A trip to the grocery store

Thanksgiving is quickly approaching, which means we need food for our annual Thanksgiving dinner for everyone who can’t make it home for the holidays.  This morning, upon awaking to a fridge containing little more than wine, cheese, a leftover sausage, some juice, and country crock, (I had no idea we were so low!), we knew we needed to go to the grocery store.

There are several options that we’ve tried, each at multiple stages of our city life.   There was the Trader Joe’s in Union Square, before we knew better, where you had to get in line as soon as you walked in the door.  The line wound all the way around the store, and it was better to just pick up a basket and prod along while waiting to check out.  There was also the long trek back on the subway.

There are much closer grocery stores in our neighborhood, the Pioneer, small enough to sell alcohol, small enough, not to really go there for anything else.  There is the “fancy” Key Foods almost a mile away that caters to the more gentrified Prospect Heights, the Associated, probably the best balance between Pioneer and Key, better stocked and larger than both, but still tiny.  They all have those checkout conveyor belts from the 1970s.  They never have a line, but are all so pricey!

Lately, we’ve begun to use a delivery service, Fresh Direct.  It seemed expensive at first, but is actually much cheaper, higher quality, and has more selection than the local three.

No matter what we do, it seems we’ve always had to buy our groceries from three separate places.  We used to get the generals from Stop and Shop, the suburban sprawling mecca in our old neighborhood.  It was worth putting up with crazy lines, for cheap prices and that processed dream food you just can’t buy at Trader Joe’s, Eggo waffles, ReddiWhip, etc.  We still bought our beer from Rite Aid, which is still the cheapest, and our meat from Meat Palace Supreme, one of the many butchers on Church Avenue.

This is where we decided to head tonight.  Last year, with our Stop and Shop cards, we got our Turkey for a mere $10!  With our wire shoping basket in tow, we boareded the B49 bus (late as usual) and headed the mile and a half to our old neighborhood.  We strategically went in the early evening, to miss the Sunday night crunch.  To miss the really huge crowds, you should either go early morning to avoid the church crowd, though crowd of church goers could vary by neighborhood.  You could also go in the early evening in hopes that people are eating and not shopping.

There were only three baskets available when going in, two had busted wheels.  We made it through relatively quickly, tag teaming the aisles and strategically planning an extensive list ahead of time.  Armed with discount cards and the sense that we weren’t coming back anytime soon, we stocked up on other cleaning products and cat food.  The catfood was 1/2 the price of Associated, not on sale!

Towards the end, we checked out using our seven grocery bags, and getting $.05 off for each, this year we set a new record, getting a turkey for $6.99.  It was one of about seven left in the frozen bin.  We loaded down our little cart, which already steers a little to the left.  It didn’t all fit, so Jesse had to carry a bag of groceries on one shoulder, a bag with our turkey in it on the other.  Rather than take the bus, we decided to take the subway and then the shuttle back to Franklin Avenue.

We carefully chose the less crowded path along the south side of Church Avenue, past the old Dutch Reform graveyard, past the street we used to live, past the Kennedy’s, the Brooklyn Pizza and Brooklyn Pizza II further down, past the bodega where I used to buy Presidente Beer, and then with little time to get nostalgic, we arrived at the Church Avenue subway.

We had to get the attendant to open the emergency gate, just as we heard our train arriving below.  We ran down the stairs, as fast as you could carrying our load.  I pulled Jesse, nearly pulling him and the load down the stairs with me, he was more than a little peeved.  We caught the train, getting on the last car, along with the trumpet guy, a Q train regular.  He pulls his single amp with musical accompaniment and plays all the classics.  Tonight he was playing “What a Wonderful World”.  I gave him a dollar as we stood up to exit at Prospect Park, poised to run down the platform to catch the shuttle.

I jumped off with the front of the basket, Jesse pushed the basket forward, but it somehow was caught on something, so he fell out of the car with the cart, face first.  After dusting him off and grabbing the turkey bag, we tipped the cart back up and pushed it up the platform towards the shuttle, which was leaving.  We wouldn’t have made it anyway.  When the next shuttle finally arrived, we took it one stop to the Botanic Garden, getting out and carrying the cart up the first flight of stairs, then through the station, then through the gate causing the alarm to go off.  That’s ok, though, people do it all the time.  Then up the last flight of stairs to the street, where we pushed down Eastern Parkway, always veering slightly to the left.

