the starlock journal

Last week I had five full-immersion & delicious days in NYC, tanks to a friend of mine who bought my plane tickets with his Lufthansa frequent flyer bonus.

So many inputs converged from this last minute trip, that it is hard to amalgamate them in a coherent script. So, just a few points of what I collected.

1. First of all, the conception of city is really vague in New York. NY has five boroughs: Manhattan, Brooklyn (the most populous; consider also that it is populated by the most under 35 singles ;-), Queens (the largest), the Bronx, and Staten Island. They are so different one to the other, with such different life style and population, that they form independent districts, in some cases as wide as towns.
2. After this short preamble, New York is a perfect place where to hide yourself in. If you wish, you can spend there a whole week without saying a word to anybody, except for the hotel concierge, the Starbucks cashier, and the taxi driver.
3. New York is the most multiethnic city I ever visited. The 45% of the population is white, 26% Afro American, 28% Latino and 11% Asian. What is strange, as well as the racial mix, is also the fact that just few people are born here (and just few of those who moved in NY will spend here the rest of their life).
4. There is an incredible amount of police patrolling in the streets. This allows you to enjoy long lasting walks in almost every district. Even if you accidentally turn up at the borders of Harlem, you may not feel too uncomfortable.
5. New York is an excellently well organised city. It is possible to barricade ten blocks of Manhattan for a parade celebrating the 100th anniversary of birth of the Jewish state (with tens of thousands of supporters crowding the Fifth Avenue), without interfering with the city routine.
6. Nobody really cares about how you dress. This is a democratic city, a place where you can enter in a LV store in your torn jeans and worn All Stars and be served with a welcoming smile. Everybody can be a potential investor in a boutique….and they got this idea!
7. New Yorkers have an accentuated and eloquent gesture like Italians.
8. The majority of them is technology victims and own at least an Apple device and new generation laptops. They are trend obsessed, tiring of the next big thing before it peaks.
9. New York is a really expensive city. Consider that an apartment in Manhattan costs about $680,000 these days (specially considering that the average household income is $ 45.000).
10. New Yorkers are hurried, hurried and constantly moving. People work hard, and seem to live twice as much as those in the rest of the world. So, don’t be surprised to be influenced by this frenetic mood and feel the desperate need to buy a coffee served in a to-go to save time ;-)
11. The stereotype of the early risers is true; if you get up early and walk in the streets, no matter if you are in a park or between skyscrapers; there are tens of runners in their jogging shoes, starting dynamically a new day.
12. People from the East coast are less expensive and extroverted than people from the Wes coast. They do not seem really interested in implementing even superficial relationships.
13. In New York, the Jewish community is really relevant and proud and powerful. Let’s say that Asian culture : California = Jewish culture : New Jersey
14. Don’t be surprised to attend a conference and meet, among panellists, 29-year old guys who are at their 4^th experience in companies’ foundation. NY teaches you to be humble and gives you the opportunity to learn.
15. Conference participants are multitasking; they can listen, eat, drink, take notes, speak, chat, all at the same time.
16. Especially if you attend institutional events, people you meet may have attitude and be not afraid to use it.
17. You read less about President Barack Obama on Americans newspapers than on European ones.
18. Really few people smoke. This is an excellent deterrent to your nicotine addiction.
19. The best district to live? Probably Greenwich or Chelsea!
20. The best walk of fashion? Bleecker Street for sure. No redundant and bold brands, but emerging stylists and boutiques with neglected Italian brands (carefully chosen to guarantee a posh allure).
21. I never sow such a huge quantity of homeless collapsed in the streets borders or in the subway tunnels like here. It is astonishing how nobody cares of them. People seem intolerant of pain, poverty, and misery. Maybe it is unacceptable for New York to accept people not always at the top of their games.
22. The city retains its iconic status as a place of unbound energy and opportunity to people who know it well, and to those the world over who imagine it to be this way.
23. Driving in New York is a mission impossible: driving is nothing if you do not use the horn.
24. Entering the subway in the rush hour is a penetration experience in trench; do not worry to have an arrogant approach.
25. Yes, it is true; most of the people are overweight, and when they do not have time to sit down to meal, they will not think twice about eating on the run, barely stopping their forward movement long enough to swallow.
26. NY is a city for the young; the median age is 35. It is really unusual to walk in the street and do not meet people over 60!