City Therapy

Cats and Dogs add Smoke-free too, Craigslist

2008-03-09T13:54:00.000-07:00

If you agree, the American Lung Association of Oregon has created a site and letter for you to request Craigslist's help in making their housing listings smoke-free.

Imagine smoke-free housing at the click of a button, that's visionary.

Take Action tell Craigslist you want smoke free housing

Hypo-Policies of the House of Bloomberg

2008-02-16T09:11:00.000-08:00

Amazon.com Widgets

Mayor Bloomberg sported his "better housing for $7.13 billion" program in July 2003. He touted the expenditure as better housing for the lower income and middle income families, 55,000 units have been released since March 2007 with 165,000 units to go.

I've visited The City of New York Department of Housing Preservation & Development (NYCHPD) regularly since July 2003. Not once was there one single unit that I could afford. I registered for updates of this site register for this feature at www.nyc.gov/hpd.

In my Gmail box yesterday from NYCHPD, in all caps BRAND NEW CONDOMINIUM FOR SALE IN THE BRONX. The title is not a link. Instead, below the minimal sales pitch a link For more information. That link takes one to the "Homebuyers current listings" home page. The interested party must find and then click Bronx . Once there, again, to get details of requirements and sales price one has to find the buried link Download the PDF

Once the pdf is downloaded, one finds that the minimum income is too high.

Unit Size: 1 Bedroom

Projected Sales Price:$185,000

Approximate Minimum income: $73,091

Maximum Income: $93,555

The condominium apartment has a laundry in the basement.

After reviewing the Zestimate, location with Gypsy Maps and the Straphangers Metrocard Rating of $1.10 it becomes clear that this is a very good apartment for a lawyer.

The commute to Grand Central, only 5.2 miles away, is only 28 minutes, with .02 miles of walking.

I realized that the House of Bloomberg did not mean for just anybody to find affordable housing, no indeed; one hand in your state and city income tax and the other hand patting the back of those who can afford current housing.

The city does not offer properties, it offers developers to receive governmental subsidy and rebates upon offering up properties in an affordable housing lottery. The City feels no need to review lopsided offerings, billion dollars or not.

If the House of Bloomberg was honestly trying to make affordable housing available their entire affordable housing site would set the bar for high tech efficiency. It does not; it is subpar. A high tech site easily allows the affordable housing seeker to enter their current work location, their family size housing need, their income and their affordable house price perception. This seeker then would receive email notifications with availabilities throughout the Cities mosaic of developer offerings and the waiting lists this seeker might want to apply for. All provided links would take the seeker to the property and financing information that matched their needs. The property would have gypsy maps and community information about the location. They would also be given each and every time they received the department's emailings, links to matching home buyer education, loan matching offerings and required home buyer certification course for the HomeFirst Down Payment Assistance Program.

The "magic" of technology is that it costs nothing but to plan. You do not need a giant monitor. You don't need lots of information. You just need a few simple facts from your customer and you need to relate those facts with a relatively small amount of information. There is no excuse for the lack of efficiency of the affordable housing site. The City didn't think and they didn't plan; they just slopped it all on and said here, this is what we think of you.

The hypocrisy of House of Bloomberg is furthered in summation that you'll either find "no affordable housing available at this time" on the page or mismatches of income and sales price. The lower income gets matched with high sales price. The higher income gets mismatched with lower sales price. And really should $73,091 minimum income be in need? Middle income is described in New York City as being $12,000 to $125,000. The policy clearly points to matters of political convenience; to embrace young lawyers paying off their student loans. When I was making $99,000 no such affordable housing was available to me. In the 70's and 80's I was paying $900 in rent, in the 90's $1200 and today $1200 (which has more to do with trying to be discerning when scavengering through the leftovers, tolerating subpar subway service and city services).

Deeper into hypo-policies of the House of B, the HPD home page reveals their aid for people who knew they could not afford to buy housing with money down and a fixed mortgage; who knew what their variable financing was; they did it anyway. Over 60% of these people did not even live in the housing. It was income property. Now they cry they lost their homes. But really aren't they the homeowner that never was; that is what no money down means. They were just paying subsidized rent and living in better places than the rest of us slobs. They found a way to hustle around the system that has been dishing out housing to the rich and dishing the middle income people for decades. The City and the State of New York does not address its housing issues. They allow millionaires to live in $200 to $300 rental protected housing while those with low income are paying $1000 a month and upwards. See Helping to keep homelessness at Bay.

So we have it, a mayor who on one hand tells the nation that the stimulus package is likened to giving an alcoholic a drink and on the other hand he tells the nation that true economy stimulus is substantially increasing immigration into this country. With so many people sleeping on the street and in subways, I'd say Mayor Bloomberg had better get off the bar analogies and set up some higher bars of humanity in his own city.

Next Month Subways become a place to avoid

2008-02-02T23:59:00.000-08:00

I hope that I will be moved out of New York City by next month, I really do.

These two court cases I have on tobacco and subtenant disparities promise to hold me back. I've been offered good jobs in San Francisco. I'll be there soon, I know I will.

In another ridiculous waste of $30 million MTA will bring armour into the subways starting next month, March 2008. This one is called "Operation Torch." A stupid name, just like the "Operation Impact" all hours outside my window.

I am going to start taking buses and avoid the designated stations entirely. Notice where the stations are, below the BIG corporations. Don't you wonder why they need so much protection?

That armour can easily be turned against those men and onto the passengers.

I don't like it now when a gunned police person gets onto a train alone. When they get on I get off. When they are on the platform I walk away from them. They are as bad as a cigarette smoker. Both to be avoided at all costs. Bad for your health.

No indeed a crowded subway platform and train is not the place for heavy armour.

Just you wait there are going to be way more than $30 million of lawsuits coming this City's way.

That $30 million could have been used to build light rails to bridge the inconvenience of a subway that really has no visionary qualities to it and does not serve its passenger. Its a huge waste of my time and money to take the subway; its already a miserable experience, deafening and brain damaging. Geekboy and I both thought how ridiculous the broadway announcers with their ladies and gentlemen, and then what they say is just a lie. No train comes. When you are on the train you can't understand what the announcer is saying, mumbles or foreign accent. We are Americans and we don't want this rubbish and I for one will not have it.

Peace be with me to get out of this City soon; I pray for it every day.

The poorly written propaganda of MyFox

2008-01-19T04:12:00.000-08:00

In a poorly written, misspelled article, MyFoxAustin sports Mayor Bloomberg's national achievements; transfats and citywide ban on smoking. Article

Has New York City ever had a city-wide ban on smoking, to date, in 2008? During the Mayor's first term, Mr. Bloomberg hammered the 'no smoking in bars' ban on his citizens. The ban was just a ban on smoking in the bars. Many a New York governor and New York City mayor in office before Mr. Bloomberg have arm wrestled with the Marlboro Lady over their further refinements of the 30-year old latticework no smoking bill. Actually, as usual, Rudy Giuliani paved the way for Mr. Bloomberg on that score, he battled the Lady. Mr. Bloomberg then took the Lady out for a drink in the Stenchy City. see Cuomo Signs Smoking Law for New York

If you want to know about how Mr. Bloomberg sees things through look at how the no smoking ban is enforced today. gonyc outlines the bars that permit smoking via huge loopholes in the Mayor's well thought plan. Here

Smoking in the bars in New York City is achieved at the bars that are cigar bars, outdoor bars, owner-operated establishments, separate rooms and creative interpretations.

As mentioned above, the MyFoxAustin propaganda is poorly written. If the writer was striving for honesty and information, the words would be written that Mr. Bloomberg banned smoking at bars he patronizes in New York City.

Tut, Tut haven't you lived in New York City, really lived here? Walked the streets, worked in an office building, lived in an apartment, rode passenger of a well smoked out cab or sat in a bar where the bartender opens a window or door and sticks his head out to creatively interpret smoking?

We are no fool about our mayor, are you? Bike on Mr. Armstrong! Alone.

Reduce Disparity; a real Visionary Outlook for the City

2007-12-31T19:51:00.000-08:00

There are some in the City who want to reduce poverty. Ideas such as recalculating the low income person's standard of living. How much does it cost them to live? That's a good question? Let's put it online and make it very easy, streamline the process. uh..(remember 311) not the bloomberg terminal again... How much is the welfare given worth? Oops How can we pay poor people to improve their condition? Hello, could someone call Shortsighted Anonymous P----l-e-a-s-e?

Yep. Having traveled through all the classes in past years in New York City and well without any government support rather paying government support could I just insert something into the conversation?

