Micropolis: Recent Episodes

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Micropolis is an in-depth series that brings into view the unique cultures of New York’s ethnically diverse communities. WNYC reporter Arun Venugopal makes the big, anonymous city just a little bit more knowable.

Beyoncé. Kendrick Lamar. J Cole. Janelle Monae.

Pop artists are increasingly speaking out against police violence these days, while amplifying the demands of Black Lives Matter in the process. This is in keeping with the spirit of the 1960s and 1970s, when James Brown, Nina Simone and Marvin Gaye turned issues of segregation and poverty into artistic masterpieces like "What's Goin On?"

"Music may be beautiful but it haunts you because you don’t want there to exist in the world the conditions that produce this sort of music," said Mychal Denzel Smith, author of the new book 'Invisible Man, Got the Whole World Watching.' "So what do we do about it?"

[To hear Smith and others, click on "Listen" for this Micropolis story.]

We've created a Spotify playlist of some of our favorite protest songs. Have a suggestion? Let us know in the comments. Or tweet at us!

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As New York's primary approaches, many voters are trying to make sense of the 2016 presidential race. For local artists, some want to do more than just understand, they want to influence the outcome of the election. And the candidate who has probably generated the most attention and reaction? Donald Trump.

Vishavjit Singh, an illustrator and Sikh activist, encourages his followers to send postcards to the Trump Organization. Some of the messages have been predictably snarky, but some are genuinely earnest.

"It has to have a touch of compassion, because that's how you connect," said Singh.

Not everyone countering Trump is quite so well-intended. For the modest fee of five dollars, one artist dressed as Donald Trump will let you punch him. For 300 bucks, you can urinate on him.

Nicholas Mirzoeff, a professor at NYU and author of "How to See the World," said Trump is "a character, and he never breaks character."

As there is a a sort of performance to his candidacy, Mirzoeff says this makes Trump a particularly tough challenge for artists to respond to. Rather than going after Trump, Mirzoeff suggests artists would do better countering the divisiveness and anger in the country by bringing people together to engage in discussions, and even, to have fun again.

Should the U.S. ban Muslims from entering the country? Is radical Islam bent on taking over America?

Ten or fifteen years ago, questions like these were largely relegated to the political fringes. Now, they help define the campaigns of the two leading Republican candidates, Donald Trump and Ted Cruz, who are competing in the New York primary on April 19.

The candidates are voicing ideas that come from a deliberate and well-funded campaign to convince the country that even regular, law-abiding Muslims represent a threat to national security.

The campaign kicked into high gear in 2010 in New York, with the opposition to Park51, also known as the 'ground zero mosque.' While some protesters saw the project as an affront to the memory of those who died on 9/11, others took it a step further, arguing that it was a 'victory mosque' meant to celebrate the attacks.

Despite the considerable misinformation spread about the project and the people behind it, the controversy helped ignite a wave of opposition to mosques across America: in places like Sheboygan, Wisconsin, Temecula, California and Murfreesboro, Tennessee. At the same time, state legislators started passing laws to ban Sharia law (usually couched as a ban on foreign law), often in states with relatively few Muslims.

One of the principal players in this movement is Frank Gaffney, a former official in the Reagan administration who runs the Center for Security Policy, in Washington. He's now a foreign policy advisor for Ted Cruz. Gaffney's security think tank funded the website run by Pam Geller, a leader of the opposition to the ground zero mosque. He also helped stoke right-wing suspicions that President Obama is Muslim, has accused a variety of both liberal and conservative public figures of doing the bidding of the Muslim Brotherhood, and that mainstream Muslim-American organizations are actually fronts for foreign jihadi networks.

The theory of 'civilizational' or 'stealth jihad' argues "that Muslims are going to immigrate to the United States and gain access to various levers of control, especially in Washington," said Nathan Lean, author of The Islamophobia Industry: How the Right Manufactures Fear of Muslims. "And will ultimately engage in the grand destruction of the United States and the usurpation of the Constitution."

This theory flies in the face of the research: the conservative Manhattan Institute has documented that Muslim immigrants in America are extremely well-assimilated.

But Gaffney and others within the Islamophobia network, as critics have dubbed it, have seen their influence grow, and penetrate into the mainstream. While he was still running for president, Ben Carson repeated a central claim of the network, that Islam encourages believers to lie in order to achieve their goals.

The network is well-funded: according to the Center for American Progress, it draws upon tens of millions of dollars in foundation funds. The Council on American-Islamic Relations (a frequent target of anti-Muslim activists) has estimated that between 2008 and 2013, private donations brought the figure closer to $200 million.

Sometimes the attention has backfired. Last year, after the deadly Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris, Steven Emerson of the Investigative Project on Terrorism went on Fox News and claimed that Europe was filled with 'no-go zones,' each of which function as a "country within a country" and is allegedly off-limits to the police. The claim was made repeatedly on the network before an international backlash prompted Fox News to issue a retraction and apologize.

"American Islam bashers talk about the alleged no-go zones in Europe as 'our future,'" said Mark Potok, a Senior Fellow at the Southern Poverty Law Center and a leading expert on extremism and hate. "And, in fact, a number of them have even made the claim that there are no-go zones in Dearborn, Michigan, which is, of course, the largest concentration of Muslims in the United States."

Even though it's "utterly false," Potok said, the rhetoric comes against a backdrop of actual terrorism, in Brussels, San Bernardino, Istanbul and other cities. He worries about the effect Cruz and Trump are having at a precarious moment.

"The fact is, there are millions and millions of people who are frightened. And this kind of talk frightens them more. And frightened people often do very dangerous, and bad things."

On the surface, the #OscarsSoWhite campaign and the current boycott of the awards show Sunday night by Jada Pinkett Smith, Will Smith and Spike Lee are about one thing: recognition.

After all, actors of color want to feel acknowledged for their work, along with directors, screenwriters and everyone else.

But the rancor being felt in Hollywood is about much more than awards. As we explore in this episode of Micropolis, it's also about access, to wealth and power, much of which is concentrated in highly-exclusive (and white) circles.

"The ability to shape the media landscape is an enormous amount of power," said Frances Negrón-Muntaner, Columbia University professor and author of 'The Latino Disconnect: Latinos in the Age of Media Mergers.'

"And groups of people don't tend to give up their power, just like that."

Among the many striking aspects of the 2016 presidential race is this: 'political correctness' is regularly touted as one of our greatest societal evils.

But it's not just Republican candidates: 68 percent of all Americans think 'P.C.' is a big problem, according to this Fairleigh Dickinson University poll.

The question is, why?

In this episode [click "Listen" above], we explore how the policing of language can cause anxiety for many of us, while also forcing us to think about race and gender and other issues.

Additionally, we turned to people who think about words for a living—writers—and put this question to them: Does "political correctness" shape today's art and expression? And if so, is that a problem or a necessity?

Below are just a few of their responses. Feel free to weigh in!

1) Mohsin Hamid, author of How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia and frequent contributor to the NYT Book Review.

“I think power shapes language: what we can say, what we choose to say. And of course power shapes art. ‘Political correctness’ is just a description for certain ways in which some aspects of power are affecting language. There are many other ways. Think of what happened to Jeremiah Wright, President Obama's former preacher, when he violated the norms of ‘patriotic correctness’ in his sermons that were posted online. A firestorm. There are also issues of ‘religious correctness’ that one faces in, for example, Pakistan, where I live. The list goes on and on. And no artist is unaffected by them.”

2) Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, playwright, An Octoroon and Appropriate, says:

3) Teju Cole, pictured below, author of Open City and photography critic at The New York Times Magazine.

“I must have missed when political correctness enslaved human beings, killed them with infected blankets, exiled them from their homes, prevented them from voting, sexually assaulted them, and destroyed their neighborhoods with malign economic policy and bad policing. We have a number of very serious problems — ongoing issues or the aftermath of historical issues — to think about; political correctness is not one of those serious problems. I personally love political correctness because a vehement opposition to it is a pretty reliable way of flagging those who want to be jerks about other people's pain without having to pay any social price for being so.”

Teju Cole (Martin Lengemann)

4) Young Jean Lee, filmmaker and playwright (Straight White Men), says:

5) Julia Alvarez,author of How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents and A Wedding in Haiti.

“The writers I most respect are inclusive and diverse and their works include and even humanize politically-incorrect characters. (Just think of Flannery O'Connor's!) These writers do not legislate or promote a certain point of view, but they increase our level of awareness about the world we live in. I love the Chekhov quote that the task of the artist is not to solve the problem but to state it correctly. A character might be racist or a situation in a story unpalatable, even offensive, but if these work in the service of the story/poem, then an artist should not censor herself with other considerations. But writer has to have a certain level of awareness, even if her characters and the situations they are in do not. We, as readers, have to feel that those deeper issues are being addressed and a more capacious vision being sought.”

6) Manil Suri, author of The City of Devi and The Death of Vishnu.

“Political correctness is such an obvious and juicy target when artists allow themselves to fall victim to it that I feel it should be one's moral duty to go after it with the sharpest implement available. I'm sure I succumb to it myself on occasion (being Third World and gay and a person of color, etc) but can only hope someone shows enough mercy to puncture the 'art' that results.”

What do you think? Listen to my question and then click on "Reply" and tell me. We may use your comment for a future story!

With their new video for "Hymn for the Weekend," shot in India, Beyoncé and Coldplay stumbled into a controversy that's been centuries in the making: the cultural appropriation debate.

When is it okay to borrow from another culture, and when does the simple act of, say, wearing a kimono or Indian tribal clothing become offensive, a sort of identity theft?

"Our clothes are our external representation to the world," said Susan Scafidi, author of "Who Owns Culture?" "So when you wear the clothes of another culture, you're representing yourself as part of that culture."

Beyond all the usual demands of child rearing, Muslim parents in America have their own set of problems. They're more likely to worry about their kids being bullied or called names.

In the wake of the Paris attacks, people around the world have tried to make sense of extremist violence. We spoke to a Muslim family in Brooklyn about the discussions they've been having at home. And we hear from experts who closely study youth radicalization.

"The issue exists in our country," said Humera Khan, who teaches Muslim youth how to avoid being recruited by terrorists online. "Now the question is, how scared should we be?'

The Obama administration announced that the U.S. would take in 85,000 refugees next year, including 10,000 Syrians. That's up from 70,000 this year, but still far short of what the nation's taken in during previous refugee crises. In 1980, for instance, the nation accepted nearly a quarter-million refugees, many of them from Southeast Asia.

Sudanese refugee Ahmad Adam-Ali (L) on reaching America: "For me it means everything in this life." Seen here at an Indian restaurant in Paris with fellow refugee Abdallah Abdulmunim and WNYC reporter Arun Venugopal (Arun Venugopal)

“If this is the biggest refugee crisis since the second World War why are we taking so few refugees?” asked Mark Hetfield, the president of HIAS. His organization has been resettling refugees since the 1880s, and has called for accepting 100,000 refugees from Syria alone. "It's clearly in our capacity to do so."

Conservative lawmakers, however, argue that increasing the numbers would allow a 'jihadist pipeline' into the United States.

Despite this resistance, there are those who continue to think of America as a land of fantastic possibility and promise. WNYC's Arun Venugopal talked to one such refugee.

This story was made possible with support from the French-American Foundation.

For many tennis fans, the story of Serena Williams begins in 2001 at the Indian Wells Masters tournament.

While 19-year-old Serena was on the court, facing off against Kim Clijsters, her sister Venus and father Richard Williams entered the stadium — to boos.

Venus had pulled out of a match against Serena earlier, due to tendinitis, but a rumor floating around held that Richard had forced her to withdraw, in order to orchestrate a win for Serena.

"I've never seen anything like it," remarked one of the TV commentators.

In a rebuke to the crowd, Richard raised his fist: the Black Power salute. He later said he heard people shouting the N-word, and issuing physical threats. Serena was the local girl, having been raised in nearby Compton, but the crowd overwhelmingly backed the Belgian Clijsters.

Indian Wells has been haunted by the controversy ever since — as has the sport. After all, tennis is supposed to be civilized, the sport of kings. It's also defined by its overwhelming whiteness — among both players and fans.

If Serena Williams wins the US Open this weekend, she will have bagged her 22nd major title and completed the first Grand Slam since Steffi Graf achieved the feat in 1988. But her cultural significance extends far beyond that, especially to the African American fans who have followed her career.

Imani Perry, a scholar of African American studies at Princeton, recalls that as a 7-year-old, she was the only black child among 300 attending a tennis camp in Evanston, Ill.

"Other campers wouldn't speak to me or sit with me," said Perry.

When she took the court, her opponents simply sat down on the other side of the net and refused to play. This was in 1980. She never picked up a racket after that.

But she has always loved watching the Williams sisters on TV. She turns off the sound, though, "because there's so much animosity," she said. Commentators complained about how "noisy" the Williams' sisters' hair was, or "that their father wasn't equipped to coach them. There was so much constant criticism."

She said that black women in particular feel that "it's this unbelievable resilience that they've displayed."

Kavitha Davidson, a sports columnist at Bloomberg View, said Serena contends regularly with racism and sexism, or 'misogynoir' as coined by scholar Moya Bailey. That explains why there is a long list of tweets comparing Serena to a gorilla, and why she earns $10 million less in annual endorsements than Maria Sharapova, despite a far better record. For her most ardent fans, those who think she's the best player ever, this is an inexcusable double standard.

But is she the best ever? For some long-time observers, that's an open question.

Los Angeles Times sports columnist Bill Dwyre said it's hard to definitively rank Williams above previous greats like Steffi Graf, Martina Navratilova or Margaret Court, all of whom have held the 'best ever' title at various points.

"The eras are different. The time is different, the equipment is different, the balls fly faster, the crowds are different, the marketing and branding that they do is much different," said Dwyre.

But her success stands out. And it's because of the timing.

"So much is frankly devastating and depressing at this moment about race in this country," said Professor Perry. "She allows people just to feel pride and joy in a way that's unfiltered and unmediated."

Was it an act of mass culinary resistance? Or just an excuse to gorge on great South Indian food?

Whatever it was, it was the FIRST EVER Micropolis Live event: a gathering of around 80 people at The Greene Space in lower Manhattan, all of them committed, if for only one evening, to utensil-free dining.

Watch a clip of Micropolis host Arun Venugopal and Madhur Jaffrey, a world authority on Indian food, discuss the sensual and sentimental pleasures of eating with one's hand. Below that, you'll find video of the entire event.

ABC's "Fresh Off the Boat," based on Eddie Huang's memoir of the same name, premiered last week on a wave of hype. This is the first Asian-American sitcom since Margaret Cho's "All American Girl." What took so long?

In this episode of Micropolis, we consider the long, fraught history of Asians in TV (not including the excellent "Goodness Gracious Me," below), and why ethnic sitcoms are generally problematic.

But as NYU's Charlton McIlwain argues, we could be at a turning point. The Big 3 networks are now scrambling to make up for lost audiences, and are essentially telling minorities: "Tell me what you want, and we'll do our best to give it to you, because we need you really much more than you need us."

When he was 17 years old, Kedar Powell's dad handed him a jar filled with $25 in change and kicked him out of the house.

"'This is what you want to do? Bye,'" Kedar recalls his dad saying. "And that's how life started for me."

Kedar is gay. His father is Muslim. His mother had already rejected him — she is a devout Christian who had divorced his father years earlier. But he found redeeming moments in his religious upbringing in Brooklyn.

"I was always in the church, in the choir. I loved to sing. Singing is my passion," he said.

But as he came of age, he realized he was "different." His mother tried to set him straight at church, but eventually turned him out, sending him to live with his father — but things were even worse there. And after his father sent him away, he became another gay homeless youth on the streets of New York.

"I slept in abandoned buildings. I slept in the train," he said. "I used to break into abandoned buildings and sleep on the floor."

For more than five years, he survived by performing sex work, occasionally escaping life-threatening situations. He said God guided him out of those episodes.

Jennie Livingston, director of "Paris is Burning," the classic documentary which explored the underground world of voguing and ballroom, said LGBT youth are disproportionately homeless.

"Who do they get thrown out by? Generally the religious parents. And it's ironic, it's sick, it's really unfortunate. I don't know how those parents define what love is, or what the inner principles of those religions are," she said.

As many others have, Kedar found community through the voguing scene, but at 27, he feels he's too old to regularly participate. But he hasn't aged out of God. Even though he now has a stable home in Queens, he still visits an outreach program for LGBT youth run by the Church of St. Luke in the Fields. He's stopped going to church, though. He said he's tired of people trying to make him straight.

Instead, he expresses his spirituality through dance.

"It's very important for us to perform. That's how we get our energy. Our life. Everything," he said.

America has a long history of religious hucksterism — people who have used God to sell everything from widgets to wars. But in a cynical city like New York, Micropolis wonders if that tactic can possibly work.

“Hector the Inventor" says he has escaped death three times due to divine intervention. He is convinced God will help make him rich while also eliminating world poverty.

"I’m not afraid of God, and I know what I’m doing," says Hector. "Because I’m guided."

Hema Ramaswamy, a resident of Middletown, New Jersey has Down syndrome, but that didn’t stop her from rigorously studying Indian classical dance and mythology for years, and giving a grueling solo performance before hundreds of friends and family members.

This loving portrait of Hema affirms the power of religious and cultural communities, and the ability of art to shape a young woman’s identity.

Backstage before her arangetram, Hema receives encouragement from friends. (Preston Merchant/Preston Merchant Photography)

Hema studied in preparation for four-and-a-half years. (Preston Merchant/Preston Merchant Photography)

Hema is flanked by her sisters Uma Shankar and Geetha Radhakrishnan as she thanks the audience after her arangetram performance. (Preston Merchant/Preston Merchant Photography)

For those in the business of Muslim P.R., 2014 has been a pretty rough year.

In the wake of ISIS beheadings and movements like Boko Haram, Americans increasingly believe that Islam encourages violence more than other religions. This, despite research from the conservative Manhattan Institute that Muslims in America are actually highly assimilated.

But in recent months, Muslims have taken to social media — with a campaign called "Not in My Name." It's an earnest attempt by Western Muslims to distance themselves from extremists, with hashtags and YouTube videos.

That was followed by a counter-hashtag, the much snarkier #MuslimApologies.

Sorry for making the first hospital in the world, the first university, algebra, and medicine. #MuslimApologies

— Hatim Alzoubi (@h_dawg35) October 24, 2014

I'm sorry your addiction to caffeine was instigated by an Arab inventing coffee. #MuslimApologies http://t.co/cE8ImY4WxF

— A Crafty Arab (@acraftyarab) October 8, 2014

I am sorry or re-introducing #Greek #philosophy to the #west and for inventing the toilet and for #coffee and #cigarette #MuslimApologies

— kahraman haliscelik (@turkishreporter) October 6, 2014

I'm so sorry for coffee, cheques, parachutes, chemistry, soap... #muslimapologies v @mehdirhasan @abdullahoguk http://t.co/6ju9qaiTSH

— Abdullah (@abdullahoguk) October 5, 2014

One of the "apologists," executive director of the Arab-American Association of New York Linda Sarsour, said she thinks "Not in My Name" is pointless, because it won't sway ISIS or the Westerners who already hate Muslims.

"Sometimes I tell my people, 'Is it worth it that you go out there and say this or write these statements? Why do you feel so defensive? Why do you feel like you have to defend yourself? You're a good American. You're leading a congregation. You're talking about social justice. You're a law-abiding citizens. Why do you always feel compelled to have to apologize for every damn Muslim out there that does something crazy or does something violent?" Sarsour said.

But communications expert Robert Perez, who worked on a successful campaign to convince the Presbyterian Church to ordain gays and lesbians as clergy, said that earnestness actually works.

People respond to what he calls "Journey Stories," Perez said. "You show the conflict, you show the concern, you even show the fear and those stories proved to be very powerful."

Those types of stories encourage empathy, Perez said, and it's empathy, not irony, that changes minds.

A version of this story originally ran in On the Media.

The “War on Christmas” has become a perennial rallying cry on Fox News and conservative talk radio. But in multicultural New York City, even non-Christians who don’t celebrate Christmas get a kick out of the holiday spirit.

Micropolis talks to The Daily Show's Aasif Mandvi, New York Times columnist Andrew Ross Sorkin and artist Swati Khurana on why, contrary to staging a war on Christmas, they are engaging with it in their own way. Arun also discovers that in the Orthodox Jewish enclaves of Brooklyn, some people don’t even know it's Christmastime.

Nihal Kajjam remembers the precise moment when he encountered the Hare Krishnas in New York. He was wearing jeans and a black Megadeth t-shirt and was walking near the statue of Gandhi, in Union Square.

And then he heard a small group of people dressed in saris and traditional robes, chanting — and it captivated him.

Kajjam grew up in a religious, Krishna-worshipping family in India, but had since personally "dwindled." He ate meat, grew a little too cocky about his jumpshot, fell hard for a girl who broke his heart. Watching the Hare Krishnas chanting, though, inspired him, and earlier this year he left his NYU dorm and moved into the Hare Krishna ashram in Bedford-Stuyvesant. He's become a vegetarian and he's celibate.

The Hare Krishnas, he said, have given him a sense of purpose and a community.

"If you give up the senses for the right reason, you get a higher taste. And that higher taste is tasty, bro. It’s really good. It’s awesome! Now I have meaning to my life," Kajjam said.

Kajjam is just one of those drawn to the new Hare Krishnas, who are making a comeback in New York. The International Society for Krishna Consciousness was founded in the East Village in 1965 by A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, known as Prabhupad. Prabhupad became one of the central figures of the counterculture, and for a while, the Hare Krishna chant was everywhere — on the streets, in pop music, and on TV.

But then the religious group seemed to vanish.

Steven Gelberg, who joined the Hare Krishnas in 1970 and left in the 80s, said that the Krishnas had become aggressive — and dishonest. He recalled a Krishna technique he dubbed The Changeup: First, a Krishna would give someone a book. Then (seemingly on second-thought), he or she would ask for a small donation, and convince the mark to hand over a $20 with the promise of change. But then the Krishna would never give the change back.

"And so they put people in the position that they had to be almost rude and say, 'No, give me more money back. I'm gonna give you $5, I want $15 back.' So it became a very manipulative thing, and that really pervaded the organization," Gelberg said.

Various Hare Krishna scandals followed, and people left the fold or moved away. Some of the especially devout, like Abhiram, born John Sims, moved to India and chanted there.

Then Occupy Wall Street happened in 2011. Some Krishnas led the Occupiers in chanting and it sparked a rebirth.

"We decided we should bring the Hare Krishna mantra back to the streets of NYC. Just as Occupy Wall Street have gone to the streets," said Abhiram, who now presides over the Bed-Stuy ashram. "No social change ever in history comes from the intellectuals, comes from the leadership, comes from the vested interests. Ever. Never. It always comes from the bottom. It always comes from the street. And so we're taking it to the streets."

With the Hare Krishna revival came a new business plan. Instead of conning strangers out of their cash, the Krishnas make organic, gluten-free, vegan, dark chocolate chip oatmeal raisin cookies. They're being sold for $3.50 each at The Bean chain and other fine coffeeshops.

Freshly-baked cookies receiving Krishna's blessings (Hare Krishnas)

For Kajjam, the sense of belonging he's found with his fellow Krishnas has been invaluable.

"All these guys, I feel like taking their legs and putting them on my head," he said. "Because if it wasn’t for their mercy, I’d be so lost."

In the days since the shooting death of Michael Brown by a white police officer in Ferguson, Mo., international attention has been focused on the racial divide in this St. Louis suburb.

But Ferguson is hardly an anomaly. It is in fact similar to many communities across America, where white flight has led to poverty, a depleted social infrastructure and a lingering gap between residents of color and the white officials who govern them.

In the 1950s and 60s, the suburbs were overwhelmingly white: pristine enclaves straight out of Mad Men. This mono-culture was maintained through a variety of ways, some of these explicitly racial, others more subtle.

In time, said sociologist Andy Wiese, class became a proxy for race.

Wiese, author of Places of Their Own: African American Suburbanization in the 20th Century, said communities prevented apartment complexes from being built within their borders, as well as affordable housing, and even demanded minimum house sizes.

“They began to lay out zoning regulations which specified minimum lot sizes. Not just a quarter-acre that was common at Levittown, but half-acre, acre-lot subdivisions,” he said.

The point was clear: only wealthy Americans need apply.

“But in an America where only a handful of African Americans were in the upper class, those were in effect de facto racial restrictions, and they were meant as such,” he said.

Eventually, African Americans did move out of the cities in large numbers: half of all Hispanics and blacks now live in suburbs, like Ferguson. But when African Americans moved in, whites moved out, to the exurbs.

Ferguson is now two-thirds black, but the mayor — and five out of six of its council members — are white. As are almost all of its police officers. The median household income in Ferguson is around $37,000, about $10,000 less than the state average. And the local poverty rate is considerably higher: 22 percent versus 15 percent statewide.

