easy for us, to provide that the horses could move along with less effort. Despite this, there are many, not only tourists, who have some confusion and need help now and then. Even though the streets are numbered, originally for the benefit of the immigrants, people just get confused, lost. Therefore, I have asked many of my clients to do the one minute test! That is, stand on a corner, with ample pedestrian traffic, open a street map, and count to sixty. I guarantee, GUARANTEE that before you hit sixty you will be approached and offered assistance. Since I have tried this little experiment, only once has someone claimed that no one came to their assistance. In fact, I have tried it myself and it has not failed me. New Yorkers are the kindest people on earth. It must be so! Why? How else could over eight million people live together in such a relatively small place? No where else does that happen!

Elderly African American women are aided crossing the street by Caucasian boys; African American teenage boys assist Caucasian women who are in need of help carrying baby stollers up the stairs to exist the subway; several people waiting to catch a cab in the rain and the younger person will yield to the elder who is laden down with packages as they watch the cab speed away; unsighted people are aided across the street by those who came from the opposite direction; at day’s end transparent bottles that have sat on portable tables manned by homeless men find their efforts fulfilled as they take those bottles back to their shelters stuffed with coin and bills, evidence of kindness and caring; school children “hawking” candy on buses seeking to raise money for athletic uniforms to fulfill their quotas early enough to complete their homework before dinner; and contented bus drivers announce that the last stop on the Madison Avenue bus is San Juan, Puerto Rico, on a cold winter’s day to elevate the spirits of the masses who journey uptown to the safety and comfort of their warm apartments.

That’s New York! It is no longer the symbol of rude and crude. It’s the “heartland”, the place to embrace, a pot that melted long before we had ever heard of California, Oregon, Kansas or Colorado! Come and “be a part of it”. Come and be as nice as you can be and guess what, you’ll know what it is to be a New Yorker. You too can make it 1,001 acts of kindness a minute, that’s in a “New York Minute.” Hey, got a minute?

Cliff Strome (cliffstrome@gmail.com) is a licensed tour guide, with an exemplary rating from the City of New York. He and his staff of professionals provide Custom & Private Tours of New York City.  1-212-222-1441 www.CustomandPrivate.com

For those who have toured Harlem with me and have brunched at Londel’s it is not difficult for you to visualize the joy, energy and shear rapture that erupted that night as the results of the 2008 Presidential election made a “dream” come true.

Harlem, long the center of African-American culture, pride, literature, the roots of The Civil Rights Movement, that night a community had every reason to celebrate, in style. Venturing up to Harlem that evening, I live about 1 1/2 miles from 140th Street I felt a welcome that even I never had expected. As one of the few white skinned people in attendance, I immediately felt my color disappear. We were all ONE that night, and that’s the way it is and that’s the way it will be, now and always. We’re all Americans who now recognize that all the barriers are gone. Now little black boys and girls, Latinos, Muslims, you name it, have learned that anything is possible in America. The dream is no long a dream, it has become a reality. Children will work harder knowing that they too can become President, scholars will strive, excel and reach higher to achieve a better life. Respect and kindness will abound with greater frequency from “sea to shining sea.” The war is over at long last, The Civil War; what was so civil about that?

People all across the world have fallen in love with The United States once again. We are no longer regarded as the world’s bully, a unilateral tour de force, but rather a reasonable, kind and fair-minded people who want engagement not only with our allies but with our so-called enemies as well. Moreover, we want dialogue with one another for that is the best way to move forward. I got home about 2 AM with a memory of how it is supposed to be, “One Nation, Under God, with liberty and justice for ALL”

I’ve been to Harlem many times but never like this. As a school teacher back in the 1970’s up in Harlem, it was quite a different place. Just see “American Gangster” and you’ll get the “picture”. The crime, drug scene, the filth in the streets, gangs of kids hanging out, purposeless and rows of stores boarded up, abandoned buildings littered the landscape mired in all that is dreaded in the worst urban environments.

But now now, there’s a sense of rebirth, vibrancy, investment, safety and growth not seen since the first Harlem Renaissance back in the 1920’s. Join me next time you’re here and see for yourself. Take in a Gospel Serivce, feel the welcome and experience the glory. Take back a different, a better Harlem in your mind and heart one that you’ll never forget, one that everyone is now proud of. Striver’s Row, Astor Row, Marcus Garvey Park, The world’s largest cathedral (St. John the Divine) and much more await you. And if you stoll with me Custom & Private New York Tours and be proud that you too can experience a wonderful place known as Harlem!

Cliff Strome (cliffstrome@gmail.com) is a licensed tour guide, with an exemplary rating from the City of New York. He and his staff of professionals provide Custom & Private Tours of New York City.  1-212-222-1441 www.CustomandPrivate.com

Well, that’s quite a statement! That depends on what you consider “making it” and who you are. How often I’ve wondered why that statement is dichotomous; meaning, if this is the most competitive town on earth, filled with the best, smartest, most imaginative and resourceful people on earth then what will become of the mediocre? For many of the ordinary or unambitious, to them, they have made it too. But, for the purposes of this blog, our focus is on those who seek to reach the top. And even for those who are at the top of the heap; talent, energy, effort, etc. their chances of making it are diminished by the herds of competition that swirl around them, yes?! Let’s attempt to reconcile the delemma; is it easier to “make it” here than elsewhere?