You have to pay employers to improve the low income person's condition. You have to train them to not discriminate because they want to keep their pension fat and complete or their racial quota above all condemnation.

Ethics, yes your government has to have ethics. You can't just go fishing for the next cross the border immigrant and expect that they are going to mow your golf course pronto. No, that's not what they have in mind at all. They are going to line up with the other 10 people waiting behind me, so when I get sick its off with your head as the Duchess cries.

If you really want to improve the poor person's plight you have to give more than you take.

I think it shall be rather fun to put my stats into that online form. The form would rather crash at $1200 a month rent and a gross of $32,000 a year and what? no government support, no insurance, no sick pay, no vacation, uh, no vouchers? The skill level quite high, indeed. Yes it will be fun but sadly, not visionary, no.

Why 311 Should get T-Mobile terminals for 2008...

2007-12-31T18:44:00.000-08:00

37 Signals in blog "Signal vs. Noise" experiences customerE (the perfect customer experience) with T-Mobile:

"1. I never had to stand in line
2. The agent cared about my problem
3. When the problem was fixed, I heard it from them first."

The best quote for perfect customer conversations for 2007:

" She made me feel like it was their problem and their responsibility. Which is exactly what I want as a customer. "--
Lessons from T-Mobile's support Ryan Dec 31, 2007

Madonna's English Roses is in the Reading Room Collection of the Donnell Library

2007-12-10T19:53:00.001-08:00

English Roses Collection

and the language hat is having a requiem for the Donnell Library

and basically, I wonder why? We can make our voices heard.

Could New York City lovers and Donnell Library lovers learn from Clear Lake, Texas lovers?

I think so.

Their Friends of Freeman Library raised the funds to build the library and they keep their library up-to-date every year with $80,000+ funds that they raise.

The library has meeting rooms that may be used for fund raising events for the direct benefit of the library. (Think Teen Central during off hours.) The entire library covers only 42,000 square feet but it could give any profit-seeking COO and hotel venture capitalist's deception a kick in the pants.

A library is for the people. Its the one human element in the City and that's exactly why Donnell Library is where it is, in the center of the City. Its rubbish about Donnell Library being down and out. Go there and take a look for yourself.

Then look at what the people in Clear Lake did with their library. gallery here. Their focus was a philosophy of developing a strong community-based library collection.

Clear Lakers voted in Mayor Whitmire for her promises of disannexing Clear Lake from Houston. Clear Lakers wound up paying Houston's taxes and having all their services cut off. They too know what a mess it is when the Mayor does not do what they were voted in to do. They however, rose above it. Whitmire got tossed out and is no longer in the books. The County and the City along with the Friends (NASA included) created the Freeman library together. Check it out.

You don't need a million dollar agency to re-negotiate your mortgage

2007-12-10T19:37:00.001-08:00

all you need is to listen.

http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2007/12/07/renegotiating_a_bad_mortgage

Of Donnell Library, some ask, in the basement will it be as embracing?

2007-12-08T18:43:00.000-08:00

source Misadventures of the Library Student

Lucette Lugano, a reporter for the Wall Street Journal, was an immigrant to America from Cairo. Her mom would guide her through the French books of Donnell Library Children's section on weekend trips from Brooklyn so that she would not forget her native language, French and her culture.

Upon a recent visit to Donnell Library Ms. Lugano observed and asks:

"I guess the library is still assimilating new immigrants to American culture. It's just the culture that's shifted.

Will the new Donnell in a chic hotel be just as embracing?"

Aplomb is not A Plum

2007-12-06T19:03:00.000-08:00

Yes the two of them, a smooth talker and his smoother, they seemed so assured of a plum for what they were about to do.

uh... personally I thought they were unnerved...shaky...shaking...about which they had unplummed. Oh well others thought they had shown aplomb.

Did you catch the Mayor and the City Council speaker the other night? Somehow after six years of vital services cut to all but the aplombed, these two dug up $1.2 million "to comfort" the masses they said. No there would not be bailouts but there would be information and know-how (notice they dared not say expertise) on how to get out of the jam jar.

No one questioned the part they had played in this sticky Preserve that only the greediest of sharks would have pushed their way through to stick their thumb into the unplummed.

Well, hey, don't look to me for all the answers, check out the Manhattan Institute podcasts. You'll hear all about the how of the smooth talker and his aplombers; their mission as zone bombers. Private investors wanted. Dubai, Japan, Saudis, no matter, as long as you have some private capital to invest, come on in. Real Estate cheap; rezoning.

I thought that this duo's magnificent performance could not be topped. But no, the man usurped them. Yes, the man that the smooth talker air lifted into office with $250 thousand plus assortment of tips and other New York City hosting and voting machines not ready, who knows how deep the story goes. In 2003 smooth talker fumed at City Campaign Finance reform. He can be partisan, others may not.

but... back to "the Man"...

He also expressed magnificence toward those who did not pull out a plum when their thumb was removed from the preserves' jar. He would help the chosen few in the same manner that he had so helped the chosen banks that let them dip in to the trough, oh sorry, I do mean jar, that Jack built. I was agawk. I mean wow a moment's break from putting the final touches on Iran, for this. wow!

Meanwhile any fool can read back into the New York Times archives, 2004, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 regarding its home town's quidding bidding wars. People, way beyond their means, to beat out another for a sliver of the jam. The sliver wars, where the sliver slivers smaller, the people bigger bigger. Then suddenly no more land, that is I mean as of yet unplummed, unattached from its present owner. What to do with sliver addiction then? Well there is the liver, and so, the rent wars. Then, almost like it happened on its own, boom crash, the dollar has no value, the property no value, the people no value. And well, we're back to that Enron party question "What exactly do you do for a living?"

see further Federal Preserves

You don't need a million dollar agency to fix your broken mortgage

If it happens to you in the City rest assured its happening to other people.

2007-12-05T19:22:00.000-08:00

When I received the DHCR PAR rejection. The rejection leaves the DHCR judgment as it stands, the landlord owes me money. They'd given her an indefinite interest-free loan (going on its 4th year). ahem.... I was like this can't be happening. Some more experienced members with DHCR thought it was messed up also. But had it happened to someone else?

Sure enough in today's NY Times, the elegant and pristine Sixth Church of Christ Scientist on Park and 63rd is being attacked by the City zoning conglomeration.

Here's what the Church looks like.

The City wants to take back the Department of Building's 2006 zoning that enabled use of church space during the weekdays as a social events venue. The City claims the neighbors are complaining.

The Church had hoped to make necessary repairs on the church and that the events would bring more members. Without the income they may have to sell the building to a developer. Exactly. That's the City's game...

More on the church that rocks from the New York Times

Wow! Just think of all the famous actors and actresses that have been members of the church at one time or other ... Audrey Hepburn was one of them. (more here)

I think the Church needs to step outside of the City's mentality and fund raise by using their church as a church. That way they won't empower the City.

Remember that The City's Way is a craft that takes away the soul and your way is just the opposite.

Check out "For the Good Book, a Good Sales Pitch."

Highest Priority --the Library Connection-- Therapy

2007-11-17T19:38:00.000-08:00

Leave the Donnell Library in NYC as it is! It totally Rocks!

Libraries for sale? I'm confused, Isn't Education the Highest Priority?

so reported the media,

The City's local paper, The New York Times, reports on its City in "Little Progress for City Schools on National Test."

City Journal's "Grading Mayoral Control" frets over data manipulation, $1 million ad campaigns donated by friends of the mayor, nyc gov education site speaks mayoral campaign rather than education (hmm, does it? here).

And back to the local paper, the teacher's sock it to the mayor in Teachers Criticize Review Unit.

Education is the mayor's highest priority. He promised accountability and his report card is due in 2008.

The mayor is quoted as saying the accountability is the election and then "Boo me at parades." Hmm I just think the only gripe here is that everything was too excessive. The mayor put too much pressure on himself and put the focus on money and media campaigns. It doesn't take money to get a great education. Who could have said that better than the mayor? He paid for his own education and he has a splendid Harvard MBA to show for it.

When the national testing shows New York City 8th graders 40% proficient, isn't it true, Donnell Library where it is, is the Priority?

The Public Library has always been a big part of everyone in my family's education.

How much your parents want to learn and read is a key indicator as to how well you will do in school, in life. Lucky me, my parents sought higher education that they paid for themselves and they read alot and learned alot above all else, they shared that interest with me.

My sister includes the library as a mainstay in the welfare of her child. He loves going to the library to use the computer; to share and connect with the community. He is lucky to have a mom who is on the scene with him.

