A letter to my little one.

Dearest Baby,

On Thanksgiving Day 2009 Daddy´s and my life has changed forever, for we found out that God has blessed us with you! You have been a thought in our minds for a while and we cannot believe that we get to be your Mommy and Daddy. There are so many emotions in knowing you are “here.” I am scared, happy, nervous, anxious, surprised, in love, excited, and ready – ready to be your mommy and friend. I am excited about seeing Mason as your Daddy. I know he will be amazing. He is the most amazing husband and man I have ever met. Baby, we are so lucky to have him, you will see.  Your daddy is so kind, gentle, smart,patient, loving and wonderful…I hope you have a lot of his qualities. You will be amazing  and unique no matter what, we will always love you.

We look forward to so much, most immediately to telling your Lulie and Don-o, your Abuelo y Abuela and all your other family! They have been praying for you with us all along. We know they will all be very surprised and completely elated. I look forward to feeling you grow inside me, to meeting you for the first time, holding you, kissing your little face and hands, playing with you, reading to you and teaching you about our Heavenly Father’s amazing love. Your Daddy will be better at teaching you things though, he is such a great teacher. I hope you will see how much I love your father, and how truly happy he makes me. I hope you always know how thankful we are for you and how much we love you. We are going to have a great life.

I can’t wait to see you with your big brother Max, he is going to be great with you. I think he will bring you hours of entertainment! He is our little joy. I also can’t wait to see you with your cousins. They are wonderful – you are going to have so much fun playing with them. Andrés is so funny and creative, he will be able to teach you a lot of fun things. Caroline is so sweet, I think she will make you feel happy and good overall. Daniel is so funny, fun and entertaining, you will laugh a lot with him. The truth is, I think all four of you will enjoy being with one another. I look forward to seeing you grow up together, I think we will make many great memories with your cousins.

Well Baby, this is the closing of my first letter to you. My plan is to write to you while I am pregnant with you and after you are here so that you can look back and know what Daddy and I were thinking and feeling. I can´t wait to have you in our lives. I love you so very much already and you are only the size of a blueberry!

All my heart,

Mommy/Mamá

A day at the office

About twenty months ago I was asked to join the first ever team of nurses for Nurse Family Partnership in Manhattan. I accepted, so thankful to able to leave the job I was miserable in at the time, and go to a job that seemed to really help the target people I longed to serve. Ever since nursing school – even before that I guess – I knew there was something special about moms and babies, and I wanted to be involved in their lives. I should back up for those of you who don’t know what NFP (Nurse Family Partnership) is all about. The program is over thirty years old started by a social worker in upstate New York to help first time under-served moms. Our goal is to help our mothers get off of government assistance and to be positive members of society as well as to be the best parents they can be, which will hopefully break the cycle of poverty. We, the nurses, wear many hats: social worker, therapist, mother, guidance counselor, friend, family mediator, realtor, nurse and much more.

I love working as an NFP nurse because it has allowed me to learn so very much. This learning process has come with a lot of sadness and growth on my part. I was raised in a pretty normal middle class family and don’t remember interacting much with the impoverished or the overly wealthy. Although I am sure my parents did interact with different socio-economic levels I do not remember ever being involved with the extreme poor; maybe it’s because I tried to block it out, but I don’t know. Anyway, I have seen more sadness because of poverty than I thought was possible. Obviously there is sadness found on every rung of the latter, but there is something about these young girls that makes my heart sink. Maybe it is because many of them don’t see the poverty they live in, or maybe it’s because some of them do see how badly they have it but life keeps throwing them into difficult situations over and over again making it almost impossible for them to get out. Or maybe I am sad simply because I take my own wonderful and abundant life for granted and seeing how little these girls have makes me feel guilty. I think – no, I know – it is a little of all of the above.

I have come to realize that my own hard work and discipline is very important but even more important are the people who raised me, supported me, encouraged me, and pushed me to become the woman I am today. A lot of the women I work with don’t have any support at all. None. Zero. It is hard for me to accept being a semi-accomplished member of society when I feel as though a lot of it has to do with the luck of the draw, so to speak. Why was I so very blessed to be born to my amazing parents? What would have become of me if I was born in the projects? Would I be a 16 year old mom and highschool drop out too? Many of these girls don’t have good examples, most of the people around them were born in the projects, raised in the projects and will die in the projects. How does one get out of a slump if they have no idea they are in it? And, if they finally figure out the situation they are in, who do they look to for a road map out? Bottom line is that breaking the cycle of poverty is exhausting and at times seems impossible.

I could share some sad stories of the girls I have come in contact with like the cocaine and heroine addict who got to this point because of being raped by her addict father, or the young girl who was raising money to get out of the projects and go to college but on the day she was to move found all the money was stolen by her own mother, or the beautiful girl who just had a perfect little baby while another woman in the Bronx is getting pregnant by the same father, or perhaps the saddest story is that of a nine year old girl made pregnant by her own father. Some of my patients struggle with drug or alcohol abuse, even more have struggled with emotional, physical and sexual abuse, and all of my girls seem to have some kind of drama in their life every time I come to visit them. I often go home drained and emotionally exhausted. All of these things make me sad beyond belief because bad things have been done to innocent girls.

But you know what really makes me sad? It’s what these girls have done to themselves – their lack of judgement and motivation. I have been placed in their lives as a sort of road map to how to get out and be a better mother and woman. In theory it is an ingenious idea. In practice, it doesn’t often work out. We the nurses do so very much to try to figure out what we can do differently in order to motivate these girls to get off their bums and finish high school, to see what she can do if she goes on to college, to use birth control in order to not be that twenty year old woman with two kids and one on the way (all by different fathers). It seems impossible to “change” these girls when most of their peers are also getting pregnant and dropping out of school, even worse when their own mothers had them when they were just sixteen and are now thirty-one still acting like she’s a teenager.