Let’s say that you’ve decided to come to New York City, settle in, and ply your trade, pursue your ambition and you hope to become successful at what you do. You’ve tried and tried elsewhere, Ohio, Florida, Michigan or Oregon. You write, act, sing, draw or sell widgets or what-cha-ma-call-its. You settle in and point yourself in a direction; exploring opportunities again and again, here there are more opportunities than anywhere else, sure, but what separates the “winners from the non-winners” from those who stay and those who pack their bags and leave? Yes folks, people come and go, all the time.

First, successful New Yorkers are those who come with a steel mind, they’re going to make it here no matter what; they believe in themselves, they know that the opportunities here are greater than anywhere else; they arrive with passion, energy, commitment and confidence. They know, deep in their hearts that they’re good or great at what they do and they know that it won’t be easy. They are opened minded, knowing that they are poised to learn, listen and experience. They know that digging into the grit of the City will broaden their perspectives, teach them, they want to learn the ropes, the rules of the road and by taking in all that they hear, see and gleen, they will build a treasure of experience built on others experiences, successes and failures. Many toss out the old textbooks that their college professors recommended, they’re here to re-write the book, they’re here to blaze trails as millions of New Yorkers have done before them, they seek to find better ways to do the “same ol’ same ol’”; it’s the proverbial, the “build a better mouse trap and the world will beat a path to your door” syndrome.

Because the stakes are high in New York City, the cost of rents, the store down the street that’s got it right, the casting call that has your knees clacking, the insecurities that only you know about that you carry around with you, the self-doubt and the dread of failure, all are demons that speak to you, inside your head, they never go away. However, for those who succeed, there is another voice that lurks within; that’s the one that tells you that it’s okay, that you are equipped with all that you need to “make it” here, and why not? That’s up to you, not what you can do but what you DO do! How many “foreigners” have arrived at our shores and have blasted themselves, their careers into the stratosphere? How many have come with pennies in their pockets and a dream in their hearts? For those who have made it is the measure of merging their tenacity, humility, their eagerness, their fortitude and positivity with the magic carpet, the endless canvas of opportunity that is New York City.

No, if you can make it here, you can make it anywhere, as long as elsewhere there’s enough left over for you, and that’s the challenge, to find opportunities in Oshkosh. But, with a full breast of energy and enthusiasm, you’re sure to find what you’re looking for here, more so than elsewhere, and if you do make it here it’s because you have tooled yourself to take advantage of this great City and merge the best of you and all who you are with the heart beat of New York. To paraphrase John Steinbeck: Only New York has a heartbeat, that may grab you and if you find something that you love and passionately pursue, you will become a part of that heartbeat and if you’re fortunate you’ll never let go. Never let go!

Cliff Strome (cliffstrome@gmail.com) is a licensed tour guide, with an exemplary rating from the City of New York. He and his staff of professionals provide Custom & Private Tours of New York City.  1-212-222-1441 www.CustomandPrivate.com

There are so many cities that have had their glory days and we can all name so many of them. Rome, Athens, London and countless others that have been pinnacles of so much grandeur, innovation, success and wealth. Rome, conceived of a city on seven hills, Athens with its Mount Olympus, London, the largest and most important and others too that have “had their day”. In their own way they have “blazed trails”, weathered the storms of history and have had their “days in the sun” centers of the universe, always the place to be, “all roads lead to Rome”.

Today, many still embrace New York City as the center of the world. That great experiment in multi-cultural amalgamation, the experiment that created a “melting pot” proving for the first time that people from all over the world could integrate, not always easily, but certainly successfully, the proof is in the pudding. With no less than 171 languages spoken here, we accomplish more here than on any other place on earth, together, and that’s big! But, knowing that all great cities have their day, or do they, when and why will New York’s greatness ever end, or will it? What are the forces that would drive this town into decline, a decline from which it might never reemerge and when?

What would cause the theatres to go away? What would cause people to flee? Why would entrepreneurs decide not to invest in New York City? Why would this place become an abandoned place and island, Manhattan, with the surrounding boroughs, fall behind, as the Lenape Indians hadprovided for us, not that they had a choice, albeit, leaving then with concrete, glass and steel to bury to restore what they had provided, that “island of little hills”.

New York City has had a circuitous route, it’s growth had been, for the most part, straight up, with a lot of stresses; The Revolution, The Draft Riots, Depressions, Wars, The removal of the Brooklyn Navy Yard, “The Bronx is Burning”, the near bankruptcy in the 1970’s, “Ford to City, ‘Drop Dead’”, September 11, 2001 and now the current financial crisis. What will be thrown at us next and what will undo us?

There is no doubt that cycles will come and go. Crime, grime and slime will ebb and flow. Tabloids will ply their trade exposing us to gruesome crimes, acts of horror, hate and inhumane deeds, heightening our fears and gripping the City. Gate crashers and roughnecks will roam our streets and seek to romp us and hope to cause us to fail. Corruption, thanks Mr. Tweed, will be ubiquitous and the rotten politicians will lurk in every corner hoping to find the edge that will enrich them and destroy us. Been there, done that!