My aunt was the head of the Houston libraries and the Nachidotches libraries. My sister is a Chief Financial officer of a corporation and was one of the top 10 scorers on the CPA test ever. The library works for them.

So where will the Donnell Library community go to sit and connect with their education next fall 2008?

How to Not Write a Big Fat NYC Do Nothing Response

2007-11-17T09:08:00.000-08:00

Wrong:

"Thank you very much for taking the time to share your concerns about smoking out-of-doors and in other partially covered environments.

In general, the Smoke Free Air Act of 2002 (SFAA) does not regulate smoking out-of-doors except in specific environments such as sports arenas, sections of restaurant outdoor seating areas, at public entrancews of buildings with awnings and overhangs, ticketed outdoor events and children's playgrounds. Smoking is also prohibited in the transfer tunnels and enclosed stairwells of the subyway system.

You may call 311 at anytime to report a smoking violation.

The Department of Health and Mental Hygiene is looking into the issue of smoking at bus shelters with another city agency. We would be happy to contact you again when we have more information regarding the outcome of this inquiry."

Right:

1. State the 311 changer's actual request for change.
(which was)
"I want a change in the way our streets are run. This is not a complaint. I want 311 to handle that we want a change, we want you to be able to not departmentalize complaints about smoking or say that you can't handle it. I do not want to be held captive to cigarette smoke at work, on the street waiting on a red light to change, in the subway turnstile, in the subway station tunnel, going down or up the escalaters in the subway station at Time Warner, waiting for a bus and I definitely do not want visible smoke in all the rooms of my apartment. These smokers also leave a trail of cigarette butts in all of these places."

2. Always state the positive to the request first
i.e.,

Don't start out with "does not regulate" in the first sentence and then lets the exceptions follow. The exceptions should be in their own paragraph with the third paragraph included in that paragraph.

3. Do not give advice that is factually wrong

"you may call 311" is factually wrong.

i.e.

Write instead the following:

"We encourage you to call 911 when these illegal smoking violations occur."

Fact: 311 does not handle smoking in the subway that is an MTA or NYTA issue --"Ma'aaam"--not New York City's.

Fact: if you investigate and probe. 911 handles the illegal smoking in your hallway, elevator and stairwells (its a 30-year fire ordinance law).

311 does not handle these kind of complaints, and that my friends, is exactly why I filed a change request to 311. That is why I am receiving that letter.

In 2002 NYU journalism students write about "Big Fat Bill, A Roadmap to Navigating NYC's Bureaucracy." At that time the City Council was acting as though they are Congress in the manner in which they address the City's immediate need issues. Sounds exactly the way they are today.

This Cigarette Smoking issue really has nothing to do with law. It is social and its a matter of ethics. Cigarette smoking is nasty dirty, borish, moronic and sophomoric, any kind of smoke is harmful to your lungs and you are pushing your braincell-blowing habit on others who do not want it and cannot defend themselves. The law ties the hands of the victim instead of the addict. I'd like to be able to take the cigarette right out of their mouth and throw it into an evidence bag, handcuff them, call the police and press charges.

Upstairs, Downstairs -- A Luxe Hotel Room is a Terrible Thing to Lose

2007-11-15T19:43:00.000-08:00

"It allows you to identify with the downstairs people while vicariously enjoying the life of the upstairs people."--Alistair Cooke of PBS "Upstairs, Downstairs"

"For me, the key advantage at this site — which offsets any potential negative about having a library in your basement — is that we're contiguous with the '21' Club, we don't want to be like everybody else, why not share a building with a major institution like the New York Public Library? I'd rather have them in my basement than a nightclub."--" Mr. White, Orient Express to NYTimes

"The Donnell Library will close to the public fall 2008, and the rebuilding is expected to be completed in no more than three and one half years.

Orient-Express noted that over the past several years, the conversion of many New York City hotels into condominiums has taken much high-end lodging supply out of the market. Smith Travel Research data shows 23 hotels have closed in New York since 2000, with many of the hotels converted to luxury condominiums during the housing boom. The hotel room reduction coincides with demand surging from overseas travelers capitalizing on a weak US dollar. This has resulted in higher rates and corresponding profits for the New York hotel industry. Recent industry studies show that New York City could absorb a further 10,000 room supply without affecting overall occupancy and pricing."--www.globest.com

The Appraisal of a Steal

2007-11-14T19:23:00.000-08:00

I was just reviewing my appraisal class notes:

"What are the potential cash flows the property can produce and what are they worth in today's dollars. This includes the cash generated by the sale of the property five or ten years out. These future values must be quantified and brought back to today based on a discount rate for the cash flows and a reversion rate for the future sale price."

"Discount rate and reversion rate are subjective judgments."

"Comparable sales method - What are comparable properties selling for in the market today, adjusted for any differences in location, size, utility and ownership structure and when the sale took place."

Below is a cache of interesting New York City real estate deals:

Altria on lower Park Avenue sells its building to a real estate developer for $624 million for 528,000 square feet, yesterday. Employees were allowed to smoke in that building even in 2003. Black gunk buildup removal in the ducts ahead. Global Holdings paid $816 per square foot (considered a steal). The building is smack in the congestion hub across from Grand Central.

41 story aluminum clad 666 Fifth Avenue (1957) between 52nd and 53rd, historic $1.6 million underwritten by Barclay's lenders in January of 2007. Its reviewers say it lacks the cachet of Seagrams.

Donnell Library (1954) last week, sold 58,000 square feet for $59 million (in cash) from Orient Express, that's $1,017 per square feet. "$220M Luxury Hotel Planned for Site of NYC Library Branch." Pravda wrote that rooms in the Hotel's five floors would rate from $700-$2,000 a night.

Donnell Library resides in the Luxe Area of Town -- Rockefeller Center -- across from MOMA -- which in November 2004 was constructed for $425 mil. Meanwhile the library is not saying what services it will have to offer in its remaining three floors (total 28,000 square feet) once construction completed 2011 (closing next fall). The third library community lost in New York City in a very short time. Permits for the Hotel 21 project in the works.

Not even the Library Journal knew of the sale in advance or of any notice to the public. I think alot of enterprises would have been interested in bidding for the library space, if its up for sale notice had been known. And whatever happened to the much more creative and lucrative option of leasing?

10 story Sotheby's (way over, way over to York Avenue) to RFR in 2002 for $175 million. Sotheby's will rent the space back for the next 40 years with a first right of refusal in 20 years.

Run RedLight Run Therapy

2007-11-14T17:37:00.000-08:00

So I've read all the local paper 'running red lights' articles since 1987 and I've finally figured out why more people run red lights than ever in New York City.

Again, the NYC hasn't had another creative thought, just following status quo, since they initiated the first weak link in 1993.

Many New York drivers don't know about the red light camera because the camera doesn't catch all red light runners. It doesn't catch the blatant long distance yellow light runs. The yellow light runs are the congestion culprit. You don't have to be a Hunter student doing a study to see it, its totally out there in your face everyday.
The penalty for running a red light in New York City is only a parking ticket, $50. I found this under nyc.gov a sample of the ticket and pay a red light camera notice of liablity. It used to be points on your license if you gridlocked. That's why we did not have congestion pre-no police and red light camera liabilities. The good old days, before weak links, physical emotion expenditures required, having a policeman siren pull a red light runner over and give him/her points on his/her license along with a whopping ticket.
techdirt.com writes that red light run cameras increase rear end impact. The driver realizes there is a camera and comes to a screeching halt.
trafficsignal.com points out that its poor traffic signals that cause the red light run. If you have a high number of red light run violations then your traffic signals are faulty. That cities ought to work on red and green countdown lights first before using the red light run cameras. (like San Francisco, I so knew it) In many cities like D.C. the cameras are not effective; they don't prevent deaths and damage. In some cases red light run cameras are the cause of the accident.

"Yellow signal timing was increased by about one second at two intersections where red light cameras were installed. Results show that while yellow timing changes reduced red light violations by 36 percent, the addition of red light camera enforcement further reduced red light violations at these sites by 96 percent beyond levels achieved by the longer yellow signal timing."--iihs

*note some cameras are dead giveaways and cause headaches to their neighborhoods. They are installed improperly. Like the cable company another thing you must literally sit on forever. Since all I see are red lights run in the city I always think a) there are no cameras b) the cameras don't work 3) the penalty is not steep enough to worry about. i.e. you won't lose your license. R-e-ally even the buses are running through red lights habitually.*

And why would the City keep depending on red light run cameras and not allow their policeman to lift a finger when they see a red light run?

