New York City Metblogs » Fern Cohen

Vote for the Best and Worst of Queens 2008

Fern Cohen — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 20:16:29 +0000

John Roleke, Queens blogger, needs your help. For all you Queens-ites, vote on the best and worst in several categories — including politics, development, neighborhoods, restaurants, sports, potholes
and other ones he wants you to come up with!
This is your chance to express your opinion!

Is LaGuardia one of the worst of Queens? photo by JeremyGoldstein/Wikimedia Commons

Health Care Now Rally and March Thursday 11/13

Fern Cohen — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 23:43:51 +0000

So now that Barack Obama has been elected President, let’s help him out and show our support for his plan of healthcare for all!

Attend HealthCare NOW’s rally and march calling for a national Single-Payer health care system. At the rally there will be a Phone-A-Thon supporting HR 676, the United States National Health Insurance Act. Let’s get it passed.

One Nation, One Plan!
Thursday, November 13, 2008
4:00PM - 5:00PM Rally
Corner 42nd & 7th Ave
5:00PM March to GHI 34th St & 9th Ave

Mr. Obama: Can We Make Broadway More Accessible for the Middle Class?

Fern Cohen — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 23:11:05 +0000

We learn that another celebrity-backed movie-morphed-into-musical is coming to town, courtesy of Dolly Parton. I’m sure ticket prices will be as splashy as the stage.
It’s a case of the chicken and the egg on Broadway these days. Are movies being recycled into splashy musicals to fill seats in the theaters, at unaffordable [to most people] prices, to pay for the high-priced movie and TV celebs and splashy sets? Or do we need the movies-made-into-splashy-musicals and celebs to fill seats, and thus have to charge exorbitant prices to pay for the splashy sets and high-price stars they have to use on Broadway in order to fill those seats.

Big money drives a Broadway production, and big money pays the bill for a night out at the theater. “Disney-fication” revived an ailing Broadway and cleaned up the Theater District, but ticket prices have gone through the roof, and I wonder what’s going to happen if tourism goes down in this crappy economy, especially from international visitors. In his effort to help the middle-class, can Mr. Obama help pass initiatives to subsidize the arts, as they do in Europe, to keep tickets reasonably priced? Or better yet, to help emerging producers, directors, composers, and writers without Disney-type bank accounts to put up original and stage fresh ideas, without such a hefty price-tag?

Village Halloween Parade Pics

Fern Cohen — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 21:31:08 +0000

If you want to see a great picture gallery of this year’s Village Halloween Parade, click here.

Photo credit: Jeanne Fleming/Wikimedia Commons. Picture from the 1998 Village Halloween Parade. Notice the Twin Towers lit up in the background.
.
Thank you Pamela Skillings, About.com’s Manhattan guide.

NYC Marathon This Sunday November 2nd

Fern Cohen — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 15:03:21 +0000

As almost everyone knows, the NYC Marathon is on for this coming Sunday, November 2. I always watch it on TV, but it’s very exciting to watch it in person! However, you have to be familiar with the route and schedule of the runners in order to catch it in any of the five boroughs. The best website is : the official website of the ING NYC Marathon/NY Road Runners
Especially for newcomers to the city, visitors, or anyone otherwise new to Marathon viewing, you want to check out the website so you don’t go to the wrong place at the wrong time [or the right place at the wrong time]

Do You Remember NYC 1973? "Life on Mars" is Dead-On

Fern Cohen — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 00:19:10 +0000

Where were you in 1973? Were you even born yet? I was watching “All in the Family” on TV, Nixon was President, gas was well under $1 a gallon, and we listened to Cat Stevens, the Moody Blues, and Led Zeppelin on 8-track tape players. Many of us still had rotary phones, my dad’s car had big-ass fins, and some of my neighbors had been drafted to Vietnam. And “the city” was a dangerous place — 42nd St west of Broadway was one porn-show or peep-show palace after another, with streetwalkers [prostitutes] lining the streets in broad daylight. SoHo, TriBeCa, and NoLiTa were barely ideas, and the Bronx was burning! The World Trade Center was in its infancy.

If you want to go back to NYC nostalgia, or want to appreciate how far we’ve come. Or even if you are like me — secretly longing for a little of the grittiness again [oh that colorful subway graffiti!], catch tonight’s second episode of “Life on Mars” [ABC, 10pm]. If nothing else, the hairstyles are a hoot, and last week I caught a Gremlin [car] on the street. They really are dead-on with the details! Oh, and the political-incorrectness! Every young girl should note the disrespect to women, and appreciate what we burned our bras for!

Surprise at Sentiments from Hofstra Students Pre- and Post-Debate

Fern Cohen — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 17:27:55 +0000

I totally understand that the rest of the country is going to have its McCain supporters. And I know that, these days, Hofstra University attracts many students from outside Long Island and New York. But I was still surprised at the sampling of students that Eyewitness News [NYC ABC channel 7] interviewed before and after the last presidential debate between John McCain and Barack Obama.

Am I naive to think that more students at Hofstra would have been pro-Obama? Or did Eyewitness News purposely handpick their sampling beforehand, so as to have an equal divide? I have even been surprised lately to hear the college kids of the 21st century leaning so against abortion, even at Hofstra. Can you weigh in on this? Because I remember when I attended SUNY Stony Brook in the 70s, our student body was a Democratic [even radical] island in the middle of a conservative Republican territory. Why does it seem so different today?

Street Fairs in October — Where to Stay Away

Fern Cohen — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 00:55:19 +0000

I share the view of many New Yorkers re those street fairs. They’re a pain in the ass! I’ve eaten the last of those sausage sandwiches and funnel cakes! There was one last Sunday in my Forest Hills neighborhood, and I avoided it like leprosy! Just when you thought street fair season was over, Pamela Skillings, the Manhattan guide at About.com, offers a schedule of the last installments of these banes of our existence. But, hey, if you still like seeing demos of must-have household gadgets, or yearn for more pad thai cooked on the street, check it out here

The Loisada Street Festival. David Shankbone/Wikimedia Commons

Free Bike and Kite Weekend on Governor’s Island This Weekend!

Fern Cohen — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 16:34:47 +0000

Here’s your chance to see Governor’s Island, by bike, before the developers go in and change it [and you know that's next]
Transportation Alternativesand the Governors Island Preservation and Education Corporation are expanding their popular “Free Bike Fridays” this entire weekend on Governors Island. Bring your own bike, or take a free one-hour rental [limited supply, first-come first-serve]. 250 kites will also be available for flying. From Friday 9/19 10am to 5pm and Saturday 9/20 and Sunday 9/21 10am to 7pm, you can take advantage of this great opportunity. Ferries will leave from the Battery Maritime Building, 10 South St., at Whitehall St. You can check the ferry schedule online at govisland.com.

Castle Williams, Governors Island, NYC

NYC Schools — Hot Hot Hot in a September Heat

Fern Cohen — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 23:42:05 +0000

Many — if not most — of the NYC public school classrooms are still not air-conditioned. Newer schools have central air-conditioning, and in most of the older schools, only the principals and some administrators enjoy office window air-conditioning units. Although the Department of Education tries its best to use as many AC-equipped sites for summer programs, often they have to use non-AC sites as well. It’s not easy to motivate kids these days, but even harder in summer, and harder still in hot classrooms.

I taught in such a school up in East Harlem. The building was competed as part of the WPAduring the Great Depression. When we had a hot June, students would take Regents examsfully equipped with frozen water bottles on their desks.

So, during the last week, I have been thinking of NYC’s public school students and teachers in those hot classrooms on their first week back in the classroom. And it’s not going to be much better this week, as we hover around the 80s until the middle of the week.