The intolerant tolerating the intolerable
As I was walking to the subway the other day, I decided to try to look at New York, not as a New Yorker, which in many ways, I've become, but as a normal feeling person. Was this city really just a bit noisy and were all the impressions you read about, the result of exaggerated myth?I wondered. Is the city as strange as people make out. Have I been succumbing to the "Only in New York" New York mentality, where the natives feel that they are special, and that somehow even mundane events are cause for the proud exclaim - "Only in New York!".
Knowing little else in five years, I have been beginning to accept things around here as "normal".
So I looked carefully. It is about an eight minute walk from our apartment block to the subway station. On the way, I pass four sleeping homeless people. The one shown here is a permanent resident of the sidewalk about 10 metres from the entrance to our apartment lobby. Another homeless is asleep on a ledge in a side street, his head halfway in a plastic bag full of aluminum cans he has been collecting to make a few bucks.
A bit further along and I pass a maniac. A man holding a helium balloon, eyes spinning, singing loudly, He is reasonably well-dressed, not a homeless. There's a manic nasty sort of look on his face, and he reminds me of Jack Nicholson in the latter part of "The Shining". I avoid eye contact.
OK, so there's a maniac on 42nd Street, so what? It could happen anywhere. Is it an "Only in New York" thing? The maniac however, is completely ignored. All the commuters just walk by, most of them not even giving the guy a glance. On to work
The subway ride is normal. I think. A few people asleep. People yawning without covering their mouths. Nothing weird.
Back after work from the trip across East River. Another subway ride. Back to Grand Central. I have to go up the escalator. It's broken. Everyone has to walk up. In the morning the down escalator had been broken, but that had been a piece of cake compared with this Everest-like climb. It is one of those long going on forever escalators. I make it to the top, passing people ten years younger than myself collapsed, half hanging onto the side, like butterflies crushed on a wheel, wheezing as if stricken with asthma attacks.
The walk home. Almost normal. The apartment block is in sight and the only weird thing I've seen is a homeless man eating "Chubby Hubby", a Ben and Jerries gourmet ice cream flavour, and reading the Wall Street Journal.
I turn down the street that leads into 39th, where we live. It is broad daylight. A man, around 35, decides to unzip and urinate in full view in the middle of the sidewalk. Not a homeless. Looked like an office worker. He saw me and others, but proceeded undeterred.
Only in New York!
The Howling
"It's 4am and the guy in the next room is howling in his five-by-seven foot-cell. An hour ago I passed his open door and saw him standing naked on the bed; his face was wrapped in a towel. The moment he lets loose his first shout, all the rooms along the corridor come alive with screams of their own. [...] one desperate moan leads to another until everyone is tearing his throat with curses and oaths. The others start kicking the walls, so I roll over in my tiny bed and joining in. The wall is too hard to put my foot through, but I notice there's a gash in it the size of a meat cleaver." (Ian Spiegelman, Time Out, April 30 '98)
What is this man describing - a day in hell, a nightmare, an experience from another life in an asylum for the mad in the nineteenth century?
Nope. This man is writing about a night in the Hotel Riverview, 113 Jane Street, Manhattan.
I've had a few readers write and ask about cheap accommodation in Manhattan, and so it was with some eagerness that I bought last week's Time Out, as it claimed to give information on cheap accommodation in the Big Apple. Expecting some great ideas for my readers outside of New York, I flipped through this up-market mag to the section headed "Minipads". Apart from The Riverview, six other "minipads" were given brief write-ups.
If you feel that the atmosphere at The Riverview is not to your liking, you might like to consider another of Time Out's "suggestions" - the Hotel Vigilant.
This place doesn't have rooms, but instead has cubicles with doors that lock and chicken wire ceilings. It is cheaper than The Riverview ($95 per week as opposed to $160). Alternatively you can get a room at the Chelsea Inn. Time Out reports that the rooms there are clean and the cost is $165 per week. The only drawback is that it's located on top of an S/M club.
My advice to anyone wanting a low-budget trip to Manhattan, is to stay with a friend. Or even an enemy!
La Vie
en Bleu
I don't know if Viagra, the new potency pill, is making the news almost daily, elsewhere in the world, or if it's a New York or an American thing. But almost every day here there's a reference to Viagra in the media. It is has become an obsession.
On what passes for the "news" on early morning TV, women newsreaders comment on whether the drug will help women, and if so, when can they get it and is it safe. The medical insurance companies are worried about the rush of prescriptions being issued for Viagra, and are working out ways to avoid making payouts. So popular is this little pill, that many US doctors' taped phone messages give the option, "Press 3 for Viagra".
The other night on a TV commentator informed viewers that the pill, which happens to be blue, can have a "minor" side effect of making the guy see the world as if through a blue filter. I can just imagine American men saying to their wives, "You're looking very blue tonight, honey".
New Yorkers love to complain. It seems to be their favourite pastime. And so even when the news of the medical breakthrough came through, they found something to complain about with it. In my 10th April letter I mentioned how a major complaint New Yorkers had about the new wonder drug was how they hadn't bought stock in it. And then, on April 26th, my favourite OpEd columnist, Maureen Dowd of the New York Times wrote that the "only thing American men are more obsessed with than Viagra is why they didn't buy stock in Viagra".