The problems in places like Ferguson don't just affect poor black people, but also wealthy ones.

Using 2010 Census data, Brown University sociologist Logan and a colleague looked at suburban households across America: specifically black ones earning over $75,000 dollars and poor white ones earning under $40,000.

“The affluent black household actually lives in a poorer neighborhood than the poor white household,” said Logan, “and this is because of the high degree of segregation by race, and the fact that affluent black households are actually steered towards, [and] end up in less advantaged communities.”

According to Logan, the suburbs that affluent blacks live in have schools with lower test scores, more low-income residents, housing stock with higher vacancy rates, and higher crime rates.

“So even when they've made it, made it in terms of income, you've managed to move to suburbia, but actually you're not doing as well as relatively poor white households.”

America's neighborhoods are more diverse than they used to be. But the rate at which they've integrated is far slower than what Logan expected when he became a researcher in the 1960s.

And it's not just places like St. Louis. In fact, among cities with large black populations, St. Louis has the ninth worst level of segregation. Number one on that list is a tie, between Detroit and Milwaukee. And right behind them is New York City, which is only marginally less segregated than it was in 1980.

“Every decade, I have reason to think, 'Well, things are changing. Opportunities are opening up. The black middle class is expanding. Whites are changing their attitudes,’” said Logan. “In all the survey research it shows they're less resistant to having a black neighbor, and so on. And by golly, we elected a black president. And so, by 2010, you might've thought that we'd see better outcomes than this. But actually the color line turns out to be extremely persistent.”

But some people are more hopeful.

Clement Price, Professor of History at Rutgers University-Newark, is black and grew up at the tail end of segregation. He acknowledges that young people of color are deeply pessimistic about their future, in part because of an economy that hasn’t translated into good jobs for them, and because of deeply-entrenched civil rights issues.

And yet, he said, the media attention surrounding Michael Brown’s death might be seen as a sign.

Perhaps Americans are capable of “looking at tragedy and trying to figure out a way not just to cope with it, but solve it," he said, "and put ourselves as a society, as a nation, as a collective, on a much higher plane.”

Oprah was in the house. And Kerry Washington.

Days before the Academy Awards, actress Lupita Nyong'o addressed the Black Women in Hollywood luncheon with a speech that has since gone viral. The Oscar-winning star of "12 Years A Slave" read a letter from a young fan, and entered into a conversation that has gone on for centuries.

"'Dear Lupita,' it reads, 'I think you're really lucky to be this Black but yet this successful in Hollywood overnight," she said. "I was just about to buy Dencia's Whitenicious cream to lighten my skin when you appeared on the world map and saved me."

The actress went on to address her own anguish growing up, at having dark skin and perhaps more importantly, how she eventually cast off "the seduction of inadequacy" and came to embrace darkness. The remarks especially endeared her to young women of color, who often grapple with that decision: whether to stay dark or go light.

Nyong'o wrote the latest chapter in a long story, says Nina Jablonski, the author of Living Color: The Biological and Social Meaning of Skin Color.

"Skin lighteners were created in reconstruction era United States," she said. "By former slaves who wanted to have lighter skin that they considered to be more socially acceptable, that would allow them to get better jobs and not be discriminated against as much as with dark skin."

Even as late as the mid-20th century, skin lightening held a sort of science-fiction appeal for some civil rights leaders. Walter White was the head of the NAACP and in 1949 he wrote, with great excitement that a newly-discovered chemical, hydroquinone, could "hit the structure of society with the impact of an atomic bomb."

Black people, he reasoned, could finally pass as white.

"It could, in fact, conquer the color line."

A $20 Billion Industry

That's not quite how things worked out. Skin lighteners started out in the U.S. but moved into sub-Saharan Africa, then East and South Asia. It's estimated that by 2018, global sales of lighteners will hit $20 billion.

Jablonski thinks the country with the biggest skin color fixation is South Africa, but India comes in second place. And all you need to do is walk into an Indian supermarket such as Patel Brothers in Queens to see the amazing selection of skin lighteners.

On a recent morning, Dilshad Jiwani was leaving with some purchases, including a bottle of Fair and Lovely, the world's number one brand of skin lightener, according to the company, used by one in 10 women globally.

"It makes me feel younger," said Jiwani, who's been using the cream for 20 years, along with her mother and now, her daughter.

"People look at you differently if your skin color is different. Especially in America, because they're fair and we have dark skin, so we're treated badly. So I want to look fair too."

Jiwani said that in the past, people in the subway would get up and move away from her because she was darker.

"It feels like insult!" she said. "They did that to me, and I felt bad. Now, since I'm white, they don't do that."

The Dangers of Skin Lighteners

Numerous studies have documented the risks of skin lighteners, including mercury poisoning. (The FDA cites Stillman's Skin Bleach cream, a product found at Patel Brothers and other stores.)

"I go to certain stores, and I see African women buying skin lightening creams," said artist and Macarthur 'Genius' Carrie Mae Weems, whose retrospective is currently on view at the Guggenheim. "Really just butchering themselves, just destroying themselves because they're cheap creams with hydroquinone. I use it as a developing agent in photography for Christ's sake."

But she argued that the African-American community had made progress on the issue, in part because of the Civil Rights movement and the rallying cry of "Black is Beautiful."

Carrie Mae Weems

Skin Color in Popular Culture

That can be observed in different ways, including the evocation of skin color in popular music, from James Brown's "I'm Black and I'm Proud" to D'Angelo's "Brown Sugar" and Eric Benet's "Chocolate Legs."

The same can't be said of India, however. Within the matrimonial ads in a newspaper or online, for instance, people regularly pitch themselves (or their daughter) on the basis of their "fair" skin. In the Indian skin-color hierarchy, fair beats wheatish, and wheatish trumps dusky.

Indian actress and activist Nandita Das is the spokesperson for Dark is Beautiful, a five-year-old campaign, and says the mass media constantly drives home the gospel of light skin.

"Every ad is telling you if you're not fair you can't get a job, you can't get a lover, you can't get a husband. You are just not good enough."

Bollywood stars like Shah Rukh Khan often play along, by endorsing Fair and Lovely and related products, often in ads that highlight the woes of an aspiring actor, struggling and pathetic until they undergo the transformative powers of a lightener.

And in countless Bollywood songs, the favored term of endearment is "gori," which means fair-skinned girl.

An Emerging Backlash

Although India is far from changing course on skin lighteners -- just watch this ad for a much-derided vaginal lightener — there are signs that some urban youth consider the cosmetics ridiculous and demeaning.

One hilarious video spoofs the country's light-skin commercials by proposing a lightener for men's testicles. Another, for a faux lightener called Fair and Lovely Inside, promises to go beyond regular lighteners by making people feel white on the inside.

Weems said it's time for people to recognize the "absurdity of color."

"How can you get serious work when you're stumbling around," argued Weems, "trying to figure out whether or not I'm light or I'm golden, yellow, red, what that means? I can't get anything done if I'm trying to second guess your ass on a regular basis on what you might feel when I walk in the room."

Arun Venugopal speaks with rapper Talib Kweli about music, memories and the good and bad of gentrification. He defends Spike Lee’s recent rant about the invading hordes of homeowners in Fort Greene. Kweli also admits that while it’s hard to watch Brooklyn, and New York City, lose its rough edges — the "new" New York has some upsides.

Here's my arranged marriage story...

Years ago, I was told to scope out a prospective bride. Not for myself; I was actually the scout. One day, I got a call from my dad, saying that my cousin, who lives in India, had a prospective "alliance." She lived in New Jersey, and as the only member of my entire extended family within driving distance, I had to head out to her family’s house, to check her out.

So I left my place in Williamsburg one evening and made the trek. Her family warmly welcomed me into their home and we sat down to a nice dinner. About an hour into my visit, I realized the potential bride had barely said a thing. She seemed to sort of hover in the background, brooding.

Then dinner was over, and her dad wanted to get down to business. Clearly, however, he had to get something out of the way. He first said all the obvious things about his daughter -- how she was a nice person, a smart girl, a good cook.

“But she has one problem,” he said. “Her one toe is shorter than the rest.”

And then, in a lowered, somewhat desperate voice, he said, “Would you like to see?”

For a brief moment, I weighed this tantalizing offer. I knew I’d never again have a chance like this, to motion somewhat imperiously at the unwed girl, as if to say, “Take your shoe off. Let’s see the toe.”

Seriously, how short could it be?

Naturally, I declined his offer, but I did go back and report everything I had seen — and not seen — to my family. But they’d already heard from her family: that she wasn’t really interested in the alliance. And as it turned out, my cousin wasn’t either. He would, in fact, turn down all potential alliances, before becoming self-realized and developing an international reputation as a Man of God.

Arranged marriage: listen in to see if you think there's a case to be made for it.

In today’s Micropolis, Arun Venugopal takes a tour of Central Harlem with Alvin Entzminger, an ex-con and a long-time neighborhood resident. Listen in as this New York City veteran and street life expert interprets the interactions you often miss.

"Racial humor is important," says Amber Ruffin. "It can make you feel good."

Reporter Arun Venugopal speaks frankly with comedienne Ruffin, a writer at Late Night with Seth Meyers and according to Jezebel, the first black woman to write for a late night network TV show. Ruffin talks about Key and Peele, Whoopi Goldberg, and the role of humor in redefining stereotypes.

As a South Asian growing up in Texas, Arun Venugopal never thought twice about eating with his hands while at home but in public in front of his friends and strangers alike, it was a different story. Arun hits Wall Street to see if this taboo of his childhood is still relevant in NYC today.

Video blogger Franchesca Ramsey has made a reputation for funny, provocative observations about race and American culture. The comedian and graphic designer is most famous for her viral video “Sh*t White Girls Say to Black Girls” which has received more than 10 million views to date. She sits down in a WNYC studio to compare skin tones with Arun and talk about the differences in the way African Americans and South Asians view pigment.

Ethnic enclaves are among the jewels of New York — places where the city's immigrants can ease their way into American life while holding onto aspects of the old country. And of course, for outsiders, opportunities to get the "most authentic" dumplings/kababs/tamales. But in some cases there's a serious downside: they stifle English proficiency and limit opportunities to climb the economic ladder.

"I think that in terms of the ability to speak English, ethnic enclaves are not good," said Brigitte Waldorf, a professor at Purdue University who has co-authored a paper on the enclave effect.

Waldorf's research suggested that a 35-year-old woman from China — married, living in the U.S. for five years, earning $25,000 a year, and without a high school degree — had a 28 percent chance of knowing English if she were the only Chinese speaker in a given neighborhood. But if she were to live in a Chinese enclave — say, 10 percent Chinese — the likelihood that she would speak English would drop dramatically: to 13.6 percent.

It matters, she argued, because English is "an absolute must in American society in order to be fully integrated."

And it's not just immigrants themselves. As we explore in this episode of Micropolis, kids who are raised in certain enclaves are less likely to succeed in life.

Even in New York, where issues of faith usually reside on the margins of public life, the Pope has people talking. And although much of what he says is viewed through the reductive lens of politics — Is he liberal? Is he conservative? — for many Catholics his words have a deeply personal, emotional impact.

In this episode of Micropolis, we examine the Pope Francis effect: the way some Catholics view themselves and their fellow Catholics differently, because of what their pope is saying. How he seems to have altered the perception of Catholics by others.

"We're so used to engaging in conversations that may not be the most comfortable — not too friendly," said Tim Lykins, a musician who runs a young adult group at St. Malachy's the Actor's Chapel. Now, he said, "People have a little bit more of a friendlier stance. And a little more open mind to listen to a Catholic now. You're not so much on the defense."

To hear the full Micropolis, click on the play button.

In this latest episode of Micropolis, we examine the age-old persecution of Sikhs, from India to post-9/11 America. Why do Sikhs such as actor Waris Ahluwalia (Inside Man, The Darjeeling Limited) identify with the racial history of African Americans?

And why, despite persecution and name-calling, do Sikh men continue to wear turbans?

The answer can partly be found in the video below, which takes place at the dastaar bandi, or turban-tying ceremony, of Saihajdeep Singh, a 16-year-old in Norwalk, Conn.

"It's like the introduction into manhood in our religion," said Saihajdeep, who chose a bright blue cloth for his inaugural turban.

His parents sat nearby, along with numerous elders.

"They expect me to be a little more mature around the house, take care of my younger sisters, and help around the house with chores, and other things like setting the table and taking out the trash," he said.

Listen to the full Micropolis episode above.

New York City -- universal beacon for gays and lesbians, right? Maybe, but ask some people how safe they feel on the streets, and they'll say, not very. Especially transgender women of color, who speak of constant harassment, threats and actual violence.

In this latest episode of Micropolis, we spend time with Daisey Lopez, a transgender woman in Queens who's learned to kick her assailants' collective asses.

Then we hear from Sempai Elena, THE self-defense instructor for New York sex workers. Here's 3 tips she gives her students, in the event they're in a car with a dangerous or violent john:

Keep the window cracked a little, early on, in case you need to kick it out
Even more dramatic is the back roll: "If you put your back up against the passenger door and started kicking [the john] with both feet, especially for these girls who are wearing heels: kick kick kick kick kick, open the door and back roll out. It seems very dramatic, but it can work."
When a quick escape isn't an option: "Can you gouge out an eye, can you crush a trachea? If somebody’s trying to choke you there’s not a lot of room for negotiation, because you’re going to become unconscious very, very quickly. So you have to bypass that fear and extricate yourself from that situation."

Listen to the Micropolis segment, above.

In this episode of Micropolis, we ask whether it's possible for black men to avoid being profiled. For some black men, the answer is yes, but it involves making compromises -- in terms of clothing, language and manner -- that others find detestable.

Growing up in the South, Tony Award-winning choreographer and MacArthur Genius Bill T Jones said he learned to be extra-polite with the authorities by watching his normally-assertive father turn deferential whenever the sheriff came around.

In the mid-90s, Jones was driving down the Palisades with his partner when they stopped on the side of the road. Before they knew it Jones was being pulled out by a police officer and spread-eagled against his car. The officer told Jones he was wanted for armed robbery in Chicago, and it was only after Jones and his partner produced a recent issue of Time magazine that the officer realized his mistake. There was Jones, on the cover of the magazine. As they parted ways, Jones turned to the cops and, not forgetting what he'd been taught, said "Thank you."

"It felt like it was almost in our DNA, as black Americans," said Jones. "You have to be careful, because they are looking for a reason to shoot you."

Listen to the full Micropolis segment above.

Forty percent of the inmates in New York state return to prison within three years of their release. But there are important exceptions. Among those are the maximum security inmates behind the walls of Sing Sing in Ossining, NY who have obtained a masters degree in Professional Studies —a one-year graduate degree administered by the New York Theological Seminary. Their recidivism rate over 31 years has been just 10 percent. The rate for those who've left with a degree in the last five years? Zero.

In this Micropolis, we visit Sing Sing on graduation day to meet with some of the men who have tried to turn their lives around while becoming assets to the prison community.

These include 40-year-old Rodney Grayson. When Grayson was 18, he killed a man simply because the victim was a flashy dresser and had entered onto Rodney's turf. The crime made Rodney something of a celebrity on the streets — and he says younger men often ask about the incident. But now, he uses his street cred to launch into discussions of ethics that are grounded in faith.

"I don't care what gang you in, I don't care how tough you in, when you start talking about God, it brings a soft spot to a person," Grayson says. "There's something innate within us that's dormant. Even if they don't want to believe it. The toughest man respects God. Whether he believe in it or not. Because it's the unknown."

Listen to the Micropolis segment above.

Actress Jean Stapleton, who played the iconic role of Edith Bunker on TV's 'All in the Family,' died on Saturday, at the age of 90. For this latest episode of Micropolis, WNYC's Arun Venugopal examines the impact the show had on his own family -- who immigrated from India just a year before the show premiered, in 1971 -- as well as others trying to make sense of the era.

"Everything was topsy-turvy. The war and everything," said 87-year-old Betty Ann Collins, who lives in Sunnyside, Queens, not far from where the show was set. "The show brought you back. And it was good, because the people needed that show. They could laugh and put up with the nonsense that was going around."

Ira, who's spent most of his 70-plus years in Queens, said those were different times.

People were not shy about voicing their prejudices. The political correctness hadn't taken hold. [1:02] ARUN: Is that good or bad? IRA: There are good things and bad things. People sometimes hold in their opinions and then they explode. And if they let all their opinions out, even if it's uncomfortable, then they won't explode. "People were not shy about voicing their prejudices," he said. "The political correctness hadn't taken hold." His wife Reina, sitting next to him in a Sunnyside park, said the show was hilarious in the way it dealt with racial issues, but was conflicted about whether the character of Archie Bunker was a positive legacy. "I mean, if people were to ridicule my culture, my religion in that way, I'd say 'Well, it's a comedy show,' but I'd go on to think 'Well, is that going to influence other people to say, 'Yeah, I think like that too.'" Listen to the Micropolis segment, above, including an exploration of Edith Bunker's function as the moral center of the show.

New York has more foreign-born residents than any other city in the world: more than L.A. or Hong Kong, and two-and-a-half times as many as London. But in this latest episode of Micropolis, we consider what's lost when people of different cultures and belief systems try to co-exist. In other words, what's the downside of diversity?

To find out, we journey to the Hasidic supermarkets in the overwhelmingly Jewish neighborhood of Boro Park, Brooklyn, where a remarkable support system is in place. Consider it a honor system.

"Most of the people who check out do not have any money on them," said Yosef Rapaport, a Hasidic journalist who lives in Boro Park. "They don't need to. If you see a large wagon filled with stuff, it's usually regular customers. They usually have an account. And when they have an account, it's called 'aufschraben.' In Yiddish. It means 'write it up.' Just write it up on my account. And once a week or once a month, the breadwinner, usually the husband, comes here, or if he's late, he'll get a call -- 'Pay up your account.'"

The system, which especially benefits poor members of the community, is dependent on strong social ties, which in turn are dependent on Orthodox and Hasidic Jews living close to each other, rather than dispersed through the larger society. If members of the community were fully integrated into society, this wouldn't work.

To learn more, listen to the entire Micropolis segment above.

Yosef Rapaport (right) shows off one of the many kosher products at the Super 13

What's with this city, that we endlessly dissect it, glorify it, wonder how exactly we fit into it?

It's such a strange, narcissistic thing to do but it's kind of irresistible too. So the other day I went on a walk with Becky Cooper, the author of a new book, 'Mapping Manhattan,' and Adam Gopnik of the New Yorker, who wrote the introduction.

'Mapping Manhattan' is a crowdsourcing project -- Becky handed out blank maps of Manhattan to regular New Yorkers, celebrities like Yoko Ono, people on Tumblr -- asking them all to fill in their memories of the city.

But it was also a great excuse to walk down Broadway and talk about our favorite town: how, for instance, the street grid system fosters acceptance of newcomers.

Listen to the Micropolis segment above.

Or visit the "Mapping Manhattan" site to upload your own map.

"My Lost Gloves" by the New Yorker's Patricia Marx

"The Kiss that broke my heart"

"Off the Grid"

"Struggle!"

"School-Work-Family-Home"

In this episode of Micropolis, WNYC's Arun Venugopal ventures into the home of Michael, a transsexual prostitute and heroin addict -- and, as you can hear in the segment above -- given to baking cookies for her guests.

Michael, who also goes by the name Shelly, or Michelle, is one of the subjects of "Portraits of Addiction," an ongoing project by Wall Street trader-turned-photographer Chris Arnade and writer Cassie Rodenberg.

The series, now in its third year, brings viewers into close contact with addicts and prostitutes in Hunts Point, in the Bronx. View the series Tumblr here, or the Flickr page.

In addition to images, the project gives us insights into the lives of its subjects. Thirty-five year old Vanessa, seen below, "was standing on the cold street corner looking for business, wearing only flip flops and smoking with her two friends." When asked how she wanted to be described, one friend jumped in and said "She's the sweetest woman I know. She will give you the shirt off her back, if she has one on."

Beauty, below, was 21 at the time the photo was taken, and originally from Oklahoma. She'd been through at least nine pimps.

Eric and Sonya with Boo Boo the kitten. They had lost their three children to the state but wouldn't give up their cats. At times, their illegal basement apartment has been flooded with raw sewage.

Practice, practice and so forth: everyone knows the long and tortured path to musical greatness.

But for every thrilling debut at Carnegie Hall, every heart-rending aria sung at the Met, there's a back story. A dark, discordant tale that finds a solitary musician banging away for hours in a 4th-floor Upper East Side walkup as the next-door neighbor goes purple with rage.

For this latest episode of Micropolis, we explore the not-so-harmonious side of the New York musician's life, wherein one wrong chord can result in a knock on the door, a volley of abuse, and maybe even... MURDER.

Listen to the entire story above, or read what Stephen Hough, Richard Goode and other musicians have to say, below.

Theresa Kim Theresa Kim has toured the world and teaches students in her Upper East Side apartment. A while back her neighbor, the mother of a newborn, heard her practicing an atonal John Corigliano piece on her enormous Steinway-L, and started paying visits to Theresa.

"'It just sounds like you're IN my living room. Your instrument is huge. Can't you put a blanket on it, can't you put a blanket in it? Do something!'"

Theresa only played during the hours allowed by her building, and often practiced at her parents' home in Jersey, but it didn't matter: the neighbor lady kept returning -- sometimes twice a day. She'd complain whether Theresa was playing a gentle nocturne by Chopin, or something that made you feel like someone was just about to get murdered.

And then, the complaints stopped. The neighbor, it turns out, had moved away. Theresa still feels bad about the whole episode, and is pretty sure her music forced her neighbor out.

Richard Goode

The piano virtuoso Richard Goode consistently earns the highest praise from the press, but even he's been told to stop practicing, in one case because the 4-year-old in the apartment next door couldn't sleep. In another instance, the neighbors said his playing was 'absolute torture.'

"One of them said 'You're going to drive us out in the rain if you continue this way.' When you experience that, it's terrible. Because you feel everything you do is causing suffering to people. And you get frustrated, and very angry."

"This is your life, this is your work, this is your discipline," he added. "And whenever you practice it, you feel it may be suffering for them. Of course you feel constraint. It enters the mind, and the body."

(Photo credit Steve Riskind)

Stephen Hough

"I'm really bothered if I know people can hear me practicing," wrote Stephen Hough in an email, "and I can't work seriously under those circumstances."

"My present solution in New York is a Yamaha Avant Grand digital piano. I turn the volume very low so only I can hear myself and I work away to my heart's content!"

"In London I'm fortunate enough to have a soundproof studio. If people can hear me working it feels a little like trying to write words with someone looking over my shoulder. I feel self-conscious and cannot let go. It's very important when practicing to 'work', not just to have fun playing through pieces … and working means playing the bits which don't sound good, not the ones which do. The other issue is the pianist hearing external noise. That can be a problem in a big city."

(Photo credit Andrew Crowley via CM Artists)

Ellie Shearing, wife of the late George Shearing

Ellie Shearing recalls the day a neighbor started banging on the Shearings' door.

"I'd never met him," she said, "and the first words out of his mouth were 'I can't have that noise!'"

Picture this. George Shearing -- composer of Lullaby of Birdland -- SIR George Shearing, who'd actually been knighted, by the Queen, in whose living room you'd find guys like Dick Hyman, Mel Torme, Bennie Goodman -- Sir George was being called a common noisemaker. Soon, lawyers were called in, and they arrived at the Shearing home to see what kind of a racket he was producing. But instead of duking it out, the Shearings responded in the way of civilized folk. Photos of George meeting with various American presidents were strategically placed, as was Sir George himself.

"He was in the living room" -- next to his Bosendorfer -- "and he said 'I would like to invite the entire board with their wives to be my guest at one of my shows at the Carlyle, because he was playing at the Carlyle at the time, and he said, "and then they will hear just how loudly I do not play.

"And that did it."

Seymour Bernstein

Seymour Bernstein has taught thousands of musicians. He's even the subject of a documentary being made by Ethan Hawke.

Now in his mid-80s, he's lived and taught in the same place on the Upper West Side for the last 59 years. It's a gorgeous ground-floor apartment that looks like an old-world salon, with all sorts of curios, like the tea kettle once owned by Robert and Clara Schumann.

He recounted the story of one loud-playing musician whose neighbor tried to kill him.

"Yeah, they left them something to eat at the door. 'You should try this.' And it was poisoned!"

In his book, "Monsters and Angels, Surviving a Career in Music," he described in great, graphic detail the fights he's had with both neighbors and, the quote, 'miserly, Dickensian landlords' he's had. Like Henry, who he described as charging up the stairs, "like a bull bent on the kill" while he hid inside his apartment.

