Word On the Street: An Experiment in Neighborliness in Brooklyn

I came across this article on Brooklyn Cohousing on the NY Times site this morning. Brooklyn Cohousing is essentially a real estate development in Brooklyn designed for 40 or so households who aspire to "village" life and all its neighborly benefits within an apartment complex. Each family has their own private apartment, but they know all their neighbors, can cook and eat meals in a shared dining room, vote on decisions that affect the community, hold art classes and other communal activities and watch after each others children. It's not as strict as a commune and sounds like a nice attempt to establish a sense of connectedness in the city. Only time will tell if this works in practice--it's not set to open until Spring 2010--but I, for one, think it sounds practically utopian.

Word On The Street: The Pain of Moving to NYC

I love this article in the Times this morning: "Newcomers Adjust, Eventually, to New York". Sounds awfully familiar. I wonder why? Oh yeah - this entire blog is devoted to the topic! According to the article, some people come and like it; some people get beat by the city and leave. Sounds about right.

Complaints as registered by Times reporter: subway navigation, alienation & loneliness, lack of neighborliness, high cost of living, abrasiveness of co-workers, and the insidious way the City turns you into a pushy, short-tempered New Yorker over time....let's see...double YUH-HUH!

Glad to know I'm not all alone and crazy in thinking this city's full of challenges. Makes you wonder why there aren't more support networks for us so-called "adjusting newcomers"? If only there were a blog where other newcomers could come and post comments on the challenges they face, learn things about how to live more comfortably in the city, commiserate with blogger and friends? If only....:)

Word On The Street: The Strand's Stay of Execution

Read in Galleycat today that the Strand Annex has been granted a one-month lease extension. Been meaning to walk over this weekend and see what dregs of literature are still left. At 50% off, I'm sure the most desirable books are long gone, but who knows? Remaindered authors need love too.

Word on the Street: The New York Times On Noise Canceling Headphones And The Rise Of The City

The New York Times Magazine had an article today ("The Silence Generation: Technology adapts to eliminate the clatter of city life one person at a time"by Rob Walker) on how those of us perturbed by the constant din of city life can use noise-canceling headphones to drown out the madness. Apparently, the one to get is Bose's $350 QuietComfort 3 model, which folds flat so you can stick it in your purse.

Walker opens the piece by saying "One thing that makes city life inspiring is also one thing that makes it oppressive: other people." I would definitely agree, as my experience yesterday can attest, and I am intrigued by the idea of getting a pair of overpriced headphones, esp when I think about how ear-piercing the subways have gotten lately traveling those under-oiled tracks.

Still, maybe I'd only use it on occasion b/c after all, if you block out all the noise, you'll be blocking out one whole sense and with it, the sense of being alive. It'd be like watching a movie without the soundtrack. Could get boring.

The article appears in the magazine's Architecture issue, which provides some interesting stats on NYC and the global urbanization trend:

• NYC is the fourth largest metro area in the world,with 18.7 million people, after Tokyo and Mexico City and Mumbai
• NY is the city with the most subway stations - 468
• NYC was the second richest city in 2005 (by GDP); Tokyo being first, LA second, Chicago & Paris tied for fourth
• NYC is ranked 114 in the list of cities with the highest population density, with 5,309 people per sq. mile; surprisingly, LA is no. 90, with 7068 people per square mile. I guess I figured with all the skyscrapers in Manhattan, NY would be more densely populated...but I guess the four other boroughs offset the density of the island
• 50% of the world's population will live in cities by the end of 2008; 75% in 2050

So I guess maybe it's a good thing I've lived in cities all my life, and now the Big Bad Daddy of the US. At least I'll be prepared for the future. By 2050, when the entire world looks like something out of Bladerunner, maybe I'll have grown used to and perhaps even fond of the traffic, the crowds, the noise, the communal living, lack of green and the dirt.