What do I do from here? If I sound discouraged or down, it’s because I am!! I long for these girls to see in themselves the amazing potential I see in them. I pray that they will be a better parent and break the cycle of abuse and poverty. But after almost two years I realize that only a small change is necessary. I cannot and will not change these girls as I once thought possible. Today, I try to live and talk in a way that is an example for these girls, I try to share my knowledge about medicine, parenting, love, money, etc. And then I go home. I love my husband and yorkie to the best of my ability and pray that it is enough. It is not my job to save these girls. I wish I could, but thank goodness I know that I have a God that is not only in control but knows every aspect of these precious women’s lives. He knows and that is enough for me.

Signed,

Manhattan Monday: Inclement Weather

Outside New York, weather isn’t a big deal. If it’s sunny, great. If it rains, you stay indoors or use an umbrella for the 30 seconds it takes to get to a car. If it’s cold, you turn on the heat in your home or car; if it’s hot, you turn on the air conditioner in your home or car. Snow can cause a bit of a problem at times, but it either melts in a couple of days or is plowed away within hours. Other than major events – outdoor sports, weddings and/or receptions, reunions, etc – inclement weather isn’t a problem for most of you.

But bad weather is a major problem for us New Yorkers. While plenty of people drive cars in the city or have private car service, the vast majority of people in New York walk or take public transportation as their primary means of travel. In most places people can simply run a few yards to their car (or go downstairs to the garage), but for most of us in Manhattan inclement weather is a major hassle for our travel. You see, when it rains in New York we have two options: stay in all day and keep dry, or brave the elements and get wet. What about umbrellas? They work, but not particularly well when it’s really pouring out, and the bottom of your legs still get wet – and there’s nothing more annoying than cold, wet feet.

What about taking a bus, subway or taxi – those are all covered, are they not? They are, but getting to them still means facing the weather. Even if a bus stop is right across the street, you may have to stand outside for 20 minutes waiting for the next bus to arrive. Subway stations are typically several blocks away (at least), assuming the closest station will take you where you want to go. And taxi cabs? On a rainy day? Good luck! Even if you do hail an unoccupied cab, it could take quite a while to find one. Plus, riding in a subway or bus on a rainy day is miserable on several levels. For starters, it’s crowded because everyone rides them instead of walking in the elements. In addition to being crowded, the floors are wet, dirty, and slippery from all the dripping shoes and umbrellas.

Everyone looks for ways to cool off on hot summer days.

Rain is the worst inclement weather condition, but extreme hot and cold aren’t much better. On hot days New Yorkers spend a fortune on air conditioning – if in fact they have air conditioning. We are lucky enough to have our air conditioning/power bill included in our rent, but it’s pretty weak and is usually ineffective on the hottest days. Subway trains and buses are air conditioned, but the subway stations are not: nothing is more disgustingly hot and humid than a crowded subway station in the middle of a hot July day. Extremely cold days aren’t much better. While all buildings must have basic levels of heat provided in winter (per city law), some days in New York are painfully cold and windy. Last year the temperature didn’t reach 30F for over a week – with the heat in every room on full blast and bundled in blankets I was still cold. And walking in cold wind as it blasts through the canyons of buildings can be a truly painful experience.

And cold, coupled with snow and ice, can be difficult to manage. Having said that, I love snow and definitely prefer snow to rain. Snow usually doesn’t drench me when I walk in it, though it can cause the same unpleasant riding experiences on buses and the subway. The worst thing about snow and ice is when it piles at intersections and cross-walks. Store owners and apartment buildings are required to keep the sidewalk clean in front of their building, but the snow has to get shoveled somewhere, and that somewhere is usually street corners, where it is slowly amassed into a mountain that practically requires mountain climbing gear to traverse. Even worse are the small piles that seem like solid footing, but only give way to a puddle of ice water underneath, thoroughly soaking shoes and socks in dirty, freezing slush.

So what kind of days do I like in New York? Like most places, New York as the best weather in the Fall and Spring. I love temperatures in the 40-55F range, perhaps with a cool gust of wind now and then. I like wearing sweat shirts or even coats – I’d much rather be a little chilly than a little hot. I don’t mind overcast days, even with a little mist, but full-fledged rain is annoying. And I love snow – I have no problem walking in the snow, even if it means taking extra care to avoid those hidden puddles on street corners. But whatever if the weather, if I’m plan on getting out and about it will definitely impact my plans. That’s something people living outside the City don’t have to consider…

Autumn is the best time of year to visit New York.

Signed,

The Ugliness of the Beautiful Game

Thierry Henry cheated Wednesday night, and as a result France defeated Ireland to secure a berth in the 2010 World Cup. The Irish are out and the French are in the world’s biggest sporting event, all because of a blatant, obvious handball that led to France’s lone goal in their qualifying game. No one really disputes the call: Henry admits he used his hand intentionally, virtually everyone in the stadium saw the handball live, and the TV replay clearly confirmed it. There’s only one little problem: the referee of the match (Martin Hansson of Sweden) didn’t see it. In fact, he still refuses to admit his mistake, insisting that it was “100%” not a handball, despite undeniable evidence to the contrary. In typical ostrich fashion, FIFA (soccer’s governing body) doesn’t even publicly acknowledge the error, citing its policy not to second guess the referee’s decision on the field. So the cheaters win…again.

I love soccer (aka, international football). I’ve played the game from the time I was 5 years old through college, and coached youth teams for several years in college and throughout my time in medical school. Watching soccer games on television and in person are still among my favorite pastimes. Yet despite my love for the game, it is obvious soccer has severe flaws that will slowly erode the integrity of the game until the play on the field is nothing more than a hollow facade for a meaningless sport. Soccer has lost much of its luster in my eyes, not because of the game itself, but because the obvious problems are either ignored or swept under the rug by the powers that be at FIFA.

Portugal beat the Netherlands in a game that saw 16 yellow card and 4 red cards by the Russian referee...