At that moment, Seymour was scared Henry would return with the passkey. So he kept one hand on the door, and another on the phone, ready to call the police.

"The whole time, I heard (the wife) Lillian trying to soothe her husband, in the way that a serpent might hiss comfort to her mate."

This was in the 1970s. Seymour was repeatedly taken to court, but his right to play his piano at home, and teach, was repeatedly upheld. He in turn sued his landlord for a million dollars -- and says he won 10 thousand. But the ordeal haunted him, leaving him sleepless and exhausted.

Ronen Segev

Today, Ronen Segev runs Park Avenue Pianos, and lives on Central Park South, in the same apartment where Leon Fleisher once lived.

But years ago, he was just another Juilliard student, and his constant practice brought on the wrath of his neighbor, who started blasting Jay-Z through the walls.

Being the diligent student he was, Ronen responded musically, by simply playing along.

Consider it a high-low musical mashup: Chopin's Mazurkas vs. Jay-Z.

This kind of musical combat happens all the time -- people fight back with punk, with the Stones, crank the speakers up to 11 and just leave their apartment. All that noise crashing about, and who knows, maybe one in a thousand times, something interesting comes of it.

Les Marshak

Marshak is a famous voice over artist, perhaps best known as the person introducing NBC's Today show. Today he lives next to the Guggenheim Museum , but he grew up in the Bronx, next to Yankee stadium, and said his musical accomplishments made him a minor celebrity in his building.

"There was a lot more encouragement and admiration for what we were doing. "keep on playing!" Nowadays, it's 'hmm, I heard the piano." A little indignant. i just think people are less tolerant."

That begs the question: Has the culture actually shifted -- are people less willing to tolerate musicians in their midst -- or does Marshak's point have more to do with the fact that he lives in a building with older, wealthier people?

Irene was singing an aria from "I Capuleti e i Montecchi" -- the Capulets and the Montagues, a reworking of Romeo and Juliet. They heard her but couldn't see her, even though she was just a few feet away. IRENE: And one of them stopped, and he's like 'Hey guys, wait up. Wait up. You hear that? You hear that?' ... And one guy said 'No, no, no, no, that can't be real, it can't be real. It's too good to be real. And one dude said, 'No man, that's it! It's too good to NOT be real!' REPORTER: The group stood there debating this for about 5 minutes. Except for this one kid who wasn't talking. He was just standing on the sidewalk, transfixed. As if he'd never heard anything like it before. That, she said, was the best part of all.

Irene Roberts

Irene Roberts is a mezzo soprano who was most recently in the Met production of Parsifal.

Recently, she was in her living room, singing an aria from "I Capuleti e i Montecchi" -- a reworking of Romeo and Juliet -- when a bunch of middle-school boys walked by, outside. They heard her singing but couldn't see her, even though she was just a few feet away.

"And one of them stopped, and he's like 'Hey guys, wait up. Wait up. You hear that? You hear that?' ... And one guy said 'No, no, no, no, that can't be real, it can't be real. It's too good to be real. And one dude said, 'No man, that's it! It's too good to NOT BE REAL!'"

The group stood there debating this for about 5 minutes. Except for this one kid who wasn't talking. He was just standing on the sidewalk, transfixed. As if he'd never heard anything like it before. That, said Roberts, was the best part of all.

To understand just how much America -- and it's ideas about gay rights and other issues -- continue to influence the rest of the world, it's worth watching a movie called English Vinglish, a Bollywood hit from last year, starring Indian screen legend Sridevi. Her character, Shashi, is visiting her sister in the U.S. for a few weeks, and starts taking English-language classes in Manhattan.

The language teacher, David, is gay and his breakup with a boyfriend amuses one of the students, a taxi driver from Pakistan. But Shashi chides him, in English and in Hindi. "She say, 'David-sir, different for you," another student translates. "'You different for David-sir. But heart pain, same same.'"

The idea of love between two people of the same sex has become so widespread, that here it comes from the mouth of a traditional Indian woman in a sari. But there's a reason the movie is set in America: because this is where change is always happening.

In this latest Micropolis, WNYC's Arun Venugopal discusses how America's debate on gay marriage and other civil rights issues resonates abroad, for better or worse.

New York Fashion Week, which just concluded, celebrates designers of color like Jason Wu and Tracy Reese, and the crowds are pretty mixed. But the runways are pretty homogenous: About 4 out of 5 runway models are white. Why?

Observers cite a range of reasons, including a sort of racial and class coding that gives preference to young, white girls at the expense of non-white ones. The end result is that white models almost invariably dominate the pages of high-end magazines, as well as ad campaigns for premium products. More in this episode of Micropolis.

Why, in this era of foodie hordes, Instagramming their way across the five boroughs, do some Chinese restaurants in New York City still have double menus?

It’s always mystified me that a business would only list some of its dishes in English and keep others — presumably the best/strangest/most authentic ones — on a separate, Chinese menu.

So I set out to understand why.

I visited Main St. Imperial, in Flushing, with Andrew Coe, the author of “Chop Suey: A Cultural History of Chinese Food in the United States.” The storefront restaurant, far from the culinary heart of Flushing, is “the best Taiwanese restaurant in New York,” according to Coe.

Among the several dishes we devoured was a smoky, spectacular pile of minced pork, liberally garnished with chives, red chilies and fermented black beans. The dish is one of the restaurant’s most popular, but it’s not on the English-language menu.

Why not?

Could be the name of the dish: “Chives with Fly Heads.”

The fly heads simply refer to those delicious black beans, but perhaps some Asian restaurateurs think that metaphor would soar over the heads of non-Asian diners. Strangely enough, a slew of “Putz”-based dishes does remain on the menu.

For someone like Joe DiStefano, one of the city’s most famous epicures (he hates the term “foodie”), the double menu is a gastronomic hindrance. On his new site, Chopsticks and Marrow, he and readers have discussed the strangest things they’ve ever eaten, from live baby octopus to wittchety grubs.

The mood in this sector of the universe, he says, is intensely competitive: “Have you eaten eyeballs? Have you eaten duck testacles? I have!”

In that context, he argues, a double menu “creates sort of a mediated or watered-down experience for the non-Chinese diner.”

While most of the experts I spoke to say the double menu is disappearing, it still exists on Mott Street, in Manhattan Chinatown. That’s where I met Wendy Chan, author of “New Asian Cuisine” and a consultant to various Asian governments aiming to make their cuisines more popular in America.

“They don’t want their waiters to be spending time chit-chatting with you, to explore option 1, 2, 3, the difference between A, B and C,” said Chan of restaurant owners. “They’d rather have you say, ‘Okay, this is what you want, this is what we give you. Hurry up and leave.’”

There's also the matter of clashing tastes. People raised in Asia, she said, are more likely to eat dark meat than other Americans, or eat a whole fish, with the tail intact and those dead, beady eyes staring at you.

Still, Joe DiStefano figured this was the only international cuisine in New York where a second menu exists. After all, Indian restaurants don't have a different menu for their Indian customers. But an email from Madeline Leung at RestaurantBaby.com helped reframe the issue. She wrote, somewhat cryptically, "Race and history matter," and this sentence, "There was a time in America, when it was commonly believed that Chinese people eat rats and dogs."

That took me back, to the 1984 movie, "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom," when our hero is served what many American viewers must have presumed was a classic Indian dessert: Chilled monkey brain.

Because there's nothing better than a food scene, set in an exotic country, to show just how freakish or backward another culture is. It hits us at a primal level, whether it's Indian food or Chinese. The rumors that Madeline alluded to, about eating rats and dogs, are old, but there are multiple discussion threads on Yahoo.com, right now, of people wondering whether Chinese people eat babies.

Thus, the creation of Chinese-American cuisine -- along with the double menu -- wasn't just a culinary development, or a money-making proposition. It was also a kind of political act, one that presented a 'moderate' face to outsiders in places like New York, which had enough Chinese immigrants to justify a Chinese-language menu, along with an English menu.

What's funny is that for some people, like Madeleine Leung, whose parents operated a Chinese restaurant in Detroit, the self-consciousness they developed over decades dies hard. "One telling thing is that whenever we have friends over," she said, laughing, "we order pizza."

For more on Arun's forays through New York City, visit his Micropolis Tumblr.

Some hefty men dress up as Santa Claus because it’s a nice way to make a little extra cash, this time of year. But for others it's more a state of mind.

As part of his Micropolis series, WNYC's Arun Venugopal spent time with an attorney who bears a striking resemblance to St. Nick. That brings joy to some of his fellow New Yorkers — and unsettles others.

"You got the long beard, you're a jolly, older guy, they think 'He's Santa Claus!'" he explained. "Or 'He looks like Santa Claus! Why would he look like that if he wasn't Santa Claus!!?'"

To see more photos, visit Micropolis: NYC.

Before immigrating from West Africa to the Bronx, Rouguiatou Tounkara and her husband, Cisse Siaka, lived the kind of lives that remind you just how ferocious racial bigotry is in some parts of the world. Even for Africans living in Africa.

When he moved from the Ivory Coast to Tunisia, Cisse said he was spat on, by children, and had stones thrown at him, “because I’m a black man.”

“They come close to you,” said Rougui, over a dinner of acheke, baked chicken and fried plantains. “They scream on you, they’ll call you monkey. They call you dogs, they call you cats. But we never care.”

Listen to this latest Micropolis story, and check out the Micropolis Tumblr to see more pictures of a dinner at Rougi and Cisse's home.

Is Street Calisthenics the most extreme workout in New York? That’s what some (highly-ripped) practitioners claim, although boot campers and P90Xers may vehemently disagree.

What’s not in dispute is that the sensational moves perfected on the playgrounds of Brooklyn and Queens by street workout stars like Hannibal for King, the Bartendaz or Barstarzz have inspired legions of fans in Russia, Israel, Spain and other countries.

Like rap music decades ago, the street workout was “Made in New York” and has now gone global. In some countries it’s even called the “Ghetto Workout,” complete with rap soundtracks and menacing looks. But local competitors say that even as the rest of the world embraces it, they’re struggling to get attention for it at home.

To see more photos and a video about Street Calisthenics, visit Micropolis: NYC.

When Matt Hogan is not stopping gatecrashers, he’s protecting naked models from illicit backstage photos and keeping the chi flowing around Anna Wintour. WNYC’s Arun Venugopal spent time with a security guard who protects the complex world around the runway.

To view more behind the scenes shots of Fashion Week — chockfull of fashionistas, shoe porn and backstage intrigue — visit Micropolis: NYC.

Around 90,000 attendees filled MetLife stadium on Wednesday for the 12th Siyum Hashas, an event held every seven and a half years for Jewish men who have completed their study of the Talmud. The previous event, held in 2005, was attended by 50,000 people. To see more pictures from the event, go to Micropolis' Tumblr site.

During a recent church service, hundreds of worshipers looked on from the pews at the Greater Allen A.M.E. Zion Cathedral in Jamaica, Queens, as Rev. Floyd Flake made an announcement.

"We have guests in the house," he said.

The guests were Blair Underwood, Nicole Ari Parker and Daphne Rubin Vega – cast members from the rebooted production of "A Streetcar Named Desire" that includes minority actors playing roles traditionally played by white actors.

"I think it is important for us as African-American people to understand that Broadway doesn’t belong to white folk only," Flake said.

Broadway audiences historically have been overwhelmingly white. Last season, 83 percent of Broadway audiences were Caucasians – the highest percentage since the industry began keeping numbers in 1998, according to the Broadway League.

The recent outreach effort in Queens was part of a push by "Streetcar" producers to tap into black Broadway audiences. Just 1.5 percent of the overall audience last season was African American – the lowest it’s ever been.

Many Broadway playwrights, actors and producers of color, say the chronic homogeneity of Broadway audiences stems from a confluence of factors, including high ticket prices, a dearth of minority actors on stage and tunnel-vision within the industry.

(Photo: Samuel L. Jackson plays Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Angela Bassett plays the Lorraine Motel maid Camae in the play "The Mountaintop" by Katori Hall. Photo by Joan Marcus)

A Cultural Gap, and Broadway Elitism

James Hatch, the co-author of A History of African American Theatre, said black audiences have long been marginalized from Broadway.

He named segregated seating, racist caricatures of black characters and prohibitive ticket prices as contributing factors.

“Theatergoing on Broadway is supported by families who collected programs going back 50 or 80 years,” said Hatch. “Blacks did not have that tradition, and apparently still don't.”

And many say that rift still exists.

David Alan Grier, who is currently starring in "Porgy and Bess," said that within black communities in New York, there exists a serious disconnect from the theater industry.

Grier said outreach to communities of color is critical to building awareness. Once they knew a relevant show was on stage, he said residents of black communities would go out of their way to attend.

"That’s human nature: to want and desire to go and experience something, and connect with it,” he said. “That’s what makes any theatergoer latch on to something."

(Photo: Blair Underwood and others from Streetcar Named Desire, at church in Queens. Courtesy of Javae Branch from Loray Blue photography)

But David Henry Hwang, an Asian American who wrote "M. Butterfly" and "Chinglish," said Broadway isn’t doing enough to cultivate minority audiences.

"[There are] very few people in the industry, if any, who would say Broadway’s doing a very good job reaching minority audiences,” he said.

Hwang said it’s “scary” for producers to commission a minority playwright to pen something that appeals to a broad swathe of the Broadway-going audience.

But ignoring younger, more diverse audiences, he said, is not only bad business sense, but wrongheaded.

"This is about American culture, and American culture becomes impoverished when it doesn’t reflect all Americans," he said. "Any culture becomes impoverished when it only reflects a tiny sliver of its population."

A Paradigm Shift

Judging from the attendance at a recent production of "Streetcar," the producer's outreach has borne fruit; a number of audience members from Harlem, Brooklyn and Queens said they bought tickets after attending an outreach event.

Sammie Senyana , 24, only recently attended her first Broadway show, "Porgy and Bess," when she saw an ad for "Streetcar" in Playbill.

"I saw Blair Underwood and I was like, ‘I’m coming to that!'" she said. "You can see them breathe, you can see them tick"

But Senyana’s sister, Brenda, said Broadway could do a better job of attracting black audiences.

"I refuse to believe it’s just money," Brenda said. "I think people are willing to pay. … People can find the money to come. It’s really about feeling it’s worth it."

Added Sammie, "I don’t think a lot of people feel they’re a part of this world."

Lynn Nottage, the Pulitzer-prize winning playwright who scripted off-Broadway's "Ruined," said producers are missing an opportunity by not doing more to target audiences of color.

She also said black philanthropists have been largely absent from supporting community theater.

The erosion of black community theater, she said, has led to a lack of theater literacy within black communities, and the disappearance of black theatergoers from Broadway.

But Stephen Hendel, the producer of now-shuttered "Fela," which has an all-black cast, suggested audiences aren’t willing to cross racial boundaries or get out of their comfort zones.

"I think it’s a major issue actually,” he said.

Despite the press for "Fela," and for the financial backing from Jay-Z, Will Smith and Jada Pinket Smith, Hendel says the show lost money.

White audience members initially made up nearly 70 percent of the turnout for "Fela," but their numbers consistently decreased during the show’s run.

"I think it wasn’t a show for them because it had an all-black cast," said Hendel.

Streetcar and beyond

The force behind "A Streetcar Named Desire" is producer Stephen Byrd, a former investment banker who says there's money to be made in black Broadway productions.

"Streetcar" has generally only sold 70 percent of its tickets, but the show has been successful enough to extend its run into August despite harsh words from Ben Brantley at The New York Times, and John Lahr at The New Yorker, Byrd said.

(Photo:"Streetcar" producer Stephen Byrd at Sardi's. Byrd thinks that Broadway can expand its audience base by reaching out to minorities. Arun Venugopal/WNYC)

Despite last season's audience numbers, indicating an unusually low attendance by minorities, producers are reaching out to minority audiences,

Donna Walker-Kuhne says "producers are making an effort" to bring in more diverse theatergoers.

Walker-Kuhne heads an audience development company that worked with the producers of Porgy and Bess and other shows to draw black audiences.

She said the current roster of shows catering to African-Americans is clearly drawing a more diverse audience, which will be reflected in next year's numbers.

In addition to marketing, she says the industry needs far more black group sales ticketing agents, who know how to reach black tourists in large numbers, and help drive the crucial advance sales for shows aimed at them.

Although "it won't be overnight," she thinks the industry is laying the foundation for a more diverse theater culture.

"I am hopeful for this century, for this new decade, of how we're going to really change the audiences," she said.

Correction: The original version of this article incorrectly identified the Greater Allen A.M.E. Zion Cathedral as the Calvary A.M.E. church. WNYC regrets the error.

Micropolis is WNYC’s ongoing series on street life and other corners of the city.

(Photo: David Alan Grier in The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess. Courtesy of Michael J. Lutch)

Brooklyn, known for its multitude of ethnic enclaves, also has the distinction of being home to the city’s least diverse neighborhood.

All 1,488 residents of this section of Midwood, Brooklyn, classified themselves as white during the recent census, data shows. Of all the census tracts in New York City — 2,168 — it is the only one with a 100 percent homogenous population.

Although all residents consider themselves white, five of them additionally classified themselves as Hispanic, which is not a racial but ethnic classification.

In a city historically known for its diversity, the eight-square blocks of Midwood — bound by Avenues K and M and 23rd and 27th streets — that comprise census tract number 36047075400 unique. It is also one of the city’s largest Jewish neighborhoods.

The streets of the city’s least diverse neighborhood are leafy and dotted with mid-sized homes and mansions with lush lawns. The main subway stop is Avenue M on the Q train. The street is lined with kosher bagel shops and travel businesses catering to people destined for Israel.

"We have no problem selling homes in this area," said Steve Epstein, a 71-year-old retired teacher who once served as the head of the neighborhood association.

He said “there’s no discrimination” against non-Jews in the neighborhood, but others are less likely to feel comfortable living in the neighborhood.

Epstein, who also runs the nearby Zionism Museum, said residents include doctors, teachers, tradesmen and rabbis.

The city's average household size is 2.58, according to the Department of City Planning.

In some orthodox Jewish strongholds, like Borough Park, it’s more like 3.6. But here, it's even higher -- 3.9 people per household.

Quite a few of those kids can be found playing basketball on this Friday, right before getting ready for the Sabbath.

"What do we say in this neighborhood?" Epstein asks one group of boys, all of them wearing yarmulkes.

On cue, the boys shout "Am Yisrael Chai!" The Jewish people live.

Some of the boys are cousins, and their fathers, standing nearby, say proximity to family is a big reason for living in the neighborhood.

That, and the fact that a handful of synagogues are within walking distance, says Epstein, adding that orthodox Jews don't drive anywhere on the Sabbath.

Chaim Deutsch founded a civilian police force in the neighborhood in the early 90s, and claims the block is "the safest block in the nation."

The NYPD and FBI couldn’t confirm.

“While New York is America’s safest large city, there’s no crown for individuals streets,” NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said. “Having said that, we’re not challenging Bedford Avenue’s claim to the title."

Micropolis is WNYC’s ongoing series on street life and other corners of the city.

A few weeks ago, Robert Spencer, director of Jihad Watch and one of the most outspoken critics of Islamic groups, said the debate among Muslim organizations, their allies and their opponents was to a large degree "a propaganda war in the information battle space."

He was referring to Rep. Peter King's hearings, but the propaganda war is being waged on the streets of American cities as well. Spencer's counterpart, anti-Park51 activist Pam Geller, recently won a legal victory when a court ruled in favor of her right to run controversial bus ads in Detroit, proclaiming, "Fatwa on your head? Leaving Islam? Refuge from Islam.com. Got questions? Get answers!" The ads ran in New York City last year.

However, Muslim New Yorkers and their allies have been mounting their own publicity blitz lately. A few days ago, they were on the steps of City Hall, speaking out against terrorism. Before that, the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community USA conducted its "Muslims for Loyalty" campaign, handing out leaflets speaking to the patriotism of Muslim Americans. The group has also been running a "Muslims for Peace" ad in Times Square, underneath the CBS eye.

Now the ACLU is getting into the game, with its own pro-Muslim ad, which happens to be on the same digital billboard as the Ahmadiyya campaign. The silent ad, which you can watch below, opens with a stark image -- a burqa-clad Muslim woman encountering the words "Muslims Go Home" scrawled in red paint on the outside of a house. The next image suggests the need for co-existence: demonstrators (who appear to be in front of the Park 51 building) holding signs stating "Freedom of Religion" and "Love thy Neighbor."

"We wanted to respond to the recent wave of hostility against American Muslims with the message that religious bigotry and hatred are un-American," said Hina Shamsi, Director of the ACLU National Security Project. "The best response to bigotry is to raise our collective voice even louder in support of religious freedom - and what better way to do so than on a 20-foot-tall video screen in Times Square?"

Today marks the bicentennial of the Manhattan street grid system, a latice-work of streets created during a time when the city's population exploded and the streets needed to be ordered in a "regular way," according to NYU professor and curator of an upcoming museum exhibit, Hilary Ballon.

Ballon calls the Manhattan grid "a brilliant network." She's right. It's like an early form of a global positioning system: You can locate any spot in the city within a few feet.

Yet, why do I still get lost in the West Village after all of these years? That's all about "compromise," Ballon said. Unlike the northern part of the city where farms were present when the decision to create the grid was made, this part was settled and was simply incorporated into the new grid system.

"They encountered animosity and were attacked by tomatoes and pelted in other ways as they traversed people's lands," Ballon said. "They did not want their property cut up to make way for straight streets."

The surveyors would have certainly received more than rotten tomatoes hurled at them if they tried to make all the streets go east-west here because the lines would go right through homes.

Other developers and city officials in later years would not adhere so much to those concerns. I wonder what Robert Moses thought as he stood at the intersection of West 4th and West 13th Streets?

The last time world affairs found their way into artist Samuel Mark's work, bed bugs were taking over the city. Mark channeled the collective panic of New Yorkers into a series of works that depicted the critters swarming over mattresses, sofas and other discarded furniture. The series earned the street artist instant notoriety and widespread media coverage.

That was last summer. These days, Mark has the Middle East on his mind. His latest painting, of Libyan leader Muammar Gadhafi, was recently sitting unframed, on the sidewalk of Prince Street, just off Broadway, where Mark and other artists ply their trade. The work was completed just before an international coalition began conducting air strikes across the country.

Asked how he felt about the military intervention, Mark drew in his breath and composed his thoughts.

"It's another country, and I think that they should deal with their own problems the way they want to deal with it," he said, noting that he'd opposed the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, too.

And yet, he said he felt a sense of "despair" for Libyans trapped by the violence, as well as the rebels resisting Gadhafi's forces.

"You got people throwing rocks at people who have machine guns and rocket launchers," he said.

Mark had been mulling over the issue in recent weeks, and mentioned the subject to a regular buyer, who said he'd buy whatever Mark finally came up with. Mark netted $800 for the Gadhafi portrait, but hadn't gotten around to one finishing touch. The buyer wanted Mark to add the word "Assassin" to the canvas, in "red, drippy letters."

The artist didn't appear completely entirely comfortable with the idea, but said he'd do the buyer's bidding — but only after the day's tourist crush had subsided. "Otherwise, there'll be too many questions," he said.

Mark works out of a studio in East Harlem, and said that when it's warm outside, he earns "a few thousand" dollars a week. Recently, he's turned his attention to the Spider-Man musical on Broadway, and plans to do a large painting about the Gulf oil spill, which he thinks has been forgotten by the media.

To the casual viewer, it's hard not to see the resemblance between the Gadhafi portrait — done in acrylic and petroleum-based ink — and Shepard Fairey's iconic image of President Obama. It's intentional, Mark said. He's also toying with the idea of creating an Obama-Gadhafi diptych.

"I was thinking, 'Wow, if I could just do the Obama also, in this style,' and then, write on the Gadhafi piece next to the Obama, 'We Hope for Change.' Something like that, something political. Something politically conflicting about what's going on now."

In some sense, the image of Gadhafi, as interpreted by Mark, seems as much about Libya's leader as America's.

"[Gadhafi] is basically saying, 'Let me handle my own country.' And Obama's basically saying 'Well, this is what the UN says, and we're taking over, and there's really nothing I can do," he said.

For a certain segment of the population, the promise to draw every building in town may sound familiar, not unlike Sufjan Stevens' initially audacious, then outlandish and ultimately forgotten bid to make an album about all 50 states (final count: two states).

So far, professional illustrator James Gulliver Hancock, who runs the blog "All the Buildings in New York," has managed a respectable pace: he figures he's drawn about 500 buildings so far, or about 1-1/2 each day.

"Someone said there's like 30,000 buildings, just in Manhattan, so who knows," he said.

Hancock, originally from Sydney, Australia, has only been here a year, having first wound his way through England, continental Europe, and Los Angeles. Initially, the project was his attempt to de-mystify the city.

