Over on the corner of 37th & 30th, a couple of blocks from my house, we have these two wonders, side-by-side. The first is a loving tribute to Run DMC & Jam Master Jay. They were from Queens, but nowhere near Astoria and I’ve yet to find any further explanation for the effort to which someone’s gone on this:

The only thing that could possibly be around the corner from this is a bald eagle crying next to the twin towers and a big American flag. A bald eagle crying. I don’t think I’ve seen anything more American in the entire 232 days I’ve been here.

There are at least five more bald eagles painted on walls within a few blocks of me.

Xx

The little area of New York where I live and work is generally known as downtown or specifically as the financial district.

On the downside, this means that if you’re after a party at midnight, you better be wearing a tux or an evening dress and be on the guest list. However, because the subway system is wonderfully capitalistically designed to provide easy access for office workers here, it’s never too hard to get to a trendier area if you want to go dancing.

One of the particularly fun things about being down here is the fact that we’re covered by a BID, namely the Downtown Alliance. In return for contributions from local property owners and businesses, the Downtown Alliance employ a veritable plethora of people to…well, to make the place look nice.

The trees are always cut back tastefully, the streets free of litter – except for a couple of hours in the evening when it’s all laid out in neat rows waiting for a truck to take it away – and, best of all, any time it snows there’s an army of folks out there with shovels and cute little trucks bailing it out as quickly as it falls. I haven’t yet worked out if this JCB truck is part of the Downtown Alliance or was just being friendly though.

Compare that to the situation in Queens, where residents have to stare over a very physical border line, one side of which lies in Nassau County and is nicely ploughed, whilst the other side is in New York City and isn’t doing Michael Bloomberg’s reputation any good at all.

I like it here, in this cosseted little area of NYC. Pity I’ll have to move out in a mere three months.

Xx

The best thing about Hashing is finding and exploring a new areas of New York, and then finding the best pub in the area. Meeting fun people; following hash-marks; getting lost; shouting; singing; and pizza & beer are all, however, a very close second.

Yesterday we headed out to Roosevelt Island, which I didn’t even know existed, for what was quite definitively the easiest trail I’ve seen. It’s quite hard to get lost when you start on a sliver of island just less than 2 miles long, you know you’ve got a run of at least 5 miles to get through, and there’s only one pedestrian bridge off the island.

That said, it was beautiful to run around; with stunning views of Manhattan and Queens uninterrupted by well, anything. Someone’s written a much nicer review of running the island than I can, so I’ll simply let you read his thoughts, whilst I move on to Queens.

I was a bit surprised to discover that Queens (at least, Long Island City anyway) is not only nicely lit and well-kept, but even goes as far as being a bit trendy. I don’t know where the tourist myth that ‘you should stay in Manhattan’ came from, but I’ve not seen any evidence for it in the other boroughs so far.

The outdoor area of LIC Bar where we ended up looks almost like an Home Counties country pub, and indoors they have regular live music, including the Long Island City Jazz Alliance regular jam night, which I’ll be checking out soon (and maybe even playing at.)

So, that’s Manhattan, Brooklyn, The Bronx and Queens down, anyone for a trip to Staten Island? No?

Ah well.

Xx