As Henry’s cheating (a clear pattern in the Frenchman’s play – Spain and Italy know all too well from the 2006 World Cup) demonstrates, the most obvious and most pressing problem with soccer is the officiating on the field. The officiating is so inconsistent and so subjective, it is almost as if the sport changes from game to game. If inconsistency wasn’t enough, the sheer incompetence is staggering: it’s hard to believe the center referee and both line judges missed Henry’s handball when tens of thousands in the stadium and millions on television saw it. Not only that call, but numerous obvious calls are missed or called incorrectly in nearly every game. The 2006 World Cup is considered the worst officiated in the history of the game; it is also the World Cup with most Yellow and Red cards ever – two facts that are difficult to reconcile.

But even worse than inconsistency and incompetence is the lack of accountability. FIFA refuses to acknowledge referee errors and only grades them on a loose, subjective basis. They never admit the officials make individual mistakes, much less the systematic errors that plague the sport. Innovations to improve officiating are barely, if ever, entertained. If admitting the problem is the first step toward fixing, don’t expect soccer’s officiating to be repaired anytime soon.

That Thierry Henry’s handball was missed by the referee is explained by one of three possibilities: 1) the referee is corrupt and intentionally ignored the handball, 2) the referee is incompetent and simply blew an obvious call, or 3) there was too much happening in too many places at the same time for him to accurately see and make the call. In this case it isn’t clear which applies, but all three have been true of missed calls in past soccer games. Assuming the first option isn’t true in this case and that most soccer referees are fair and honest men, we are left with incompetence of the referees and systemic errors to blame for the horrid officiating that plagues the world’s most popular sport. To improve the sport, changes must be made to ensure the quality of refereeing is elevated – these changes must take place in the way the game is called on the field and the entire way FIFA regulates its referees.

I suggest two major changes to the way the game is officiated on the field: adding two additional field refs, and instituting instant replay. The soccer field is too big, there are too many players, and the action is too fast to be fairly officiated by one field judge. I propose keeping the linesmen and the center referee, but add an additional ref to each half of the field, for a total of 3 field referees and 2 linesmen. More eyes on the field and more perspectives would pick up more infractions like Henry’s handball, and controversial or close calls can be discussed by the officiating crew to determine the best call. Soccer has the same number of referees as basketball, a sport that is played on a much smaller surface with half the number of players – it is irrational to believe the current number of soccer game officials is sufficient.

Instituting instant replay would also improve the quality of officiating. I don’t think every single called should be reviewed, but every call leading to a penalty kick should be reviewed by a replay official, and the events leading to every goal should also be reviewed as well. If France’s goal was reviewed by a replay crew, the handball would have been caught and France would not have won the game – at least not the way they did. This would not necessarily slow down the game: if the play is clearly clean, then the game proceeds uninterrupted. But if there is a questionable call or foul, pausing the game for a few minutes for closer review is appropriate. It would be better to delay the game a few minutes rather than eliminate Ireland from the World Cup based on an illegal play.

In addition to on-field changes, FIFA needs to radically change the way it regulates referees. They need to have a department that reviews and grades the officiating of every single international game, and the results should be made public. The best referees should be rewarded with the big games, and the worst should be subjected to being banned from officiating international games. Furthermore, FIFA should admit referee mistakes. If a ref blows a call the way Hansson blew Henry’s handball, they should admit it and apologize. Game officials in every sport make mistakes, but FIFA and the refs should be willing to admit those mistakes and address ways to fix them, rather than steadfastly support the in-game decisions. In short, accountability and transparency need to improve dramatically.

But don’t expect these changes – or anything close to them – anytime soon. FIFA is so entrenched in its old-school traditionalism they are incredibly reluctant to introduce change. In fact, the only changes they are willing to make are enacted to preserve the traditional powers of the sport, evidenced by the seeding system in the European qualifying and the 2010 World Cup that will effectively shelter the top teams from big games early in the tournament. Purists fret that instant replay would slow down the game, even if egregious calls like Henry’s handball are missed. They believe adding more referees will clutter the field, and prefer the unchecked authority of the lone center judge, a single man who will inevitably miss calls, regardless of his training or experience.

Without major changes in officiating, soccer will continue to rot from within. Without integrity of officiating and with no guarantee of fairness, it’s hard to take soccer seriously. A school isn’t considered a strong academic institution if students can easily cheat on tests and if the administration won’t admit when students engage in plagiarism. How can we enjoy soccer as a sport when the playing field isn’t level? How can we award a champion when we aren’t sure whether they won on skill or by cheating and missed calls? Are we sure France deserves to go the World Cup and Ireland doesn’t? Is France the better team or are they simply better at cheating? Unfortunately, we’ll never know…

Signed,

Manhattan Monday: …in Times Square

As the second part of our Manhattan Monday double feature, we’ll take a look at the most famous part of New York: Times Square. Intimately connected with Broadway, Times Square is roughly defined as the area where Broadway and 7th Avenue overlap between 40th Street and 48th Street. Times Square is also the heart of the Theater District, namely home to productions “On Broadway.” So what does it mean when we call a show a “Broadway” show? The answer has nothing to do with geographic location relative to Broadway and everything to do with seating capacity. Any theater with at least 5o0 seats is a Broadway theater – thus any show playing in a Broadway theater is a Broadway show. While most theaters are located within 1-2 blocks of Broadway, the term applies exclusively to seating capacity. Likewise, a theater is “Off Broadway” if it has 100-499 seats, and an “Off Off Broadway” theater has less than 100 seats; I’ve seen a few Off Off Broadway shows that were smaller in scale than high school productions with only a few dozen seats for the audience.

Therefore, while New York theater is a different topic altogether it is very closely linked with Times Square, the epicenter of the Theater District; to attend a Broadway show, you must go to Times Square. When people think of Times Square, among the lights and people they see the large marquees for a variety of shows. The Times Square Information Center is effectively a theater info center, acting as a starting point for many guided theater tours. And all the Broadway theaters except for the theaters at the Lincoln Center are within a few blocks of Times Square. Thus Times Square and New York theater are closely linked.

Longacre Square in 1900, with the Olympia Theater on the left.

