MetaFilter posts tagged with NewYork and NYC

Sister Ping and the Golden Venture

reenum — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 11:11:13 -0800

Cheng Chui Ping came to the US like many others from the Fujian province in China. Through hard work and determination, she rose in the ranks of New York City's Chinatown business community. But, "Sister Ping" was not one to follow laws if it didn't suit her. Among the snakeheads who engaged in human trafficking, none were better than her. Working with notorious gangsters, Sister Ping set up a global network to help smuggle Fujianese immigrants into the US. Sean Chen and others were among those who were on the ill fated trip that ultimately sent Sister Ping to prison. Their ordeals were not over either. Many spent years in immigration detention centers, waiting to enter the country they had endured so much to get to. Sister Ping is due to be released from prison in 2030.

Your Guide To Living Out The Don Draper Dream

netbros — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 15:40:04 -0800

One of the best parts of watching Mad Men is the perfectly recreated world of 1960s New York. Who doesn’t wish they could simply step into their tvs for a moment and experience the romance of sipping a cocktail in an elegant 60s bar? Guest of a Guest put together a list of Mad Men inspired locales, consisting of places that have been around since the 1960s as well as their modern counterparts. Here’s everything you need to know to dress, drink, eat, and live like a character out of Mad Men.

More Web Magazines

netbros — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 16:35:28 -0800

The New York Review of Ideas is a web magazine reporting about New York commerce, literature and politics. The Manzine is actually £2 for the print version, but some of the its best is also online.

One in 8 Million

ocherdraco — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 22:06:52 -0800

One in 8 Million "New York is a city of characters. On the subway and in its streets, from the intensity of Midtown to the intimacy of neighborhood blocks, is a 305-square-mile parade of people with something to say. This is a collection of a few of their passions and problems, relationships and routines, vocations and obsessions. A new story will be added weekly." A photo and audio series from the New York Times. A few of the stories:

"A mental and visual release for New Yorkers, who may find it exhausting to live in the most identifiable city in the world."

ocherdraco — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 20:49:06 -0800

The Last Parcels of Nowhere Remaining in Manhattan. Photographs.

For the scope of the project, "nowhere" is defined as a place that has been neglected, and from this neglect has achieved the status of an organic non-place; a perfect combination of the built and natural. From these places, one cannot say, "I am in a park" or "I am in the city" because neither appears to be true.

Discover, Explore and Document

netbros — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 11:27:13 -0800

NYC Grid is a photo blog dedicated to exploring and discovering The City of New York block by block and corner by corner. Updated every weekday, each post covers a new block with a focus on the mundane and ephemeral. An optimistic snapshot of New York as it is now. Vs. The Lamentations: Lost City is a running Jeremiad on the vestiges of Old New York as they are steamrolled under or threatened by the currently ruthless real estate market and the City Fathers' disregard for Gotham's historical and cultural fabric. Jeremiah's Vanishing New York — a bitterly nostalgic look at a city in the process of going extinct. Still hunkered down in the East Village, waiting for the wrecking ball of gentrification to find me. Until then, I'll write this ongoing obituary for my dying city.

Up On The Roof

msalt — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 11:31:22 -0800

Hello, New York! New York, wake up you f*ckers! Free Music! Free Love! In 1968, two years before those other guys, Jefferson Airplane played their apocalyptic psychedelia from a NYC rooftop, before police shut them down. Filmed (staged?) by Jean-Luc Godard. The song is "The Ballad of You and Me and Pooneil" from "After Bathing at Baxter's" (1967). Amazingly, this was their single which reached #42 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #24 on the Cash Box Top 100. Filmed for Godard's project "One A.M." aka "One American Movie", which was abandoned and completed four years later by D.A. Pennebaker -- with additional "making of" footage -- as "One P.M." aka "One Parallel Movie." IMDB The film is a fascinating, exasperating mess, featuring Tom Hayden, Eldridge Cleaver (just before he fled the country), Amiri Baraka, Rip Torn, Carol Bellamy, LeRoi Jones and Godard himself. An "American Indian" picks up a tape recorder and spouts/mimics the radical speech on it, etc. The NYT reviewer wrote at the time: "I don't know why "One A.M." was abandoned. There has been talk of Godard's failure to understand the nature of the movement in America. But after looking at the quality of the film work in "One P.M." it seems to me that the reason could quite properly have been despair." One P.M. -- Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5 - Part 6 - Part 7 - Part 8 - Part 9 - Part 10

No more ditching in the Hudson is a plus.

allkindsoftime — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 06:33:00 -0800

The Manhattan Airport Foundation. From the About Us: It doesn’t take long to realize Central Park squanders 843 acres of the most valuable real estate in the world. From the FAQ: To date, nearly 100 investors have signed on to provide approximately $130M in equity with another $80M from the bond market making Manhattan Airport the most ambitious privately-funded airport development project in US history. Apparently this is for reals.