We finally arrived home everything in tact, luckily we live on the ground floor.

New York, I love you.

On Monday, my partner and probably future character in this budding blog, went to see a movie. The very nature of movie going in New York, as with many other regular activities, has a certain amount of acrimony. It usually involves long lines, confusion, rude people, possibly bedbugs, not to mention great expense (it was $11.75/ticket, now it’s $12.50!!!!). Since moving here two years ago, the movies we have taken the time to see are still in the single digits.

This time we didn’t see just any movie, but a movie set in and based on the city in which we live, New York, I Love You.

One of our favorite past times since actually moving here is seeing such movies. First we proudly point at the screen and say, “We live there!”. Afterwards, we compare and contrast how “real” the movie was in comparison to actually living here, and also feel generally superior.

Here are some opinions on the movie that come off the top of our heads:

Marisa-I like how the first scene showed two people bumping into each other while talking on cell phones. I was disappointed that it was someone actually picking someone’s pocket and therefore part of the story. Bumping into people on the street is a constant occurrence.

Jesse-Why the hell were Hayden Christensen and Andy Garcia smoking inside a bar? That doesn’t happen.

Marisa-When Orlando Bloom is in front of the Dakota, he’s sitting in Strawberry Fields and it’s empty. Where are the hippies that camp out there?

Jesse-A cab driver making someone get out of the cab? True. A cab that is willing to go to Brooklyn? False.

Marisa-People having sex in Central Park? Yeah, it probably happens.

Jesse-The character of the girl who video tapes everyone leaves a camcorder unattended and filming. That would be stolen. Though, there are a lot of wannabe artists always filming things or taking artsy photographs. I guess that part was true.

Marisa-True to the film, there are also a lot of young hipsters who wear porkpie hats, all over town, also scarves.

Jesse-A stranger jumping in a cab to share a fare? Cabbies lock their doors.

Marisa-Speaking of cabs, only one character in the entire movie takes the subway. What the hell is that? Also, I only saw one homeless person, maybe two, if you count a person yelling at people on the street.

Jesse-Everyone in the movie smoked. This does not accurately reflect that cigarettes in New York are more than $10 a pack and that you can’t smoke anywhere indoors.

Marisa-Some were smoking outside, on almost empty streets. Where are all the people, let alone drunken people you find on a night after 9 pm?

That’s all we could come up with for now. The movie was cute and entertaining, though mostly took place in Manhattan and a little bit of Brooklyn, two out of five more than usable boroughs. It also focused mostly on younger white people. Basically, this movie was good, but had more potential. Is it worth $12.50? Jesse says no. I say, I got a kick out of pointing at screen and thinking, “That’s where I live right now!”

And the winner is…

Today New Yorkers woke up to find out the results of yesterday’s mayoral election.  They awoke to find a bit of a surprise.  Mayor Bloomberg had unsurprisingly won a third term.  Everyone assumed it would happen, though I have yet to meet someone who was passionately pro-Bloomberg, or even openly voting for him for that matter.  I even volunteer for an organization who endorsed him, but had to classify it defensively by the fact that they always endorse incumbents who have a record of furthering their cause.

Bloomberg won.  He won a third term after a long and very expensive campaign where he outspent his opponent by $90 million to $6 million.  That’s $90,000,000!  What comes next is the surprising victory for his opponent who spent the campaing trailing by at least 20 points in the polls, and well, spent $84 million less on courting voters.  He only lost by a measly 5 points!  That’s a cost of around $18 million per point.

Here is something from Gawker that is amazing and I couldn’t have captured my feelings on this election any better.

The second is from the New York Times, a good recap on today’s results.

Lastly,
I actually saw our current mayor today, dining publicly in some sort of publicity lunch. Here’s a photo. As a side note: You can also see Bloomberg on the television screen above his head.

Politics in NY

The mayoral and citywide elections are coming up a week from today.  As such, I just received my free full color voter guide in the mail.  Since I’ve only been in  New York a little under 2 years (2 year anniversary November 1st!!), this is my first citywide election.  I love that the city hands out these guides and that they also feature ALL of the candidates.

Everyone knows that New York is one of the most densely liberal places in the country.  As a Midwesterner, I’m simultaneously pleased and fascinated.  This of course leads to many of the candidates being liberal or even socialist.  This doesn’t seem to hold true to the Mayors of the last decade, but that is a different story all together.