Not long ago – less than 150 years – Times Square, Crossroads of the World, was a muddy array of carriage houses and stables as home of the American Horse Exchange. Owned by John Jacob Astor, the area was one of the least desirable places in town because of its foul smell and dirty streets in the late 19th century. But as New York expanded northward along Broadway, the lots around Longacre Square (at that time called the Long Acre, after a similar horse and carriage district in London) began being sold and eventually hotels and brownstone residences began to appear. The first theater was built 1895 – the massive Olympia – by Oscar Hammerstein I. As the theater district moved up Broadway from its center in Madison Square, more massive theaters began to arise.

The original Times Tower.

Filled with prostitutes and petty crime, Longacre Square was a place to enjoy the theater, but not a place to linger. Thus its development was somewhat stalled until two major events coincided to jump-start the area’s progress. The first event was the construction of the The Times Tower. Unique for its irregular shape on a small island between 7th Avenue Broadway along with its very deep basement floors (to house the printing presses for the New York Times), the tower was the second tallest in the world at the time of its completion in 1905 (Park Row Tower in lower Manhattan was the tallest), and could be seen from 20 miles out in the Atlantic Ocean. Shortly afterward the owner of the Times, Adolph Ochs, successfully lobbied for the name change from Longacre Square to Times Square.

The busy Times Square subway hub is almost never this empty.

The second major event was the design of the subway (Interborough Rapid Transit, or IRT) and elevated train system (Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit, or BMT) that made the Longacre Square hub the most prominent in the entire city (it still is today). Thus the area around Broadway and 42nd Street became the most easily accessible place in Manhattan for people from the Bronx, Brooklyn, and Queens, as well as Uptown and Downtown Manhattan. It was the one transit hub that connected the major lines from each borough, meaning hundreds of thousands of people passed through the area every single day. So with a landmark building, a transit hub, and the emerging heart of the Theater District, Times Square was ready to explode.

A crowd gathers in Times Square to hear the play by play announcements of the 1920 World Series.

And explode it did. Starting with the first New Year’s Eve fireworks display in 1904 and the first ball drop in 1907 (the ball was an improvisation due to a fireworks ban), Times Square has been a key gathering place in New York for over a century. With the first ever news ticker placed on the Times Tower in 1913, Times Square has been a key place for major news announcements of everything from the results of presidential election to major sporting events to the end of surrender of the Japanese and the end of World War II. The influx of crowds for news announcements and celebrations led to the rise of the entertainment venues, particularly theaters and later movie houses, along with upscale restaurants and hotels. The first trans-American road, the Lincoln Highway, was completed in 1913, connecting Times Square (from 42nd Street) to Lincoln Park in San Francisco – it still exists today, albeit obscured by the modern highway designations.

Murray's Roman Gardens was just one example of the opulent Jazz Age restaurants around Times Square.

While a comprehensive overview of the history of Times Square is beyond the scope of this post, suffice it to say the area has seen a series of up and down periods over the past 105 years. During the boom years of the 1920s and the Jazz Age, Times Square saw the construction of nearly 100 theaters with hundreds of shows released yearly. Massive new theaters (some seating more than 4,000 people) were built, soaring luxury hotels were developed, and opulent restaurants were opened.

Earl Carroll's Vanities, one of the elaborate chorus girl and variety productions of the Jazz Age.

The earliest musicals were staged as variety shows featuring a host of chorus girls (often topless and occasionally nude – scandalous in that era but immensely popular) interspersed with musical and comedy acts that saw the rise of stars like Will Rogers in shows like the Ziegfeld Follies in the New Amsterdam Theater and Midnight Frolic, an edgier show in the New Amsterdam’s rooftop theater.

Movies theaters gradually replaced and overtook the live shows.

From the boom era of the 1920s Times Square saw a predictable decline in the 1930s and 1940s as the Depression and War led the once-ritzy area into a hotbed of crime and prostitution. The refined Ziegfeld shows devolved into bawdy burlesque, with strip shows and movie theaters taking over the grand theaters. The New Year’s celebration continued unabated throughout this period, though the famous ball wasn’t dropped during World War II due to the blackout. The Times Square area saw a resurgence in the post-war 1950s and early 1960s, with an invigoration of good new productions and restoration of many of the old theaters.

The great theaters were transformed into porno houses in the 1960 and 1970s.

Yet, along with most of the country, the late 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s were the dark days for Times Square, as the area was riddled with prostitution, pornography houses, and crime. Forty-second street was particularly bad off, with the beautiful old theaters virtually destroyed from vandalism and neglect as they mostly housed adult films. The New Amsterdam’s magnificent Art Nouveau interior – one of only a handful in the world – was painted over with black paint, and the rooftop theater was filled with water and decayed beyond repair. In the predictably short-sightedness and poor taste of the 1960s, Times Tower was covered from top to bottom with a metal exterior, and was used to the hoist the massive electronic signs and banners. With no tenants above the retails stores, the once unique and original Times Tower – home to the world’s most influential newspaper – became nothing more than a billboard support. Tourists from around the world came not to marvel at the grand theaters and apex of cultural influence, but to gawk at the brazen debauchery at the Crossroads of the World.

The beautifully restored New Amsterdam Theater.

But like most of New York and America as a whole, Times Square saw a resurgence in the early 1990s. Largely due to the efforts of groups like the 42nd Street Development Project and the policies of Rudi Giuliani, Times Square is almost unrecognizable from its dilapidated condition just 15 years ago. With the pornography houses and sex shops abolished, reputable businesses have moved back in and business is booming. The New Amsterdam was leased to Disney for $1, and in turn Disney renovated the New Amsterdam Theater to its present glorious state. The AMC cinema franchise purchased and renovated the Empire Theater – preserving the lobby but transforming the building into a 25 screen complex that is the nicest and best-run movie cinema I know. Toys R Us, Planet Hollywood, MTV, and Virgin all opened massive stores in Times Square, along with Madam Tussaud’s Wax Museum and Ripley’s Believe It or Not. Some have lamented the “Disney-fication” of Times Square, and I see their point. But an over-commercialization of the area is certainly preferably to the filth of just a few decades ago.