"Being an outsider, being Australian, coming here was kind of amazing. You're in this set you've seen in so many movies, like West Side Story. Rear Window is always coming to mind, you know, the backs of brownstones and the fire escapes."

"Initially it was me trying to get over that sensation of seeing it as a movie set. It wasn't more about, 'Hey, I want people to see these buildings and how I think they're beautiful.' It was more like, by drawing them I might make them real, I might make them more friendly to me. Less like movie stars and real people."

In addition to zeroing in on individual buildings, Hancock also takes on entire blocks or even neighborhoods — whether it's the Lower East Side or Chinatown. His ability to bring "fresh eyes" to the streetscape, he says, has made fans of even old-timers who may have become jaded to their surroundings.

"At the moment, I'm getting a lot of feedback from people. People that are really excited, people sending in suggestions and places to draw."

While he's earned most of his income from magazine work and publishers -- clients include Nylon, Business Week and Simon & Schuster -- he's begun doing commissions of individual buildings from residents, for $200 to $900. But reprints of any of the images on his blog sell for as little as $30.

Eventually, he hopes to create a Google map, detailing every building he's drawn. Judging from another map of his, listing his favorite spots in the city, he's a creature of the East Village and LES, brownstone Brooklyn and Williamsburg. Nothing yet in the Bronx or on Staten Island, and just one point in Queens: P.S. 1.

Although you will occasionally find landmarks in his work, for the most part, Hancock says his interest lies in "real New York."

"It's not really about being a tourist. It's more about the everyday, like seeing how all the different cornices on the brownstones. They initially look very similar, but they've got all very different detailing."

"People do recognize their building, and I think they find that kind of special. There's plenty of people that draw those iconic buildings, but not everyone draws some no-name townhouse on a back street in Brooklyn, so I think it's kind of nice in that respect."

Foley Square, Downtown.

The artist Leghead in Soho on March 14, 2011.

Two-by-five foot solar panels have been appearing on telephone poles throughout Hudson and Bergen Counties as a New Jersey-based power company attempts to green its energy sources by installing roughly 200,000 panels in the area.

The panels are a bit of an usual sight -- especially in urban residential areas like Jersey City. But Fred Lynk, managing marketing strategist for power company PSE&G said, "As long as the panels have clear access to the Southern sky they can pretty much go up anywhere."

Lynk said each solar panel will generate 250 watts of power that will be pumped into the PSE&G grid. The Solar 4 All project isn’t necessarily new; PSE&G began working on it in 2009 when they erected large ground-level solar farms in Central and Southern New Jersey. The solar panels on telephone poles have only recently started to go up.

The Solar 4 All project is expected to generate 80 mega watts of power for PSE&G to help the company meet its state mandated 4.4 percent of green energy.

Lynk said all of the panels will be in place by 2012. Customers should be aware that they're footing the cost of the $515 million project with a 0.10 cent increase in their electricity bills.

Photo by Arun Venugopal

After the furor over Park 51, many Muslims said they were afraid to profess their faith publicly. Not so, apparently, at this Bangladeshi halal butcher in Jackson Heights, Queens.

Multiply the volubility of this guy by 20, maybe 50 on a crowded day, when the subways are completely wired and everyone's got his or her phones out. Now imagine your normally placid commute being disrupted, daily, by the sound of TMI.

There is no New York City public official better suited to the spectacle of food -- whom the citizenry wants to see eating -- than Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz.

This is not simply an issue of body type, although that certainly factors in. The fact is, Marty exudes a certain jocularity, a game-ness that's very old-school. Have a baby that needs to be held? Give it to Marty! Have a catchphrase that bears repeating, such as "Fuhgeddaboutit!"? Marty'll say it!

Where other politicians tend to perform with a wink, at best, Marty goes all the way. When he's at Junior's, you really, truly believe he couldn't live without that cheesecake.

But until the blog "Marty Markowitz Eating" came along, most of us didn't realize how much cheesecake he was eating. Or latkes, or pizza, or red-velvet cupcakes.

The site appears to have a mission:

"Borough President Marty Markowitz likes to eat things. He regularly attends press conferences based solely around food, has a couple sandwiches in the borough named after him, and makes a food joke in just about every single one of his speeches. He likes to eat, and he should be documented doing so. This is that site."

So, do the pictures speak to the truth? According to photographer Seth Kushner, who snapped this picture of Marty at Juniors, "Marty is a true restaurateur. Though the slice of cheesecake was meant as a prop, he did take it to go. He's famously dieted and lost weight since the photo was taken, but I'm sure he's no less exuberant about his Brooklyn food!"

Street art isn't what it used to be. And for a lot of New Yorkers, that's probably a good thing. Gone are the days when entire subway trains were coated in spray paint.

That isn't to say that street art is irrelevant.

Check out "Exit Through the Gift Shop," the documentary that at once celebrates and hilariously sends up the significance (and the very definition) of street art. The movie, directed by the ever-mysterious artist Banksy, is up for an Oscar this year.

So, who are the newest street artists making their mark in (and on) the city?

One of them has been penning "moustache" on the upper lips of various actresses, at least their two-dimensional selves (Reese's moustache here). The penmanship isn't anything to write home about, but still, there's a certain Gallic charm to the enterprise, and an impishness. These days, it's striking just how innocent and inoffensive so much subway graffiti is. Sure, you get the predictable assortment of four-letter words and body parts and all-around disfigurement. But not all that often. To a much greater extent subway posters seem to have been defaced by really happy, well-adjusted people. Whatever became of urban rage?

Hotel Carter, ranked the No. 4 dirtiest hotel in the U.S., has made the annual survey of the nation's top 10 filthiest hotels for the fifth time in six years, according to TripAdvisor's Dirtiest Hotels 2011.

The Times Sq. hotel may not have made the top spot on the list as it has regularly in the past, but it overwhelms the competition when it comes to negative reviews. A solid two-thirds of the 1,061 reviewers on the travel site describe the hotel as "terrible."

Some of the more impassioned entries:

"The rooms at this hotel are gross! They are dirty, umkept [sic], they reek of who knows what ... the bathrooms are disgusting: they are old and tiny. We complained and got "upgraded" to a nicer looking bedroom, yet a whole piece of wall was missing next to the air conditioning so we froze to death for several nights."
"BLACK MOLD in the showers, BLOOD on the bed and RATS scratching ALLLL NIGHT.The light fixture was just a light bulb dangling by a couple wires and there was a HUGE hole in the night stand."
"i cried real tears when i first saw our room on the 11th floor."
"The carpets were that dirty I refused to walk on the floor without shoes on - choosing to jump from bed to bed or bed to draws. Flip flops were also worn in the shower as the thought of standing in the bath made my skin crawl."
"The Carter probably had its hayday [sic] back in the 60's when it was cleaned for the last time. Absolutely filthy, run-down, sticky, smelly cells called "rooms", with attached bathrooms blackened by mold, unrecognizable grime on window sills, and water dripping from the ceiling."
"On the 2nd night we came back to find that all our sons powdered food had been eaten by mice and that mouse droppings were all over our clothes and in our luggage, even in my daughters backpack with her pens and pencils!!! My 4 year old daughter ended up in NYU Hospital for a day as she had severe Gastric and was being sick continuously!!!"

Losing sleep over the US-China trade deficit? Worried about China taking over the world?

China understands. Or at least its publicists do. After decades of watching American spinmeisters work their magic across the world, they're bringing their game onto U.S. soil.

This promotional video debuted at Times Square. From the WSJ:

"As President Hu Jintao begins his visit to the U.S. this week, China is blitzing America with a flashy television ad that mixes images of ordinary Chinese citizens with celebrities like NBA star Yao Ming, Web tycoon Jack Ma, and a quartet of fashion models. The minute-long video is scheduled to run on CNN and to be shown 300 times a day—once every four minutes during peak periods—on the giant display in New York's Times Square from now until Feb. 14.

"The ad is part of China's broader push in recent years to use its culture and people to ease international fears about its rise."

The fuss over Pale Male may have seemed more like a stealth Upper East Side real estate story than about urban wildlife, but now Lola, the red tailed hawk's famous mate with whom he shared a nest at 927 Fifth Ave., has gone missing and may be dead.

From Bruce Yolton at the Urban Hawks blog: "Lola hasn't been seen since mid-December and is unfortunately presumed dead."

But Bruce posted this really nice video, so you can get a sense of how a hawk snacks on squirrel (scroll to 1:44). Seriously, at times it's quite beautiful but can be graphic.

Under pressure from my friend, I caught the end of Peter Greenaway's multimedia spectacle at the Park Avenue Armory, The Last Supper, which turned out to be spectacularly underwhelming. So when that same friend told me to come and see his work as well as that of other young South Asian artists in a new group show, I expected a mixed bag.

As it turned out, I was way off the mark: The show, Reprise 2010 (at Aicon Gallery, on Great Jones) is consistently good, at times great, and showcases the vitality of Indian and Pakistani contemporary art in a variety of media. This at a time when the Indian economy is booming, creating a generation of new collectors and galleries. Also figuring into this is the growth of big trade events like the India Art Summit, which takes place this week in New Delhi and includes Aicon artists from New York.

The Reprise show's on through Feb. 5. Take a look.

There was a period when Mayors Against Illegal Guns made serious waves. The group, formed by Mayors Bloomberg and Thomas Menino, in Boston, grew by leaps and bounds, signing up hundreds of mayors across the country and prompting the NRA to target the group in campaign ads.

However, over the last year or so, that growth has reached a plateau (it still claims to have around 500 members), and the group has had a quieter presence. But the shootings in Arizona have thrust the mayor and his group back into the national spotlight. For a mayor who's been dogged by a snowstorm furor, the issue of gun control appears to present steady ground.

“Just as we saw after Virginia Tech, the Arizona tragedy has once again exposed fatal cracks in our background check system,” said Mayor Bloomberg at City Hall today. “The law says that drug abusers can't buy guns, but even though Jared Loughner was rejected by the military for drug use and arrested on drug charges, he was able to pass a background check and buy a gun. It should be clear to everyone that the system is broken and it is time for our leaders in Washington to step up and fix it.”

In addition to fixing the background check gap, Bloomberg has called for better information sharing between federal agencies. He also wants the Senate to appoint a Director at the ATF, ending a four-and-a-half year opening. The mayor was joined by Congressman Peter King, who said he would introduce legislation making it illegal to carry a gun within 1,000 feet of the president, vice president, members of Congress or federal judges.

Has the current furor changed the political climate so fundamentally that gun control is more viable? Too early to say. In the words of John Bruce, a University of Mississippi scholar, the gun lobby "got through all the school shootings -- Pearl, Mississippi, Jonesboro, Arkansas, Columbine, with no real changes in the law. No real changes in access."

In 2009, Mayors Against Illegal Guns issued a 40-point blueprint for dealing with illegal gun trafficking. According to a spokesman for MAIG, the president backed one of those proposals, on the matter of ATF demand letters. On the remaining 39 points, the group says the White House has been "silent."

If you're like me, you may occasionally surprised to discover that things like Pop-Tarts still exist. Mmm, two wafers of hyrolyzed plywood, tightly encasing a layer of synthetic fruitiness. Just pop it in the toaster, take a bite, and find your tongue irreparably burned. But we're being unnecessarily snarky.

The bigger surprise was that a Pop-Tarts World NYC flagship store had been constructed at Times Square in August. Alas, it just closed down. NewYorkology has the scoop:

“The Pop-Tarts brand is evaluating this successful experience as we plan more exciting activities for 2011 and beyond,” a spokesman for Pop-Tarts parent Kellogg Company told NewYorkology via e-mail today. “Pop-Tarts World was originally created as a test, and its success will assist Kellogg in ongoing efforts to bring brands to life and strengthen bonds with consumers. New York City and Times Square have historically been the epicenter of one-of-a-kind experiences and so it was a perfect location for the Pop-Tarts experience.”

If you're still interested in obtaining some merchandise, check out the online store. There, you'll find their official Cherry Lip Balm for $3.95. "How would you like to keep the delicious flavor of Frosted Cherry Pop-Tarts® toaster pastries on your lips? Now you can with this flavored lip balm! The standard-size tube of soothing balm is also available in Frosted Strawberry flavor."

A new viral video entitled "Bloomberg Blamed for Mishandling Snowpocalypse" is making the rounds online in a segment that takes jabs at the city's blizzard response with the help of strangely compelling CGI animation.

Taiwanese outlet NMA created the animated video that shows the Statue of Liberty collapsing as the Mayor bumbles his way through the snow storm -- dodging snowballs pelted by angry residents -- in stark contrast to the heroic second mayor (Newark Mayor Cory Booker), who can do no wrong.

The segment also takes aim at sanitation workers who are shown goofing off and making snowmen while on the job. The video ends on an ominous note comparing New York to Newark, with the commentator asking, "Will this Tale of Two Cities turn into Bloomberg's Katrina?" as the mayor jets past a smoldering city.

Here's the English-language version.

The blizzard may be long over but the damage and bad PR keeps on coming. Ned Berke at Sheepshead Bites brings to our attention the matter of dozens of gravestones that were toppled in Brooklyn, after a snow-packed cemetery fence gave way. Locals say sanitation workers are to blame.

From his blog post:

...Department of Sanitation workers packed load after load of snow and ice against the fence of Washington Cemetery on Bay Parkway, between McDonald Avenue and 57th Street. The metal gates buckled under the weight, toppling approximately 30 gravestone over the weekend.

“[Sanitation workers] were continually dumping snow there for several days,” said Washington Cemetery (5400 Bay Parkway) employee Mike Ciamaga, who added that cemetery officials first noticed the broken gravestones on Sunday morning. ”As of this morning they were still dumping there.”

When reached by phone at his district office, Councilman David Greenfield referred to Washington Cemetery as the largest Jewish cemetery in New York City. He noted the incident follows another one in December, in which as many as 200 headstones were toppled or vandalized, including some belonging to Holocaust survivors.

This episode, he said, fit a larger pattern in which residents of southern Brooklyn were treated as "second-class citizens" after the blizzard, and faulted the Sanitation Department for not bringing the matter to the attention of those affected.

"That we have to find out about it from a reporter, it’s very hurtful," said Greenfield, who said he was headed out the door to inspect the site. "It’s quite shocking that (the families) weren’t informed about it, either."

In response, Sanitation Department spokesman Matt Lipani sent us the following statement.

"Unfortunately, during ongoing emergency snow clearing operations outside of the cemetery, the fence along the cemetery collapsed due to piled snow. The Department is reaching out to cemetery officials to provide them with the necessary paperwork to file a claim."

Government statisticians may not be born entertainers, but god knows the men and women of the U.S. Census Bureau try. Tuesday's big announcement -- the biggest census event in 10 years -- managed to ramp up the suspense before finally delivering the goods.

How many people live in this country? Which states grew the most? Which states are going to ask for a recount?

Answers forthcoming. But first, a video featuring some of the notables who publicized the Census outreach: Donny Osmond, Dora the Explorer, Karl Rove. They are all America.

After that, Dr. Robert Groves took reins of the festivities. Groves is the Census Bureau's director and a survey methodologist of note (he literally wrote the book, "Survey Methodology"). He walked us through a history of the census from 1790, how this census was completed under budget ($1.87 billion saved), and so on. Streamlined management, enhanced productivity, etc. At times, it felt like he was teasing the American people, working them into a frenzy of anticipation.

And then, mercifully, he said it: "The resident U.S. population is 308,745,538 persons." The room erupted in applause.

Groves then settled into a groove, laying out the major demographic shifts over the last 10 years. For the average person, it's pretty interesting material. The country had grown by 9.7 percent since 2000, with Nevada experiencing the most explosive growth of any state (35.1 percent), while Michigan had the greatest decline.

But the census also has direct bearing on governance in this country and on the power balance between the states. New York gained in population, but by only 2.3 percent, which left it 5th from the bottom. Upon redistricting, based on these latest census figures, New York will have only 27 House representatives, down from 29 (there are 435 members in the U.S. House of Representatives).

On the other hand, Texas grew by 20 percent, and is set to gain 4 seats. Florida also gained, and will now have as many seats as New York. The last 80 or so years haven't been kind to New York power brokers, who probably long for the 45 seats they had (and the corresponding clout), back in the 1930s.

New Jersey is also losing a seat, while Connecticut holds steady.

The Bureau will be releasing additional information, reams of it, in the months ahead. To get a better sense of the population shifts underway across the country, and how it will affect Congress, check out the interactive map below. Or visit this page.

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The housing bust may have been at the center of the Great Recession, but the fact that New York state has suffered less on the housing front has, ironically, meant it leads the nation in out-migration. This according to Forbes:

At No.1 on our list, New York is expected to wave goodbye to 49,000 more people than it gains this year. The state has seen a steady loss of residents over the past five years, losing an average of 100,000 people per year. [Economist Nathaniel] Karp explains that, because New York is a large state, it may report greater movement than others, but notes that population size is not the only reason residents are fleeing.

"In order to move, you need to be able to sell your home," says Karp. "The housing market [in New York] has not gone through the meltdown that other states have gone through."

Now and then, people ask me, "Whatever happened to that mosque issue?" As if the subject that dominated the airwaves like no other, over the entire summer, had somehow, mysteriously vanished. As we reported a few weeks ago, Park 51 didn't appear to gain any traction as an issue with voters leading up to the November elections. But now, it seems supporters and opponents alike are mobilizing their troops, ready to battle once again over the public perception.

This week, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, the man behind Park 51 (or as he tends to call it, Cordoba House), launched the Cordoba Movement, "a multi-national, multi-faith movement dedicated to improving understanding and building trust among people of all cultures and faith traditions." From all appearances, the group is a re-branding of the Cordoba Initiative, his former group, which no longer has a website but also made an issue of working with people of various faiths.

The list of supporters is long and includes Jewish and Christian groups, the ACLU, Muslim and Buddhist groups, and at least one group of 9/11 family members (no Hindu groups, from what I could gather).

A couple days ago, I attended an event, hosted by Rabbis for Human Rights, at which Daisy Khan, wife of Imam Feisal spoke. She gave me some sense of where the Cordoba Movement is headed, as the people behind Park 51 hope to gather more support.

"We're inviting epople who consider themselves to be moderates and progressives," she said. "And they can be people of all beliefs and no beliefs against the extremists who tend to dominate the discourse. Who tend to want to keep fear alive and want to be ignorant of the facts."

She wouldn't say how much money has been raised for Park 51, but suggested it was very early in the process, ie., hardly anything has been raised. The Park 51 site now has a Donate page; the organization has applied for 501(c)(3) status, which would require it to file annual financial reports and maintain a level of transparency.

Daisy Khan also said organizers are courting 9/11 family members.

But opponents like Rosaleen Tallon, whose brother, firefighter Sean Patrick Tallon died on 9/11, say the 9/11 family members who support the project comprise "a token group" and that there has never been a "major outreach" to others.

"But of course you wouldn't reach out to a group that you already knew the feelings of," she said.

After laying low these last few months, opponents are planning another protest on December 14. In a novel twist to earlier protests, the upcoming event ties opposition to Park 51 to the need for a Wal-Mart.

"NYC officials and the Gloomberg's (sic.) administration are working overtime to erect a triumphal mosque at Ground Zero, while Wal-Mart, the nation's largest private employer, has been denied entry repeatedly. Wal-Mart was forced to drop its plans for its first New York city store. And New York was the loser for it. The lower middle and middle class was the loser for it." [Pamela Geller/Atlas Shrugs]

Maybe he should've just worn an arrow through his head, or danced like a pharaoh.

Whatever Steve Martin did while on-stage at the 92nd Street Y, it clearly wasn't interesting enough for some patrons. Last Monday, Martin sat down for a chat with Deborah Solomon of The New York Times. The discussion was about art -- in light of his Martin's book set in the art world -- but according to Sol Adler, the executive director of the Y, the institution "received numerous complaints from audience members about how the interview was conducted."

The Y management sought to mollify these (clearly quite powerful, if easily bored) patrons in spectacular fashion: it offered refunds, in the form of gift certificates, to every one of the hundreds of people who had turned up. Based on the available data, that would be a $45,000 apology.

On Friday, Adler issued another apology, not to its patrons but to Martin and Solomon:

"We realize now that offering a refund, especially without consulting with our guests who graciously gave of their time, was disrespectful. We have learned our lesson, and this will not happen again."

What the Y probably didn't anticipate was just how peeved Martin himself would be by the whole episode, and that he'd manage to commandeer prime real estate, on the NYT's op-ed page, to argue his position. He conceded that his discussion with Solomon may have been boring initially, but said the Y was truly at fault by caving in to impatient viewers:

"When I arrived for Monday’s talk, I was informed that it would be telecast on closed-circuit TV across the country. What I wasn’t told was that the viewers were going to be encouraged to send in e-mails during the discussion; what I didn’t expect was that the Y would take the temperature of those e-mailed reactions, and then respond to them by sending a staff member onstage, mid-conversation, with a note that said, “Discuss Steve’s career.”

This was as jarring and disheartening as a cellphone jangle during an Act V soliloquy. I did not know who had sent this note nor that it was in response to those e-mails. Regardless, it was hard to get on track, any track, after the note’s arrival, and finally, when I answered submitted questions that had been selected by the people in charge, I knew I would have rather died onstage with art talk than with the predictable questions that had been chosen for me."

Martin also noted that he and Solomon had done the event for free; what his op-ed didn't mention is that he has a new novel to promote and stood to benefit from the event. But his message, while aimed at the Y, could be intended for other programmers of high culture as well: "But I can’t help wondering what we might have said if we hadn’t been stopped. Maybe we were just around the corner from something thrilling. Isn’t that the nature of a live conversation? It halts, it stutters, it doubles back, it soars," wrote Martin.

I was heartened to hear that our city has a Rat Island -- near City Island, off the Bronx -- but frankly, a bit disappointed that it was never home to a huge, writhing colony of untameable super-rodents. From Ephemeral New York (via MAS):

Purchased from Native Americans in 1654 by the Pell family, the island’s name supposedly stems from the inmates then jailed on Hart Island. When inmates—who were nicknamed rats—escaped, they swam to Rat Island first before making a go at reaching City Island.

By the 1800s, it was the location of the “Pelham Pesthouse,” a yellow fever hospital that quarantined 40 people.

Last year, the 2.5 acre island was up for sale, for $300,000. Not sure what became of that, although it's never too late to build that rodent colony and amusement park. I actually know the parks commissioner, fyi.

As with our inaugural press-release-of-the-day item yesterday, this one combines two things that publicists absolutely love -- invoking holiday spirit, and attaching an important social cause (hunger, autism) to a merchandising opportunity.

"With eight nights of giving, it’s easy to run out of gift ideas for that hard-to-buy for person. Let the aroma of steam-grilled-on-a-bed-of-onions fill the house this Hanukkah season by giving White Castle's Original slider®-scented candle as a quirky, yet distinctive Hanukkah gift.

"The nature of Hanukkah lends itself to family, togetherness and light. White Castle's Original Slider®-scented candles are a fun, attention-getting gift to give during Hanukkah, especially for families who have a child with Autism as net proceeds from the sale of the candle benefit Autism Speaks. Hanukkah begins this week and White Castle's Original Slider®-scented candles are back just in time. White Castle is a family-owned business's and recognizes the importance of being involved with a cause such as Autism Speaks and knows the importance of family and traditions, especially during the holidays.

"Jewish families who love the popular fast-food chain, can make Original Slider®-scented candles part of this year's Hanukkah celebrations and support a great cause in return."

We reporters are blessed to receive email from a cross-section of society, or at least their publicists. Today's is as selfless as they come: Eat our meat, feed the hungry.

"New Yorkers are invited to take a Deli Challenge this Thursday, December 2nd, and decide for themselves who has the best deli meat – Dietz & Watson or Boar’s Head. This friendly taste-testing is being conducted in an effort to help fight hunger during this holiday season. Shoppers will be asked to take a blind taste test, and in return, Dietz & Watson will donate one pound of food per participant to the Food Bank For New York City."

The beleagured Charlie Rangel, rather his likeness, made the cut on this weekend's Saturday Night Live, during a segment also featuring Rachel Maddow, John Boehner and Nancy Pelosi. There were a few nice bits of dialogue -- and Pelosi's sudden eye bulge made me laugh out loud -- but all in all, I found the sketch lackluster, especially the Rangel impersonation. Where was the trademark rasp, or the magical rhetorical flow? Judge for yourself.

"People keep saying I'm having legal troubles. These are ethics violations. I did nothing criminal. I just did things that were unethical. Did I kill someone? No. Did I lie for the purposes of getting money? Perhaps. When I say "perhaps" do I mean yes? I do. But I am not a criminal. I am just a person that can, and should, not be trusted."