We will always have that sad and lonely underbelly of beggers, homeless souls and naysayers who doubt that New York City will or can endure. Welcome them! For those whose existence is out to destroy us, will never know that they never will. For that which tries only makes us stronger. And that’s the point. With all that we’ve been through, and that we’re still here, we are the strongest, most committed people on earth. We have been through September 11th, we have weathered all the storms, we have invented, created, re-created, perfected, improved, moved, shaken, survived and prospered, in good times and bad. We are the backbone of the earth, we are the best of the best and we are poised to achieve, grow and show the world that we are leaders, movers, shakers, doers and we set the bar. We are New York City and that says it all!

New York City, the last place on earth, the best place on earth, it’s where you want to be even if it’s only for a short visit; we welcome, embrace and are proud to have you as our guest, because when you want to come back, we’ll be here waiting for you. But don’t be disappointed if the New York City you see upon your return looks, feels and seems just a little bit different from the one you’ve seen the last time. We don’t stand still, we move ahead, fast forward and if you can balance yourself on your two feet, take a deep breath, inhale and “Start spreadin’ the news!!”

Cliff Strome (cliffstrome@gmail.com) is a licensed tour guide, with an exemplary rating from the City of New York. He and his staff of professionals provide Custom & Private Tours of New York City.  1-212-222-1441 www.CustomandPrivate.com

I hate to see people enjoying the park, walking hand in hand, sitting and reading a newspaper under tree shading them or gazing at a jogger taking another lap around the loop and even gazing at adults showing off their ice skating skills at one of the two rinks in the Park. I dislike watching those who amble through the Park to escape the City to enjoy a few precious moments of solace and what really irks me is watching a young parent with their child tightly secured in a handlebar basket peddling through the Park just gliding through meandering down a paved path through the North Woods. It reminds me of Mel Brooks comment in the comedy sketch, “The Two Thousand Year Old Man” when he was asked, “What do you think of man’s conquest of space, sending a man to the Moon?” His reply, “That was good!”

In truth, I take pride and pleasure watching people enjoy Central Park, but what puzzles me is that the vast majority of those who use and enjoy the Park don’t know nor do they care to learn anything about how the Park was built, yes built, and why, when, at what cost, etc. What it took to create this first ever landscaped urban park paid for with public money for the use of all the people, not just the King or Queen’s friends and nobility baffles me!

In the early 19th century a “Garden Cemetery” movement took hold in order that visitors could visit their forbearers in a bucolic and natural environment, find spiritual peace, appreciate life and reflect. The concept of landscaped parks grow out of this concept as a way to provide an escape from the stresses of urban life during the industrial revolution, giving people a much needed release from the pressures of life in the crowded, filthy urban environment.

New York City leaders, such as William Cullen Bryant, clamored for such a park and by the mid 19th century the Park Commissioner held a contest to design The Central Park. Thirty two entries were submitted and Fredrick Law Olsmtead and Calvert Vaux won the $2,000 prize and the right to supervise and implement their design with the help of 20,000 men, more explosives than used in The Battle of Gettysburg, hauling in over 500,000 tons of soil from New Jersey, evicting over 800 inhabitants in a place known as Seneca Village, planting over 250,000 trees, building 37 bridges, all unique, creating a varied and lush environment, at the time, too far north for most inhabitants of Manhattan to use, but the visionaries got it right because they knew that the city was growing north, built walls, created gate names to enter upon that glorified humankind, such as Ladies’ Gate, Boys’ Gate, Engineers’ Gate, etc.

The four transverse roads that run between the east and west side, submerged with bridges straddling them provided for no interruption of traffic or park goers, the technology to transport water underground was visionary, feeding the various bodies of water in the Park all man-made, the topography that slopes below the level of the adjacent roadway provides greater refuse and quiet for park goers as well.

At a cost of over $7,000,000, at that time, the time that The United States government paid about the same amount for the entire state of Alaska, one has to reflect that the commitment to provide this great City with a park equal in size to the two smallest countries in the world, Monaco and The Vatican, was quite a huge undertaking. For those who remark that the value of the property, 843 acres, if developed into housing would have provided an impressive real estate tax base they ought to take note that it has been calculated that the increased value of the surrounding properties enhanced value, due to the existence of the park, is far greater!

Enjoy Central Park! You will love it even more when you learn more about this special place. It is truly The 19th century American Masterpiece, a natural, living piece of art that truly spells A M E R I C A!

Cliff Strome (cliffstrome@gmail.com) is a licensed tour guide, with an exemplary rating from the City of New York. He and his staff of professionals provide Custom & Private Tours of New York City.  1-212-222-1441 www.CustomandPrivate.com

Peering out into the distance from behind a clump of rocks I saw the future. No. It couldn’t be true. No way! My tribe, my family had lived here for hundreds of years and we had never disturbed the beauty that nature had provided. We’ve sustained ourselves for generations, living off the land. We had all that we needed and more so, all that we wanted; an abundant supply of food, the means to create shelter, safety, knowing that the waters surrounded us provided sufficient protection and we lived in peace, a family, a great nation free of foreign diseases and weapons that we’d never seen or could have ever conceived. We grew our own food, hunted and survived on this beautiful island in that past and believed that we’d be able to do so forever and ever. Why not? What could or would ever change this island? Why and who would ever want to?