Because its profitable to do so.

"Just last December the city doubled the number of monitored intersections to 100, boosting expected revenue to $33.8 million a year. In 2005, with 50 cameras, the city mailed $15.3 million worth of tickets."--thenewspaper

How about pedestrian deaths in 2007? "More than 10,000 pedestrians are injured each year on the city's streets, and 170 were killed in 2006."--Pedestrian Deaths

In 1987 before red light run cameras were installed there were 23,899 pedestrians injured or killed on the streets of New York City. Read it. The report though written in 1987 is an amazing account of what goes on today.--local paper

Whoa nelly, don't get all excited about this. There are many reasons why there are 50% less pedestrians killed today. Better road knowledge on both parties part. Better calculator skills, Better cars, better lights, better drivers. uh-hmm Perhaps, the 13,000+ now drive cars or work from home in the age of the internet?? It could also be just plain resolve; the Herculean New Yorkers are more likely to pick up the offending car and throw it over the bridge. This carpenter friend of mine got bumped into by a truck as he was crossing the street on a pedestrian white light GO Pedestrian GO. The truck just kept going after the hit. The carpenter ran and pulled the driver out of the car by the next stop light and held him for the police, that was in the '90s. Rambo Go!

All I got to tell you is this, traffic control in New York City ain't working. Oh its working to fill the insatiable bottomless pit of the City's "business model" gullet. But its terrorizing the pedestrians and obviously still hurting them at an incredibly high rate. It is very much the Wild West in places you would think, duh? Like 42nd Street and Lexington or Third or 57th Street and Park.

So what is the resoluton if the City doesn't want their police to undertake such a time consuming task? Obvious. Get rid of the cars. You can't drive in the City. You have to get SMART. Public transportation owned and run by the people in Sonoma. City, State, City move over.

See Transportation Alternatives on pedestrian and bicylist deaths

New York City Apartment Hunting Therapy

2007-11-10T14:06:00.000-08:00

What to look out for in the search for the.. uh... affordable New York City apartment:

1. Car Hugging.

When they have a garage to do these kind of things, why are they parking in front?

2. Warning Signs on buildings down the street.
Humma, this could go either way, but I think since your building don't have the signs, its bad news for you.

3. Non-commissioned Graffiti
inside the subway station,
on the outside of institutions and ...
inside of your building
(of course, none of these will be on display when you tour your open house).

4. Did I mention cigarettes everywhere,
including the bus stop you have to wait at to get from midtown back to "the" affordable place?

5. Finally, but most importantly, dirt...
if your broker or landlord mentions dirt...next!

A question the landlord, that I wound up in court with, after seven years in his townhouse, asked drummerboy and me during our potential rent victim interview: "Did we ever throw dirt on the walls?"

The broker for this apartment said I don't know why the girls from Texas are the most beautiful, it must be in the soil (a form of dirt). I saying to myself, nah, let it go, let it go.

Voila and here we are...

Copyright Therapy

2007-11-09T17:04:00.000-08:00

and more, watch John Mayer mangez down to the minutest detail of his copyrighted photo.

All of John Mayer's blog posts are smartly hilarious logs. His mlog addresses the need to place copyright language on works that are automatically copyright by means of their publication.

He plays with his celebrity. How much do his fans want of his most personal detail, eating uh not the loo. He generously shares freely until it costs too much and then no, oh no, not the advertising thing again!

Really though if you are a fan of John Mayer you are in love with his magic, playful and generously loving, so powerfully smart.

Check it out the mlog of John Mayer.

Conversation Therapy

2007-11-09T17:01:00.000-08:00

The Shame Therapy Conversation is live on Lost City. Cool, couldn't think of a more perfect blog for this discussion! Maybe the Coolest Hotel in New York?

wordless therapy

2007-11-08T18:41:00.001-08:00

The NYC has been twice blessed -- Mum's coming to visit this weekend.

They'll be playing in the Wordless Music Series:

Friday, Nov 9 2007 6:30P

The Church of Saint Paul the Apostle Columbus Avenue and 60th Street

[presale tickets closed]

Web: www.wordlessmusic.org : 'It will demonstrate that the various boundaries and genre distinctions segregating music today--"popular" and "classical"; "uptown" and "downtown"; "high" art and "low" -- are an artifical construction in need of dismantling.'

Nov 10 2007 6:30P

New York Society for Ethical Culture NYC, New York

[tickets on sale]

2 West 64th Street, NYC

Shame Therapy

2007-11-07T18:35:00.000-08:00

Ain't it a shame? Another New York Public Library sold at fire sale prices.

The Donnell Library, gives away 58,000 square feet of its space to Club 21 for $59 million in cash.

Do you know how little that is in today's hyper-inflated market?

According to Forbes' 4/13/07 "Super Pricey...:"

In New York, a 5,284-square-foot Park Avenue duplex is on the market for $42 million.

$195 million was recently paid for a 20,000-square-foot penthouse at One Hyde Park in London.

And in the "Rich People" IQ69 August 2007:

Besides the fact that to make Forbes' richest you have to have at least $1 billion (uh is that still in dollars?) I learned that the second most expensive home in the world is a 56,000 square foot ranch and it is going for $135 million - Hala Ranch - Aspen.

A list from Pravda of other libraries diminished and sold to house rich sleeping people:

"A branch in the downtown neighborhood of Soho is housed in a residential building and another in Morningside Heights shares space with a Columbia University dorm."

note:
also if you read these reports about the library sale note they don't really mention the City or the Mayor in them.

The shame is that Donnell Library provides teens and children with a space to discuss and learn and for poor people to use the internet. In all latest reports the library isn't telling what parts of those public services they will be keeping in the remaining 28,000 square feet that will be "it" for the library.

What a steal for the owner of Club 21, Orient Express, their five new floors will reap $750 to $2,000 a night.

So who owns the New York Public Library? The Public. The Public elects officials to run the City and this is what happens.

Shame on you for not bothering to get a better deal for the public!

Two members of the board of Orient-Express are director / chairman of Sea Containers, Ltd., a Bermuda company. One of those members is Chairman of the Board of The Bank of Bermuda Ltd.

Wow! isn't that amazing, Mr. Bloomberg, New York City's mayor spends his weekends in Bermuda. Small world indeed.

Some say, vdare blog, that Mr. Bloomberg, believes native born Americans to be lazy and stupid.

Wouldn't you love to find out about how Orient-Express arranged for the deal of the century? Was it just writing in the sky in Bermuda that dragged the "deal" in?

"i suck at golf" font

5 ways to dot org therapy

2007-11-06T17:20:00.000-08:00

Even if you know everything there is bound to be a dot org that is a little more organized.

ohm --->http://www.accesstoinsight.org/

vote --->http://www.vote.org/

the 3 from the City:
http://hillary.org/
http://guiliani.org/
http://michaelbloomberg.org

but seriously dot org or not I have a hard time to even think about thinking of a vote for the three of New York.

Hillary. 1. most expensive senator's office in NYC 2. profit governed for a higher office 3. the judge assigned to her for the buying of votes with a pardon just up and retired....4. backed the war in Iraq, Lebanon and drivers' licenses for the 550,000 people who came to the U.S. illegally ...just a few of the things that won't take me to the booth for her.

Rudy. 1. received 100,000 police from the federal government and squandered them 2. he did appear to clean up the graffiti and the subways ran better under him, things appeared to be in order 3. to be a hero in 9/11 you have to have told the true story of 9/11, still waiting.

Michael Bloomberg 1. Republican National Convention -- how partisan can you get -- he just arrested anyone walking on the street. A federal judge fined New York City for the illegal actions. 2. He pumped up his pet projects with his people while he shutdown alot of public services. 3. His police department is known for its racist and prejudicial behavior. They do not obey the law and enforce the law to only a chosen few. 4. Could not organize the crisis of Con Ed or the Deutsche Building 5. All the city departments are unresponsive, the city is in general disorder 6. The city is in junk construction the whole time he is in office. How long will our subways be down for Time Warner's green subway and why does that building have 20 police cars and my building has none? 7. Property values went up about like hedge fund managers get paid and so did his company. 8. Has a way of blaming and transferring responsibility. Everything he says of partisanship in D.C. is what goes on in NYC between City and State.

Gosh I wish people would just stay at home and do their job instead of campaigning.

Shove Therapy

2007-11-01T17:44:00.000-07:00

While I do not approve of it, it does exist. And you might as well come to terms with 'Shove Therapy" cause according to one bus passenger on the M98 5:39pm tonight the City, State, City is putting up congestion pricing contraptions as we speak. We have it directly from her boyfriend's, he's driving, mouth.

