From 2/9

Hell's Kitchen

The neighborhood in Manhattan for pre-dawn taxi and limousine car washes.

Hell's Kitchen near Times Square

When I think of New York City, this is what I see, a store open all night with flowers outside. The sidewalk has a million cracks, spotted with dried discarded gum creating a cushioned layer over concrete. Small streams flow to the street from the recent exchange of water in the flower buckets. A small television set gives the store another set of eyes always watching in monotone blue.  

Midtown

Something about this feels very New York to me too, in a more standard way:  You got your yellow taxis and your stretch limo, the rarely publicized empty street, the city sleeps, but you never see it then 'cause your sleeping, and then there's the cavernous yet somehow modest avenue.

fare pricing

Before I picked up the troopers, I had a guy get in and say he was going to Howard Beach, a great ride, but I wasn’t sure how I’d get there. I figured I’d ask him his preferred route and we’d both be happy. However he threw me this curve:

“Hold up, hold up don’t start the meter yet, let’s negotiate, 30 dollars,” he said. “We can chill n’ smoke a blunt when we get there.”

“With the meter on,” I told him, “ It’d be at least 35, maybe even 40, even 45.”

He cut me off at 35, saying he’d pay that, then he was all right at 40, but he made it sound like he was doing me a favor at 40. At 45 he wouldn’t pay unless it was very clear that he wasn’t getting home with me otherwise. It was all too suspect to me, so I told him I wasn’t taking him.

We go by the meter in NYC, and as long as we stay in city limits, it is completely illegal to negotiate a fare. I feel negotiations have a much greater chance of going wrong. People wishing to discount their ride from the beginning may be the type to skip the fare completely if the relationship between the driver and passenger don’t go swimmingly. If we start the ride by not following the rules, who’s to say how far the rule breaking will or will not go?

He asked for me then to be driven to a store where he could buy some cigarettes with the meter off. I took him there as consolation. He asked me once more if I’d wait for him and then take him to Howard Beach. I told him that I’d probably regret the decision, but I wasn’t taking him. I could’ve lied and driven off with him expecting a ride, and I told him he was fortunate to get an honest guy for a driver. He took it well,

“Good lookin’ out kid,” he said as he softly closed the door.

Honestly the Howard Beach thing spooked me a bit because I came across a story on the Internet about a couple who ran out on a cab fare in Howard Beach. The cabbie searched the neighborhood and never saw them again.

2/3 (2)

Grand Central Station

When the taxi lines were long and slow at the hotels, and there was no where else to go, I figured I'd wait at Grand Central. The taxi line is in a weird place though, everyone exits the station at other exits.

Long Island City, Queens

I like to call Long Island City 'taxi nation', maybe I stole that from somewhere else. There are more taxi garages in this neighborhood then any other in the city, as well as plenty of car mechanics who rely solely on taxi and livery car owner/drivers for income. This car dealer only sells Cadilacs and Lincolns aimed at the livery driver market. 

Chelsea

Midtown near Herald Square

Jersey City, New Jersey

Lucky me, I got a fare to Newark Airport. That's a 60 dollar ride with the possibility of a big tip. The taxes on gas are lower in New Jersey. Filling the tank before taking the tunnel back in to the city will save 5 bucks. However the time it takes to find the cheapest gas on the strip of gas stations then filling it up then tipping the gas man, I could've made my money back by taking another ride when I got back in the city. It is only worth buying gas in Jersey if I'm done taking customers. 

Jersey City, New Jersey

Driving Under the Influence

So I was talking to one of the more friendly cabbies today. We share the same schedule of when we pick up our cabs. 

"So I totaled my car this week," he says.

"Oh jeez really?"

"Yeah, I got hit by a guy going right through the light, hit the back of my car and I spun around and then I hit another car."

"Wow, man you must have been really freaked out."

"Yeah my wife was in the car."

"Were they on cocaine or alcohol or something?"

"No I'll tell you what he was on, he was ON THE PHONE."

2/3/08 (1)

Harlem

Sunnyside, Queens

NoHo

Lower East Side

“I wish I brought my gun”

I waited at the club one more time. There was no hint of a sunrise in the sky, but it was coming and one group after another was slowly walking out of the place. A small sport-utility yellow cab came up to the back exit ignoring the yellow cabs already waiting in our line of anarchy, blocking all traffic and then ignoring the honking of stretch limousines behind. A group of guys came over to the cab, but then realized the situation and hopped in my cab instead. Three skinny newbies scooted across the back seat and leaned forward attentively, A larger man with a shaved head came in to the front and became one with the seat. He erupted with a bold proclamation in his homegrown accent, "THAT PLACE SUCKED, WOW GUYS WHAT WAS THAT? THAT SUCKED SO BAD," he paused not long enough for a reply, "OH MAN I WISH I BROUGHT MY GUN".... I must have raised my eyebrows, possibly chuckled a little, so he reassured me that they were good people, "Oh don't worry we’re cops," he said.

“COPS!?” I shouted, “Well… THAT’S reassuring!!”
“Yeah, we’re state troopers.”

Anyway, they were alright, turned out he was from New York, his friends were from Boston, so I told him about my dreams, my goals and settling for taxi driving. I wanted to be an architect, but I wasn’t good at math

“Math?” he said, his face squeezed as if he sucked a lemon, “You don’t need to know math to be an architect, don’t mess with yourself like that! Common be an architect.”

He talked with his buddies about the drugs they wish the club had given them. And the group left the cab, tipped nicely, and were on their way.