Our years were measured by generations, not by events or inventions. We lived in a world that stayed the same and that was good. That’s the way we wanted it and that’s the way we felt it should always be. As Lenapes we were content, self-sufficient and pleased that we had found a way of life that was challenging and invigorating. We were a part of the land and the land was a part of us. We were intertwined in a symbiotic relationship that would go on forever. Our departed were interned into the land and they then lived on through our relationship with the soil. No one owned land we were all attached to it. We took care of ourselves and each other. We sought no material gain, only the fruits of the land that was derived from our labors, nature and our faith in our creator, “The Great Spirit”. We had no need to change a thing, just to persist and endure, to nurture the land and give back to it, our support system and that was good. We loved this island and it was truly our home, a safe and secure place to raise our children, to teach them the ways of their ancestors, and their parents as well, to build their futures as their forbearers had built the past upon which they grew and prospered.

We are a simple people with good values, environmentally responsible, we know of no other way; love and justice, they are our standard; of caring and concern for our families and neighbors and of pride in our communities, beliefs and way of life and love of our great nation.

The island of Mana-Hatta, the Lenape Indian word for Manhattan, meaning “island of hills” is now, not even 400 years hence the most transformed city on earth, and in such a short time. How would those Lenapes feel if they came back today? “Culture shock”! Civilization shock! That’s an understatement!! How interesting it is to imaging that, after the Pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock in 1620 this transformation had yet to begin! Less than 400 years, what time has wrought, just a mere heartbeat on the timeline of human history! How incredible it is to consider that this little island, only 23 square miles has become “The Island at the Center of the Earth”, truly it has become the center of the world.” If you want to see the world, come to New York!” Come and visit Manhattan and become a part of the greatest piece of ground upon the planet. Celebrate the world, “the melting pot”, and say “thank you” to the Lenapes for providing us with a treasure that is beyond belief!!

Cliff Strome (cliffstrome@gmail.com) is a licensed tour guide, with an exemplary rating from the City of New York. He and his staff of professionals provide Custom & Private Tours of New York City.  1-212-222-1441 www.CustomandPrivate.com

Even though we all have days that seem “uneventful” and as though time is just carrying you along, such as today; I reflected and came up with something that I, and hopefully you too, with find amusing. I “launched” two tours today, a Chinese and a Spanish language tour, one at The Gramercy Hotel and the other at Le Parker Meridien in midtown. Starting out, by subway, on west 97th Street, where I live, I emerged twenty minutes later at the Flatiron Building on 23rd Street where Broadway and Fifth Avenue intersects. From a quiet Upper Westside neighborhood; children on their way to school, elderly shoppers pushing their carts, commuters rushing to work and sidewalk newspaper hawkers prying their trade, the absence of ubiquitous car and taxi horns identified the area as largely residential. As I emerged from the subway I realized that I was in a different place, a mere four miles as the crow flies! That was my first transformation of the day. A short walk to The Gramercy Hotel took me past the church were Eleanor Roosevelt was baptized, where Valentine Mott, MD, founder of New York Hospital, died suddenly on the evening of April 15, 1865 upon hearing of Lincoln’s death. I peered through the iron fence of Gramercy Park, the only park in Manhattan that requires a key to enter and then I turned the corner on Lexington Avenue and recalled that I was gazing upon the home of Cyrus Field, the genius behind the laying of the first Trans-Atlantic cable.

After I left The Gramercy I dropped into the subway and stepped out at 57th Street and Seventh Avenue. As I exited, Carnegie Hall came into view, Carnegie Towers and Metropolitan Tower. I was taken, in fifteen minutes, from the mid-nineteenth century to a mixture of turn of the centuries, both 20th and 21st! The changing palette is extraordinary! After I did what I had to do I dipped back onto the “iron horse” and off to the west Village where I ventured to capture a photograph that I needed to take on 66 Perry Street, the home of Mr. Big of “Sex in the City.” This time, time went back to the early 19th century, as I walked down streets that appeared just that very same way, except for the pavement and vehicles, way back about two hundred years ago! The various architectural styles, Federal, brownstone, neo-classical, large second floor windows, a la “piano noble”, cats sitting on windowsills gazing lazily, the bark of a curious dog and the quiet conversation of a couple passing me on the sidewalk.

It’s just one of the magical benefits of Manhattan, the ability to use the subway to transform you into other worlds all that existed here before, on this “Island in the Center of the World.” I supposed that the total is greater than the sum of its parts. All the neighborhoods have their own character, their own personalities and histories. It’s like coming to many cities that co-exist all in one tightly knit space. As has been said, “If you want to see the world, come to New York” and on a most usual day, a day of nothing special going on in my life, I was immersed in a world where everything was going on or happened a million times before. Perhaps tomorrow will be filled with excitement, if not I’ll just grin and love it, ah New York!