She and I totally agreed that congestion pricing is only going to make matters worse. Worse not for the auto driver but the MTA passenger. The cost is going to be carried on down to the MTA passenger.

She also agreed that while Mr. Bloomberg might at times be a likeable man he really has been too extreme. He has not treated us like we were humans, rather that we were cattle.

We found commonality, this passenger and I, we both had struck out the same travel game plan. In the morning we take the subway and at night we take the bus. That way we don't have too much of the same 'shove' thing.

Today a couple of passengers expressed themselves on the bus. Well actually there were quite a few expressing through shoves but that's the daily. No these two were a bit unique. One decided to take the mic from the bus driver and direct people to climb up into the sightseeing part of the bus. The highly impractical half of the bus. You know those deceivingly gum ridden theater seats, etc. I can't believe he sat on that! I do hope you are getting it. No she wasn't going to have to sit up there but other people would have to. She said she had all day as she didn't have to go home and cook supper. Then one woman being shoved to the very back of this carnival bus said I do not want to go back there, I am getting off at the next stop. People kept shoving. She cursed and said let me off now, I'll walk the five stops.

I was amazed at the reaction. People seemed against her expression and giving applause to the clown giving orders. Brainwashed. Totally brainwashed.

The thing most disconcerting about this congestion pricing, it is totally elitist. It addresses only where Bloomberg lives and works. We have major congestion on the 125th Street Bridge entrance on up to George Washington Bridge. There is no traffic control and thus the same thing run yellow light, grid lock intersection, no move. And on the highway there is not even one "buses only" lane. Even Houston has "buses and carpools only" lanes. Duh. Cowboys and Cowgirls don't run through yellow lights. No way, integrity and honesty, no diplomacy involved.

Did you know that London only started their congestion plan off with a few streets in the business section. And even now, 8-10 years after expansion, they are elitist. Damn right! Democracy is not in their vocabulary. Why do you think all their countrymen want to come over here to get one of those Gov driver's license so they can drive an auto that i-tunes freedom of speech... anyway? Those who can afford hybrid and electric cars do not get charged. Those who live in the zone get discounts. The improvement in congestion after all those years was only less than 20%. Talk about sweat equity.

Like I told the passenger let Spitzer and Bloomberg go ahead and do this. They are only going to make even bigger fools of themselves. It will be legacy. Because they can't handle the passengers they have already and certainly they have demonstrated no knowledge of the driver's manual or traffic control. You'll see. Things will get really bad and they won't be able to turn it around. The National Guard will have to be called in to come teach them how to direct traffic.

Charmin' Therapy

2007-11-01T17:19:00.000-07:00

Remember the ad campaign "Don't squeeze the charmin"? (1965 - 1989)

What ever happened to Mr. Whipple? By the way, did you know he was the third best known American after Richard Nixon and Billy Graham in a 1978 survey poll?

In less than three decades he went through several changes. First, he didn't want women to squeeze the charmin even though that's what he did behind closed grocery store doors. (1970s) When women started obeying he mustered up sweat equity trying to hook them back into the squeezin' thing again. (1980s) Later, when women were squeezin' again they had Mr. Whipple awareness, was he watching? (late 1990s).

I was kind of disappointed he never did a "squeeze me one more time," commercial.

Anyway, when you see what goes on in today's supermarkets you can't help wonder if maybe the consumer is just plain Whippled. Why they are eating the food right from the shelves? Watch out for that banana peel. Shopping and touching the product while they are in line. Even carrying plastic bags while they tote a bag that says "This is not a plastic bag." Yes, sir, they have Whipplefrenzia alright. I have to use "they" because definitely Mr. Whipple would have to talk to the man in today's market.

hmm, ain't that Charmin'.

source: Mr. Whipple (Wikipedia)

Lo-Buzz Therapy

2007-10-30T18:07:00.000-07:00

Yep, indeed, if you stand on a low buzzing platform for about 15 minutes you might lose some weight and gain some bone. here

can't wait for the cigarette isn't harmful to everyone's health buzz to follow.

At any rate you can stop the printers, no calories need be counted in the future.

Smoker's Skin Therapy

2007-10-29T18:52:00.000-07:00

World Tobacco Control Image

Smoker's skin is dry, coarse, yellowish, wrinkled look, enlarged pores and a dull complexion and its all yours if you just stand out on the New York City Street where the persons on both sides are smoking, waving cigs, puffing and throwing butts.

What can you do? Ask them politely to please not smoke on you.

"When "smoker's skin" is exposed to ultra-violet rays, the reduction in immune system activity further compromises its ability to eliminate damaged cells. "

" Cigarette smoke contains a complex mixture of more than 3000 chemicals, many of them toxic. The harmful substances in smoke set off chain reactions of oxygen-based free radicals that attack skin cells and oxidise their essential components, including DNA. This damage can cause cell malfunctions and a consequent reduction in skin's elastin and collagen supports. Eventually, this damage will surface as wrinkles, lines, discoloration and more serious skin problems. "

"Two adverse effects of second-hand smoke is poor tissue repair and abnormal scarring. "

" The chemicals in cigarette smoke are often released into the air in greater concentrations than those inhaled, thus posing more danger to a passive and non-smoker living/working in a smoke-filled environment. The passive smoker will have the same nicotine content in their blood as a moderate, 10-a-day smoker."

Shape Magazine.

So what is Smoker's Skin Therapy --- move as far away from New York City as you can to a place that respects the people who respect others and the environment.

And where would that be?

Belmont, California in San Mateo Go Westward. Between San Francisco and San Jose, yeah!

Laundry Room Therapy

2007-10-28T21:06:00.000-07:00

If you really want to get the "other" view of what exactly "is going down" in your building, may I suggest a little laundry room therapy. Some may look at this as a chore, dirty laundry. I, on the other hand, look up to it as vital therapy.

I met a couple with some little boys in the laundry room. After offering some small talk (not the geekess smalltalk, you know, chat, hmm like don't you think these dryers are a bit too hot? Isn't that card machine confusing? Isn't this better though?) I asked are you going to buy your apartment? They had not had an offer. They have lived in their building for 10 years. I told them I would give them some great information about how to buy when you think you can't. Oops they didn't live in my building. We are sharing this laundry room with another one or two buildings. Interesting, indeed. Because with that info comes even more info.

I asked them if they liked where they lived. That's when they figured out oh, you live in this building. This building has got ALOT of problems. They have always had alot of problems with it. I told them about the late night and early morning breakins. How I reported them to the building manager and my landlord. The unlocked front door. The vandalized mail boxes. The graffiti on the stairwell doors. The illegal smoking in the hallways, stairs, elevator and laundromat. How the police had already been to one of these apartments when I first moved in. The bathroom had been totally wrecked. The rocks thrown at my window several different times, each time I had guests over who brought it to my attention.

Their building is alot safer than mine, they said. When I told them about how my apartment faced the courtyard they shook their head and the wife shuddered. I told them how the broker told me I did not need window gates and even a lock that worked on my door. That it was safe here. Of course, I did not heed the broker, I put in about $1,000 worth of security in the apartment before I moved in. They said that was a good idea. You can't live in the city without that.

I was glad to meet them. Very nice people, very thoughtful, very respectful. Their children were well behaved.

Then later during the drying phase of my therapy, I met another person. She lived in my building and knew exactly what I was talking about except for the breakins. She was scared. I knew it. If you have an apartment facing the rock you have no idea of what really goes on in this building. However, she gets to witness the daily drug busts outside her window. And yes, indeed people are smoking in the hallways and stairs.

A turning point in the therapy, we shared notes on the broker. The broker misrepresented her apartment as rent stabilized and now she is being asked to leave by end of November with no insider offer, uh actually no offer at all. She must leave. I let her in on the fact that the building owner is not allowed to do another New York State real estate transaction. How the coop corporation is always in court because they think they are God's gift to you for allowing them to charge you for a basic roof over your head. They do not want to provide anything else. I gave her a tip on where to go for some good legal advice, free, courtesy of the city housing court. I told her I am very interested in taking the broker to court. He told the landlord that I needed to move in at the first of the month. She could not have the apartment ready until the next month. He told me that she wanted someone for the first of the month. I told him I had already paid rent for the whole month.