Last month was the primary where we decided between a host of choices all running on the democratic ticket.  We pretty much decided candidates for comptroller and public advocate.  Thumbing through this voter guide, we apparently decided a number of city council seats who are currently running unopposed.

I don’t have a television and I rarely listen to the radio, so my only sense, besides reading the news and doing a little healthy research is the mailers I receive.  Bloomberg, running for that illusive third term has been running his campaign completely out of pocket.  He has sent us at least 100 mailers.  Bloomberg has run a heavily public, very expensive and very expansive campaign.  AMNY, the free daily newspaper that everyone reads on the subway ran a poll about how annoyed New Yorkers were at the constant bombardment of Bloomberg advertising and you can probably assume the results.

We met someone at a backyard barbeque who is working on his campaign.  We let out a collective questioning sigh when we found out.  He then quickly said, I don’t like Bloomberg, I just don’t have a job and he pays well.  He outlined the Bloomberg strategy to gather as much information on every New Yorker as possible so as to target them with specific marketing.  Do you have kids?  Learn how Bloomberg has saved New York City Schools.  Are you a small business owner?  You’re in luck!  To give my own personal testimony to the far reaches of Bloomberg, my boyfriend and I live together but are not married.  I originally ended up getting mailings, as it seems that I’m on every mailing list in the land.  My boyfriend received none, until Bloomberg started addressing things to the “both of our last names household”.  How does he do it?

Running against Bloomberg is Democrat William Thompson.  This guy should get a lot of credit, because he’s always in the press, most people know his name, and I haven’t seen him spend any money.  Actually, the first advertising I’ve seen in a campaign that’s been going on for the last year is some haphazardly placed signs in my neighborhood, that were taped to street poles.  That’s it.  He’s the front runner, in the last polls I heard, getting around 30% behind Bloomberg’s 50%.  He seems to be running on the theory that no one really knows how Bloomberg became mayor in the first place, because everyone complains about him and the fact that they’re pretty mad he’s seeking a third term.

The less public candidates are even more entertaining.  There was David Werpin for Comptroller, who unlike his 3 competitors in the primary, ran a large campaign that included radio ads and full color mailers.  They didn’t say much, except that all of his rivals were liars or bad for the job in one way or another.  It didn’t give too many facts.  The thing that really stood out was the full color garbage can full of money.  “Don’t let your comptroller throw money in the garbage!”  Simple, but not effective, as he did not even make it to the runoff election.  He, unlike Bloomberg, also sent us two of everything.

I’ll finish with some examples of the lesser known candidates running on November 3rd.  These are excerpts taken directly from the 2009 voter guide.  I chose some of my favorite, more radical candidates.

For Mayor:

Name: Francisca Villar

Affiliation: Party for Socialism and Liberation

Occupation: Student

Occupational Background: Student

Educational Background: AS Bronx Community College, Currently: Lehman College (Biology)

Prior Public Experience: Founder and President of my building’s tenants association:  Bronx Community College Student Government Association

What is the most important issue in the city you would address if elected?

The billionaires must pay for the economic crisis.  A 5 percent tax on all wealth on all wealth over $100 million would alone raise over $8 billion a year from the city’s 55 billionaires alone; if they try to leave the city, their property and wealth should be confiscated.  The $5 billion that the city pays every year to the banks for “debt servicing” must go to the people’s needs.

Name: Jimmy McMillan

Affiliation: Democratic

Occupation: Rent Activist and Founder of The Rent is Too Damn High movement.

Occupational Background: Retired Letter Carrier

Educational Background: Degree in Private Security Investigations

Organizational Affiliations: Veterans Quality of Life

Prior Public Experience: United States Army – Vietnam Veteran (3 Bronze Stars).

What is the most important issue in the city you would address if elected?

Rent is Too Damn High-Rent-Freeze-Rent Reduction-Rent Roll Back.  (People must have money to spent.) Our plan will create 3 to 6 million jobs that will generate a 3 to 6 billion dollar surplus.  Do the math an estimated 10 million New Yorkers of Brooklyn, Bronx, Staten Island, Manhattan, and Queens will no longer have to put up being harras by “landlord(s)” again.  Not only the Bailout and Stimulus will give us the opportunity to lower rent.  Landlords with Violations, Failed to Register Building (s), and Other…gives us another reason to lower rent.  The party is over.