Cliff Strome (cliffstrome@gmail.com) is a licensed tour guide, with an exemplary rating from the City of New York. He and his staff of professionals provide Custom & Private Tours of New York City.  1-212-222-1441 www.CustomandPrivate.com

Not too long ago I was walking west on 44th Street toward Sixth Avenue in midtown and when I reached Sixth Avenue I noticed a great deal of activity; fire engines, police cars, crowds of people, traffic stopped and a taxicab with its rear windshield smashed! What’s going on? Hey, this is New York City and events of this nature, whatever the cause, were not uncommon, but what was going on?

I approached a well suited gentleman who was standing with his head pointed up, face toward the sky, glaring as were many others, all in the same direction, up!

“What’s going on?” I inquired.

“There’s glass falling from the building!” was his reply. I noticed that there were herds of others who were doing just that, looking up.

That explained the smashed taxi window and the janitors sweeping broken glass off the sidewalks and the yellow police tape placed to prevent pedestrians from venturing into the danger zone.

The new Durst Bank of America Building was under construction, soon to be the second tallest building in New York City, and a cement bucket became free from a supporting cable and as it was descending it was crashing, repeatedly, into the side of this glass sided building, and smashing windows on the way down, hence, the shattered glass raining down to the street.

I left the scene immediately and was more perplexed by the hundreds of New Yorkers, others among them no doubt, who stood there and gazed upward not knowing that they were targets of the next barrage of glass guided by gravity.

New Yorkers are amazing people. Smart, innovative, hard working and well . . . you tell me!!

Cliff Strome (cliffstrome@gmail.com) is a licensed tour guide, with an exemplary rating from the City of New York. He and his staff of professionals provide Custom & Private Tours of New York City.  1-212-222-1441 www.CustomandPrivate.com

Everyone comes to New York City with their own New York in their head. For those who have never been here before, it’s a pure abstraction, a kaleidoscope of secondary “experiences” that have bombarded their lives for years. The New York that they “know” is built on images, what they’ve read, what they’ve heard on television, from friends and family and how they put it all together. “Sex in the City”, noir movies, “Miracle on 34th Street” for example and “The Bronx is Burning”, “New York”, Goodfellas” and on and on. The music that we hear of New York provides “images” ringing in our ears, reminding us of New York City providing another sense of what New York City is or was like. Who hasn’t seen The Rockettes, The Empire State Building, The Lady in the Harbor, and those ubiquitous street scenes of thousands moving through traffic struggling to reach their destinations?

There’s romance, nostalgia,  mystery and pause; we look at street images from afar, taxicabs honking, people shouting, folks reading on park benches, children romping in playgrounds, subways roaring passed stations, commuters running to catch a bus and bicycle messengers darting through traffic competing with themselves to complete their rounds to “make a buck”. More people, cars, trucks, trains enter Manhattan on a typical weekday, than in any other city in The United States, much much more. With only twenty three square miles of terrain as its work and play ground, this segment of the City, together with its enormous structural verticality, is bound to be the center of energy on earth. Consider this: Where else is so much happening, in every field of human endeavor, in such a relatively small place, with such diversity, in relative harmony? Name it!

Frequently, I ask my guests, at the outset of most tours, about their pre-conceived notions of New York City, especially those who have never been here before. “We all come to New York City with our own New York in our heads.” What’s in your head? All that you have seen, heard, read and thought about New York is locked inside. Let’s see how it will change after the end of the tour!” I ask a few questions and people respond; “dirty, mismanaged, rude, crowded”, etc. My job is, through an entertaining and engaging tour experience, to rearrange or enable my clients to see New York directly through their eyes and reformulate their pre-conceived notions to take back a different and better New York then the one they brought with them. Making it fun and engaging is also the venue. Hey, if it isn’t fun then, guess what, it isn’t a tour! No scripted speech, nothing out of a can; it’s a give and take, an exchange, engagement, that focuses on your interests.

Regardless of where clients want to go, tours are peppered with several themes; why did and do so many people continue to come here? Did they find what they are seeking? How did New York City succeed in reducing the crime rate so dramatically? Essentially, what are the thematic forces that drive this city, now and in the past? What about the future? What are the limits of vertical growth in Manhattan? What will cause that to end?

Innovation, ideas that drive success, non-judgementalism, liberalism, kindness, yes kindness, pride of the City, cooperation, hard work, mutual respect, goal driven and most of all “reaching for the sky” literally and figuratively. Making it bigger, better and taking leaping bold steps, always lurching to the future and, in many respects, not clinging to the past as in many cases our European friends do.

When possible, pointing out the who, where, when, why and how add a great deal to people’s understanding of what New York City. For example, we can find out how tall the Empire State Building is, how long it took to build, that there are 65,000 windows upon it; we can learn how Wall Street acquired that name and certainly, any guide book will give you the size of Central Park. In fact, you need not even come here to accomplish that! But, knowing why the park was built, whose idea was it, why is it so special and how, who conceived of The Empire State Building and why? The characters that have played vital roles in shaping this City over the last 383 years is another key element that not only provides fodder for rearranging your New York, the one that is in your head, but adds drama and excitement not found in guide books or on public bus tours.

Your trip to New York City can be an immersion, deeper and far richer then you may have imagined. By having a “Genuine New York Experience”, with a lifelong New Yorker, whose passion and enthusiasm for this City, will not only enable you to comprehend how this City became so spectacular, special and unique, but to appreciate and embrace New York City for the first time, and in a way to put a part of it in your heart. Tony Bennett left his heart in San Francisco, but he lives in New York City . . . hum!?