Agonizing over whether to keep buying an unlimited Metrocard? We certainly are. The new $104 unlimited, effective December 30, packs a budgetary whallop. But Capndesign put together this handy chart (via Gothamist), so you can run the numbers yourself. The main lesson here is that you need more rides per month -- 50, versus 46 with the current card -- to make it worth the new price of the unlimited. Godspeed, commuter.

| New Price ($104/mo.) | Old Price ($89/mo.) | | --- | --- | | Trips | Single Cost | Diff vs. Monthly | Single Cost | Diff vs. Monthly | | 42 | $88.20 | -15.80 | $82.32 | -6.68 | | 43 | $90.30 | -13.70 | $84.28 | -4.72 | | 44 | $92.40 | -11.60 | $86.24 | -2.76 | | 45 | $94.50 | -9.50 | $88.20 | -0.80 | | 46 | $96.60 | -7.40 | $90.16 | +1.16 | | 47 | $98.70 | -5.30 | $92.12 | +3.12 | | 48 | $100.80 | -3.20 | $94.08 | +5.08 | | 49 | $102.90 | -1.10 | $96.04 | +7.04 | | 50 | $105.00 | +1.00 | $98.00 | +9.00 | | 51 | $107.10 | +3.10 | $99.96 | +10.96 | | 52 | $109.20 | +5.20 | $101.92 | +12.92 | | $111.30 | +7.30 | $103.88 | +14.88 |

| | | --- | | | | | |

Here's one of those depressing articles you've probably seen variations of over the years -- New York City is expensive; artists can't afford to live here -- and may be tempted to roll your eyes at. But this Crain's piece is worth reading because it speaks to the current economic climate:

...a survey of 1,000 artists conducted in 2009 by the New York Foundation for the Arts found that more than 43% expected their annual income to drop by 26% to 50% over the next six months, and 11% believed they would have to leave New York within six months. Even more troubling, cultural boosters say, is that for the first time, artists fresh out of art schools around the country are choosing to live in nascent artist communities in regional cities like Detroit and Cleveland—which are dangling incentives to attract this group—and bypassing New York altogether.

Remember how artists and art-lovers were sounding giddy, back in the early days of the recession, at the prospect that the city would revert to the 1970s -- not so much the grungy, falling-apart aspect as the free-form artistic carnival it (supposedly) was? Hardly.

Many had hoped the recession would bring down rents, making it easier for them to stay. Instead, rents have barely dropped, and the part-time jobs they depend on for survival have become harder to find. Without a strong arts community, New York risks losing its standing as a creative center, which could have a negative impact on numerous industries that depend on talented employees.

I'd really like to see a survey of artists who've left NYC -- was it worth it? One artist friend who still lives here but has spent much of the last few years outside, doing residencies, says he told a group of artists in Portland "they are not missing anything by living out there and not moving to NYC."

"You can live much more affordably elsewhere," he wrote, "and plan two or three strategic one or even two week trips per year to NYC with your savings."

As the Crain's article suggests, that fatigue is catching on.

“There was a romanticism about being an artist in New York that was handed down in stories, but no artist I know is living that kind of life here,” [painter Katya] Tepper says. “In other cities where space is affordable, artists are now living the kind of life we dreamed about in New York.”

How many rabbis can you fit in a room? The organizers of the 27th International Conference of Chabad-Lubavitch Emissaries say about 4,000. The men -- they're all men -- flew in from 76 countries and sat down to a nice meal, some kosher wine and entertainment. The dinner, held this past Sunday, followed several days of conference workshops, as well as a big class picture.

The dining hall was a vast cruiseship terminal on the Brooklyn waterfront. Normally, it's used to process international tourists coming off fancy boats. However, for this occasion the room was rather lovingly decorated and lit to a soft, pastel glow. With great pride, an announcer highlighted the geographical diversity of the gathering: "The shliach to Japan! The shliach to Laos! The shliach to Nepal! The shluchim to Singapore!" (a shliach is an emissary; its plural form is shluchim)

Above the stage was a big photo of the Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson. The Rebbe, as he's known, led the Lubavitcher movement for decades, until his death in the 90s. He's credited with taking orthodox Judaism global, in part by convincing his followers to live in the most un-Jewish places on Earth and connect with lapsed Jews while performing good works. For many in the movement, the Rebbe was considered a messianic figure. He was a charismatic figure, and many believed he was actually The Messiah. Some still do -- and are waiting for him to return.

The room was a sea of black -- men in black suits, dark beards, black hats. Why the hats? Rabbi Mendel Katzman of Omaha, Nebraska says they serve as an ego check.

"The hat is a reminder that there's a power above the highest point in our being -- a reminder of God," said Katsman.

But clothes also speak to attitude: proof that these men still haven't assimilated, despite decades of living abroad.

"We're taught that the uniform that the Jewish people kept when they were in Egypt, enslaved for so many years, was one of the magical tools that kept them from assimilating and getting lost into the Egyptian culture at the time, which was a very powerful force," he said.

Periodically, videos were shown, proclaiming the power of the Chabad network, and to that extent the event seemed calibrated to pump up the crowd. But it was also a family reunion of sorts. Everywhere you looked, there were rabbis embracing each other. Some hardly ever see their brothers and sisters, and don't necessarily like living in strange, exotic lands. But as many of them say, they stay put because it's their life's mission. Rabbi Shlomo Bentolila has lived in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, formerly Zaire, since 1991, despite revolutions and shootings in the streets.

"Chabad has a special mission that Rebbe entrusted us with," he said. "In 1950, when he took over the leadership of Chabad, he entrusted us to bring back the world to the state it was before the sin."

Rabbi Yosef Kantor runs a Chabad center in Bangkok. He says a lot of the people who come through are former Israeli soldiers who might not have been religious otherwise. He tries to give them a nice Jewish experience -- falafel, schnitzel, et al.

"But we also have some Thai dishes like chicken salad, spicy chicken salad," he said. "Sum tum, which is like a spicy papaya salad. We have gudiel, it's like a chicken noodle soup -- very different than the Jewish style chicken soup.

The keynote speaker was a Ukrainian philanthropist, Gennady Bogolubov, who has given $10 million to Chabad (the movement, according to a spokesman, has about a billion dollars in operating costs) and spoke of his ambitious plans to build a huge, seven-tower Menorah Center.

"Each one has a light on top," he said to much applause. "So all of the plane go from Europe to the East will see seven lights."

The high point of the event came immediately after the international roll call. As soon as the band started up, all the rabbis in the room rose and, with arms on each other's shoulders, started dancing around the tables, until the whole room convulsed.

"I come from Cape Town, South Africa, and I was sent there 35 years ago by the rebbe himself," said Mandel Popack, a twinkle-eyed, white-bearded rabbi who couldn't stop moving to the music, "and it's wonderful to see how we're all pooling together to do the same mission, and the mission is to touch and affect with love every single Jew."

And then, at last, the music ended and the dancers were implored to stop dancing. But just when it felt the party was over, dinner was served.

The FDA has proposed making cigarette smoking an even more terrifying experience: they want smokers to confront, in visual form, the consequences of long-term addiction. If a proposal is passed, cigarette manufacturers would be required to put on the packs not just the classic verbal warning, but graphic images like the ones below.

Mayor Bloomberg, noted opponent of smoking, had this to say: "The FDA's proposal to put far tougher – or, to put it another way, accurate – warnings on cigarette packages is a bold step by the Obama Administration to improve our nation’s health and help save countless lives."

But how good are the images themselves? I'd say that in terms of possible effectiveness, they're a mixed bag. While the ones that show actual cancer spots on the lips, and someone who is presumably in a hospital bed, dying, are pretty harrowing, others look like they've been lifted from a comic book. As if they'd become collector's items rather than grotesque reminders of what smoking can do to a person.

Check out the images below -- what do you think?

Former president George W. Bush was on the Today Show with Matt Lauer, promoting his new book, Decision Points, and he was pushed to take a stand on Park 51, the Islamic cultural center and mosque near Ground Zero. As you may recall, at the peak of the controversy this summer, a number of supporters of Park 51 called on him to speak up, in hopes that he would voice support for the project and perhaps chide the most virulently anti-Islamic speakers.

He didn't then, and he refused to today, saying he didn't want to have his words on the issue -- or any other issue -- constantly compared to those of President Obama. Lauer tried to elicit some response, any response on the issue, but didn't get very far.

LAUER: Well, without saying whether they should build the community center or not, are you disappointed by the increase in anti-Muslim rhetoric in this country that we’ve seen recently?

BUSH: I think most Americans welcome freedom of religion and honor religions. I truly do. And the problem with the arena today is a few loud voices can dominate the discussion and I don’t intend to be one of the voices in the discussion.

See this video clip of the interview, from Think Progress.

The full interview is also worth watching, if only to see Kanye West apologize for calling Bush a racist, once upon a time. I think we need to impose an immediate moratorium on Kanye West apologies.

Pervez Musharraf is on a world tour, and apparently he wants his old job back. On Tuesday, the former president of Pakistan (by way of coup) was at the Council on Foreign Relations on the Upper East Side, and, I'm sorry to say, I didn't make the event. But this blistering interrogation, conducted afterward by the BBC's Matt Frei, is as entertaining as it is squirm-inducing.

Pressed by Frei to justify his campaign to return to office, Musharraf says he's more popular than people realize.

MUSHARRAF: I am popular. I know I'm popular.

FREI: How do you know that?

MUSHARRAF: Well, I have a good assessment. I have a good assessment from the Facebook that I have.

FREI: You're basing your popularity on the number of hits you've had on your Facebook site?

MUSHARRAF: No, this is one indicator. I don't take everything so wrong. I mean, obviously, it's one indicator. It's an indicator. I'm not saying it's entirely the Facebook.

Frei grilled Musharraf on his decision to campaign abroad, rather than at home, but Musharraf cited security concerns. He also said people are clamoring for him to come back and "save Pakistan."

Musharraf launched his party, the All-Pakistan Muslim League, this summer. His Facebook page currently has more than 346,000 fans.

Years ago, when I was trying to break into journalism, I pitched a couple of stories to an editor who worked for some big magazines. She seemed to like me, but wasn't too kicked by my ideas.

"I'm sorry," she said. "But religion just isn't... sexy."

It was, of course, a profoundly silly thing to say, and representative of a problem within certain segments of the media: religion, as some see it, is a mawkish, suburban affair, one hardly worth devoting much ink to. Or, as this article at "The Urbanophile" (via Daily Dish) put it, "there's a lot more to religion in the city than abortion protests." The author argues that urbanists need to pay more attention to religious groups "because many urban congregations have mastered the art of outreach and conversion in a way that transit and density advocates can only dream of."

If you really are trying to save souls, then it isn’t enough just to be right, you have to also be effective. That’s the part of the message that’s too often lost on urbanists of various stripes. They are pushing transit, density, sustainability, etc. largely based on a belief that these are self-evidently correct policies. I find that often their ability to sell them to people who are skeptical or come from a different worldview is poor. When people don’t sign on to the latest carbon reduction scheme, rather than blaming a bad sales job, the blame is almost always put on the people rejecting it, such as by calling them idiots, intellectually dishonest, shills for corporations, or “deniers.” I’m sure there are some of these types out there, but I believe the vast bulk of people don’t fall into these categories.

Not all, but a good chunk of religious evangelists actually care about what works. Their mandate doesn’t allow them to simply write off unbelievers as a hopeless sinners. As a result, you often see a lot more analysis of what they think they need to do to be successful in their mission.

There's a Brooklyn hotel boom underway, according to the Daily News -- with four times as many rooms today as there were five years ago -- and that includes hyper-specialized hotels, like the new, 35-room Condor, in Williamsburg. It's the third in the borough targeting Orthodox families and businessmen:

To accommodate families of Hasidic Jews who limit their kids' exposure to popular culture, there are no TVs in the rooms. You won't find Bibles there either, but you will find stands for the wigs traditionally worn by married Hasidic women.

The concierge at the front desk speaks Yiddish. Of course, don't expect anyone to answer the phone from sundown to sunset on the Sabbath, which runs from Friday evening to Saturday evening, or on holidays when the use of phones and other electrical devices is shunned by observant Jews. Also during the Sabbath and holidays, so-called Shabbos elevators stop on every floor.

With a 3,000-square-foot ballroom in the basement (including separate entrances for men and women), the hotel will also try to compete with neighborhood catering halls for weddings and bar mitzvahs.

So, where exactly is Gerritsen Beach? That's what was going through my mind as I read a sensational story about boys being boys (GerritsenBeach.net via Gothamist) on Halloween. An idyllic nook of the city, perhaps, preserving bygone ways of waterfront life and maybe an impenetrable accent that even nearby Sheepshead Bay-ers can't understand?

Well, not so idyllic, it turns out. For these were boys being bad boys. It seems they were out "bombing," Brooklyn style on Sunday night, according to a community blog:

An older man in his late 60′s was driving along Gerritsen Avenue when his car was hit by eggs, when he exited the vehicle he was pelted by dozens of eggs, rocks were thrown, chucks of brick, and someone tossed a hammer. Parents and community members stepped in to protect this man and started to chase the kids to away.

As the Vollies were investigating a possible weed fire. Fire Chief John Czapp’s jeep was pelted and he was hit in the face with an egg. No police responded.

NO POLICE SHOWED UP TO RESPOND. Let’s let that sink in. After possibly dozens or more 911 calls over a two to three hour period NO ONE SHOWED UP.

If you thought the kids behavior was disgusting, the police behavior was incomprehensible.

What are "chucks of brick"? And who are the Vollies? I confess, I can't tell if these are typos or some sort of Gerritsen Beach argot. But it excites me, regardless.

Another confession: I too have participated in egg-throwing -- I was young, it wasn't right. My parents found out and were horrified. Much of Gerritsen Beach is also horrified, if not by the teen mayhem (vandalized MTA buses, etc), then by the public discussion of it.

One of the mothers of a supposed vandal had this to say on the GerritsenBeach.net comment thread:

This is Michaels Mom, YES I did let him go bombing like every other kid in GB! And YES I did tell him to have fun and watch oout for cops!This has been going on for yrs in GB. I allowed eggs and shaving cream. This DID NOT include rocks or potatoes! I am disgusted with this behavior myself and as soon as i heard what was going on I went and picked him up myself.
As far as parenting goes, I am sure no parents knew the extent of what was happening until it was too late. My son is in deep trouble but I am also aware he was not the only one. Remember your calling a 15yr old a dumb ass, arent you an adult??? Kids do stupid things BUT DONT YOU DARE PICK ON MY SON AND START NAME CALLING! I DID NOT CONDONE THIS BEHAVIOR!!

There is also a parallel, and equally serious concern with the terrible grammar practiced by many of the boys on their Facebook pages -- I can't help but wonder if bad online grammar will now become the official litmus test for delinquency. And that makes me worry for America.

At the very least, the NYPD is reportedly looking into the matter, finally, starting with Facebook.

There are serious fringe benefits to liking a team that keeps losing. From MLB.com:

Coming off a second consecutive fourth-place finish in 2010, the Mets on Wednesday announced a pricing program that will reduce the average cost of a ticket by more than 14 percent next year. In total, the team reduced the face values of 62 percent of Citi Field's 41,800 seats.

Som single-game tickets will actually go up, from $11 to $12. But the Mets increased the percentage of tickets available at $15 or less.

Season-ticket holders, ticket-plan and group-ticket customers will also receive an additional 10 percent discount on their tickets.

I know -- the rent is too damn high -- but they couldn't afford a single lightbulb? Seems he made 10k off the commercial, though -- so says Capitol Confidential. Does Jimmy have more ads left in him, or is he getting too damn overexposed?

Alright, PRE-parade pics.

From the Post:

Noise in 98 percent of Manhattan's public space exceeds healthy levels, says a study co-authored by Columbia University researchers to be released today. Honking cars or quarreling neighbors raise our stress, but background noise like truck traffic that New Yorkers take in stride may be even worse, said Robyn Gershon, a Columbia professor.

The study's being presented at the International Conference on Urban Health at the New York Academy of Medicine. Noisiest parks: Upper Manhattan, and in the East 70s, along the FDR.

But not even the vest-pocket parks that are supposed to be oases of quiet are really quiet, the researchers said. Paley Park, on East 53rd between Madison and Fifth; Tudor City Gardens in the East 40s; Greenacre Park on East 51st Street between Second and Third Avenues, and Jackson Square at West 14th Street and Eighth Avenue all had at least 70 decibels of noise at some point during the day.

From a study by the Community Service Society of New York:

Roughly 17 percent of young Puerto Rican men were not in school, employed or looking for work, compared with 9 percent of Dominicans and 8 percent of Mexicans. Of those Latinos born in the United States, only 55 percent of Puerto Rican youth were enrolled in school, compared with 68 percent of Dominicans and 67 percent of Mexicans. Regardless of birthplace, about 33 percent of Puerto Rican families lived below the poverty line, compared with 29 percent of Dominicans and 27 percent of Mexicans. [NYT]

Elsewhere in the study:

Latino youth are largely English-speaking. Most Latino youth were born in New York City, and an overwhelming share (85 percent) speaks English well or very well. Among large Latino groups, only Mexicans, who are just 13 percent of the city’s Latino youth population, have a high share of immigrants and a low share of English speakers.
A greater percentage of Latino youth live in poor and near-poor households than any other racial group. Fifty-six percent of Latino young people live in households with incomes less than 200 percent of the Federal Poverty Level (FPL).
As an overall share of the entire population, Hispanics are the second-largest racial/ethnic group in New York City. With 2,290,007 individuals, they make up 27.6 percent of the entire city population, second behind whites, who are the largest racial group at 35.6 percent.

This pre-election poll by the WSJ could be a game-changer:

For fun, the poll asked registered voters whom among the following public figures they'd most want to leave public life: radio's Howard Stern; former Gov. Eliot Spitzer; real-estate mogul Donald Trump; Rep. Charlie Rangel; TV personality Kathie Lee Gifford; former Mayor Rudy Giuliani; or Rev. Al Sharpton. The former mayor and the reverend earned the most votes, both with 19%, followed by Mr. Stern, with 12%, and Mr. Spitzer, newly of CNN, with 10%. Aides to Rev. Sharpton and Mr. Giuliani did not return a request for comment.

As a kid, my parents didn't have an issue with my going out on Halloween and trick-or-treating. They didn't even hassle us much about bringing home too much candy. Their main concern was probably the same one my sisters and I had: what if we bit into an apple with a razor blade into it?? That was the fear much of America seemed to have in my day -- as if kids of our generation actually had an iota of interest in healthy apples when presented with so many other, more decadent options.

It didn't dawn on me until years later that there are significant chunks of the American public who avoid Halloween, either because it elevates violence (and candy corn), or because of its roots. There are Christians who avoid celebrating Halloween because of its ties to pagan traditions. Plenty of Orthodox Jews don't celebrate, either.

But a couple weeks ago, as I was agonizing over what costume my kid should wear on Halloween, I started wondering about her Muslim friends and classmates, and whether I'd seen them in our little neighborhood parade in the past.

As it turns out, the issue of whether or not to celebrate Halloween is one that many Muslims think about.

"You have posed a very controversial question in the Muslim/Arab world," wrote Liali Albana, in response to my query.

Albana lives in Princeton, New Jersey, and grew up celebrating, although her parents had reservations.

"We thought [of it as] a fun secular celebration that included dressing up and free candy," she wrote. "What more could a kid want?"

These days, Albana says she strongly discourages her son from celebrating, because it's not one of the two main holidays celebrated in Islam. And he's fine with that.

"The fact that he goes to a private school helps a lot too," she wrote, noting that the school organizes alternative activities so that kids don't feel left out. "He often asks me, 'Mommy, what's the point of scaring people? Why do they have a holiday that scares people?' And add to that the idea of mischief night, and you realize that it really is not a harmless holiday. It does not teach us any valuable or moral lessons. It is exactly the opposite. It teaches us that scaring others, throwing eggs at their door, wrapping their porch with toilet paper, and eating a lot of candy is alright. Not to forget the fact that Halloween is a holiday that is still significant for alot of pagan rituals and witch craft."

Ameena Ghaffar-Kucher is Muslim and is organizing the trick-or-treating in her Manhattan building, but she's also an academic who studied 70 Pakistani students in a public high school in New York City. In her dissertation she wrote:

Not surprisingly, none of the youth had any plans on celebrating Halloween, but what was a little unexpected was the way two students, Basaam and once again Tanveer talked about the holiday. Both of them referred to Halloween as a “holiday of the devil” and then laughed as if they were in on a secret that others did not know about. Their reaction implied to me that they thought that they were “superior” because they had no desire to engage in this “pagan” holiday. Yet, to me, their reaction seemed to be a defensive mechanism to cope with their positioning of outsiders--a consequence of the racism in the aftermath of September 11th.

Ameena told me that none of the kids she observed followed Thanksgiving either, or Valentine's Day. In her opinion, "it is a class thing."

"Kids from working class families seem to have a much more restricted view of what is considered "haraam" and "halaal" - and I mean this beyond food!" she wrote. "Beyond class, I think some (national) groups have more restrictive notions of Islam (e.g. Pakistanis are more restrictive than, say, Lebanese Muslims etc)."

It's not just Muslim immigrants who have second thoughts about celebrating. Ibrahim Abdul-Matin, author of "Green Deen," is black, and his early associations with Halloween are distinctly unpleasant.

"I grew up in NYC at a time when murders were at an all time high, when shootouts and automatic gunfire was normal to hear at night, and when my schoolyard was littered with crack vials," he wrote. "On Halloween kids took it as an opportunity to act extra wild; they would beat people up, steal stuff, etc, Halloween was an excuse to be stupid, crazy, and dangerous - another reason i wanted nothing to do with it."

Abdul-Matin is married to an Indian-born Muslim, and they don't plan to celebrate, when they have kids, or to create an alternative event.

"I think parents who secretly felt left out, or who want to be "normal" force the normative experience or the fear of not being left out on their kids. I think folks have to be clear - this is not what we do. End of story."

However, Paula Desrochers-Yakout says she lets her kids dress up, provided they wear "halal" costumes, "such as a pumpkin or a Disney character."

"Halloween just seems American and taking that away to me just seems to be one more thing that makes them different and not really appreciate being Muslim," she wrote. "I want my kids to love being Muslim – not to feel like they are SO different than those that they go to school with. I want them to be PROUD that they celebrate Eid but also have one thing in common that they have fun with."

Caught this girl on the E train. Does inking Lily and Herman on your calves make a bold statement or what?

Thanks, Andre, for the assemblage and Warhol-ing.

Take your mind back to a time long, long ago -- back to the hazy summer days of 2010. Return to September, if you will, when the only issue on everyone's lips was "The Mosque." Beyond the predictable frenzy on cable news, it seemed not a week went by without crowds gathering near Ground Zero, either to voice support for Park 51 and religious freedom, or to rail against The Monster Mosque and sharia. Opponents even issued an ultimatum: Stand with us, and you'll be fine. Stand with the mosque, however, and the voters will remember, and they'll drive you out of office, come November.

In the weeks that followed, the furor over Park 51 died down. Walk by the Park 51 site today, and you'll find the street deserted. There was one cop when I dropped by, and he said no one had visited in a long time -- no vocal supporters, no opponents. He actually sounded wistful.

But if activists have left Park 51 behind, the question is, what about voters? Apparently they've moved on as well.

"The number of people who are going to come out and vote, based on their attitudes towards the mosque, I think, will literally be a handful," said Bernard Whitman. Whitman is a pollster who has worked on Mayor Bloomberg's re-election campaign. He's been traveling around New York state, speaking to likely voters, and found that the issues that matter to them are the big, obvious ones: the economy, high taxes, dysfunction in Albany. The Islamic cultural center and mosque, he said, isn't on anyone's radar.

The furor over Park 51 fits a pattern he's observed with other sensational stories over the years: they may generate massive media coverage, and intense interest with the public, but ultimately, they have little influence on how people actually vote.

Pollster John Zogby said that as polarizing as the mosque debate was at one point, the energy has dissipated across the country.

"It's about the economy, clearly about the economy," he said. "And jobs. And less about foreign issues or less about religious and social issues than at any other time in recent years."

That didn't stop Carl Paladino from revisiting the issue of the mosque. Today he signed a "Hard Hat Pledge," vowing to maintain his opposition to the project, if he gets elected. Earlier, Paladino said he'd invoke eminent domain as governor, to ensure that Park 51 doesn't go forward. But this time, he shifted, saying he'd simply get "the best lawyers" to figure out a plan.

"There's all kinds of alternatives," he said. "People try to lock me in, because I said eminent domain might be an alternative. There's many, many alternatives."

