A Year In New York

Today I’ve been running last-minute errands and pondering what it all means, spending a year in New York City. I’ve worn through a lot of shoe leather in this crazy town and learned some hard lessons,  and now it’s time for me to pass those lessons on to you.
Here goes:

1. The World Won’t End If [...]

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As someone who regularly commutes on a bicycle, I eagerly awaited May 24, the day cars would be banished from Times Square. No more dodging around panicked rental-car tourists or taxis that swerve across three lanes for a fare; now the street would belong to me, the cyclist. At least I thought so until I [...]

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I finally bought a bike! For a while now, I’ve wanted wheels so I could save a few bucks on subway fare and see more of the city. Finding the right steed has been a struggle.
Craiglist is a bottomless well of Fender guitars, erotic masseuses and software developers, but not bicycles. And the Manhattan bike [...]

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Today I walked into my first New York bike shop, Toga Bikes on East 63rd, after a month of mulling it over and curiously looking into store windows. Not that they would have what I’m looking for.
The salesman, Jonathan, approached me with the blue-eyed, yo-brah enthusiasm of a mountain biker and an incongruous Queens accent. [...]

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Before arriving here, I discovered a reliable way to flabbergast my fellow Californians. All I had to do was announce my plans to commute by bike around Manhattan.
“What?” that Californian would sputter, nearly spilling his Chardonnay into the koi pond. “Are you crazy?”
I might as well have said I would bike through the streets of [...]

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