Cliff Strome (cliffstrome@gmail.com) is a licensed tour guide, with an exemplary rating from the City of New York. He and his staff of professionals provide Custom & Private Tours of New York City.  1-212-222-1441 www.CustomandPrivate.com

It has been said that a licensed tour guide is a virtual walking, talking encyclopedia! The last thing that I, as a tour guide, want to say is, “I don’t know.” Therefore, taking my job very seriously, including the notion that “if a tour isn’t fun then it’s not a tour”, I must have my content down well. At the outset of every tour I ask my guests to please interrupt me as we go along if they see something, anything at all that captures their interest; anything at all that raises their curiosity; “Please stop me and ask, because after we’ve passed it, you may not be able to describe it well enough for me to know what you had seen, and it’s lost!

Sure, I’ve read numerous books, articles, walked miles and miles, spoken to hundreds of people from all walks of life, visited places of interest, strolled deep into neighborhoods where I’d never been and felt like a scavenger or archaeologist on a mission, to soak up all the information that I could. But not just the facts and figures, but the folklore, the stories, the who, where, when, why and how.

For example, people want to see The Empire State Building; sure, it’s so impressive. But looking at it doesn’t provide the most fascinating information and the guide books will, typically, contain factual information such as the height, when it was built, how long did it took to construct and so forth. That’s good but it only informs, failing to entertain. In fact, you can get that information anywhere, even on the Great Wall of China! When I take my guests to “see” The Empire State Building, they not only see it; they hear he stuff that brings it alive and the list of characters who actually had the idea to create it, how it happened, where the initial conversations took place and how it came to be.

“How high can you make it?” asked John Jacob Rascob, a competitor of Walter P. Chrysler, a member of the Board of Directors of General Motors Corporation. Rascob was seated in front of Thomas Lamb, the lead architect that he had chosen to design the world’s tallest building. He took a #2 pencil off of Lamb’s desk and placed it on the eraser end with the sharpened point facing up and so the story goes, the rest is history.

But Mr. Rascob needed a titular head, a spokesman an adored and colorful public figure to represent the building, glorify it and stimulate public fervor and enthusiasm in this project. One evening while at the Lotus Club, over martinis, when Raskob popped the question to Alfred E. Smith, the former governor of New York and unsuccessful Democratic Presidential candidate in the 1928 Presidential election; “How would you like to be the Director of the World’s Tallest Building?”

Having nothing going on after his crushing defeat, Smith leaped at the opportunity with wild abandon!! It was a brilliant stroke on Raskob’s part, placing the most loved New Yorker at the top of the top! A symbol of New York City embraced by it’s favorite son, the son of a poor Irish Lower Eastside immigrant laborer, the son who rose to the top of New York State politics, whose life has been describe aptly as going from a Brown Derby, to a Grey Fedora and finally on to a High Black Silk Hat was indeed the crown that gave an “everyday man” meaning to The Empire State Building. It was truly this City’s building and everyone identified with it, it was a piece of each of us, the embodiment of us all.

That’s the stuff of a good tour. You won’t hear that on the Double Decker, you won’t read that in the guide books and you’ll not hear it with the enthusiasm and verve that a Custom & Private Tour provides. You come to New York City to enjoy many things, and a private tour is the only way to truly get immersed. Experience this great City and take back a piece that you’ll treasure forever!!

Back to the book thing. While I pursued hundreds of hours of research I started taking notes of amusing and fascinating facts, trivia, factoids, points of interest and stories that entertain and amuse. I began to realize that the list was growing and growing and growing and my goal was set. 1001! That’s it! I put together 1001 trivia questions, with answers about New York City; What’s the oldest manmade object in New York City; What’s the oldest living thing in New York City? Why Wall Street is called Wall Street? What was Ellis Island used for initially? Where are The Five Points? Who was Robert Moses? And on and on.

Look for excerpts from the book, coming in late November 2008 on a Book page that you’ll be able to find by clicking on the tab at the top of the home page. Bit by bit I will be listing 10 questions, with answers keeping you informed and entertained.

You may email me at :cliff@customandprivate.com and I will send you a copy for $20 including all shipping costs. Out of country shipments must include post costs regrettably. I do hope you enjoy the serial entries of 1001 Trivia Questions and Answers about New York City and look forward to meeting you personally when you visit. Wishing you safe journeys and pleasant travels!! Cliff Strome

Cliff Strome (cliffstrome@gmail.com) is a licensed tour guide, with an exemplary rating from the City of New York. He and his staff of professionals provide Custom & Private Tours of New York City.  1-212-222-1441 www.CustomandPrivate.com

Perhaps the Dutch got it all wrong from the get-go! They named this outlying farming community Breukelen after a Dutch town that was meant to be broken land. As a kid I always stayed away from Brooklyn, I never had a reason to go there nor did I want to. The tabloid papers frequently featured headlines that caused that; BRICK FALLS ON 6 YEAR OLD AND KILLS HIM IN BROOKLYN; SUBWAY HIJACKED IN BED-STY; FOUR SLAIN IN BROOKLYN SHOOTOUT, etc. etc. Generally, I hung out in Manhattan and the safer environs of The Bronx and I had perceived Brooklyn as the forbidden land, a place to find trouble or worse. The names bothered me too, Gravesend, Crown Heights, what crown, Red Hook, whose hook? and Boy’s High, were they?