If Paladino has slightly tweaked his approach, other candidates have visibly distanced themselves from the issue, and from opponents of Park 51. Until a few days ago, you would've seen Pam Geller's name on the Endorsements page of Christine O'Donnell, who's running for Senate in Delaware. Geller was an early supporter of O'Donnell, and has since made a name for herself as a lead opponent of Park 51, and her involvement with Stop the Islamization of America. But as you'll see here, Geller's name has been deleted from that list. That doesn't sit well with Geller, who says on her own website that she's the object of a smear campaign by the left. But it does suggest that even with conservative candidates like Christine O'Donnell, there's a wariness of aligning themselves too much with the Stop the Mosque crowd. That ultimately, it didn't make for good politics.

Seen in Jackson Heights, which has a small but noticeable community of Tibetans. But I can't help wonder: At what point does a member of a tiny ethnic minority decides s/he needs to "represent"? I suspect it requires some amount of solidarity -- no point in having a license plate that says "Tibetan" if there aren't any other Tibetans around, is there?

Or maybe that should be square-y hipsters.

As a kid who watched a lot of TV, I had a pretty distinct impression of New York City. From the perch of my La-Z-Boy in the suburbs of Houston, New York seemed bathed in bleakness. This was the late 70s, after all, and it wasn't "On the Town" we were watching, with Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra glorying in the city's offerings, but "Welcome Back Kotter" and "Barney Miller." And even if "All in the Family" and "The Jeffersons" were less bleak, no one was having as much fun as the sexy singles of "Three's Company," set in sunny Santa Monica, California.

And then I actually moved here, in the late 90s, and everything, apparently, had changed. "Friends" and "Sex in the City" defined New York, emotionally and visually. Those sexy singles had moved east, and managed to live in lavish apartments and buy nice shoes and still have time left over to goof around and exult in the theater of the city. They were, barring the inevitable, passing crisis, fairly happy.

So perhaps the latest findings of a survey conducted by the Municipal Art Society aren't entirely shocking, and merely mimic what we've been feeling, and what popular culture has reflected for a while. In short:

84 percent of New Yorkers are either satisfied or very satisfied living in New York City
Nine out of 10 Manhattanites are satisfied with their neighborhood (but 3 out of 10 Bronx residents aren't)
58 percent of Manhattanities think the city has gotten better during their stay here, compared to just 28 percent of Bronx residents
Shocking! 42 percent of New Yorkers earning above $75,000 a year say they're very happy, compared to 29 percent of those who earn less than that
Staten Island is the happiest borough (95 percent) while the Bronx is the not-quite-so-happiest (86 percent)

So what's changed? Vin Cipolla, the president of the Municipal Art Society, says it's hard to tell, given that they didn't conduct any surveys back then, but he thinks New York was generally a more negative town back then.

"I think that's a fair drawdown," he said. "I think that when looks at New York in the 1970s, with crime rates being as high as they were, a lot of dislocation, infrastructure in extraordinarily substantial disrepair, park system that was very largely in shambles, very high unemployment, bankruptcy and corruption, one would probably assume that New Yorkers were probably less satisfied then than they are now. That there's been a sense of steady improvement, I suppose."

Perceptions of what makes for a good lifestyle have also changed, said Edwin Torres of the Rockefeller Foundation, which funded the MAS survey.

"The longstanding paradigm has been the city versus nature," he said. "And we're coming to realize now that with increased population density comes far more sustainable daily lived practices, and I think that's actually doing a lot to shift the public perception of cities these days."

More factoids:

54 percent of New Yorkers favor large chain stores for groceries, with Staten Island leading the boroughs (68 percent)
66 percent of New Yorkers prefer to buy their clothes in chain stores
71 percent of white people favor parks over new housing or shopping, compared to 51 percent of Latinos and 53 percent of African-Americans
37 percent of city residents oppose more housing in their neighborhood
56 percent of Bronx residents rate the variety of restaurants in their area poor or fair

Years ago, I was asked by an editor to head to an Apple Core hotel, in midtown, to attend a mix-and-mingle with the reigning Miss Universe, Lara Dutta. Lara was not only beautiful, she was sweet and even though I didn't represent Esquire or Cosmo -- just India Abroad -- she made chit-chat with me for what felt like five to ten minutes. I remember feeling completely at-ease in her company, even grabbing a few of the Swedish meatballs during pauses (very brief pauses) in the conversation. And at some point, when I noticed I was standing on her foot, I thought, "That's pretty amazing -- she just let me stand there without saying anything!"

These days, of course, Lara is a Bollywood star with such credits as "Billu Barber" and the upcoming "Don 2: The Chase Continues" to her name. Will we ever meet up again and laugh over that foot incident? Who knows. We're both busy people.

If there's one thing that irks me about that evening, so long ago, it's that more people couldn't enjoy Lara's company. As a member of the media, I was able to clear the gatekeepers that society installs between its most attractive people and the hoi polloi. Which is why it's so nice to see what Applebee's has done today: they've persuaded Rima Fakih, the current Miss USA (not Miss Universe, as I incorrectly stated earlier), to welcome all customers who enter their 234 West 42nd Street location. Funny to think that even the most average, un-connected person can meet Miss Universe, all for the price of Wonton Tacos ($10.99). Offer ends at 7 p.m. today, but if you miss it, she'll be heading to the Queens Mall Center Applebees tomorrow.

Just when we were led to believe getting a mosque built in New York was guaranteed to cause controversy, here's an article in the Brooklyn Eagle that says otherwise. This $2 million project in Brighton Beach, meant to serve a community of about 5,000 Turkish-Americans, is set to be Brooklyn's largest mosque, but hasn't generated opposition:

After nearly a decade of fundraising and construction, the four-story American-Turkish Eyup Sultan Cultural Center on Brighton Third Street is scheduled to officially open in early December. The mosque opened temporarily in August for Ramadan, and unlike the controversial Ground Zero cultural center, received very little attention. The Turkish cultural center also escaped the scrutiny of the Bay People, the Sheepshead Bay organization that has feverishly protested a proposed mosque on Voorhies Avenue.

Did you watch "The View" Thursday morning? Neither did I. But it's certainly worth watching this clip, if only to see two of the hostesses-with-the-mostesses, Joy Behar and Whoopi Goldberg, actually walk off the set of their own show. Is that allowed??

The tete-a-tete-a-tete took place over Park 51/Cordoba House/Ground Zero Monster Mosque. Whoopi and Joy didn't like O'Reilly's opposition to the project, and decided they'd had enough when he said Muslims attacked the Twin Towers (as opposed to saying "extremists" did it).

For extra credit, watch this longer clip at Entertainment Weekly. After the two storm off, Barbara Walters slams them for doing so, then turns to O'Reilly and slams him for equating all Muslims with terrorists. He apologizes, kind of. And Joy and Whoopi return to the sofa after about 90 seconds, suggesting that this was ultimately just a carefully coordinated bathroom break.

Tip-pooling is illegal -- who knew?

But that's what a group of disgruntled waiters and bus boys say was going on at Del Posto, yet another legendary restaurant I've never been to. The staffers are taking celebrity co-owners Mario Batali and Lidia Bastianich to court, and are seeking back wages and other compensation. From the AP:

The lawsuit filed Tuesday claims that all workers at Del Posto -- praised a few weeks ago by New York Times food critic Sam Sifton as "a pleasure that lasts, offering memories of flavors that may return later in a dream" -- were subjected to a point system that determined how much they got in gratuities.

Captains -- the highest rung on the waitstaff ladder -- were allotted six points. Bartenders came next with five points, "front waiters" and food "expediters" got four and the other staffers received smaller amounts, with stockers getting two.

The lawsuit also said staff who worked banquets weren't getting their proper share of a 23 percent service charge billed to patrons that they probably assumed was a gratuity. Instead, the workers got a flat fee of $150 to $250 per shift, depending on their role.

When St. Vincent's Hospital closed its emergency room earlier this year, everyone anticipated it would cause problems for patients and hospitals alike, but just how much of a problem? City Limits magazine comes up with some numbers:

Ambulance transport time has increased by an average of three minutes and 15 seconds for all of downtown Manhattan. Triage patients are piling up as they wait for emergency care. Hospitals have expanded hours and pulled residents in to do the work of overtaxed doctors and nurses. Confusion is rampant as doctors try to recreate medical histories for St. Vincent's patients, who don't have access to their medical records. And ER violence has increased, as people in agonizing pain are forced to wait longer and longer for treatment.

Some hospitals are adjusting to the new reality by building new facilities, but for now, downtown hospitals are seriously taxed:

Before St. Vincent's closed, Bellevue racked up 8,000 ER visits a month. Since May, that figure has been closer to 10,000 a month. Before St. Vincent's closed, the hospital had 2,000 ambulance runs a month; in the three months after it closed, ambulance runs jumped to 2,685 a month.

This made the Irish papers a couple weeks ago but I only heard about it yesterday, when Councilman Danny Dromm made an issue of it: Mary McAleese, the president of Ireland, says she won't be able to attend the next St. Patrick's Day Parade, in New York, where she would have served as Grand Marshal. This would be a historic day -- the 250th anniversary of the event -- but according to the Irish Voice, McAleese made a conscious decision to bow out:

The turn down is said to be connected to the issue of gays being refused the right to march in the parade under their own banners, and McAleese's strong relationship with gay and lesbian organizations in Ireland.

As she will also be in the last year of her term in 2011, officials in the president's office were reluctant to become embroiled in a major controversy about her taking part in the parade, which has excluded gay organizations for over 20 years.

The Voice reports that organizers attempted to broker a compromise with McAleese, whereby she would have attended the huge, main parade as well as the much smaller, inclusive St. Pat's for All parade, held a few days earlier in Queens. But that would've been hard for her to fit into her schedule.

Dromm is openly gay and represents Jackson Heights. He is also of Irish descent, and sent a letter to the press yesterday, calling attention to McAleese's decision:

Regardless of her motive, President McAleese, a devout Catholic, has, in her decision not to attend, honored the 1916 Proclamation of the Irish Republic’s promise of “cherishing all children of the nation equally.” Her commitment to this principle has been the hallmark of her career. Fighting for the decriminalization of homosexuality and the legal recognition of LGBT families, President McAleese has been at the forefront of expanding the rights of all Irish. With the recent passage of civil unions, Ireland has far surpassed New York in its commitment to equality. Notably, Irish legislators overwhelmingly passed the measure, another refection of how far Ireland has come.

Brendan Fay runs the St. Pat's for All parade, and said this to Irish Central:

I was not at all surprised by McAleese’s decision to decline. President McAleese is known as an inclusive bridge builder, a leader who is sincerely committed to bringing people together. A hallmark of her presidency has been outreach to all groups and communities in Irish society, including Irish LGBT groups.

McAleese's decision also drew praise from the Irish Queers group, which is pressuring the NYPD to stop marching in the parade.

Prosecutors in the Times Square bombing case have introduced further evidence, prior to sentencing, indicating that Faisal Shahzad saw himself as part of a global campaign against America. This video includes clips from what appears to be a sit-down speech he made in a studio of sorts, prior to the May 1 bombing attempt.

"I have been trying to join my brothers in jihad ever since the 9/11 happened," he says in the video.

You can also see what investigators say the damage would've been, had Shahzad succeeded in exploding his vehicle.

Shahzad pled guilty to all 10 charges against him. He will be sentenced next week.

The developers behind Park51, the Islamic cultural center and mosque two blocks from Ground Zero, have been conspicuously low-key about the project. But they've finally given us a slightly better sense of what they're planning, with the release of 3 renderings: one exterior shot and two interiors. All in all, the images suggest a highly contemporary visual aesthetic, dominated by an outer shell that could best be termed web-like or exoskeletal. The architectural firm is Soma.

There's something particularly relevant and zeitgeisty about participatory art. Like crowdsourcing, art that requires the involvement of the citizenry -- that is actually for the worse without it -- offers a nice, robust update on the democratic project.

That's the theory, at least. In practice, I'm not so sure. Take Yoko Ono's "Wish Tree," which took root in the MoMA courtyard this summer. The artist has asked viewers to complete the tree by writing down their wishes on little tags and hanging them on the tree.

I got my first look last week and can safely make this suggestion: the citizenry should keep their day jobs.

The vast majority of wishes offered to the Wish Tree fall into these two categories:

"I Want to Be Happy"
"I Wish for Peace"

On the more creative side, if not paradigm shifting, were "I Want a Vespa!" and the wishes of one German participant, "A House, A Tree, A Baby (Coming Soon)," shown above.

Yoko Ono has planted other Wish Trees around the world, including one outside the Hirschhorn Museum, in DC, and based on my viewing there a year or two ago, it was a far more interesting, whimsical experience than the one at the MoMA. Then again, the contemporary art scene is a lot better in New York. Perhaps the lesson is this: the better the city's art scene, the more unimaginative its museumgoers.

There was a time when the immigration policies of various European countries might have seemed well outside the purview of a humble blog such as this, but Park 51 has changed all that. After all, the star of the September 11 rally opposing Park 51 was Geert Wilders, the Dutch politician whose Freedom Party has rapidly gained power on the basis of his anti-Islamic proposals, including taxing headscarves and banning the Koran. The prime organizer against Park 51, Pam Geller, also helps run Stop Islamization of America, part of a network of groups that includes Stop Islamization of Europe, Stop Islamization of Denmark (and England, and France, etc.).

So Americans are now participating in a much broader debate on the integration of Muslims into Western society.

Can the Tea Party capitalize on anti-Park 51 sentiment in the upcoming elections? In Sweden, the far-right Sweden Democrats have won 20 parliamentary seats -- after never having won any -- based in part on an anti-immigrant stance. In this ominous campaign video, a pack of burqa-clad women outrace an old white lady to a stack of welfare cash.

And in Germany, which has about 4 million Muslim immigrants (most of them from Turkey), former finance minister Thilo Sarrazin has caused a firestorm with a new book that criticizes the country's immigration policies. Here's how Der Spiegel puts it:

The ideas are crudely formulated: Muslim immigrants have contributed nothing to German prosperity; the high fertility rates among the country's Muslim community have resulted in the reduction of Germany's collective IQ; Muslim immigrants would prefer to be on welfare than to work; Jews share a specific gene.

Sarrazin was forced out of his job at the central bank, but the popular reaction has been quite different:

Criticism bordering on revulsion dominated the first wave of the reaction. Politicians and opinion leaders condemned Sarrazin almost unanimously.

But then it slowly became apparent that many citizens agreed with Sarrazin. The publisher announced that, due to high demand, it was going to increase the book's initial printing to 250,000 copies. Furthermore, Internet forums and political events made it clear that Sarrazin -- a member of the center-left Social Democrats, which has initiated proceedings to throw him out of the party -- had broad public support. Many are saying he is right; or, even if he does make a mistake here and there, he isn't being treated fairly.

Of course, it's too early to say whether the current uproar in America is going to be sustained, or if it's merely a passing controversy; some Democrats, as well as Mayor Bloomberg, suggest the upcoming elections are driving the furor. And even this piece in "The Hill" implies the issue has become "too hot to touch" for Dems and Republicans alike:

And with fewer than seven weeks before November’s midterm elections, political analysts and experts say that if candidates attempt to resurrect the controversies, it will be to their own political peril.

“Both sides smell danger on this issue,” said Bill Galston, a former senior adviser to President Bill Clinton and senior fellow of governance with the Brookings Institute.

“The Republicans [are wary] because they run the risk of going over the top and looking narrow and bigoted, which is never a good thing to appear, particularly to independent voters, who are so important in these midterm elections,” he said.

“And on the Democratic side there is clearly the fear that if they hit the civil liberties and intolerance theme too hard, that’ll play very well in liberal districts but maybe not so well in swing districts where people are maybe a little bit more ambivalent about the whole thing.”

Think your train's crowded? Try standing in line for five days just to board a train -- that's how bad the crowds are in the days leading up to the Lunar New Year for the 120 million-odd migrant workers who want to travel home for the holidays each year.

Lixin Fan's great documentary "Last Train Home" zeroes in on two such workers -- a married couple, living thousands of miles from their young son and daughter. That physical distance translates into an even greater emotional disconnect: The surly 17-year-old daughter becomes increasingly vocal about how much she resents her parents, with their brief annual visits and predictable lectures. And they're becoming increasingly panicked by her disinterest in her school, and her forays into the dead-end world of the factory. Somehow, amazingly, the filmmaker happens to convey both the enormous scale of China's migrant problems, and the intimacy of one family's drama.

In their own review of "Last Train Home," NPR cites the scholar Marshall Berman, who argued that the "great drama of modernity" is the way in which the world's citizens move from being defined by history "to subjects who struggle to define their own relationship to a world in which everything is changing."

Moments like that recur throughout this movie, but there is one explosive scene when it's perfectly encapsulated. The family is all gathered at home, in the village, and the daughter swears at her dad, saying he never cared about her, only about making money. It's a ridiculous, childish thing to say, but the father crosses the room and starts hitting her. Remarkably -- for clearly she is no longer a child, after all -- she starts hitting back. And then she looks straight into the camera and she screams, "You wanted to know what I was like -- well, this is the real me! Are you happy?!"

If that sounds like it's straight from the sets of Jerry Springer, be warned, it's far more real than that. Phenomenal film, but as I told a colleague, you'll leave feeling like you've been kicked in the gut.

"Last Train Home" is playing at the IFC and BAM Rose cinemas.

New York is filled with people who have, 'how'd you get that job?' careers. And street fashion bloggers may have one of the most unique gigs in the city.

The blogs offer a global slideshow of what stylish people are wearing and how they pull off their looks. There's millions of these sites worldwide. They're kinda like reading a daily online fashion magazine starring real people instead of celebrities and models.

But they seemed to have popped up from nowhere. So I got in touch with Phil Oh, who runs the blog streetpeeper.com, to find out what the appeal is. Turns out he's not exactly sure either.

Phil's been running the site for four years now, after he began snapping photos of hangers-on outside Paris' fashion week with, get this... a point and shoot camera (he's since upgraded to a Cannon 5D).

I spent the day with him seeking out subjects for his blog in Williamsburg and SOHO. He says it's hard to describe what it is he looks for...but it's definitely not someone who's in a trendy outfit, i.e., whatever the latest style craze is. Instead he prefers his subjects to take some sort of fashion risk.

Even though there's people everywhere, Phil likes to be personally inspired before taking any shots.

The whole thing seems like a sweet gig. The photography end consists of a lot of wandering or "hanging out," preferably on a nice day. He catches someone out of the corner of his eye, asks them if he can photograph them for the blog and takes their name and a general discription of what they're wearing or at least where they got it. The photos get uploaded to the site, filed under the city they were taken in. The blog allows Phil to travel to 20 different cities around the world to document their street style. Once the pics are uploaded, visitors to streetpeeper.com can cross-reference the pictures by styles (sequins), designers (McQueen) or even fabrics (wool).

The blog offers style inspiration as well as trend forecasting, and advertisers have started to take notice. Even some traditional fashion magazines have approached Phil to publish some of his blog photos. All this has turned the site from a hobby into a business. In addition to traveling around the world, Phil's also begun getting invites to fashion shows — and he's not alone. Street bloggers have been taking a more prominent position in the industry.

But Simon Collins, dean of fashion at Parsons, says they're great for entertainment, but maybe not as barometers for the business. Phil, like most bloggers, isn't necessarily trained in fashion — heck, he's not even a trained photographer. So the narriative of the photos on his blog are strictly his point of view. You could easily argue that's the whole point of a blog. But Collins says he gets concerned when the opinions of bloggers are given equal status as those of Cathy Horyn, New York Times Style Editor, or even Bill Cunningham (he's widely considered to be the orginator of the photography style so many street bloggers use. The only difference is his photos are posted to the New York Times website and not, say, BillCunningham.com.)

Regardless of the value that should or should not be placed on the street blogs, there is one undeniable contribution they bring to the fashion industry: free access to the organic creativity of regular people on the street.

And what artist whose work is specifically created to be used by people wouldn't want to know how they're using it?

The Anti-Defamation League caused a firestorm when it came out in opposition to the Islamic Center near Ground Zero. It claimed, with a rationale that has become common among critics, that while the developers had the right to build there, it was not right to build there. Many people in the interfaith community felt ADL had betrayed its core values.

Last week, the ADL surprised a few more people by announcing creation of an Interfaith Coalition on Mosques. From the release:

From Florida to California, ugly rhetoric has replaced civil dialogue at local government planning meetings and community debates over proposals by Muslims citizens to exercise the rights guaranteed to everyone in America. "The level of hostility, fear mongering and hate speech is unacceptable and un-American," the coalition stated.

Working under the sponsorship of the Anti-Defamation League, which initiated the concept, ICOM will carefully monitor incidents of mosque discrimination around the country, gather facts and analyze the information, and speak out when appropriate to help Muslim communities who are encountering prejudice. "We will not take political sides. We will not make decisions based on ideology," the coalition said in its statement.

Eboo Patel, a Muslim activist and prominent supporter of the project, wrote in HuffPo about being courted by ADL's Abe Foxman, before signing on to the new coalition:

So when I got a phone call from Abe Foxman inviting me to join a new committee that the ADL has put together to fight protests against mosques in America, I could barely suppress the urge to say "take a hike." But, in the Ramadan spirit of patience and forbearance, I decided to have a conversation instead of hang up the phone.

I told him I disagreed with his position on Cordoba House, and then I asked him a few questions. "I see the anti-mosque protests as a symptom of a far larger issue, the problem of an increasingly mainstream anti-Muslim bigotry. Are you willing to talk about that?"

He was.

"This anti-Muslim bigotry didn't drop from the sky; it's been manufactured and advanced by what I call the industry of Islamophobia. Will you call them out?"

He would.

"The ADL has significant political capital, a century-long history of fighting bias and a staff of 350 people all over the country. Will fighting anti-Muslim bigotry become a real priority for your institution?"

He said yes.

In fact, he'd already started.

I've only recently started eating at Shake Shack, and have fallen hard for their frozen custard (the blueberry, so very creamy). And after generally avoiding beef for years, I've made return trips for their cheeseburgers, which I've concluded are superior to those of Five Guys — certainly less unwieldy.

But let us set aside such childish pursuits as all-beef patties, and consider this article by Patrick Arden in Next American City, asking "whether the city’s reliance on private-funding schemes was creating disparities between parks in wealthy and poor neighborhoods."

In 2009 Shake Shack collected revenues of $4.9 million; $220,256 of that went to the city and $348,389 to the park. Concessions in other parks pay as much as 20 percent of their take to the city, but not [owner Danny] Meyer, whose company adds to its profits by catering private parties in the park for $15,000 an hour. When Meyer opened his fast-food stand, he was the director and co-founder of the Madison Square Park Conservancy, the nonprofit that oversees the public park.

Just to be clear, I've never eaten at the notoriously over-patronized Madison Square Park Shake Shack, only the UWS and Times Square locations — but I digress.

Arden gives numerous examples of the "big business" that public parks have become:

Few may object to the $364,000 salary paid to Central Park Conservancy president Douglas Blonsky, because his group is responsible for raising 85 percent of Central Park’s $27 million annual operating budget....

But those two parks now exemplify how lucrative the conservancy model can be. The Bryant Park Corporation took in more than $8.8 million in 2007 and its executive director, Daniel Biederman, picked up $210,000 for overseeing its 9.6 acres. Over at the Madison Square Park Conservancy, president Debbie Landau pulled in $185,000 — and her sister Maggi made $114,962.

Arden also notes that Robert Hammond, executive director of Friends of the High Line, earned $280,000 last year — "$75,000 more than the salary of [Adrian] Benepe, the city’s parks commissioner."

The problem, as Arden sees it, is not so much the fat paychecks in the private sector, it's the continuing cuts in public funding:

In 1960 parks maintenance and operations claimed 1.4 percent of city funds. Mayor Bloomberg’s new $63.6 billion budget would send parks’ percentage to a record low of 0.37 percent, or $239 million. (Chicago spent almost $150 million more last year on 21,000 fewer acres.) The mayor’s cut would drop the full-time workforce below 3,000, less than half the number employed by the Parks Department in 1970. “No other city agency has lost a greater percentage of its workforce over the last 40 years,” says [Geoffrey Croft, president of the watchdog group NYC Park Advocates]. “Private money will never make that up."

Arden and parks advocates say the “Golden Age for Parks” that Adrian Benepe claims is more like a Gilded Age, "with wide — and growing — disparities between lavish, showplace parks for the haves and cast-off parcels for the have-nots. For every Madison Square, Bryant Park or High Line, there are hundreds of parks that depend solely on the city, and many suffer from scandalous neglect."

On a clear, warm September Saturday, the mall at Lincoln Center was buzzing with fashion industry insiders scurrying to get to or from the latest shows and the curious onlookers who showed up to watch them. In simple terms, Lincoln Center was bumpin’.

Lots of fashion magazines sent photographers, charged with documenting the ‘street style’ at Lincoln Center outside the tents. And there was a lot to see.

