Good Riddance to a Rotten Decade

At midnight tonight, we will start a new decade. Those of you who want to point out that the decade is really going to start on Jan. 1, 2011 can go soak your head.

This decade has been cruel to New York. We started off tremendously. The year 2000 stands as a landmark year, the height of a latter-day jazz age of sorts. The economy was doing well and New York was at the height of its renaissance. We had a subway series for the World Series and the Yankees won, could there be a more perfect New York moment than that? (Yes, but only if you’re a Mets fan.)

The history of our decade really started Sept. 11, 2001. A lot changed after that day, but not in a good way. While the courage and sacrifice of our countrymen and the citizens of our city during and after the Sept. 11 attacks has been inspiring, the history of our country since then has only illustrated what looks like the sad decline of a crumbling empire. Our political leaders have been as shallow and vacuous as the pop-culture idols who consume what our corporations now peddle as news. Everywhere people mutter the same meaningless mantras while avoiding the tough decisions or doing what is right.

Where the twin towers once stood, a flimsy response to the attacks is being built slowly, very late and over budget. Unless things somehow change miraculously and fast, our New York City skyline will be a permanent monument to our injury instead of evidence of our resilience. Our city is in the hands of an undemocratic billionaire and a city council of overpaid demagogues and buffoons. In Brooklyn tonight, residents know that they could lose their homes if a big enough real estate developer decides his condominiums would look good in their neighborhood.

Not all about the decade has been bad. Friends have married and had children, and I’ve made a lot of new friends over the past 10 years. I’ve managed to make a living as a journalist for the last decade (with a big break of unemployment after the 2001 attacks that lasted about a year). And I’ve managed to do creative things that bring me much satisfaction. I have great hopes for the coming decade personally.

Still, the 00’s of this century have not been good. Here’s hoping the new decade brings good things.

Even Atheists Can Have a Merry Christmas

Every society, every culture needs a day of general joy and merriment. When the Roman Empire converted to Christianity, followers married the Roman Saturnalia, a harvest festival held this time of year, to the mythology of Christ’s birth, most elements of which predate the time of Christ, and Christmas as we know it today was born.

Whatever your proclivities, today is a day to find joy in something. Given the news of the world these days—another attempted terror attack on one of our airliners, another great musician dying before his time—we need all the cheer and merriment we can squeeze out of this world.

I have AC/DC’s ‘Back in Black’ album, a great gift from my sister, to make sure this is neither a silent night nor a holy night. I am also finishing off the last of the eggnog with my good friend Captain Morgan. The eggnog and rum sit atop a mountain of turkey and other delicious food, making me sleepy to the point that this may be an early night.

Merry Christmas.

Snow Owns the Park

New York City was hit with the brunt of the latest snowstorm to hit the Northeastern U.S., and few people seem to mind. We all want snow around the holidays, and in the northernmost regions of Manhattan, the snow turns Inwood Hill Park into a winter wonderland.

I set out to hole myself up in my apartment like a mad hermit this weekend, and for the most part I have, but I was compelled to get outdoors this morning and take photos of Inwood Hill Park, a beautiful park that is made even more beautiful when it shows. When the park is blanketed with snow is when the park is at its best and most peaceful and beautiful.

New York City got about a foot of snow, and it was slow going slogging up the hill across the street from my apartment, but it was worth it for the peaceful walk in the woods. The park was far from deserted, and it was great to see one of the hills become a Mecca of snow sledding for kids from the neighborhood. This snow is also perfect for both snowball fighting and snowman building. It’s good to see those traditions being kept alive as well in the park.

Seven years ago, a snowstorm on Christmas Day felled several trees on Payson Avenue, which damaged several cars and closed the street for a bit. While this snowstorm was heavy, it was nothing like that, and while the snow is piled up pretty nicely in a few places, it is not the disaster I think some people thought it would be.

So unless you’re deathly ill or somehow incapacitated go out and enjoy the snow.

All American Party Crashers

The recent revelations that an uninvited couple managed to attend a state dinner and meet President and Mrs. Obama has added fuel to the media frenzy of the scandal-du-jour. Michaele and Tareq Salahi probably did not know the enormity of the event their crashing the state dinner would become.

In fact, it may turn out that the Salahis thought they were invited, at least to the meet and greet with the President and First Lady. The New York Times article notes that they appear to be friends with a high-ranking Indian diplomat who was invited to the dinner.

Let’s put this in perspective though: the couple went through all the same security checkpoints that anyone else visiting the White House would have to go through (almost anyone, I doubt the Prime Minister of India and his wife had to endure a magnetometer wand). They were never a danger to the President and First Lady.

So far as we know, these people are U.S. citizens in good standing. Why shouldn’t they have a chance to visit the White House? Their tax dollars pay for it as much as yours or mine do. They didn’t even get to stay for dinner, which our tax dollars pay for as well.

It is really a scandal that the President had to meet some of the great unwashed who were not on the guest list—though in this instance the “great unwashed” are a couple of wealthy polo enthusiasts? Not really.

We certainly can’t have anyone who wants to arrive when important affairs of state are being conducted. And while state dinners at the White House are considered important affairs, they are little more than expensive pageants. The party crashers are the least of the Obama administration’s diplomatic gaffes, and the Secret Service is taking the fall for it.

One element that interested me is that if you look the part, you can convince people that you belong. Recently in New York, a suspect awaiting trial in a Manhattan courthouse escaped because officers mistook him for a lawyer: he was dressed in a suit for trial. He was recaptured soon after. Letting a criminal go is a scandal, letting taxpayers meet the President isn’t really.

Yankees to City: Screw You

Last night I found myself at Hell’s Kitchen’s outstanding Holland Bar speaking to three women from South Boston. With courage and confidence built over several hours of steady drinking, I began discussing baseball with them, which is a dangerous proposition.

But what I mentioned to the women from Boston was that even though I hate the Red Sox with every fiber of my being, I will give credit where credit is due. Boston would not stand for Fenway Park being torn down and replace by a shopping mall-style monstrosity at taxpayer expense. Well, OK, maybe they would, but they haven’t and we (Yankee fans) have.

I have been a New York Yankee fan all of my life. I recently got to see some of the recent Yankee ticker tape parade from my office building window. It was good to see, and when the Yankees are world champions, it means that at least something is right with the world. But the Yankees have screwed New York City seven ways from Sunday, and Yankee fans are content to take it.

The Yankees are still planning on tearing down the real Yankee Stadium, a historically significant and legendary building. The team built a stadium with thousands of fewer seats for fans and three times the number of luxury boxes. Tickets close to home plate were lowered to $1,500 from $2,500 during the regular season. What’s worse, is they did it with millions of our tax dollars and left a stream of broken promises in their wake.

The Yankees were supposed to replace the public park land that they got permission to build on before the new stadium opened. The inaugural season in the new stadium is over, and the park land has yet to be fully restored. Bronx residents are still waiting for their parks.

So to my Boston Red Sox fan friends old and new, I will continue to hate your team’s rotten guts, but I tip my hat to you for being able to go see them in a real stadium.