I was in New York during the hurricane. I was supposed to leave Monday , but my flight was cancelled and I ended up staying there until Friday morning. I just got back to Boulder a few hours ago.
I don’t have anything especially insightful to share and didn’t really get any good pictures. But I did have some interesting experiences.
First, I was staying in Chelsea and we did lose power. I stayed in the hotel anyway for three more nights. Without electricity. I didn’t have a flashlight but my phone did the job quite nicely. It was spooky, but in a fun way.
Second, I was staying literally around the corner from this building:
In the daylight it looked like some kind of art installation, or a giant dollhouse.
I didn’t even notice it at first. I was standing on the corner looking at a CNN truck that had a crush of people around it. For a moment I thought maybe Mayor Bloomberg was there. But after observing more closely I realized that the crush of people was there to charge their phones; CNN had politely put a bunch of power strips out. They kept the truck running there day and night for about 72 hours.
A passerby got a laugh when he said “this is New York’s version of Haiti. Instead of water trucks we have cell phone trucks.” Right now I feel a little guilty about laughing given the destruction, but then again I’m thankful we live in a nation that even in a disaster still suffers mostly from first world problems.
Some other memories:
- One night I was walking back to my hotel in the dark and saw a retail storefront with candles inside. I poked my head in and it turned out it was a bar. The owner had put out some candles and was open for business. There was only seven or eight people there, but we sat around talking for hours. Two of the people were foreign students at Columbia. They had come down south to see what it looked like. (It was pretty spooky down there. How apropos for Halloween.)
- People were very friendly. Not just residents and tourists, but businesses. Every Starbucks, Duane Reade and restaurant was letting people charge their phones. A few smart people brought power strips so we could create daisy chains of electricity.
I met and spent time with lots of interesting people. A few that come to mind:
- A loud, profane and hilariously funny Aussie who had more tall tales than Mark Twain. At times I thought “he must be lying,” but then I realized I didn’t care. The stories were so good I was willing to suspend disbelief.
- A screenwriter assistant living illegally in a commercial loft with 8 other women. She had good stories too, mostly about her douchebag boss. Oh and she dressed up as Big Bird on Halloween. We all ended up in a loud gay bar at two am. The story gets better or worse from there, depending on your perspective, so I will err on the side of caution and spare you the details.
- Two Australian tourists I met standing by the Hudson river. We walked and talked together all the way to Times Square.
- Another New Yorker who I walked with from Chelsea to Columbus Circle. We stopped on the way at a bar called Joe’s and talked with some Canadian tourists in town to see a musical (of course I forget which one).
I actually initially intended this to be a short post about Michael Bloomberg, but as I started writing I realized I wanted to get this all down before I forget it. On to Mayor Bloomberg.