The excitement of New Year's in Times Square.

Personally, I enjoy taking a stroll through Times Square and its surrounding streets now and then. New Yorkers often regard Times Square with the disdain usually reserved for cyclists or Republicans: they view it as a crass, Vegas-like tourist trap, overly crowded and obnoxiously commercial. All true. But there is an energy and excitement in Times Square that is like nowhere else I’ve ever visited. Taking visitors to Times Square for the first time is always enlightening: they are more excited and intrigued by the lights, sounds, scents, and overwhelming sensory experience than by anything else in all New York. One gets the sense that when you’ve been to Times Square, you’ve really seen something unique – not much else in the world compares in terms of its history, multicultural relevance, contemporary appeal, and global influence. Tokyo has more lights and London has an equivalent theater district in the West End, but nowhere else do you feel like you’re at the center of the world. An ancient historian once said of beautiful Corinth of antiquity: “See Corinth and die.” In many ways, the same could be said of New York, particularly Times Square.

Often called the “Crossroads of the World,” Times Square welcomes about 30 million visitors every year. For our out of town guests, seeing the unique phenomenon that is Times Square is a must. You can’t really experience New York until you’ve experienced Times Square.

Signed,

Manhattan Monday: On Broadway…

Since we neglected to post a Manhattan Monday piece last week, we’re doing a double this Monday: this post is about Broadway, and the following (to be posted eventually) is about Times Square. Sorry for missing last week, but I think we’re making up for it, right?

The most famous street in all of New York is pretty obvious. Most widely (see what I did there?) known in reference to the Theatre District parlance of performing “On Broadway,” the main thoroughfare on Manhattan is a major landmark from its origin at Battery Park on the southern tip of the island to its dissolution into the Broadway Bridge as it crosses into the Bronx. Crossing all the major avenues (North-South/Uptown-Downtown roads) and passing through the heart of the Financial District (Wall Street begins across from Trinity Church) Chinatown, Little Italy, SoHo, Greenwich Village, Union Square, Madison Square, Herald Square and Macy’s, Times Square, Columbus Circle, the Upper West Side, Harlem, Morningside Heights and Columbia University, and Inwood, traveling along Broadway provides a spectral view of the City.

Looking north along Broadway, 18th Century.

Broadway has been in existence for untold centuries, as it was found by the Dutch settlers in the early 17th century as a long-standing hunting trail maintained by the indigenous Lenape, called the Wickquasgeck Trail. The Dutch used the road as well, calling it “Breede weg” – the literal Dutch term for Broadway. The lower portion of the street was more or less maintained throughout the development of the city, though the original trail veered to the east at 23rth Street while the current Broadway veers West. The grid was developed in the early 19th century, but Broadway was exempted as it curves and slants its way down the western side of the island and glides across the central portion of Manhattan to its southernmost point. Today it runs uninterrupted from Battery Park at the Customs House and the Bowling Green to the very northernmost tip of the island.

The Customs House looms behind the Bowling Green.

Broadway has an auspicious origin in the heart of the Financial District. Originating across from Battery Park in front of the Customs House, the road shoots out of the Bowling Green like a giant fountain. The Bowling Green remains almost exactly as it was 400 years ag0 when the small lawn initially served as a military parade ground, and later as a a park of sorts, home to “bowlers.” Starting out walking from the Bowling Green, one first encounters the famous bull and its overly shined and fondled genitalia. Several blocks up from the bull is the beautiful Trinity Church across from Wall Street. A glance to the right down Wall Street from Broadway gives a view of the New York Stock Exchange.

The fountain at City Hall Park.

Continuing on a broad, straight path northward, the Woolworth Building rises like a giant, upside down ice cream cone to the left – look past the Woolworth Building and Ground Zero is visible several blocks away. Just across from the Woolworth is City Hall and City Hall Park with its beautiful fountains. Looking past City Hall Park gives a view directly up the entrance to the Brooklyn Bridge, with its looking towers, crowded walkways, and criss-crossing wires. Keep walking past City Hall, and you’ll pass through Chinatown at Canal Street.

The architecture of SoHo along Broadway.

Leaving the downtown area, the next section of Broadway is the revitalized and now-ritzy SoHo. Lined with fashion boutiques and trendy eateries, SoHo is home to quite a few celebrities in the lofts above the shops. SoHo was a run down area until starving artists infiltrated the neighborhood to use the vast, inexpensive spaces for their craft. It first became hip, then trendy, and now is a mainstream shopping and fashion district. Adjacent to SoHo on the north side, Broadway passes through Greenwich Village and the heart of New York University – Washington Square Park is just a block away down 4th and 8th Streets. At 10th Street and Broadway rests one of the prettiest churches in Manhattan, Grace Church – one of our favorite buildings in the City.

Union Square. Broadway heads north just to the left of the Empire State Building.

Following a gentle curve to the left past Grace Church, directly ahead is Union Square. Named for the planned (but never completed) junction of old New York’s two biggest roads, Broadway and Bowery, Union Square is the site of the largest public gathering in America’s history: a pro-Civil War speech by Abraham Lincoln. At Union Square, Broadway overlaps Park Avenue to the East and crosses 14th and 17th Streets.

The Great White Way.

The stretch of Broadway between Union Square and Madison Square was previously the heart of the theater district, and was formerly called the “Great White Way” in the early 20th century for the numerous signs decorated with white lights. The next major site is Madison Square, famous for the triangular and beautifully decorated Flatiron Building. Also in Madison Square is the Charles Schwab Tower, the tallest building in the world at its completion.

Macy's and Herald Square.

After a somewhat “dodgy” area in the low 30s, Broadway continues to veer left into Herald Square, home of Macy’s and the famous Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Looking to the right down 34th Street one sees the Empire State Building towering above. The next and most famous section of Broadway is Times Square and the heart of the theater district, to be detailed in the accompanying Manhattan Monday. After passing through Times Square and the Theater District, Broadway takes a decidedly sophisticated turn as it swings its way through Columbus Circle past the Time Warner Center and the southwest corner of Central Park.