And because of this illegal action of duressing the "innocent" landlord and myself, I suffered the first three weeks of my lease. Every single water pipe was busted in at least three places. The update of the apartment had not been supervised and nothing had been done. Even the linoleum in the kitchenette and bathroom had been massively stained by tobacco colored glue. I am the one who put that apartment into shape at my expense. I could not move in and would not until they fixed the water and gave me the key to the front door. This is the only one action that I can hold up against the pro landlord and flimsy brokers law of New York State. The Attorney General's site says that the landlord only has to provide minimum security. The broker's law says the duty of the broker is to obtain and secure a property for you. And then there is the in-between language that most trained practictioners will miss, you cannot pit the seller against the buyer in order to gain advantage.

This tenant and I exchanged cards.

Last week at the laundry room a tenant who had lived in my building for 10 years said that she didn't think she could afford her apartment. Management was asking $750 in maintenance. I told her my landlord paid $350 maintenance. Would she like a broker who handles these type of matters rather well? Yes, indeed, we exchanged cards. I met that broker at the Learning Annex after I had already moved in here.

So really Mr. Bloomberg can go around talking about "middle class malaise" and doing nothing about it, EXCEPT CREATING IT!!!

He says easily that living in New York City is a "luxury" item.

And actually the very definition of a drug bust is that a police agent decides where it will be. And they have decided that it will be in front of my building. So in a way aren't they targeting my building. My goodness, have the police broken the law? And when I walked out my building on the way to work I saw one of these agents in a Brown junk van. He gave himself away with his chatting radio. Such a pity that I am protected by this?

Alot of people in my building have come to thank me for turning this building around. P-l-e-a-s-e. Its absolutely insane that every apartment that I have experienced in Bloomberg's reign of middle class malaise has been totally fraudulent with one building code violation after another and no enforcement. I can keep my apartment so that its impossible to break-in but who will help me survive from the unlocked front door upto my apartment door? Apparently noone. That's what a 2x4 is for.

This morning outside my window a woman screaming, scuffling, a man saying police. And I finally found my phone as I woke up and looked outside the window. What was left of the scene was a black suv and an open gate on the garage next to it. Two thugs were casing it over quickly and walking through our courtyard onto broadway. Then minutes later another person came to look at the SUV's license plate and walked away. hmm later on I looked again at the scene, nothing had changed, the gate seemed to be closed. Call 911 and hear their sass, no thanks. Afterall, I really didn't witness anything. It was too quick and too late.

Rambo Therapy

2007-10-28T16:59:00.000-07:00

On Saturday I told my mom about my Trader Joe's therapy.

I told her how Mr. Trader Joe's mentioned he had lived in Bushwick. I said me too, in the best artist loft until I got attacked going to work in the morning, 7AM. Don't worry. I prevailed with a combination of mournful yet enduring and unending screams and finally one swift jab as if my umbrella was a sword. [Did I mention that people were just standing there either crying or with their mouth open, and no where, I mean no where was there one single police.] True, later my Bruce Lee master told me to be humble and taught me alot of refinements for the future.

Then Mr. Trader Joe's topped my story. He told me about a friend, a petite friend, who recently had her bag grabbed by a thug. She grabbed the bag back and went rambo on him, the guy lost his socks. People were worried about him. I was like cheering her on. Yes, defend yourself, don't let them get away with it. Teach them a lesson they'll never forget. Something they won't learn in jail.

My mom thought Mr. Trader Joe's had given me a real success story. In fact she was so impressed that she told my older brother and sister who were right on with it. Afterall, please remember, don't mess with Texas. I said yeah, don't worry about me. Because whoever is trying to get into this apartment is going to be greeted with a 2x4 across their nose, then their neck and I'll leave the rest to your imagination.

Intuition Therapy

2007-10-28T08:08:00.001-07:00

Let's let the "City" or the "Company" or whatever Mr. Bloomberg, CEO of it, thinks he is running, diet and quit smoking their way.

Today I read that the "City" thinks 58 percent of New Yorkers are overweight and therefore calorie information is mandatory on all City restaurant menus. The title of the article is "New York City Municipality Fights Against Obesity." Notice this Municipality Dude is "fighting" and "not peace-ing."

Don't you think that factoid is totally unimaginative and highly suggestive? Basically, who eats at a restaurant? I don't, do you? Must be the hedge fund gang. I guesstimate. Sorry they are so overweight and can't stop smoking.

Look. You want to know how to lose weight? Ask someone who has never had to lose weight. uh, Ask me or ask Dr. Weil about Intuitive Dieting. It makes more sense than using your most average calculator skills at a restaurant.

Statistically speaking of course, at the age of 54, I am never going to need plastic surgery, dental surgery or false teeth, hairdye, a gym membership or a diet. I eat nutritious food only and I eat it when I am truly hungry. I also walk alot at a moderate and considerate pace. I don't climb those insane concrete MTA stairs that cause unnecessary traffic congestion. I do take my apartment building stairs instead of the elevator. You don't have do alot. Just listen to you, instead of the City. I would dearly love to do yoga at home, oops Cigarette Smoke, can't. Still filling out those Tobacco Unit forms online. Maybe one day.

If you noticed there are not any fat people on the street around you, nor in my building. Ok there are some on the subway but no way, 58%. There are more on the bus. 58% is right up there with the miraculous overnight claims that the smoking ban caused so many thousands less deaths and smokers to stop smoking within a month. There are not fewer smokers on the street, there are more.

How to quit smoking? Go the hospital and sign up for the nicotine drug program. You'll save alot more lives that way. You'll even save time, money and your teeth. Its really just intuitive. Do you really want to quit? Do you really care that you are killing others and messing up their home harmony? Well?

Just think if the city canned most of its health department and marketing agency ....and 311...and the MTA (oops that's the State's responsibility), they could afford to house some more of those artists they want to migrate to the city. They say to brighten it up. Not to say that the City doesn't already have quite alot of loftless artists who are still brightening up the City. Well, you know the City. It doesn't listen to its stomach, its motto is "If you See something."

Typography Therapy

2007-10-26T18:27:00.000-07:00

Holy Purple Cow

This likemind comes by way of LandGrab and BIB.

Both sites have pictures of the typographer who has got Mayor Moo Moo down right. Yep indeed, Mayor Moo Moo doesn't have a grip on NYC contextuality..

Message to Mayor Moo --- Get a Grip!

Trader Joe's Therapy

2007-10-26T18:04:00.000-07:00

It was raining, the "A" train wasn't running, so I hopped on the Lexington Downtown 4 to Trader Joe's on 3rd Ave and 14th Street in Manhattan, NYC. I'd never done Trader Joe's before. I am glad I did. It was pretty obvious the first thing you do is get in the line for "any number of items." It leisurely wraps around the store so you can do your shopping while in line. You even get a snacktime when you are just around the bend of the checkout counters. It reminded me of a version of the children's game "Snake."

By the time I got to the tempeh part of the line I started to notice the guy behind me. He was pretty active with the Trader Joe's crew. I found their conversations interesting. I finally asked him "I guess the right way to do Trader Joe's is the inside aisles, then get in line." He said "yes." We managed a conversation that took us to the Trader Joes' counter. We wound up talking about how my dad had been part of the PVC invention. He developed it in his lab as chief chemist, first via Diamond Alkalai then later, bought out by B.F. Goodrich. Now my dad has some sort of Parkinson's disease. He's a walking scientific experiment. He has two brain pacemakers implanted in his head and a remote control implanted in his chest. If you turn that control off he is flip-flopping everywhere like a fish out of water. He lost his ability to speak in those operations. Anyway the guy has a business making shower curtains. You know the ones with the subways on them. We got started talking about PVC because I asked if his curtains were recycled. Long, but interesting, story.

At the counter I warned the counterupper to be gentle with me, I shopped at Whole Foods. By the end of the accounting for my $28.00 of items we were both laughing. Wow I got more food than I would get for $65 at Whole Foods. I like the crew at Whole Foods too. Hard decision. I do so love the insulated grocery bag I got for $1.99 at Trader Joe's, far out. They are so inventive.

hmm, never mix, never worry....

Great city therapy with likeminds.

Kick Ass for Someone Else Therapy

2007-10-25T04:57:00.000-07:00

:)
Ok sometimes when you Kick Ass for someone else it can feel good.

Remember, yeah right sure you do, when I created some kick ass pictures for my friend Reggie's acting portfolio.

See Kick Ass and the Sell Will Follow here.