Rent is Too Damn High.

Name: Joseph L. Dobrian

Affiliation: Libertarian

Occupation: Principal of the consulting firm of Dobrian, Frances, Bowie & Long

Occupational Background: Journalist, editor, consultant specializing in editorial services, TV talk show host.

Educational Background: University of Iowa

Organization Affiliations: n/a

Prior Public Experience: 2002 Libertarian nominee for U.S. House of Representatives; 2005 Libertarian nominee for Manhattan Borough President.

What is the most important issue in the city you would address if elected?

New Yorkers are fed up with the government’s finger constantly wagging in our face, while its other hand goes through our pockets.  I stand for the repeal of malicious and punitive taxes, onerous regulations, and laws that penalize private conduct, so long as that conduct does not include the initiation of force or fraud.  I will return liberty and dignity to the individual.  I will instruct our police force to focus on prevention of crimes against persons and property, and assign the lowest priority to “victimless crimes”.

For Public Advocate:

Name: Maura DeLuca

Affiliation: Socialist Workers

Occupation: Sewing Machine Operator

Occupational Background: n/a

Educational Background: n/a

Organizational Affiliations: Socialist Workers Party, Young Socialists

Prior Public Experience: Unionist

What is the most important issue in the city you would address if elected?

Today millions are being thrown out of work as the capitalist rulers seek to make working people pay for the crisis of their system.  Their ruling class is launching a frontal assault on our basic living conditions, from jobs and wages to pensions, health care, housing and essential services.

Working people need to answer these attacks.  Only through a working class revolution to take power out of the hands of exploiters and war makers can we then begin to reorganize the economy and all social relations, from top to bottom, in the interests of workers and farmers.

Name: Jim Lesczynski

Affiliations: Libertarian

Occupation: Enemy of the State

Occupational Background: Marketing Manager

Educational Background: MBA New York University, BFA, Bowling Green State University

Organizational Affiliations: Manhattan Libertarian Party, Campaign for Liberty

Prior Public Experience: Disgruntled Taxpayer

What is the most important issue in the city you would address if elected?

Eliminated the position of Public Advocate.  Want to save the taxpayers of New York City millions of wasted tax dollars every year?  Simply eliminated the position of Public Advocate, fire the staff, and board of the offices.  The Public Advocate is a do-nothing job that was designed to give empty-suit politicians a place to grandstand.

In 2005, I ran for Public Advocate on the same platform of eliminating the position.  Four lyears later, the incumbent has done nothing prove that the position gives the taxpayers any value.  The City Council took an important first step this year by cutting the Public Advocate’s budget.  More recently, legislation was introduced calling for a referendum to eliminate the position.  Now we need to finish the job.  If I am elected Public Advocate, I promis to report to work just long enough to fire the staff and padlock the office.

Real Vampires

I suppose Vampires are all the rage these days.  I don’t have cable, or even television for that matter, since the digital conversion.  I’ve missed out on shows like True Blood and Vampire Diaries. I have never read Twilight.

I judge this popularity by the advertisements on the subway and posted on construction sites.  I had no idea they existed in real life!!!

While I was waiting for my boyfriend to finish work after a long day, I slumped up against the side of a movie theater near Union Square.  I was tired and pretty grouchy.  Shortly after, a panhandler set up a milk crate one foot away.  He looked like the really chatty type.  This guy really wanted to talk.  “Oh, great.” I thought.  “Why right now?”

“You look tired.”, he said.

“I am tired.”, I said. “I got up early today.”

“Oh, yeah?”, he said. “I just got up.”

I should mention that the sun had just set and it was that time where the sky was still light and the streetlights had not yet come on.

“That must be nice.”, I commented.

He then looked at me and pointed to his teeth which were perfect fangs.  And then I understood the whole just waking up comment.

“You can’t get up earlier because you’ll turn to stone!  Got it!”

He nodded.

Now I look for him every time I walk down Broadway.

A beginning

The beginning of this blog comes with a hope that I can keep the content flowing.

It started as an idea with a friend to write a blog/zine for aspiring New Yorkers that featured everything from art events to finding the right apartment. (Sidenote: She actually came up with the name.) That has yet to get off the ground, so I thought I’d take the first step.

It is currently serving as a venue for me to write about my memories and opinions on living in this big fat crowded dirty bustling beautiful city that I sometimes hate and mostly love.