The Time Warner Center at Columbus Circle.

With a price tag of over $2 billion, the Time Warner Center was the most expensive building in the world at the time it was completed (since surpassed by the $4 billion Wynn Hotel-Casino in Las Vegas), and is home to high end shops and restaurants, including one of the most exclusive restaurants, Per Se. Extending north from Columbus Circle from 59th Street to 110th Street, Broadway takes a a relatively straight course through the heart of the Upper West Side, paralleling Central Park. Largely residential with numerous high scale apartment buildings, the Upper West Side is relatively devoid of tourist sites until you reach Morningside Heights and Columbia University. Columbia, with its beautiful Neo-classic architecture, is one of the best universities in the world, consistently ranking in the Top 10 universities in the United States.

The section of Broadway between Morningside Heights and Broadway Bridge is relatively drab as it passes through the westernmost section of Harlem (the famous Cotton Club is visible to the left down 125th Street) and the largely Dominican neighborhood of Washington Heights, home to New York Presbyterian Hospital – one of the world’s best. Broadway eases slightly to the left as it passes under the George Washington Bridge at 180th Street, then turns sharply to the right as it passes The Cloisters and enters the nether regions of Manhattan, also known as Inwood. As Broadway slants northeast through Inwood it eventually melts into the Broadway Bridge as it spans the Harlem River on its way to the Bronx.

Thus New York’s version of Main Street was built before New York was even a thought, and persists today as Manhattan’s most important thoroughfare. Passing many major sites and important locations as well as a host of major tourist destinations, Broadway is important for everyone, tourists and New Yorkers alike…

Broadway ends in the Broadway Bridge as it crosses into the Bronx.

Signed,

Weekend of Football

Ah, what a weekend! For someone obsessed with who loves football, it doesn’t get much better than this: a big time college football game Saturday between my favorite team (Penn State) and a big rival (Ohio State) in a crucial match-up, then a very important game NFL Sunday between the New York Giants and San Diego Chargers with a 50 yard-line suite and pre-game VIP sideline passes. Other than the fact that both my teams lost, I had a fantastic time at both games.

Penn State's biggest fan!

Melissa was kind enough to travel with me to the Penn State game in State College, PA, about 4 hours away from NYC. We left at 9 am with our lovely bright blue rental car, and then sat in traffic for nearly an hour and a half in the Lincoln Tunnel waiting for construction (I think). We made a slight detour to grab some Chick-fil-A on the way to the game, and arrives about an hour before kickoff. That was still a bit too late, as we parked so far away we needed a shuttle bus to get to the stadium. The weather was a pleasant 55F at kickoff with perfectly blue skies. The temperature fell to a chilly 45F once the sun went down, but it was still very nice throughout the game. Penn State lost 24-7 in an important game they should have won. It made for a bit of a downer on the way home, but overall it was still a great experience. Nothing beats a college football game in my book, win or lose. Still, a win would have made the entire experience that much better.

The flat screen TVs in the suite at Giants Stadium.

After coasting into Manhattan on fumes (literally), we finally got home around 12:30 am Sunday morning, and got up to return the rental car and go to church later that morning. After church I had the privilege of heading to Giants Stadium with a friend of ours. Vincent owns an investment firm on Wall Street, and was invited to a box suite for the game so the Giants organization could try to sell him a suite in the new stadium (New Meadowlands Stadium), set to open next year. He was kind enough to invite me as a guest, and what an experience it was. We were in a newly designed luxury suite (which serves as a model for the new stadium’s suites), with the best parking, elevator ride to a lounge area outside the suites, and free food all day and during the game. The highlight was a chance to go to the sidelines during the pre-game warm-ups with VIP passes – we got to see the players up close, and met a few famous athletes including Joe Girardi, manager of the Yankees, fresh off their World Series victory.

The suites themselves are amazing. The elevator ride up and lounge area outside give the feel of a small hotel lobby. Going to your suite is like going to a small but nice hotel room, which opens on the opposite side to a private seating area with superb views of the field. With 5 flat screen televisions, sofas, and a spread of food that was replenished throughout the game, there is no better way to relax before a game. While you can relax inside, there are also private seats outside overlooking the field. Having had seats in a variety of stadiums in a variety of locations, these were definitely the best seats I’ve ever enjoyed. Compared to the cramped bleacher seats of the game at Penn State, the luxury cushioned seats with a variety of food in the suite behind was superior in every way.

Beaver Stadium was packed with 110,000 fans well before kickoff.

And what about the difference between the college and NFL games? Well, I had a great time at both, but two differences are obvious: the NFL has better players and better overall quality of play, but college football has more passion and intensity, particularly from the fans. Only the top 3-4 players on the field during the Penn State game will ever have successful careers in the NFL – the speed, size, athleticism, and understanding of the game is just higher at the professional level. Even so, while I love the NFL and had a great time at the Giants game, to me there is nothing better than a college football game. Penn State fans were in their seats – all 110,000 of them – 15-20 minutes before kickoff, whereas Giants Stadium was only 80% full at kickoff. And the college fans were completely engaged in every single play, whereas the NFL fans were more apt to “miss” a few plays here and there. Plus there’s no beating the college gameday atmosphere: the tends of thousands of tail-gaters, the band, mascots, cheerleaders – none of that integral to the pro game the way it is in college.

So as a football fan, this weekend was about as good as it gets. It’s hard to beat attending either game in person, but attending both, even though they ended up as losses for my teams, was a one of a kind treat…

Just before the start of the second half - the sunset was beautiful, but brought cooler temperatures.

All too often Penn State was on defense. At this point the game was all but over, and fans had started to file out.

The food spread in the suite at Giants' Stadium.

View from the tunnel, field level.

We stood just a few feet from the players warming up. #56 is Shawne Merriman, arguably the best linebacker in the NFL.