Well she has a gig in Ishmael Reed's play "Body Parts."

the press release (below)

BODY PARTS

The Nuyorican Poets Café
Rome Neal, Artistic Theater Director
presents
Body Parts, a new two act play by Ishmael Reed
featuring:
Samia Axudo, Rod Bladel, Wendy Callard-Booz, Henry Afro=Bradley, Reggie Buckingham, DanCampanelli, Steve Cromity, Megan C. Jackson,D.J. Lapite, Patrick Lam, Karen Denise Page, and Robert Turner

October 25, 2007 through November 25th, Thursday, Friday, Saturday at 7 pm
and Sundays at 4 pm $18
236 East Third Street
New York, New York 10009
For reservation and information: 212-465-3167
For further information, visit www.nuyorican.org

--- a moment from our sponsor ---
Ad opportunity here folks (see below)

Greetings Folks,
Next week (Thursday) the Nuyorican Poets Cafe will open a new and very funny and thought provoking play by one of our stellar literary figures, Ishmael Reed. As producer and director of this amazing theatrical work I would like for you to come out for our first week of performances. This way you can say that you were one of the first to see a world premiere by Ishmael Reed and actually get an opportunity to talk to the playwright on (Oct 25, 27, and 28) while he's in town.
Also anyone wishing to take out an ad for their business in the playbill Body Parts please let me know asap!

---a moment from our sponsor ---

Body Parts is a hilarious and revealing look into the world of a corrupted pharmaceutical company under investigation.
Because of heavy legal expenses they have to downsize their think tank which is embodied in three blacks who incorporate their viewpoint.

Ishmael Reed, together with Toni Morrison, is one of today's pre-eminent African American literary figures--perhaps the most widely reviewed since Ralph Ellison, and, along with Samuel Delany and Amiri Baraka, probably the most controversial.
-Ishmael Reed began writing his own jazz column for Empire State, a weekly African American newspaper in Buffalo, NY

Reed, the recipient of a MacArthur Genius Award has thus far produced seven novels, four books of poetry, two collections of essays, numerous reviews and critical articles, and has edited two major anthologies. Reed's literary style is best known for its use of parody and satire in attempts to create new myths and to challenge the formal conventions of literary tradition. Reed's works have alternately been criticized as incoherent, muddled, and abstruse, and hailed as multicultural, revolutionary, vivid, and containing a deep awareness of mythic archetypes.

Born 1938 in Chattanooga, Tennessee, Ishmael Reed grew up in working class neighborhoods in Buffalo, New York. He attended Buffalo public schools and the University of Buffalo. He moved to New York City,where he co-founded the East Village Other (1965), an underground newspaper that achieved a national reputation. Also that year he organized the American Festival of Negro Art. As well as being a novelist, poet, and essayist, he is a songwriter, television producer, publisher, magazine editor, playwright, and founder of the Before Columbus Foundation and There City Cinema, both of which are located in northern California. He has taught at Harvard, Yale, and Dartmouth, and for twenty years he has been a lecturer at the University of California at Berkeley, He lives in Oakland, California.

Since the publication of his first novel, The Free-Lance Pallbearers (1967), Reed has devoted himself to the production of a substantial body of literature - fiction, poetry and essays - which has as its consistent objective the satirizing of American political, religious and literary repression. His literary subversion has expressed itself in parodies of political realities: the racism and greed of the Reagan era in The Terrible Twos (1982) and the recent Japanese by Spring (1993), fundamentalist Christian white supremacist values in The Terrible Threes (1989) and parodies of literary forms themselves, western pulp novels in Yellow Back Radio Broke-Down (1969), slave narratives in Flight To Canada (1976), and detective fiction in Mumbo Jumbo (1972) which pits proponents of rationalism and militarism against believers in the magical and intuitive, The Last Days of Louisiana Red (1974). (complete bibliography below).

Mumbo Jumbo (1972) was the work that first achieved wide notoriety for the author, and it is considered by several scholars to be his best, along with Flight to Canada (1976). Two of Reed's books have been nominated for National Book Awards, and he has received numerous honors, fellowships, and prizes, including the Lewis H. Michaux Literary Prize, awarded to him in 1978 by the Studio Museum in Harlem.

ROME NEAL is the Artistic Director of the Nuyorican Poets Café theatre program. Mr. Neal is the recipient of the National Black Theatre Festival's coverted Lloyd Richards Director’s Award. He received an Obie Grant with Café founder Miguel Algarin for excellence in theatre. Over the years he has received five Audelco Awards for his direction of Pepe Carril’s "SHANGO de IMA" and Samuel Harp’s "Don't Explain." Mr. Neal also received two AUDELCOS for his acting: one for Lead Actor in Gabrielle N. Lane's "SIGNS," and one for Solo Performance in his critically acclaimed "MONK," by Laurence Holder.

His fifth AUDELCO Award was a technical award for his light design of "SHANGO de IMA." Mr. Neal received a Triumph Award for his acting in Alex Mc Donald's "Prism" and a Monarch Merit Award for his outstanding contributions in New York Theatre. His directorial credits includes his adaptation of William Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar Set in Africa," Sekou Sundiata's "The Circle Unbroken is a Hard Bop," Amiri Baraka's "Meeting Lillie, "SHANGO de IMA," "Prism," Ishmael Reed's "The C Above C Above High C" and Amiri Baraka's "Primitive World: An Anti- Nuclear Jazz Musical," all performed at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe and National Black Theatre Festival in Winston Salem North Carolina.

Rome directed Wesley Brown's "Life During Wartime" at the Cafe and The National Black Arts Festival in Atlanta Georgia. His production of Alex McDonald's "Prism" was performed at the Ex-Ponto Festival in Slovenia, Eastern Europe.

He received critical acclaim for "Mother Hubbard," "Savage Wilds," "The Preacher" and "The Rapper," and "Getsemane Park: A Gospera," all by Ishmael Reed at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe. He also staged a season of plays by Amiri Baraka which included "Primitive World: An Anti-Nuclear Jazz Musical," "The Election Machine Warehouse," "General Hags Skeezag and Jackpot Melting (A Commercial)."

NOTE FROM THE PLAYWRIGHT:
One of the standard Sci Fi themes has aliens taking over the bodies of humans. Think Tanks with the support of multi-millionaires, billionaires and corporations have done something similar. They have been able to inhabit those who resemble blacks and Hispanics with their ideas. For example, one of the few Hispanic columnists to be syndicated supports former Mayor Giuliani, who ordered his police department to stop and frisk thousands of New York Hispanics without cause. Mayor Giuliani’s philosophy is guided by the Manhattan Institute, a think tank that designed the plan that removed poor blacks and Puerto Ricans from New York and has supported research purporting to show that blacks are genetically damaged.
Established by funding from such corporate giants as Chase Manhattan Bank, the leading spokesperson for the Think Tank is a black man; a corporate mind double. What does one do with the genetically damaged? Well, you might eliminate them .
Hitler and his friends burned those who were considered
genetically damaged. Over here we let them drown. Another option is to experiment upon them. Eli Lilly and other drug companies have had to pay settlements to poor blacks and Hispanics as a result of these victims being harmed by dangerous
anti-depressants like Zyprexa. Africans are regularly guinea pigs for the trials of these drugs which have caused blindness, and even death.
The corporate media, which have more sympathy for pit bulls than for people, are reluctant to take on the think tanks, whose position papers are parroted by in bed with anchor people and reporters; the violations of pharmaceutical companies, whose contributions to politicians and whose ads pay the bills of the networks, occur without comment.
The stage, since ancient times, has been the place where institutions, no matter how great, can be brought down to size. Award winning director, Rome Neal, and a fine cast lead the charge with Ishmael Reed’s new play, Body Parts at the Nuyorican Poets’ Café.

Testimony Therapy

2007-10-23T18:53:00.000-07:00

Do you have something you need to get off your chest about New York City's traffic congestion.

Get thee to this pdf. here.

That's 5 minutes and a quick run over to Long Island City with 20 copies of that testimony before the hearing date. refer again to pdf. here

hmm 20 copies is not exactly green

There is an email address and one could always include a link to the testimony on itunes or something -- flickr perhaps -- a presentation -- a google doc.

Let me work on it...will get back to you ...

At Grand Central put your therapy in someone else's Hands - Aveda Rituals

2007-10-17T06:31:00.000-07:00

If you have about 15 minutes and you are at Grand Central stop by the Aveda store for an Aveda Ritual.

Tons of therapy.

First off I found out that my hair gets so wild and crazy after a haircut because I might not give it enough moisture.

Yep my hair is beautiful to look at, but can you imagine being under all that activity?

I could also use a little more of this

and that
a xc

And basically after you've styled your hair never touch it again until the next wash. This kind of hair goes crazy with touch, touch. hmm-aaaaaaa

My Aveda Ritual was hand therapy, a little acupressure mixed in with some other aveda rituals and a great Breast Cancer Awareness Product.