In the OpEd entitled "Father's little Helper", Ms. Dowd reported that a poll of her women friends revealed that they would prefer a pill that could change a man's personality an hour after he had had sex. And it is Ms. Dowd's opinion that there just cannot be so many impotent men in America. She is in fact astounded that suddenly there are so many claiming impotence. Her theory is that many of those men getting prescriptions are doing so in the belief that it will make them studs.
Walking around this town, I just have to wonder how many of the men in the streets are seeing a Manhattan tinged with blue
Kate
Friday May 8th '98
Your Questions and Comments
To all those inquiring about "The Italian Girl in Love", who emailed two weeks ago (see May 1st and April 24 th Issues - good news. She has found her man!!!Maria, from Sydney, now living in New Jersey emailed: G'day. My name is Maria and have recently move to the US from Sydney. I live in New Jersey, about 25 minutes from midtown. I just found your website and am enjoying reading it. Nice to know there are Aussies to relate to on this side of the planet. Keep up the good work.
Thanks, Maria. Actually, there seem to be quite a few Australians living in New Jersey. I've had quite a bit of email from both Australians living there, and Australians thinking of moving there (from OZ).
Nicola, from Melbourne who is about to come to the US emailed: This may sound like an unusual request but I am seeking some advice on embarking on the move to the US. My name is Nicola and I am an IT professional, working in the SAP field. I have been searching on the internet for fellow Melbournians who may be able to shed some light on this move. I have just had my US visa approved ( after a 10 week wait) and now am relying on my agency to secure me a position(preferably in California as I have friends in San Diego). I wonder if you can point me to any good web sites or articles I could read in relation to this pending move and living away from home allowance for the first year?
Well Nicola, a ten week wait is nothing for a US visa! In New York, you wait about 18 months to get a Green Card approved. Most non-Americans living in big cities here would envy you, as in the large US cities, the waiting period for INS processing is normally in years rather than weeks!
You should have no trouble at all getting a good job in the IT area. The money here is good and there are plenty of jobs to choose from. The cost of living is higher, and I think the taxes end up being higher overall, but in all it ends up that the standard of living is about the same.
I'm not sure what you mean by the "living away from home allowance". If you let me know I'll try to help. I am from Melbourne and working in the IT area, so I should be able to answer most of your questions. As far as web sites go, Australians Abroad seems to be the main one dealing with Australian expat issues. Check out our expat issues section. "Allied Pickford" removalists will be writing an article for Australians Abroad in the next few weeks, and that should help you with questions about having any household items shipped here.
I wish you luck and am sure you'll get a lot out of the US experience.
"JK", a New Yorker currently in Sydney emailed: I am just moved to Sydney - an ex-Manhattan American - and will be here for several years. In trying understand the culture, I began searching the web for sites that could help give insight into the Australian mind and culture. I stumbled across yours. I started to write you a letter, to try and explain to you my feelings on your column. After thinking about it for a while, I've come up my "New York" response. I don't care. Given your columns, you've long ago stereotyped what my feelings and responses will be, so why bother trying to convince you of my perspective? For my part, I'm going to take the completely opposite approach that you have - I'm going to let all the aggravating things about Sydney (surprise, there are some!) wash right over me, and I'm going to focus on what I like most.
Yes, "JK", I am sure there are plenty of aggravating things about Sydney! And I hope you do find plenty of things there to enjoy. I would be very interested in hearing your thoughts on what sort of things you find most difficult to adjust to in Australia. I'd also like to know what exactly are those opinions that you obviously disagree with in my columns. As you say, the New York approach is to answer with an "I don't care". But I certainly care, and I think most readers to "Letters from New York" would really like to hear your opinion.
Contrary to what you seem to think, I have never approached New York as if there was nothing wonderful about it. In fact, when I first visited it late in '93 I was completely enchanted by the place.
It has a buzz and a vibrancy to it that I've found in no other city.
This column in Australians Abroad is not meant to be a tourist travel guide, but a place where the view of one Australian woman resident of New York is given. It just so happens that most readers, American and Australian, relate to what I write. The most negative side of New York, in my opinion, is that New Yorkers just don't care. You seem to be agreeing with me. I look forward to hearing back from you.
Lyn, an Australian living in New York emailed:
Hey, I found a place that was a little bit civil, Orlando, Florida. A very nice place and very different to New York [...] How come you did not put the results for the footy games between New York and Boston or were you to embarrassed with the score? By the way your weekly newsletter really lifts my sprits.
Thanks Lyn! I would post the local footy results, but as the New York Pies have a mailing list, I think most people who are interested would read the results there. By the time my page is out at the end of the week, the results would be known to most. And coming from a family that actually had a huge split because of the footy, I tend to stay away from it all. Half of my lot are old Fitzroy (Lions) supporters. The other half are loyal Magpies!
Reminder
Date: May 13 1998
Location: Ballroom of the Roosevelt Hotel, on Madison Ave. at 45th St.
Event: "Taste of Down Under," an Australian wine and food tasting to benefit the Muscular Dystrophy Association. The event features a wide selection of Australian wines as well as Australian lamb dishes prepared by chefs from some of New York's leading restaurants. The money is raised through ticket sales and via the auction of items ranging from round-trip tickets to Australia to designer clothing. Tickets are $100, of which 50% is tax-deductible.
Those interested in ordering tickets should contact Jennifer Marraccino at the Muscular Dystrophy Association on 212-689-9040.