This was a tackling drill during the pre-game. Even in warm-ups the intensity was palpable.

LaDainian Tomlinson, one of the star running backs in the NFL.

The Giants end of the field was much more crowded during warm-ups, making picture taking more difficult.

During a time out just before halftime.

The Giants were in prime position to score and put the game away late. They managed a field goal to make it 20-14, but the Chargers drove the length of the field and socred a touchdown to make it 21-20 with 20 seconds left in the game.

With private seats and a bar, a suite can make for a luxurious game experience.

Manhattan Monday: Halloween in New York

New York is big on holidays. Not mundane holidays like Labor Day, Memorial Day or President’s Day, but the real holidays that virtually everyone celebrates. New York is the Christmas and New Year’s capital of the world – St. Patrick’s Day and Independence Day aren’t far behind, and Thanksgiving is big everywhere in America. But one of the biggest holidays in New York is not a formal “holiday” at all – just an excuse to carve pumpkins, decorate bars and restaurants, sell tours of haunted houses, and of course dress up in wild, exuberant, absurd costumes that would be thoroughly inappropriate 364 days out of the year.

Yes, that day is Halloween, arguably the holiday that has increased in popularity more than any other over the past several decades. Halloween, derived from pagan Roman harvest festivals and Celtic mysticism (the Irish carved turnips instead of pumpkins), celebrates the Fall season more than anything else. Taking place on October 31 in the heart of Autumn, Halloween is symbolized by colored leaves, chilly temperatures, shortened days, bonfires and burning leaves, and Fall treats such as candy and caramel apples. While people carve pumpkins and visit haunted mansions as part of the traditional Halloween activities, the most popular event is dressing up in costumes and trick-or-treating. While children enjoy the door-to-door begging for candy, adults enjoy dressing up as well.

Which brings us to New York. I’ve never been to a city where virtually everyone of all ages dresses up for Halloween. Walking the streets on Halloween night, those of us not in costume are the very small minority. Kids dress up of course, but their parents dress up as well along with 85% of all the people walking around Manhattan. By costume I don’t mean regular clothes topped off by a head pieces or heavy make-up or an unusual hat. No, by costumes I mean all-out costumes that are creative, provocative, bizarre, sexy, humorous, and of course thoroughly entertaining. People dress as animals, celebrities, and well, basically anything and everything.

I walked around for about 20 minutes a short distance from our apartment in the East Village Saturday night. In that time I saw every type of costume imaginable – I cannot even begin to list them all. Health care seemed like a big theme this year, with quite a few blood-stained white coats and scrubs, along with numerous skimpy nurseoutfits. Fairies and princesses were popular among women, and all sorts of Roman and Green warriors were popular among men, along with famous athletes of all types. The most bizarre was a man dressed in a business suit with a horses head. To top it off, he carried a brief case and had an ear piece running into the front pocket of his coat.

Those were some highlights, but there was anything and everything in between. Women dressed as Wonder Woman, a man dressed as some sort of ancient warrior with a huge sword and a small loin cloth, a fat man wore a Smoky Bear costume, a woman dressed as Sally Bowles from Cabaret, a man (I think?) dressed as Spider Man with some sort of dark cloak, four guys dressed as the “Four Horsemen” of Notre Dame, complete with football uniforms, and a woman dressed entirely in white fur with a white bear cap, white fur leggings, a short white skirt, and a white fur bra were some of the more memorable outfits. There were many, many more that are just indescribable.

Yes, Halloween is a big deal in NYC, complete with a big parade that winds its way, naturally, through Greenwich Village. As a city that combines weird, artistic, creative, and uninhibited people in very close proximity, New York is perfectly suited for a Halloween extravaganza. Since the Yankees played the Philadelphia Phillies in the World Series Saturday night, most of the bars were crammed with elaborately costumed people all fixated on televisions while cheering wildly for their beloved Yankees – surreal to say the least. Only in New York…

Signed,

Manhattan Monday: Weekend Brunch

In most places the term “brunch” is used only of special occasions or certain rare meals throughout the year. A bridal party might have a special brunch before the wedding later that evening. Business associates might enjoy brunch together on a Saturday morning in combination with a meeting. Families celebrate Mother’s Day over a Sunday brunch, or Easter before an Easter egg hunt. But nowhere else outside the City (at least that I’ve visited) has transformed brunch into a weekend pastime the way New York has.

Hungry yet! I am...

First of all, Melissa and I aren’t brunch aficionados, and don’t elevate the location of our brunch to a major weekly decision the way many New Yorkers do. We enjoy the occasional brunch, usually with friends or when family is in town, but we are probably below average in New York in terms of our brunch consumption. For many people brunch is a hobby or pseudo-organized leisure activity. Brunch locales are plotted weeks in advance, and their calendars are always filled in the 11 am – 1 pm time frame on Saturday and Sunday; entire weekend schedules are built around brunch. The New York magazines dedicate regular features to highlight the best brunch restaurants throughout the city. Entire blogs, such as iheartbrunch.com, are dedicated to brunch in the New York. Walking down the street, it is obvious that virtually every restaurant of every size and style and type of cuisine offers some form of brunch – it is just a way of life in New York.

Such variety, especially in New York, only leads to confusion about where to enjoy brunch. There are plenty of “classic” brunch places featuring a variety of continental foods such as French toast of all different types, pancakes, eggs benedict, omelets of seemingly infinite composition, small steaks, crepes, and a variety of crab and lobster based salads, washed down by a juice or even a drink such as a Bloody Mary or Mimosa. But if you’d rather try ethnic cuisine, the choices are also vast. Numerous dim sum places are scattered throughout Chinatown, in addition to standard Chinese restaurants such as The Oriental Garden, which offers items such as shrimp balls and crispy vegetable rolls. There are brunches with Indian food such as Chennai and Surya West, along with French food at L’Express, and Cambodian food at the appropriately named Cambodian Cuisine.

The Blue Water Grill is located in an old bank in Union Square.