It wasn’t until I had to go to Brooklyn for the first time, the day that Robert F. Kennedy died, to get my teaching certificate at 110 Livingston Street that I had, a lifelong New Yorker, ventured into Brooklyn, trepidaciously, looking from side to side for the inevitable ambush. I parked my car in a lot, no street action this time, I wanted to be safe and as close to the Board of Education as I could get. I found my way up to the sixth floor, The Bureau of Licenses and miraculously, successfully maneuvered my way through the maze of offices and finally emerged with the coveted license in my hand.

Next, on the The Bureau of Assignments and I obtained my assignment post haste, “We’re going to give you HARLEM!” the clerk shouted, a large African American woman roared in my face with scorn that rocked my bones! This was the Harlem of Nicky Barnes and a place that would have made my image of Brooklyn more like Brook Line, Massachusetts! So much for Brooklyn!

After a generation, time has brought change to Brooklyn. Recently, my son told me that he was moving to Brooklyn. “Brooklyn! Are you nuts?” I asked him.

“Yeah, Brooklyn, dad. Been there lately?”

“No not really.” My fears still dwelled within and knowing that David was far from stupid, I decided to break down those barriers; those ghosts from years past and check it out. What I saw was a place that I felt that I had never been to before. What a gorgeous place, Brooklyn Heights! We spent the day walking through New York City’s first suburb, first landmark neighborhood, 600 pre-Civil War homes, featuring every architectural style, Georgian, Federal, Greek Revival, Neo-Classical, Beau Arts, Brownstones and Churches with magnificent Gothic detailing, Rennaissance structures covered in limestone, red brick, Flemish bond, pediments and magnificent doors with elaborate mouldings and detailing, well preserved. A clean, safe and vibrant borough pouring with energy and excitement, truly a marvelous place to live, that’s Brooklyn!

We walked beneath the Brooklyn Bridge, what a site, such spendor and on to DUMBO, Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass, aka, Brooklyn’s Soho, a neighborhood filled with converted loft buildings now housing artists, small businesses and X-Manhattanites who yearned for a little bit more space for a a little less money.

Williamsburg, “Willyburg” and that Bridge, Kent Street by the waterfront, now teaming with young adults who live only one subway stop from Manhattan building a new community as the evidence of the old Polish neighborhood gives way.

No not all of Brooklyn is turf that pleases but it has become a vibrant center of culture, museums, libraries, music, art, the Botanical Gardens and magnificent parks. And don’t forget Coney Island. To me the transformation of Brooklyn is exemplary of the transformation of New York City. So, if you’ve been to Brooklyn, a long time ago, then you’ve never been there! That’s New York, change; it’s the only thing that’s constant. Visit Brooklyn with me next time, go off the beaten path, and on a nice day, that little one mile walk on The Brooklyn Bridge will give you a view of Manhattan that’s well worth the trip. It’ll be the best walk you ever took, a truly iconic exercise in New York City resiliancy and vibrance awaits you. “Be a part of it, New York, New York!”

Cliff Strome (cliffstrome@gmail.com) is a licensed tour guide, with an exemplary rating from the City of New York. He and his staff of professionals provide Custom & Private Tours of New York City.  1-212-222-1441 www.CustomandPrivate.com

It has been said, “If you want to see the world, come to New York City!” But what are they coming for? What do they want to see, hear, feel, experience and go home with? Certainly there are so many exciting and unique destinations the world over, but why New York City?

It’s one of the most mysterious and unique places in the entire world. Other sites do provide exciting venues, places of interest that are truly unique and we all can conjure up long lists of them, but why is New York City such a stand out? What makes this destination so special and fascinating?

Many visitors are enthralled with the notion that finally, after nearly a lifetime, they’re making the trip and they have all those expectations that they have accumulated over many years. The images that they’re seen on television, from the series, Sex in the City, Crime Dramas and historical events and on and on. They have learned about New York City from school, reading text books, listening to their teachers who explain what they know about this City, many whom have never even been here! They listen to friends and relatives who return home and spill out their hearts and minds about their experiences of recent times and times long passed about New York City.

Since everyone has their “own” New York City, the only way to have one of your very own, the real deal as we say, is to come here and experience it for yourself. Some arrive here with mixed emotions, fears, wonder, curiosity and excitement. How will I navigate this enormous City? How will I be treated? Will I face danger or wish I was back home or will I immerse myself and get a feel of the “The Big Apple”? Well, that’s up to you!

How often I’ve seen small groups of people two or more, glaring a street maps, standing on mid-town corners, trying to figure out where they are going and what’s the best way to get there. Navigating New York is not that difficult because we have a very logical street grid that was laid out by Commissioners back in 1811 to make this the most pleasant walking city on earth that is north of 14th Street. And while I observe many trying to find their way with a street corner map, I always notice that within a few short minutes, New York minutes, fellow New Yorkers, always, ALWAYS, approach and attempt to help visitors find their way, be it by subway, bus or cab, we want to help. There are endless acts of kindness that I witness on the streets of the City, always!