Why we need Law & Order, SVU, Criminal Intent and CSI: New York

crossoverman — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 17:40:19 -0800

Murder: New York City. A map pinpointing murders in the five boroughs of NYC from 2003-09. Broken down by time of day, weapon used, age, sex and ethnicity of both victim and perpetrator. Not surprisingly, in the heat of summer the body count rises. Investigating homicides - a Q&A series: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.

The High Line, Transformed

zarq — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 07:56:34 -0800

The first stage of New York City's High Line redesign was opened to the public yesterday, and reviews are generally favorable. The city's newest park (whose concept is similar to Paris’s Promenade Plantée,) transforms an abandoned, above-ground, elevated freight train track into a nine block "lofty expanse of walking and green spaces that stretches 60 feet wide in some spots". It also provides visitors with a unique look at some of the city's architecture and layout. (Previously on MeFi) If you live in or are visiting NYC and would like to see the park, here's a handy guide of "things you should know", including location, directions and entry points. Here's what it used to look like.

400 Years Ago

netbros — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 14:35:41 -0800

Have you ever wondered what New York was like before it was a city? Find out at The Mannahatta Project, by navigating through the map to discover Manhattan Island and its native wildlife in 1609. “The goal of the Mannahatta Project has never been to return Manhattan to its primeval state. The goal of the project is to discover something new about a place we all know so well, whether we live in New York or see it on television, and, through that discovery, to alter our way of life. New York does not lack for dystopian visions of the future…. But what is the vision of the future that works? Might it lie in Mannahatta, the green heart of New York, and with a new start to history, a few hours before Hudson arrived that sunny afternoon four hundred years ago?”

Making Policy Public

netbros — Sun, 31 May 2009 11:14:59 -0800

Urban Omnibus is an online project of the Architectural League that explores the relationship between design and New York City's physical environment. They are featuring Making Policy Public, a program of The Center for Urban Pedagogy, through their articles about Vendor Power and Predatory Equity. "Just as we were beginning our collaboration, 1520 Sedgwick Avenue, a predatory equity building in the Bronx widely recognized as the birthplace of hip-hop, was being overleveraged by a predatory developer. This was not only a case of people potentially losing their homes; but also of New York City losing its heritage and culture. The threats are social and cultural as well as economic. Through their work helping tenants organize and speaking to lawmakers and media sources, (we) knew that the poster would have to address two different audiences: 1) Tenants who wanted to know how the law and predatory equity practices could directly affect them and 2) decision-makers who would need inside information to take action. They imagined the publication’s goal was to mobilize tenants in affected and at-risk buildings and to convince politicians and banks to recognize the problem and take immediate action. We agreed finding a way to visually explain predatory equity was the best place to start."

The Past is Another City

Miko — Thu, 28 May 2009 13:26:31 -0800

Photos of 1940s New York City.

Subway Time Maps

netbros — Tue, 19 May 2009 14:31:22 -0800

Triptrop NYC: Subway Time Maps — Plug in an address in New York City, and Triptrop generates a super slick looking map of how long it takes to get anywhere on the subway. And maybe you're moving? Then plug not one but two addresses into the comparison version and see which one gets you where you want to go. [via mefi projects]

Exclusive Flight 1549 Salvage Pictures

mr_crash_davis mark II: Jazz Odyssey — Wed, 13 May 2009 19:10:49 -0800

"On Jan. 15, 2009, a few Canadian geese with bad timing became snarge, a steely pilot became a hero, and the world became fascinated with images of a jet splashing into the Hudson River and then floating calmly as passengers crowded its wings.

But until now, few people have seen the equally surprising pictures of the second half of this story: when a salvage team used the biggest floating crane on the East Coast to pluck the ill-fated Airbus A320 from the frigid water."

Helen Levitt, RIP

mudpuppie — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 11:52:08 -0800

Photographer Helen Levitt, known mostly for her New York street scenes, has died at 95. Here's a recent interview. (Links on site open in new window/resize by default.)