Making my way through the mall past the fashionistas, someone instantly caught my attention. An older gentleman in a head to toe peach suit -- yes, peach. His name is Arthur Gonsalves and he tells me he’s a former model. He worked for Esquire in the late 70’s and early 80’s and makes a point of attending New York’s Spring Fashion Week each year. Does he always wear peach? No. Everyday of the festival (Can you call Fashion Week a festival? Outside the tents it certainly feels like one.) he’s in a different color.

The entrance to the tents is guarded by three very large, burly security guards, appropriately dressed in black. They are armed with walkie talkies that they use when they occasionally allow a VIP past the velvet ropes. Were there celebrities? I can’t say, but in this crowd it seemed like anyone with press credentials or an invitation to a show was a VIP.

Standing close to the ropes studiously checking out everyone who went in and out were Laura Cassidy, Haley Birkelbach and Kathy Birkelbach, hoping to see someone they recognized. The mother, daughter and daughter-in-law happened to be visiting New York from Dallas during Fashion Week and decided check it out. They spent Friday binging at Fashion's Night Out festivities. They agree that the biggest difficulty they’re having with New York Style is figuring what they will wear when they get back to Texas.

Of the many stylishly dressed women in the crowd, I met two from the Netherlands who were working the crowd: Patricia van der Neut and Silvana Naipal. They own PR company Brand Revolution and edit a fashion blog, never a dull day.

Meanwhile, around the corner, Fashion Week journalists were crammed in the Media trailer, editing copy and photos before posting them on the Web. As I walked by and glanced in, I could see every one of them starring intently at a laptop. Ahhh, deadlines.

At about 11:05 this lazy Sunday morning, I had a sudden, seizing revelation: Fall for Dance tickets had gone on sale, just 5 minutes earlier. I tossed my almond croissant down on the table and ran to my computer. A few seconds later, I was on New York City Center's Web site, only to discover that I was Number 2,578 on the waiting list.

Is all lost? Have I lost my chance to see Merce Cunningham's Xover, Paul Taylor's Company B, or Keigwin + Company's Megalopolis, featuring music by Steve Reich and MIA? All at the unbeatable price of ten dollars?

Hard to say. Fifty minutes later, I am Number 616; my wife is somewhere in the 800s and a friend of ours, with whom we're coordinating, is just a few slots behind me. According to the Web site, I could've gotten onto the waiting list at 10 am. This is the first year the Fall for Dance crew has created a virtual waiting room. The organizers have clearly realized what a huge institution the dance series has become -- but that's what $10 tickets and a certain populist bent will do to the masses. Dance has become enormously popular in this country -- consider the clout of TV shows So You Think You Can Dance and Dancing With the Stars -- but for most of us, accessing the physical world of dance seems a daunting process. And expensive. In addition to grappling with ticket prices that are often well above what it costs to say, watch a movie, one has to contend with dance reviews that can seem impenetrable and academic to outsiders.

Which is why Fall for Dance works. I've attended for the last three or four years and although there are invariably some drowsy classical routines, or coldly abstract contemporary ones, I generally have faith in the curation.

Okay, it's been over an hour and I'm still only Number 417 -- despite the Web site promising a max wait time of one hour. Everything seems to have stalled. My friend just called and said he'd suddenly been pushed back, from Number 500 to Number 1,200. Fall for Dance, what's happening here??

Ahh, Fall for Dance Helpdesk staff is apparently on the job. "Temporary slow down," the Web site just announced. "Things should be improving now!"

Where was I?

Worst case, you go for a show (this season, shows run from Sept. 28 through Oct. 9), it disappoints, and you're out ten bucks. But for those of us who lack the mental stamina to sit through a single, exhausting performance, FFD makes sense, as it offers a mezze: a platter of dance selections, culled from major and not-so-major performances. And the energy in the crowd is palpable: thousands of audience members, many of them as excited, and inarticulate, about dance as you are.

Uh-oh. "There was a temporary issue with the credit card server (for about 5 minutes) but now we're back!"

Number 59... Number 4... alright, I'm finally in, a mere 100 minutes after logging in.

Lots of tickets were already sold out, but I was able to get blocks of 5 seats for three shows:

Merce Cunningham/Gallim Dance/Madhavi Mudgal/Miami City Ballet
Shu-Yi/San Francisco Ballet/Emanuel Gat Dance/Paul Taylor
Keigwin+Company/Corella Ballet Castilla Y Leon/Russell Maliphant Company/Jason Samuels Smith & Friends

Total cost for 16 tickets (I got 6 tickets for one of those shows): $272

Those confounded "facility fees" bump up the per-ticket price to $17. Annoying, but still, not too bad. And for some reason I'm feeling a sense of accomplishment. And expectation. For those of you got through in time: See you at City Center.

Who had the bigger turnout?

That's the issue I'm grappling with right now -- whether there were more people at the rally and march supporting Park 51, or the rally just a couple blocks away opposing it. A few weeks ago, there was no question that opponents outnumbered supporters, perhaps two (or even three) to one, and had a far more sophisticated setup: a proper stage and soundsystem from which rock music blared, and a crowd armed with eye-catching signs. The supporters, on the other hand, had just a handheld megaphone and a stool that speakers stood on, to address the crowd.

This time, opponents seemed to outnumber supporters, but not by much (in fact, The Associated Press estimates that supporters outnumbered opponents, 2000 to 1500). The tone at the opponents' rally was also more somber, given that the 9/11 commemoration ceremony had taken place just hours earlier. There was only one sign screaming "Sharia" in red, drippy letters, whereas at the previous rally, there were many. On a jumbo-vision screen above the stage, speakers including John Bolton, the former US ambassador to the United Nations, addressed the crowd. Geert Wilders, the Dutch politician who leads the Partij voor de Vrijheid, or Party for Freedom, and is one of the world's most prominent critics of Islam, made an appearance.

Strangely, the opponents' rally was filled with people who support Park 51 and were either too curious to stay away from their ideological enemies or just hoping to start conversations. And opponents engaged right back.

"I don't see Christians building churches on top of mosques, or synagogues," one man calmly said, in response to the arguments of a supporter. "I don't see Japanese building a Buddhist temple in Pearl Harbor. I don't see Germany trying to open an embassy near Holocaust Museum. I don't see this."

One supporter who had wandered into the opponents' camp, a woman by the name of Yasmeen Turayhi, was even giving interviews to international TV crews, as opponents stood around her, holding anti-Islam signs.

"Next year, it's going to be three blocks, or four blocks, or five blocks," she told one interviewer. "What's to say that tomorrow, they're going to take a crusade against other religious groups, or other minority groups? The Crusades were in Spain, okay. If you honestly [think] the mosque shouldn't be built here, then there should be no churches built near where any of the Crusades took place."

Whereas the opponents were relatively contained in their passions, the supporters of Park 51 had a more festive vibe, breaking into song or simply joking around as they marched around Foley Square and City Hall. The diversity was also striking: old-school hippies joined socialists calling for more work, and blaming Obama and his foreign policy for stoking Islamophobia; Japanese Buddhist nuns and monks walked solemnly, while beating fan drums with sticks and chanting for peace. Compared to the last rally, there were far more Muslims in attendance.

"Even today, I've had a couple of family members who were telling me not to go," said Maywish Abid, who came from Jersey City with friends. "But you know, we have to go. We can't stand back too long."

With preparations going on in lower Manhattan for the 9/11 memorial services and protests of the proposed mosque and cultural center just blocks away, Fashion's Night Out still lured shoppers to their favorite stores in TriBeCa.

The neighborhood hosted 13 events -- part of the second-annual, city-wide Fashion's Night Out event -- which catered to just about every fashion taste.

SInce WNYC is in the neighborhood, I wandered through and checked out 4 stores.

My first stop: Issey Miyake on Hudson Street. The Japanese designer (who wasn't actually there) was debuting his fall men's collection, inspired by the perfect New York fall drink -- coffee. In fact, part of the collection includes pieces made from cotton fabric printed to look like the swirls milk makes when you first poor it into coffee. Pretty interesting.

In honor of the line, a nearby coffee shop was providing free coffee to help 'stimulate' shoppers experience.

A few blocks away, Steven Allen was busy mingling with everyone in his packed Franklin Street store. Although it bears his name, in addition to his creations, the store also represent 20 different designers. And for Allen, Fashion's Night Out is less about the store, and more about the cause they're supporting, Goods 4 Good. Allen's store donated a percentage of the money they raised to purchase fabric they then send to Malawi, where Goods 4 Good teaches children how to cut and sew their own school uniforms. Kinda like fashion for fashion. Examples of the kids' work hung in the window and was on display in the store.

Down on West Broadway, edgy modern women checked out live jazz music at A Uno. At least that's how owner Ann Benedetto described her clientele. The store, or the space as she called it, is just a few blocks north of the World Trade Center. I walk past it every evening on my way to the PATH. Benedetto's been in the neighborhood since 2002, because she believed the type of clothes she wanted to carry -- edgy yet casual clothes by mostly smaller European designers -- would sell to an urban audience. I love them for their fabulous hats.

Over on Nassau Street, Grown & Sewn debuted 'Kaxs.' What? They're pants given different treatments and washes. Everything is made from natural cotton fibers and designed by store owner Rob Magness.

The TriBeCa stores participating in Fashion's Night Out may not have been as crowded as those in other parts of the city that boasted celebrity appearances, but the atmosphere in lower Manhattan spokr to the relaxed neighborhood feel that drew their designers down here in the first place.

Fashion week is upon us and Mercedes Benz is taking all of the glitz, glamour and general fabulousness Uptown to Lincoln Center.

Only you wouldn't notice it if you're just walking by. Now, I'm sure by this afternoon, the entire mall will be buzzing with people, but last night only a handful were wandering around. I'm convinced I saw Betsey Johnson with an entourage of supermodels scurry by, but who knows.

The actual entrance to the tents this year looks like it was built to blend into Lincoln Center limestone theaters: it's two stories high with steps that mimic the center's own steps leading down to the street. The Mercedes Benz sign is made of a canvas painted to look like the granite on nearby buildings. Unlike Fashion Week's former Bryant Park home, here you can't even see the tents.

The main steps were roped off with, what else? Red velvet ropes, and hanging out just outside the ropes, a small group of photographers. The very people the runway girls strike their fiercest pose for at the end of the catwalk. They've been covering the shows for 10 years but said they were worried about how they'd handle this years festivities. Having worked the show from Bryant Park for the past several years, they know the lay of the land there, where to get lunch, the best way to get around that neighborhood, etc.

Now that's all sort of a question mark, and and you can't very well be late to a show because you got lost or stuck in traffic on your way back from lunch. Also, only the big shows (Dolce & Gabbana, Calvin Klein, Chanel) will be held at Lincoln Center. Everybody else (lesser known, up and coming designers) will still be downtown at Milk Studios on 15th Street as well as other downtown locations. Traveling between the two locations, in Manhattan, during rush hour may be impossible.

(From L to R: Jennifer Polixenni Brankin, Edward James, Rodin Banica, Amon Varney, Ed Kavshe, Cindy Ord)

Although they should have a chance, Marc Jacobs and Ralph Lauren are both supposed to skip Lincoln Center in favor of downtown shows this year. Word amongst these photogs is, "Keep your fingers crossed for the independents, cause the world doesn't know who they are." Shows are being held Uptown and Downtown Thursday.

The No.1 subway line has been renamed in honor of the festivities, now we just have to see how many fashionistas use it instead of private cars.

(Photos by Stephen Nessen)

Just in case you missed it, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf emerged from his two-month silence on Park 51 with this op-ed in the NYT:

We are proceeding with the community center, Cordoba House. More important, we are doing so with the support of the downtown community, government at all levels and leaders from across the religious spectrum, who will be our partners. I am convinced that it is the right thing to do for many reasons.

What's that, you ask -- he's calling it Cordoba House? What happened to Park 51, the tony, rebranded name for the project? Amidst all the furor, perhaps this is a minor point. But still, it confuses.

One more thing: a fellow reporter pointed out that Rauf does not explicitly say the project is proceeding at the same location. Was that a simple oversight on his part, or should we interpret that to be the beginning of a rollout, announcing a new venue?

Personally, I didn't read it that way.

To say the project is going forward, in my opinion, while actually planning to move it, would feel like he's got his fingers crossed behind his back. After all, "The Project" is all about location right now, at least in terms of the public debate and the feelings of 9/11 family members who consider this an affront.

Regardless of one's politics, among the most arresting images from the whole Park51 furor was the sign that proclaimed "SHARIA." Waved about by many opponents of Park51, its dripping, blood red letters made clear that for some, this controversy has little to do with real estate or proximity to Ground Zero. The larger fear is that radical Islam is plotting a stealth invasion of this country.

But this time, signs are a no-no.

Last week, Pam Geller and Robert Spencer, two of the primary opponents of Park51, sent out this note about the big rally planned for 9/11:

Robert and I respectfully request that those of you who will be attending our protest against the Ground Zero mega mosque bring American flags, not signs. 9 x 12 (inches) sized flags. Nothing with big poles: the NYPD won't allow big poles. Please get the word out now.

We are asking that we all respect and honor that day with the flags, states flags, flags of other countries.. lots of flags...PLEASE don't bring signs. Nothing politically aggressive on a day of mourning. It is a solemn day. No signs. FLAGS. Tens of thousands of flags.

It's possible that the organizers are also responding to fears, expressed by some 9/11 families who also oppose Park51, that the protest will look bad, given that it's being held on 9/11. Signs expressing a particularly incendiary opposition to Islam, or immigrants in general, could backfire against organizers.

It just so happens that opponents aren't the only ones who are avoiding signs. Supporters are, too. This is from the website of New York Neighbors for American Values, the coalition that recently came together:

Please bring candles and American flags, but no signs. We are gathering in peaceful, respectful remembrance and unity. Our program will include music and words of wisdom from faith leaders and elected officials. Please wear white in solidarity and peace.

According to the NYPD, at least five groups have applied for sound permits for Park51-related rallies. Those rallies include the International Action Center (pro), as well as this one planned by Elijah Ministries (against):

Saints! We are witnessing a historical event in our nation. You have the opportunity to join OSA September 11, 2010, as we stand at ground zero in New York City and beseech the King of Kings to turn this nation from the destructive path that we are upon. As plans are being made to build a mosque in the very place that Islamic terrorists murdered almost 3000 Americans on that fateful day, we are calling Christians to come, stand, and storm the very throne room of God on behalf of our once great Christian nation. More details to come, including hotels in the area.

Just yesterday I cited an article in The American Muslim magazine asking where Muslim leadership has been over the Park51 issue. Well, today those leaders finally appeared: on the steps of City Hall. The group, known as the Majlis Ash-Shura of Metropolitan New York, aka the Islamic Leadership Council, braved the furious heat (remember, observant Muslims aren't even drinking water these days) and the questions of a sizable press contingent as they tried to reframe the story.

The real issue, they said, wasn't Park51 per se -- it's the use of this controversy to drum up opposition against mosques across America, and against Muslims, to the extent that Muslims have been violently attacked and mosques desecrated.

"We call upon the political and the religious leaders of this nation to stop fanning the flames of hatred," said Imam Al-amin Abdul Latif, the president of the Majlis, who wore his beard a brilliant henna orange.

Like Latif, the vast majority of the imams who attended the event were of African descent. With a couple of exceptions, Arab, South Asian and Indonesian leaders were absent. Aside from religious leaders, Robert Jackson also spoke -- he's the only Muslim member of the City Council -- as well as Congressman Charlie Rangel.

Does the Majlis have clout? I put the question to a Muslim activist the other day. He laughed (by email) and suggested, not as much as it likes to think. But this was the first event organized by Muslims that has tried to push back against opponents of Park51. And judging by the media turnout, there is a real interest in hearing from Muslims on this issue, especially in the absence of Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf of Park 51 (who only returned today from abroad).

Imam Talib Abdur Rashid pointed out that Ground Zero has meaning for Muslims as well, given that hundreds of Muslims died on 9/11.

"There were Muslim firemen," he said, "Muslim police officers, Muslim EMTs, Muslims chaplains, both male and female, who ministered to the families."

I'm not sure whether the author of this piece -- on the lack of American Muslim leadership over Park 51 -- was going for irony, but I must admit, it amused. From The American Muslim magazine:

Who speaks for American Muslims? So far, the bravest and strongest and most regularly heard voices on behalf of Muslims in this crisis have been Mayor Bloomberg and Jon Stewart who are both Jewish.

At this weekend's dueling rallies over the proposed Islamic cultural center and mosque near Ground Zero, this much was clear: The opposition to the project is larger and much better organized. In addition to having at least double the turnout of supporters, opponents had a stage and soundsystem and proper, printed signs that conveyed something to people watching on their TV sets, anywhere in the world.

Now, supporters of the Park51development are hoping to change that. Tomorrow, a large coalition of groups and individuals (full list below) is announcing its formation. It's called the Coalition of New York Neighbors for American Values, and it includes the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, Manhattan Young Democrats, Common Cause/New York, CAIR-NY and the New York Civil Liberties Union.

Separately, Frank Fredericks, who briefly worked as a consultant for the Cordoba Initiative, and who happens to be a Born Again Christian, has co-founded Religious Freedom USA, which is organizing its first event on September 12: the Liberty Walk, which will stop by various religious institutions, including the site of Park51. Fredericks says the group will help address the fear, as he sees it, that many Americans have of Muslims, and help understand the place of Muslims in American society.

The group says it expects 1,000 to 2,000 people at its event, but is asking people to not bring signs -- just American flags.

List of groups in Coalition of New York Neighbors for American Values:

Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF), Auburn Theological Seminary, Brooklyn for Peace, Citizen Action of New York, Common Cause/New York, Community Voices Heard, Convergence of Cultures/NY, Council on American-Islamic Relations-NY, Demos, Downtown Independent Democrats, Good Jobs New York, Greater NYC for Change, Greater New York Labor-Religion Coalition, Interfaith Center of New York, Islamic Mission of America inc., Jews for Racial and Economic Justice [JFREJ], Judson Memorial Church, Lower Manhattan Democrats (LMD), Manhattan Young Democrats, Middle East Crisis Response (MECR), Muslim Consultative Network, Muslim Public Affairs Council -NYC

New York Civil Liberties Union, New York Theological Seminary, New York City New Sanctuary Movement, Pax Christi Metro New York, The Dialogue Project, The New York City Chapter of Humanist Party, The Shalom Center, Woodstock International and Talat Hamdani

Mother of Mohammad Salman Hamdani NYPD Cadet, EMT< WTC II, Hester Eisenstein, Sociology, Queens College and the Graduate Center , Jennifer Baumgardner, Co-Owner, Soapbox Inc., Serene Jones, President, Union Theological Seminary , Rev. Charles H. Straut, Jr., DMin, Consultant in Ministry, New York Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church, Dr. Diane Steinman, Co-Chair, New York State Interfaith Network for Immigration Reform, Luis Barrios, Ph.D., BCFE, St. Mary’s Episcopal Church, Professor, John Jay College of Criminal Justice- Department of Latin American & Latina/o Studies, Peter Marcuse, Professor emeritus of Urban Planning, Columbia University, Rev. Freeman Palmer, Metro Association Minister, United Church of Christ, New York Conference, Rev Dr Rita M Root, Interim Conference Minister, New York Conference, United Church of Christ, Rev. Dr. Robert L. Brashear, Pastor, West-Park Presbyterian Church, Tarak Kauff , Veterans For Peace, MECR, Editor Woodstock International newspaper*

*Organization listed by the coalition for identification purposes only.

Most of the coverage of today's Siena poll has focused on the large majority of New York voters -- 63%-- that opposes the mosque near Ground Zero. That's even higher than last week's Marist poll, which showed 53% opposition.

But even more interesting than that first question is the follow-up, focusing on constitutionality.

Regardless of whether you personally support or oppose the proposal to build the Cordoba House, do you believe the developers of the Cordoba House have a Constitutional right to proceed with the construction of the mosque and Muslim cultural center or not?

The answers to that question were eye-opening: 64% of voters overall said the developers have the right to build there. That includes 67% of Dems and 56% of Republicans.

When I asked him to reconcile that dichotomy, Steve Greenberg, the Siena pollster, said, "The majority of New Yorkers are saying 'I don't want to see it built there, but they have the right to build it there.' I sort of think it's analogous to the old saying, 'I don't like what you're saying, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it.'"

If you're a proponent of Park 51 (aka the mosque/community center near Ground Zero), you may have felt momentarily uplifted by the president's support for the project, then despaired when he semi-backtracked the next day. Perhaps you felt betrayed by Harry Reid's suggestion that the project should be located elsewhere. The refrain among many liberals, who support the mosque, according to statistics, is that most Democrats won't touch the issue with a 10-foot pole.

Enter Nancy Pelosi. She was asked about the project by local reporters in California. Not only did she say the mosque is a local issue, she thinks the funding of the mosque opposition needs to be investigated.

"There is no question that there is a concerted effort to make this a political issue by some," she said. "And I join those who have called for looking into how is this opposition for a mosque being funded. How is this being ginned up that here we are talking about Treasure Island, something we've been working on for decades, something of great interest to our community... and two of the first three questions are about a zoning issue in New York City?

Given how vague her allegations are -- she doesn't identify any particular groups, or argue what exactly is shady about their funding -- I'm not sure how much traction this will have. But without exactly championing the mosque itself (she's also calling for transparency in the funding of the mosque), Pelosi has attempted to reframe the discussion, and take the heat off her party, at least for the moment.

I caught Fareed Zakaria on Charlie Rose Tuesday night.

CHARLIE ROSE: Your parents are Muslim?

FAREED ZAKARIA: Yes, and I was brought up that way. I am just not a particularly religious person. I think I sealed my fate when I became the wine critic for "Slate" magazine.

CHARLIE ROSE: That will do it.

I found that exchange pretty funny, but also illuminating, given that Zakaria could be considered one of the most famous Muslims in America, and by his own account, he's a MINO: Muslim in Name Only.

Even then, Zakaria has been a vocal supporter of The Mosque. He's written on the topic in Newsweek -- "Build the Ground Zero Mosque" -- and to buttress his words, even returned an award to the (anti-mosque) Anti-Defamation League.

But understandably, Zakaria supports this not as a practicing Muslim, but as a secular American. More from his talk about the mosque with Charlie Rose:

...the gut reaction I think we all have is, you know, there is a sense of unease, there is a sense is that the right thing, there is a sense that maybe this is going to provoke a reaction among people. And you can see the reaction. The polling is I think 60, 65 percent opposed.

But American democracy is not just about mob rule, it is not just about the tyranny of the majority. It is about fundamental rights that we believe in. That is what the Bill of Rights was about. The Bill of Rights is an anti-democratic document. It says no matter what the majority thinks, these rights are sacrosanct and the first of those rights, the first amendment is freedom of religion.

It's hard to say what impact Zakaria would have on the debate, but his very presence points to a larger problem that faces the Muslim community: When it comes to these polarizing issues, there are few American Muslims who can command a national stage, and have intellectual credibility outside their community or activist circles.

Who are the most famous Muslims in America?

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar? Muhammad Ali? Cat Stevens? I only found out Dave Chapelle was Muslim the other day. But of course, he walked off his stage, and the rest are relatively absent from public discussions. More to the point, they are all black or white; none of them resemble the foreign-born Muslims that grab the headlines in this country: the extremists, or the imams who speak with exotic accents.

The issue here, I believe, is that Americans have few options when it comes to the Muslim American experience, few well-known, widely accepted people who can act as barometers, or help the country simply by saying, "I know that imam -- he's fine."

I was once at a journalist's event at which Zakaria spoke. At the time, he was a regular guest on George Stephanopoulos' Sunday morning talk show, but by his own account, viewership plummeted whenever he was on. This wasn't meant to be funny so much as an indicator of America's discomfort, still, with foreign-born commentators.

Much of this is inevitable. Muslims have only been coming here in large numbers for the last couple decades, from South Asia and the Middle East and elsewhere, and it takes time for any immigrant community to transcend material success -- as business people, or doctors or engineers -- and start making a name for themselves in the popular culture (think Aasif Mandvi, of "The Daily Show," or Aziz Ansari). Eventually, some of those successful, accent-free celebrities will act as reference points for the country, people who can define Muslim society more effectively than any Islamophobes or radicals.

Until then, Americans will have to rely on people like Fareed Zakaria, lapsed, wine-drinking Muslim that he is.

If you owned a Brooklyn basketball team, what wouldja call 'em? According to the Daily News, New Jersey Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov has filed the necessary paperwork to officially change the team's name. The league requires a 25-month notice before a team's name is changed in any way, so the move could just be a way to make sure the team becomes the Brooklyn Nets or New York Nets in time for its move and the 2012/13 season.