Then there are those who refuse help, sometimes foolishly, because they want to go it alone, admirable! But, get the help you need because even though New York is laid out logically, it can be daunting, to find what you’re looking for can be a challenge! People spend a lot of money to come here, stay here, dine here, shop here, theatre here and sometimes tour here. How would you like to spend your precious time while in New York? You can walk around with a guide book and look at the sights and take a few pictures home with you sure, but wouldn’t you like to get the “inside scoop” and hear the stories, get the tales about the players, the infamous, the places where Albert Anastasia was “wacked” getting a close shave, or where the oldest home in Manhattan is located, or where’s the oldest home? Hey! Why’s it called Manhattan anyway and just what does that mean? A Custom & Private Tour will enable you to not only learn, get the information but make it fun and exciting. Without a doubt, the best New York Experience you’ll ever have!

Have you ever wondered how many languages are spoken in New York City and why? Why did Harlem become an African American community in the first place and what does the future hold for our largest neighborhood?

And, just why did New York City become so big and not Philadelphia, or Boston or any other city on the east coast of The United States? Why is there a “The” in front of Bronx, The Bronx? How did New York reduce its crime rate by over 70% since 1993? Humm, that’s a good one! Where’s the Village, Alphabet City, DUMBO, Soho, Noho, ViVa, Murray Hill, The Meatpacking District and should you go there?

The New York City experience is best enjoyed with the benefit of someone who knows this town like the back of their hand, and front too! Hey! You’re here, get immersed and take back a New York City that truly fits your reality, interests and preferences. You’ll be delighted to take a private tour with your friends or family and take back a piece of “The Big Apple” not only in your mind but in your heart as well!

Cliff Strome (cliffstrome@gmail.com) is a licensed tour guide, with an exemplary rating from the City of New York. He and his staff of professionals provide Custom & Private Tours of New York City.  1-212-222-1441 www.CustomandPrivate.com

Ever since I have been providing visitors with Custom & Private tours I have been, more than ever, able to see the City through the eyes of others. As a lifelong New Yorker, taking this City for granted is easy. However, when I glean the reactions of my guests, observe their wonder, hear questions it never had occurred to me how fascinating New York City really is! I find that many actually take notes! I realize more than ever than this is truly a special place.

For example, last week, while having the pleasure of touring with a group of nine visitors from Australia, I noticed a metal sign that had been installed on the front of a building. It had occurred to me that my guests probably didn’t have a clue as to what it meant. I was right! I asked and they all looked toward me for the answer. “A vast number of New York residents do not cook at home, they order in! In fact, you can get nearly any type of food, delivered hot, prepared, right to your door in less time then it’d take you to prepare it for yourself, and at a reasonable price! The messengers who ply their trade leave menus behind in order to promote business and many buildings become littered with tons of them, causing a blight and a cleanup chore for the build management; hence, “No Menus”! New York City is not just a place to live; it provides a different type of lifestyle, one that is foreign to many visitors but merely commonplace to us, New Yorkers.

Here’s another example: Have you ever seen cars stacked one on top of the other, up to six levels high in parking lots, placed on steel frame contraptions? The value of property here in Manhattan, and some of the outer boroughs as well require that in order for a parking lot operator to yield a profit, it’s a necessity. When you factor in the costs, rent, labor, taxes, etc. etc., the profit can only be derived by obtaining the most efficient use of space and in New York City the most valuable space just happens to be the sky.

Another case, there is a slither building nearing completion on Eighth Avenue between 47th and 48th Streets that’s about 22 feet wide and approximately 45 floors in height. Apparently the developer had attempted to purchase adjacent properties on both sides without success. The owner of the adjacent building, an early 18th century 5 story wreck, with a restaurant within, couldn’t be sold to the developer because the restaurant owner had refused to sell his lease back to the landlord. Sometimes numbers can not be agreed upon and therefore, no sale. However, the owner of the property took a difference tack, he sold his unused air rights to the developer. What that means is, a New York City invention thanks to The New York Central Railroad, enables property owners to sell or shift their unused rights to build on his property to the adjacent property owner thereby enabling them to add those unused floors on to the adjacent property. As an example, if the zoning in that area had allowed a 20 story building therefore, the unused rights that the neighbor held unused, say, 10 stories, can be added on to the new structure. I presume that the same scenario occurred on the other side of the property because this buiding is extremely high and narrow.

The result is that New York now has a huge condo, with two apartments per floor, no corridor, the floors are too narrow, and elevators with the proper key, enable the owner(s) to gain admittance into to their apartment. In sum, New York City is about innovation and those who are driven to succeed will do so, with a good brain and tenacity, and conviction. That’s New York, success!

Visitors who I have taken to see this incredible building are in awe. Where they come from nothing comes even close! But to me, just a curious New Yorker, I don’t get it! Why aren’t others doing this elsewhere? You tell me!

Cliff Strome (cliffstrome@gmail.com) is a licensed tour guide, with an exemplary rating from the City of New York. He and his staff of professionals provide Custom & Private Tours of New York City.  1-212-222-1441 www.CustomandPrivate.com