If you’re in the mood for traditional brunch, my personal recommendation would be the Cook Shop in Chelsea, where I enjoyed the delicious beef brisket with two poached eggs. Melissa and I also really like the Blue Water Grill, with its beautiful setting in an old bank in Union Square. Our favorite dishes are the eggs benedict and the New Yorker benedict. Melissa enjoys Friend of a Farmer in Irving Place (I’ve never been), and we’ve also had good experience at Schiller’s on Rivington Street in the Lower East Side. Other well-reviewed traditional brunches include Five Points and Clinton Street Baking Company, though we’ve never visited either place.

Peacock Alley at the Waldorf.

But the reality is that, as with most things in New York, you are bound to find something that suits your fancy. Just walk anywhere in the East or West Village and you’re sure to find a great brunch perfectly suited to your taste and budget. If you want very high end fare, you can shell out $95 for an all you can eat buffet in the Waldorf-Astoria called Peacock Alley. In the same vein, you might try the Carlyle restaurant at the Carlyle Hotel, where it is quite possible you’ll spot a celebrity or two. If you’re in the mood for off-beat, avant garde brunch, the well-reviewed Prune might be the place for you, with their sausage-oyster combos and liver plates.

So whether you cuddle up in a warm, cozy dining room such as Friend of a Farmer in the cold of winter, or enjoy the perfect temperatures of Fall by eating outside at a place like Sarabeth’s, enjoying brunch is a quintessential New York experience. With offerings of all styles at all prices throughout Manhattan (Brooklyn has a variety of great brunch restaurants as well), there is a brunch for everyone in the Big Apple.

Signed,

A Phantom Sequel

I found out today a piece of information that was announced over a year ago: Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber has written a sequel to Phantom of the Opera to be released on London’s West End in March 2010. The new musical, titled Love Never Dies, will open on Broadway in November 2010. When I first read about this show, I assumed it would take place in the Paris Opera House, just like the original. As an alternative, the streets of Paris or some other Parisian locale seem like plausible options. If they decided to move it away from Paris, there are a number of reasonable choices, such as London at the Royal Opera House, or one of the other old theatres. Rome might be a good place with its history and architecture – Venice and Milan make sense as well. New York seems like a distant choice, but it offers some great venues such as the massive, grand Hippodrome and the Hammerstein Theatre (the Hippodrome no longer exists and the Hammerstein has been extensively re-modeled and used for television), or even the famous New Amsterdam, crown jewel of New York theatres. So where does Love Never Dies take place? It takes place in the beautiful, elegant, historical locale of….drumroll please…Coney Island!

Coney Island. No, you didn’t misread that last sentence: Webber has transported the sequel of his masterpiece from the Paris Opera House to a trashy amusement park in Brooklyn. The reason for the locale change hinges on what happens to the Phantom after he disappears in the stirring climax of the original. Reduced to a mere sideshow novelty, the Phantom makes his way to Coney Island, where he supposedly designs many of the rides and attractions and amasses a great fortune. While celebrating a successful singing career in Europe, Christine and her family (she marries Raoul and has a child) receive an invitation to perform at Coney Island. Little do they know the Phantom has secretly sent the invitation to lure her back to him…

The opening scene of Phantom of the Opera sets the tone perfectly for the rest of the show.

Forgive me if I am more than a little skeptical of this entire production. Phantom of the Opera is my personal favorite musical, easily one of the greatest of all time alongside the likes of My Fair Lady, Oklahoma!, and West Side Story. Part of what makes it great is that all the parts fit together perfectly: the music is superb, the setting in the Paris Opera House is romantic and haunting, the staging is magnificent, the costumes are great, the story is moving, and the plot of a chorus girl transformed into a star soprano under the tutelage of a musical genius mirrors the real-life relationship of Webber and then-wife Sarah Brightman (the original star in the West End and Broadway productions). The various elements of a musical come together beautifully to make a classic the same way the music of Leonard Bernstein, the libretto of Stephen Sondheim, and the scandalously violent (at the time) staging underscored by the poignant portrayal of racial tension make West Side Story a classic.

Can anything set in Coney Island really compare?

But just as the rough Hell’s Kitchen of the 1950’s is a perfect setting for West Side Story, so the beautiful, mysterious, haunting Paris Opera House is a perfect setting for Phantom. How can Coney Island possibly compare and maintain any sort of consistency with the original ambience? I understand that Coney Island was a gawdy, larger than life Vegas-style over-the-top extravaganza at the turn of the 20 century. But there is nothing haunting or romantic about such a setting that would be consistent with the mood of Phantom’s music. And contextually, the Paris Opera House is still standing and still beautiful, while Coney Island is being further dis-assembled by the minute – all that remain are the Parachute Jump and Cyclone roller coaster, neither of which were built in 1906 when Love Never Dies takes place.

Let's hope Love Never Dies actually makes it to Broadway - Whistle Down the Wind was so bad its premier was cancelled.

Perhaps this will be a great musical and even surpass its predecessor in quality and popularity. But there is reason to worry. For starters, I reject the notion of a sequel to Phantom. Andrew Lloyd Webber called the ending “unsatisfactory,” but I could not disagree more. I consider it the perfect ending, as the Phantom finds true love through sacrifice and selflessness – he then disappears into the oblivion of the beautiful music he helped create. I can be open minded about a sequel, but a further concern is that Webber seems to be past his prime. He has written some great musicals, including Phantom, Cats, Song and Dance, and fun shows such as Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat; even Jesus Christ, Superstar has a good score. But since Phantom premiered in 1986, he has has no major successes with flops like Sunset Boulevard and Whistle Down the Wind. He produced Bombay Dreams, and while that has been a hit on the West End it had a very short run on Broadway.

I tend to be optimistic, but I am quite pessimistic on the prospects of Love Never Dies succeeding to any degree beyond a mediocre sequel to a masterpiece. I hope Webber and his crew prove me wrong and pull off another classic, but setting the story in Coney Island only elevates my concerns…

Signed,