We talked about soy. My Aveda ritual-goddess had been born in the U.S. but raised in Toyko. She says they eat soy all the time there. I said "...even soymilk?
"Yes," she assured me.

I told her about all the articles by doctors reporting the "facts" that Asian countries seldom and then sparingly use soy. They use only fermented soy. The doctors also espouse milk product and lots of it. The doctors further stated that only the poor people eat soy all the time, the poor, unnourishing parts of it. The stuff that is made here in the U.S. They had a testimonial from a person who had been eating soy all the time for twenty years and who was sick because of "soy."

She shook her head, "sometimes you should not listen to them."

I said, "Yes, figure out your own way." I never ate soy until a few years ago. I guess I am the odd vegan out or am I enlightened? I stick to unprocessed foods whenever possible (i.e. not from the freezer or the blender). I eat grains more than I do fruit or vegetables. I do beans more than I do soy. Soy is not an everyday thing for me and then its sort of a treat. And if someone offers me a bite of a chocolate chip cookie or a spoon of ice cream that they want to show off, I don't stand in the way of their happiness. I do try to keep the line though.

Saturday Therapy - Robotequins

2007-10-14T20:14:00.000-07:00

Twas still on 14th street when I looked up and there she was, my first robotequin. No not that kind of thing, p-l-e-a-s-e, I'm still looking for a very bad dog.

But I was impressed. This was right up there with Godzilla.

Nivea and Philips Norelco got together and trailered up all of 14th Street that the NYC brass would let them, last Saturday. I didn't mind that they took up a lane that could have been used to serve me. And, clearly being chased by a clean shaven dog is better than being chased by the unshaven. And there they were, coming right on in for backrub therapy and one c-l-e-a-n- shave, robotskin. I was totally fascinated.

www.robotskin.com even more intriguing...

Saturday Therapy - Union Square Huggers...

2007-10-13T20:18:00.000-07:00

Making New York City a more huggable place to be...

ok

uh I got multiple hugs by multiple people yeah that feels good

Saturday Therapy - 14th Street Union Square - Say Goodbye to yourself

2007-10-13T19:08:00.000-07:00

..cause the war is over....nobody won...."--www.JeffersonThomas.com

Saturday Therapy 14th Street - Freedom of Speech

2007-10-13T18:42:00.000-07:00

1,990,000 links for "impeach george bush" in google.

I signed up, how about you?

the Therapeutic audacity of the Educated Shopper...

2007-10-12T19:17:00.000-07:00

in New York City... or, wait a minute.

It can be therapeutic when you make a sale for the seller through education. Huh?

And so it was this Friday evening. I set out to purchase a wireless cam for my front door.

I did not use the internet. I used my two feet on over to Best Buy at 40 something street. There I met, uh, no salespeople. I imagined the prowess of the Euro tribe hunter and I hunted me up a salesperson. He looked the Linksys Wireless Video Camera up in his computer, "No, he said, "but there is such a camera at the Chelsea shop."

My two feet attempted to catch a bus in front of the She-She store customer pickup. Duh, imagine, I thought it was a bus stop, silly me.

I walked to Chelsea. The hunt was on again for a salesperson. One said he didn't know anything about computers, try over there. Quell resistance. Over there said the computer at 40 something was wrong. Come back Monday. I asked for in-store pickup. We don't have that for anything except really expensive items.

"Are you sure about every angle of that statement?" I asked putting hand on hip, " You know yesterday I was at Staples buying a laptop. They told me they didn't have it. After a little therapeutic audacity from an Educated Shopper they finally ordered one for instore pickup for Monday. You can't do what Staples does?"

"By the way," I told him, "I would have bought that laptop from Best Buy if the three-year insurance policy had been, trying to be polite, hmmm ...honest. So many times my computer came back with a signoff slip saying something was fixed and it hadn't been touched. For example, the A key bounced immediately right off, yep all the old keys still intact after 3 weeks in Baltimore and signed off, keyboard replaced. Best Buy should really get their 'its a good product thing' on."

Then I smiled, "I see you have plenty of Euros to buy your merchandise, why mess around with someone who actually lives here."

I smiled again as my two feet took me happily down, down, down the aisles to pick up a Linksys Vonage wireless router that promised to be $19.00 after rebate. I went home and shopped online for the Linksys Wireless Video Camera at Circuit City, Brandmate!, in-store pickup and $15 off.

In so many ways this is the reality of Therapeutic Audacity of the New York City Educated Shopper.

There really is nothing quite like haircut therapy in the City

2007-10-10T19:16:00.000-07:00

When I don't feel well or it seems like too many bad things happen in a row I like to get a haircut.

This is the one great, magnificent haven so far that is protected by its $1,000 price tag. Yes, so far this to die for place in MePa hasn't been sacrificed or mauled over by the Euro tribe invaders.

And so I sat while Mike caressed my stressed out tresses with his healing wand. They'd had a hard day with "A" train screeches all the way and working in an office that is right next to the tunnel, oh my, how rank.

Let it go, let it go. What kind of dog do you like best? he asked.

I said "I really have never loved a dog."

He looked so sadly at me.

I said "Oh, I guess that's really not true, I've loved three dogs. They were very bad dogs."

He looked very seriously sad at me. I grinned. I grinned even more. He giggled.

Then I said "I guess I just have to find a dog who really loves me."

A few people started peeping over the corner, giggling therapy was now in session.

Yep, haircut therapy, something only this City could do best.

Still there is nothing better than the face place upstairs. Maybe next week, yes, definitely next week as I looked at my "A" screeched eyes. Sigh. High rent, high maintenance, oh my, brought to you by the City.

Tribes that Shop Together Renew

2007-10-08T17:53:00.000-07:00

circa October 2007 Before the Hunt
(at the Circle, NYC)--
image by bubblegumvisionstudios

or is that true? When an invading Tribe (sometimes referred to as Euro tourists invading New York City by the millions) sacrifices off there turf what happens? And what of us? Is it global warming?

Marketers drummed up a "beat the clock" sale at Clockwork Orange at Junction One in Antrim, Ireland. The crowd was not interested in what they sacrificed just in how much. The object being, getting clocked up at the register. In the process manequins were savagely sacrificed. See the BBC "Mannequins mauled in store wars."

When Marketing gets the best of a Fortune

2007-10-08T15:09:00.000-07:00

Cookie...

Since this blog is about the City Therapy I'd be remiss to not mention the fortune cookie that follows the end of a meal at your local Chinese Food takeout. I do stress yours, not mine, as I am vegan since 19.

The local paper takes care of my blobligation with today's anecdotal blurb, "Don't Open This Cookie," about New York City, Queens' Wonton Food, the nation's largest fortune cookie maker, outputting 4.5 million cookies daily. The story is spun from the response and impact that followed the value-added touch of WF's marketing coordinator, Bernard Chow.

historical note: In 2005 110 people won $19 million in Powerball after playing a “lucky number” sequence from the back of a Wonton fortune cookie.

To appreciate the Value-Added Fortune Cookie better checkout another type of Fortune Cookie, see "Bad Cookie."

Robin a Brand that takes from the Forest

2007-10-06T17:43:00.000-07:00

Jan Gehl, How New Yorkers Bike

2007-10-05T16:59:00.000-07:00

at NYC's Town Hall, Saturday, October 6, 2007
7:30 P.M.
123 West 43rd Street
(Tickets are also available for $16 at the Town Hall box office. Free valet bicycle parking will be provided.)

Saturday Night Special
David Byrne Presents: How New Yorkers Ride Bikes
David Byrne will host an evening of music, discussion, film, readings, and surprises dedicated to the advancement of bicycling in New York City, including talks and performances by the Classic Riders Bicycle Club, Jan Gehl, Buck Henry, Calvin Trillin, Paul Steely White, Jonathan Wood, and the Young@Heart Chorus.

“The social changes of our era can help explain the dramatic increase in urban recreation… premium public spaces, with their diversity of functions, multitude of people, fine views and fresh air obviously have something to offer that is in great demand in society today.”

-- Jan Gehl, Project for Pubic Spaces

When CAT means Bronx Clean Air Transportation Program ...

2007-10-03T11:22:00.000-07:00

You've just got to join them on the 2007 Green Homes Bronx Tour, this Saturday, October 6, 2007.

Check out 2007 Green Homes Tours here

More on CAT here

Sustainable Collective - Ekovarhuset

2007-10-03T09:44:00.000-07:00

its on the New York City map

Ekovarhuset - Organic and Fair Trade Clothing