Mural Mural on the Wall

mikepop — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 09:08:19 -0800

Making use of the space left between short shelves and high ceilings, Pentagram worked with some artists to make some fantastic murals in New York City elementary school libraries.

Joe Ades, New York City's "Peeler Man" dead at 75

GilloD — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 06:55:42 -0800

Joe Ades, New York City's "Peeler Man" is dead at the age of 75. If you lived in New York anytime in the last, oh, two decades and you frequented New York City's Union Square Greenmarket, you probably know Joe Ades. He was the guy almost hiding in the corners. He looked like a bit of a lunatic, peeling carrots in a polyester suit, sweating like a track star in the 80 degree summer heat. He'd shout and howl and you'd think, "How good can that vegetable peeler really be?" and almost as if on cue some passerby would note, "I have one and it's just like he advertises". After watching that spiel 5 or 6 times, I finally got one of Joe Ades' mystery peelers. I have never owned a better kitchen tool in my whole life. It is the king of peelers, it may as well be forged from Damascus Steel. It came with no identifying information, a little bit of magic in a brand saturated world. I had promised my mother I'd pick her up a peeler next time I ran into Joe- Now what? He was the last of the real salesmen. An honest to god working man, a consummate showman and a living treasure of the city. The city is a less well off place without a man like Joe. In the low tide of the global economy, Joe has some good advice: “I’ve sold things for far less than the peeler,” Joe says. “People say, ‘How can you make any money selling something for a dollar?’ You sell a lot, that’s how. There was a fellow in Trafalgar Square who sold packets of birdseed to the tourists. They were a shilling a packet—to feed the pigeons. He owned blocks of flats, so the story goes.” Even if you've never heard of Joe, give the above few links a view. He is a captivating person, like someone out of a storybook. It'll be a nice way to spend the morning hours.

I walk the same streets. Why don't I notice these things?

grumblebee — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 16:30:46 -0800

I work as a film location scout in New York City. My day is basically spent combing the streets for interesting and unique locations for feature films. In my travels, I often stumble across some pretty incredible sights, most of which are ignored every day by thousands of New Yorkers in too much of a rush to pay attention. As it happens, it's my job to pay attention, and I've started this blog to keep a record of what I see.

Someone's Mama Made This

netbros — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 21:38:32 -0800

In Mamas Kitchen was born in the experience of living in New York where a bodega exists within blocks of a Jewish deli which is around the corner from an Italian salumeria which shares space with Chinatown which abuts Soho's gourmet stores. While this speaks of the legendary variety available in New York, it also tells of similarity, for in every bodega, every salumeria is someone shopping for the food that sustains physical life with a recipe that nourishes our hearts.

“Intestines of what?”

ThePinkSuperhero — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 20:14:27 -0800

David Fishman, 12-year-old food critic, takes himself out to dinner.

The Complicated Relationship Between Bailarinas And Their Clients

jason's_planet — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 11:32:05 -0800

Rosa is a bailarina. For a couple of dollars per song, she dances with strangers in a bailarina bar. It’s a job held by many immigrant women in Spanish-speaking New York, filling a need created by many immigrant men. The man on the phone is typical of her clients. He’s in his twenties, doesn’t speak English, and immigrated to the United States by himself—no mother, no girlfriend, no wife. He works six days a week at a restaurant and sends his money back home to Ecuador. Most of all, he’s lonely.

reportage illustration

nickyskye — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 17:01:12 -0800

Overlooked New York, Impassioned New Yorkers from an Artist's Perspective by Zina Saunders, who is now becoming better known for her darkly humorous political images. Her blog on the illustrator blogsite, Drawger. Zina Saunders interview. Her late father is Norman Saunders, who got his varied career started with the Topps company, known for his Mars Attacks and Wacky Packages cards. Slideshow LyteArts interview. Her portfolios on Illoz. Bio on her site l On Wikipedia. Deconstructing Lunch is my way of showing that everybody counts, that we're all connected to a vast network of people who each plays a crucial role in making possible even the simplest things.

"For the rest of the evening my name will be Violetta."

goodnewsfortheinsane — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 13:23:35 -0800

Radar magazine: Secrets of a hipster hooker.

Den Vaffel Bike

photoslob — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 10:08:08 -0800

Waffle Bike is a fully weaponized waffle-making machine. (SLYT)