Keeping your bicycle

So in the previous post I mentioned that all the DKNY bicycles were all stolen already, they lasted about a week. If you want advice on how to keep a bike in NYC it is to....

1. make it unattractive: achieved usually by wrapping with black tape, or innertube/ rubber material.
2. make sure the bike is as hard as possible to disassemble: exchange quick releases for bolts, or place locks over all releases, and chains locking the bike seat to the frame. 
3. Lock your bicycle with two completely different locks: preferably a small U-lock, and a heavy chain lock. It is best if both locks lock both the bike frame and a wheel. At least one lock must be locked to a secured object. Scaffolding can be disassembled, bicycles if improperly locked can be hoisted over parking meters,  and parking meters can be removed from subway grates. If you get a chain lock, get a THICK and HEAVY one, I kicked one of the orange Donna Karen bikes, and it fell to the side walk. I returned 5 minutes later and it was gone, the chain lock must have broken.
4. Do not lock your bike to iron gates in front of residences in Manhattan, the police sometimes confiscate the bikes. 
5. It may help to get your bike registered with the police department to certify that it is yours and track it if it's stolen.
6. If you can help it, don't lock your bike outside, and if you have to, don't leave it alone for too long.

This all said, this is one of, if not the, safest cities in the world, but we still have a very bad bicycle theft problem. 

2/2/08 pictures

East Village

Kensington ,Brooklyn

Midtown (Bryant Park)

This is pretty shameful. Donna Karen, the clothing company, had this short gorilla campaign to advertise with orange bikes around the city during fashion week. Problem is white bicycles are around the city as memorials to deaths of bicyclists. So this is kind of the equivalent of wearing red to a funeral. All the bikes have been stolen by people or the police by now, so they are all gone, thankfully. 

Upper East Side

Somewhere Manhattan

police taxi destroyed

Take it from me, it wasn't really a taxi.

Take note of the black side molding. Other contributing clues to it being a police car are lack of partition, cloth bucket seats, titanium laptop computer, standard sized rear door (not extra long), a W in the medallion #. when all these clues are put together it just might be a cop car.

According to the genius' that comment on youtube, the offenders were arrested. This update on human stupidity was brought to you, as always, by the world wide web.

source: Yellowcabnyc.com, YouTube

1/26

Mott Haven, The Bronx

Flushing, Queens 

Sunnyside, Queens

Midtown

Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn

Joe's NYC happened to shoot the same spot a few months back, click here for the image: joe's nyc, Bedford-Stuyvesant, 10/27/07

1/20 (2)

Hell's Kitchen

Flatlands, Brooklyn

The mighty Crown Vic.

1/20

TriBeCA:

(Triangle Below Canal Street)

When I took a family to some restaurant for their lunch I was so impressed by the timelessness of the particular block that I circled it again and took some pictures.

----

At the garage:

And another rarity. I never saw a vehicle removed from it's chassis, much less a yellow cab. So I had to take the camera out of my bag when I returned the cab to take pictures of this.
There the V8 engine sits on a working chassis, tires, suspension, all that stuff. You can see that scoop down the middle of the car is for the trans-axle.

And a whole body raised, minus the front end. This is old school, body on frame construction. If the monster gets banged up in an accident, the damaged body part is replaced, but the chassis doesn't get damaged as often. So the repairs are cheaper and quicker.

The alternate car design almost everyone else drives is a uni-body construction, where the frame of the car and the body are one. The unibody handles better on the road, holding turns tighter, and in accidents the unibody has built in crumple zones. At higher speeds, a crumple zone will save your life, but it will destroy your car.

1/19

Greenwich Village

Hell's Kitchen

Upper West Side

1/13

Chelsea

The leftover cars near the club scene

Far West Side 

leaving the Jacob Javits Center

1/12

This is either Bed-Stuy or Fort Greene, Brooklyn

TriBeCa

Greenwich Village

If at first a tourist doesn't succeed, try try again. But how about letting the traffic get by before you try to park next time?

Voting.... ............... ..........

So my friend had the good fortune to actually work the voting center in his neighborhood. 

"Busy?" I ask

"Not really."

In fact I even came by and walked in on the event to see it emptier than an elementary school prom. Hmmm is that what happened? Did they schedule an elementary school prom there, and it scared away the voters?

Anyway I couldn't vote because I was a registered Green party member. I did my research a whole day in advance for who I'd vote for in the green party, but no website nor any media could inform me of when I was supposed to vote for my chosen candidate???? 

That really agitates me to no end!

I also made a decision on who I'd have voted for if I was a registered Democrat, but it really made no difference since I wasn't allowed my own choice.

I know, I know there is this other party called the Republicans, but veteran New Yorkers for the most part, acknowledge them as a spawn of Satan. New York City is so Democratic......

How Democratic is it?

New York City is so Democratic that the Republican vote counter name tags were placed on Democrats  just to make the voting center look more unbiased. Hey that's the best they could do, because Republicans weren't working the polls.

There are some pockets of the city that are Republican, but they are few and far between.

Sunday 1/6/08

World Financial Center

West Midtown

A common surge drill was underway at Penn Station. A random place is selected for 20 or more squad cars. sometimes they all proceed to the locations in one herd, and sometimes they arrive sporadically, taking attendance like a bunch of elementary school boys. This morning attendance was big. The above picture is 8th Avenue from 33rd to 34th Streets, but 31st to 33rd was lined with cop cars too. 

Midtown / Times Square

Long Island City, Queens

no explanation necessary 

Lower East Side

saturday 1/5/08

Little Italy

unknown

Possibly Chelsea

SoHo

SoHo

JFK Expressway, Queens

Sunnyside, Queens