Prokhorov has already teased the media with the idea of 'passing' on the Nets name altogether. So what does that mean? And more importantly what would the team be called? Sports bloggers have suggested 'Brooklyn's Finest' or even the 'Brooklyn Deckers.' Personally I do not care to see any of the returning team members or new recruits in a bikini-inspired uniform. If they can't turn around last year's dismal 12-70 season, my suggestion? The Brooklyn 'Fuhgeddaboudit.'

What are your ideas?

Just how much do New Yorkers dislike the idea of a mosque/community center being located near Ground Zero? The good peeps at Marist decided to find out. Their latest poll put forth 2 questions to registered voters:

1) Do you favor or oppose the building of an Islamic community center and prayer space two blocks from the site of the World Trade Center?

2) What is your view on the issue? Does building an Islamic community center and prayer space two blocks from the site of the World Trade Center: a) Helps people better understand the teachings of Islam and the Muslim religion OR b) Offends the memory of the 9/11 victims and their families

Overall, voters oppose the mosque by a margin of 53-34, with 13 percent unsure. As for the second question, the responses are more or less in line with the first one, with half the voters feeling the project would offend the memory of 9/11 victims, and about a third saying it would actually improve our understanding of Islam. The poll had a margin of error of 4 points.

In terms of breakdown, Jews seemed most offended by the project (71 to 20), which makes me wonder if the Anti-Defamation League was responding to major pressure from within the community. Younger folks (under 45) are pretty much divided on the issue, whereas those over 45 oppose the project by 60-29. And the one borough where voters actually support the project is the one where’s it’s located –- Manhattan, by a margin of 53 to 31.

Read the results here and here.

In February I covered the legislative movement to legalize medical marijuana in New York. Given how little grassroots opposition there was, I figured passage wasn't too far in the future and I'd soon be getting triumphant emails from the pot lobby and evites to smokey, bong-filled celebrations (which I'd naturally decline).

Well, it's August, and Albany is still Albany, so maybe it's no surprise that medical marijuana is still not legal. But here's an entertaining -- and rather apocalyptic -- animation made by Brooklyn-based Haik Hoisington, who's smoked pot for 15 years and wanted to articulate his opposition to the "policing of pleasure in the United States."

"My goal was to create a cartoon that disarms the viewer by using the metaphor of a newly discovered flower to get them to see an old issue through fresh eyes," he wrote me. And he says he's hopeful about the future. "I generally think it's a matter of time before marijuana will be a taxed and regulated commodity like alcohol and cigarettes in most if not all U.S. states. It just seems to me that the tide is turning and that as more states approve it's medical use the barriers to complete legalization are coming down."

"As a New Yorker I'd love to see people here have the medical option of using cannabis to treat whatever ails them."

The city Landmarks Preservation Commission’s 9-0 vote denying landmark status to 45 Park Place means that construction of an Islamic cultural center can now move forward. Judging by the pretty weak showing of opponents at the meeting, a few of whom shouted “Shame!” and other comments at the fast-departing commissioners at the end of the meeting, you didn’t sense there’s much steam left in the stop-the-mega-mosque crowd, cable news notwithstanding. That made things especially hard on the hordes of reporters who were looking for quotes, and were willing to mob someone — anyone – who looked like they had an opinion of any kind.

One group, the DC-based American Center for Law and Justice, says it’s going to court. They claim there’s been an “abuse of discretion” on the part of the commission, but weren’t very clear on what means.

There was also a construction worker, Andy Sullivan, who opposes the project — he conceded that most official avenues of opposition are pretty much exhausted. But then he got a gleam in his eye and said he had one last trick up his sleeve: “Construction workers,” he half-whispered. Which is to say, none of them — at least not the ones he knows — would work on this project. But that implies groundbreaking is set for tomorrow, and that there’s a minaret sitting around somewhere in a very long cardboard box, just waiting to be unpacked and erected.

So, is this a mosque or not? To be honest, we’re a little confused ourselves. In keeping with the language offered by proponents of the project, we’ve tried to call it an “Islamic cultural center.” A mosque, according to one supporter, is geared exclusively towards the spiritual needs of Muslims. This project, they say, would try to bring in non-Muslims as well, and have everyone chat about world matters, when they’re not making use of the gym, swimming pool or restaurant.

But if you scroll down the list of facilities for Park 51 (the new, very tony name for the project) you see this included:

a mosque, intended to be run separately from Park 51 but open to and accessible to all members, visitors and our New York community

Huh?

Perhaps the bigger issue — bigger than the semantics of mosque vs. cultural center, bigger than any approvals the developers secure — is the question of money. Critics have raised the issue of whether a $100 million price tag leaves the project beholden to shady Middle Eastern interests. But so far, no money appears to have been raised. So it’s safe to say it will be years before this project takes shape — long enough for some people to have forgotten what the fuss was about. Construction workers included.

Has the Muslim community been too slow to condemn terrorism? Or is it simply incapable of being heard when it does issue condemnations? Last year, Kamran Pasha, a novelist and screenwriter who’s worked for NBC and Showtime, and who is Muslim, vented about the subject in a blog post, “The Big Lie About Muslim Silence on Terrorism.”

“Why do mainstream Muslims fail to speak out against terrorism?It is a question that I get almost every single day, and it leaves me flabbergasted. I often respond to that question with one of my own — “Why does the media fail to report on Muslims who condemn terrorism?”

Since before 2001, every single major Muslim group in the United States has been outspoken in their condemnation of terrorism and the murder of innocent people in the name of Islam. And yet the media ignores it. Every single time.

Pasha linked to extensive lists -- here and here -- naming Islamic groups or clerics that have spoken out against terrorism. He also excoriated NYT columnist Tom Friedman for perpetuating the idea that Muslims have been silent on the issue.

The issue of Muslim silence has particular relevance now, when there is public outrage over the Cordoba Institute's plans to build an Islamic center -- or what critics insist is a "mega-mosque" -- two blocks from Ground Zero. The center is likely to get approval, and has the backing of New York City's political establishment, but what was once a non-issue -- whether Muslims should be free to build centers of worship, at their own expense, on private property -- has suddenly become a national issue. And frequently, critics of mosques invoke the matter of Muslim silence. This is what Lou Ann Zelenik, a Republican candidate for Congress, had to say about a planned mosque in Murfreesboro, Tennessee:

Until the American Muslim community find it in their hearts to separate themselves from their evil, radical counterparts, to condemn those who want to destroy our civilization and will fight against them, we are not obligated to open our society to any of them.

Rather than react defensively -- ie, "don't lump us in with the bad guys" -- a group of leading Muslim scholars and imams have come together to acknowledge the problem of radicalization and to condemn terrorism as un-Islamic. The video also serves as a call to arms, so to speak, for moderate Muslims, to reclaim the identity of Islam from radicals.

I've posted the video below. A couple highlights:

Imam Zaid Shakir, speaking about extremists -- "Where are they successful? You just see one mess after another. And it's time for us to start cleaning up those messes, and even going beyond that, it's time for us to begin to contribute to the construction of something beautiful."
Imam Mohamad Magid -- All Dulles Area Muslim Society: "Many people [are] saying there are so many issue of injustice taking place around the world. That is true. We acknowledge the injustice taking place around the world. But we believe there is a way to address the injustice. Not by taking innocent people's life."
Ihsan Bagby: "I'm not calling on anybody to be inactive. I'm calling on people, for this Muslims of this country in particular, and the Muslims of the world to be proactive. Not to embrace the nihilism, and the anti-Islamic policies of terrorism, and unwarranted violence."

And what kind of reach will this video have? So far, not much: there have been fewer than 5,000 viewers in the two weeks since it was posted. Whether that reflects more on the Muslim or non-Muslim audience, I can't say. But Pasha is encouraged.

I think this video is a very important addition to the long list of Muslims speaking out against terrorism. I do agree that the media is ignoring this as usual, but I expect that over time it will have a grassroots impact as the video spreads on the Internet. In the end, God will get the message to the people who need to hear it.

Eating while reporting can be a tricky thing. A few years ago, I did a story on the triumphant arrival of Indian mangoes on American shores. The Indian distributor, a dentist by day, brought a case of mangoes up to our newsroom and prodded me to enjoy one during our interview.

For this particular type of mango, a Kesar, one didn’t simply peel and chop the fruit into little manageable pieces, but actually massaged the unpeeled fruit with both hands, for a good 5 minutes, until all the delicious mango nectar within had been liberated from its fibrous bonds. The next step was to cut a tiny hole in the end of the mango, and start sucking. There I sat, with one hand holding the microphone up to the face of the distributor-dentist, the other hand jamming the mango up against my mouth as if it were a sippy cup. I simply could not stop sucking the juice out of that fruit — it was that delicious — and I had to continually apologize to my interviewee. Such egregiously unprofessional behavior!

Yesterday, I was out on Staten Island, doing some reporting on the attacks on Latinos that have been taking place. I was struggling to get local residents to talk on the record, and given the time of day, the laborers who have been directly hit by the attacks were off working and not available to talk. After wandering up and down Port Richmond Avenue for a while, an activist with Make the Road New York suggested I hit Ralph’s Famous Italian Ices, nearby.

“It’s really good,” she said, “and there’s always people lined up who might speak to you.”

Just as she said, there was a steady stream of people outside, waiting to buy an ice or ice cream, and I realized I’d stumbled upon a major neighborhood institution. To get a sense of the intense devotion felt by patrons of Ralphs, note this online paean:

BEST ICES IN THE WORLD NOBODY CAN COMPETE ALLT HSOE STUPID JERSEY FREAKS CAN STOP SAYING RITAS IS THE BEST ONCE THEY TASTE THIS STUFF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!‎

That same competitive spirit could be felt among the customers in the parking lot, if not quite as graphically. After getting my reporting out of the way — no multi-tasking, a la mango episode — I went up to the counter and made my choice.

The watermelon ice sounded spectacular, just perfect for a hot day.

“Want a sample?” the nice ice lady asked, then handed over a spoonful of pink.

I downed it, and tasted notes of… bubblegum.

This wasn’t anything like I’d expected. I was instantly transported to the softball fields of my youth, when those of us in the stands or behind home plate hoped to catch a foul ball and redeem it for a bright, multi-colored snow cone. Those snow cones tasted great — to an eight year old. What were adults doing consuming this synthetic, syrupy stuff — and at the height of watermelon season?

Undeterred, I ordered a cup with two flavors: chocolate and cherry, and walked away from Ralphs so that I could properly meditate upon my ice. The chocolate, as it turned out, was okay — certainly better than the watermelon, but really, nothing to crow about. The cherry, however, was almost as bad as the watermelon, and even worse, it contained little bits of cherry: not fresh cherry, but candied cherry (maraschino?), the kind I was really into when I was really into snow cones.

I kept downing spoonfuls of ice, in hopes that my taste buds would discover the key to this fabled Italian ice, but sadly, it never happened. All I got was a mild tummy ache.

That's MISTER Flyer to you.

As a native of Houston, it's always fun to watch hometown politics from afar, especially when it becomes intertwined with New York politics. Here's an interesting AP story [run on a Beaumont news site] on how Houston's former mayor, and current gubernatorial candidate Bill White, is struggling to distance himself from Mayors Against Illegal Guns, the group Mayor Bloomberg founded.

Against that backdrop, the former Houston mayor heads into the 2010 governor's race playing defense on a powerful political issue. The biggest liability for White is his past membership in a New York-based gun control group. White says he resigned after finding its positions too restrictive, but his participation in Mayors Against Illegal Guns riled up those who live to preserve Texas' pro-gun culture.

"Anywhere in the civilized world you would be able to make the argument that everybody should be able to be against illegal guns. But we're not in the civilized word. We're in Texas," said Southern Methodist University political scientist Cal Jillson.

White received a B from the NRA in its latest report card. His opponent, Texas governor Rick Perry, got an A+. It seems he also shot a coyote while out jogging.

Last week, the Queens D.A. sent out a release about the conviction of 18-year-old Harpreet Singh, of Maspeth. The conviction followed a seriously disturbing incident: Singh had gotten in touch with a 16-year-old girl on MySpace, at first asking her for head-and-shoulder photos of herself, then asking her to send progressively more revealing images, including, finally, shots of herself nude.

Eventually (on June 23, 2008), Singh started blackmailing the girl, saying he'd post the nude photos online and send them to his friends if she refused to have sex with him. She agreed to his demand, and the next day, when she arrived at the home of his friends, he raped her, after which his friends -- Norman Gondal, Anjam Shahzad, Vikgram Singh and an unnamed juvenile -- took turns with her.

"That afternoon," the press release reads, "the girl returned home distraught and, locking herself in the bathroom, ingested medicine. She then attempted to tie a cord around her neck. Fortunately, her mother arrived home and called 911."

The thing that stood out to me initially was the fact that the defendants appeared to be South Asian. I can't remember hearing of another incident this brutal being committed by a group of young desis.

But who is the victim? Is she Indian or Pakistani as well?

We'll probably never know, but over the weekend I bumped into Purvi Shah, who formerly headed Sakhi for South Asian Women, a New York-based group that deals with domestic violence. We talked about the incident, and wondered what prompted this young, terrified woman to walk into the lion's den that day. We couldn't help but think she was even more scared of letting her community find out about her photos.

I asked Purvi to share her thoughts. Here's what she had to say:

While we cannot be certain the survivor of this horrific sexual violence was of South Asian origin, it is clear that the perpetrators were drawing upon key issues in our community, including notions of honor and a girl's reputation as well as the difficulty of speaking to dating and threats or violence in a dating context.

Regardless of whether the survivor was South Asian, but especially if she is, this case behooves us as a community to work to ensure boys and men are not enabled to commit sexual violence. This case demands that we begin to speak more openly to sexual harassment and sexual violence while starting conversations about healthy sexuality and healthy relationships so that young girls need not feel fear or family and community judgment. Most importantly, this survivor should be saluted for taking the brave step of coming forward and pursuing justice. Now it is up to us to ensure we create communities where such a situation could never happen again.

FYI, Harpreet Singh now faces 25 years in prison.

Also read The Daily News: "Queens Creep Convicted of Organizing Teen Gang Rape"

I was just positive the mama horse was covered in copper, so beautiful and shimmery was its coat. But you know what, I was wrong. Glass tiles.

So sorry -- I don't have the artist's name.

The first Burmese restaurant I ever went to, next to Cooper Union, was so-so, and has since shut down. The next one I went to, on Roosevelt Avenue, was better, and has since shut down. There's apparently a Cafe Mingala on the UES, but really, what could be more incongruous than that?

On the other hand, a Burmese food festival, held in a packed school cafeteria in Woodside -- that makes perfect sense. This isn't just about the romance of obscurity, and the hipster/foodie aesthetic of authenticity. It's partly about that. But my real point is that restaurants aren't necessarily the best ways to encounter ethnic food, especially less-celebrated cuisines that struggle to hold onto an audience, and can feel sadly empty at times, or alternately, like they're pandering to less adventurous palates. You're not searching for food alone, but experience, and perhaps a sense of a people that has nothing to do with juntas or hurricanes.

The great thing about the 3rd Annual Moegyo Food Fair, which took place at P.S. 12, was that everything was homemade -- by Burmese, for Burmese. And the Burmese turned out, in droves.

'The Burmese people love food, I think that's the bottom line here,' said June Khin, who moved here from Burma when she was 2 and is part of the humanitarian group Moegyo (pronounced mo-jo). 'And we have great chefs that like to volunteer time. Food definitely draws out the crowd. And Burmese food and Burmese culture -- everything is under-represented in New York.'

Last year's cook-off made about $9,000. This year, they expected to raise a lot more, based on the crowd size; the money, said June, would go to help orphans in Burma. No matter how noble the intentions, however, ultimately the grub's the thing, isn't it?

The first couple of dishes I sampled -- fried chunks of pork, and rice noodles in broth, with minced chicken -- were rather un-remarkable. But I was unphased. In some rooms, the energy is such that you just know good food is nearby. You simply have to wade through some mediocrity.

The standouts, as it turned out, were mere minutes away. They included Shan Noodles -- a thick, tomato-based sauce, with ground chicken, ladled over a bed of white rice noodles, and garnished with peanuts, sesame seeds, green onions and some rather combustive red chili flakes. Even better was the Burmese tofu salad, which had nary a cube of tofu, just slices of vivid yellow cake, made of gram, or ground chickpea, flour.

'This is just like dhokla!' my wife exclaimed, referring to the spongy Gujarati snack, also made of gram flour. We Indians have a reflexively chauvinistic tendency to view all new culinary experiences through the prism of Indian food, especially when it emerges from a neighboring country that, we suspect, has learned everything it knows from India. The 'tofu' in this case, was totally distinct, though. The server, a woman by the name of Grace, told me the dish came from the Burmese state of Shan, which borders China, Laos and Thailand. Its vibrant flavor came from the sauce, a combination of vinegar, soy sauce and chili, along with a sprinkling of lemon leaves, fresh and locally sourced. Outside, in the school parking lot, my daughter and wife and I exchanged our respective styrofoam containers of food, including a surprisingly tasty bowl of shaved ice topped with variously-colored jellos and beans. Next to us, our friends plowed one dish after another into the mouth of their insatiable daughter. She is white and only a year old, but just think: When she is older she will never be able to remember a time when she hadn't tried homemade Burmese food. How could we not live here?

Thai guy, Jimmy Wongwanich, whom I met in Woodside. I can generally read Sanskrit script, but not numbers. Apparently these say '1978' -- year of his birth.

Happy Puerto Rican Day. I like how the soft fuzziness of this gentleman's wristband offsets the hard chunkiness of his finger-bling.

You know that incredible, electrical connection that takes place when you look directly into Beyonce's eyes, and she into yours? I do. It happened just the other night, actually, when we were at the Palm, in midtown. We were there, technically speaking, because this guy she knows, Jay-Z, is a producer for Fela!, the Broadway musical, and they're hyping the show for the Tonys (this Sunday). Will Smith was there too, with his girl Jada. They're all producers on the show, all except for Beyonce. She didn't have anything to do with Fela.

But Fela!, you can be sure, was making the most of Beyonce. There's no other Broadway show with the same level of star power, on stage or off -- there probably never has been -- and the idea was that potential Tony voters would look a little more favorably on Fela! if they got to party with the producers.

'I've been photographed more in the last ten minutes than I have in my entire life,' said Bill T. Jones, the choreographer and director of Fela!, as we sat down near the bar. For someone of his stature to say that, I thought, is no small thing. But even as he was taking part in the event -- standing and laughing with the stars -- he was watching as the various guests walked by, made brief attempts at small talk with the world's most famous people, and were then nudged on, their tiny allotment of elbow-rubbing exhausted.

In addition to trying to win over Tony voters -- Fela! has 11 nominations, more than any other show -- the producers were hoping to sway road presenters who might bring the show to their own city. Mr. Jones called it a "cultivation event."

"This is one of the industry's methods," he said. "Of bringing people together. Maximum exposure through the press. And deal making. This is the social side of the deal making. 'Where does one show tour? Who are your allies?' There's a lot of pressing of flesh. There's a lot of good will, hopefully, to build alliances."

Most Broadway shows do not have star producers, noted Cara Joy David, who covers the theater for the Huffington Post. So in one sense Fela! has a leg up on the competition.

"If they had them, they'd flaunt them, I'm sure," she wrote me. "It's just a rarity. Obviously, Oprah being the producer of 'The Color Purple' substantially helped that show. No one thinks it would have been as successful without her! When Jay-Z and Will and Jada Pinkett Smith signed on to be producers of Fela it was big news. Rightfully so--their attachment to the project legitimizes it in a way. They haven't been around the Eugene O'Neill that much, but I think them making an appearance at the pre-Tony event was very savvy. It shows they care."

But does a show about a relatively obscure, highly political-and-polygamous Nigerian musician (and I'm a fan) actually have a shot at the Tonys?

"I think Fela does stand a chance," she wrote. "Fela is a critics darling and most people leave liking or at least admiring it. But, one must remember that the majority of the press is not allowed to vote. That means producers and road presenters have even more of an influence on the outcome than they used to--that facts favors Memphis, which is a safer road bet. Million Dollar Quartet also has a lot of fans and should not be counted out, though it is hurt by its relative simplicity. American Idiot is the darkest horse--a lot of people I spoke to early on thought it was genius, but, the show's chances have plummeted substantially in the past month."

Dude's got veggies to pick up, at Patel Brothers. Let's the car idle, so the girls can check it out.

Oh, this? Yeah, it's an Om. Pretty sweet, huh? My man, Vik, he's always saying 'Om Sweet Om.' He's off the hook... Yo, you need a ride? That basmati looks mad heavy.

You know that notion of how some conservatives want to starve government, in order to prove how bad government is? I sense that's exactly what's going on with subway poetry these days. Someone in the subway poetry establishment wants people to become so disillusioned with subway poetry that they'll rise up in revolt against subway poetry.

This one's called 'Train of Thought,' and it's by a Ralph Waldo Emerson. Talk about your mixed metaphors...

Life is a train of moods like a string of beads;

and as we pass through them they prove to be

many-colored lenses which paint the world their own

hue, and each shows only what lies in its own focus.

In the immediate aftermath of the Times Square bombing attempt, I kept waiting for reports of backlash incidents. There were plenty of attacks after 9/11, against both Muslims and Sikhs, but what kind of response would a failed attack bring?

So far, Faisal Shahzad's arrest hasn't inspired the same sort of backlash, although the NYPD is being asked to investigate the beating of a 57-year-old Bangladeshi man, who was jumped but not robbed.

However, it's hard to view attitudes towards Muslims as what they were, prior to Times Square. There are now about 30 buses driving around New York, with "Leaving Islam?" ads pasted on their sides. They may have been designed and booked well before the Times Square attack, but their significance is increased substantially by having appeared afterward. What makes them more potent than your standard Facebook discussions or YouTube vitriol is their sheer physicality, and the knowledge that they are being seen by many people at the same time.

The mind behind the bus ad campaign, Pam Geller, calls it a "human rights initiative."

"Islamic law mandates death for those who leave Islam," she wrote me. "The Rifqa Bary case in Ohio shows that people who leave Islam are threatened even in the U.S. We intend through these ads to offer help to Muslims in the situation of wanting to leave Islam and being threatened -- it's a matter of the defense of human rights and the freedom of conscience."

She said the ads cost a little more than $8,000, "and were funded by free citizens making small contributions to the initiative because they recognized its value."

But I think it's safe to say this isn't just about conversion. Geller, after all, runs another effort, Stop Islamization of America, part of a Stop Islamization network that runs throughout Europe. She and her allies have also actively opposed the planned Islamic center near the World Trade Center site. Like the bus ads, the intense mobilization against the facility (including a feisty showing at a Community Board meeting) seems particularly strong because of the timing -- just weeks after Faisal Shahzad's arrest.

Judging by the growing and highly vocal Facebook group, this isn't going away soon. But it's the physical manifestation that I think is noteworthy. I wondered, do Muslims worry about that?

"Yes," wrote Adem Carroll of the Muslim Consultative Network, in an email to me. "Getting to feel like we muslim americans are living under occupation... My colleagues who attended the recent community board meeting re proposed center said it was scary."

However, Azeem Khan of the Islamic Circle of North America wasn't too concerned.

"I think it’s a good thing, because now people are outing themselves as bigots," he said, regarding the bus ads. "Before, it was just statements that they could hide behind on their blogs. But now they’re really putting themselves out there. The larger American society doesn’t stand for bigotry, and when they see it they know what it is."

Khan also thinks the effort has gotten where it is because of support from non-New Yorkers. In his view, most New Yorkers wouldn't support a bus ad campaign because they actually know Muslims.

That said, he was attending the Subway Series recently, with his family, and they weren't off limits.

"My wife and her friends were walking around – they were wearing hijabs. Someone said to them, 'Don’t bomb this place.'”

"There’s always nonsense like that," he said. "Sometimes you have to brush it off and deal with it. We don’t have any choice."

As a member of the press, I'm privileged to come into contact with celebrities, power players and assorted gatekeepers on a regular basis. But never have I received an email from musician John Legend! That too one in which I was personally addressed. He even included a little picture of himself. As it turns out, he wants me to attend a small get-together for Reshma Saujani, who's running for Congress against incumbent Carolyn Maloney.

I may not be able to make it, but PIO (Pass it On!)

Dear Arun,

I’m a proud supporter of Reshma Saujani. Her vision for the future, her new ideas and her commitment to changing the way Washington does business all make Reshma the ideal candidate to represent our city. I’m particularly excited about her innovative plans to reform our education system – an issue I’m very passionate about. I’ll be hosting a small, private concert on June 3rd to benefit Reshma’s campaign. As you know, we’re going to give everyone involved with the campaign a chance to attend. You should join Reshma on Saturday at a supporter thank you party, where she'll pick some winners who will each receive two tickets to meet me and attend the concert. Though if you're busy on Saturday, you can still win tickets without attending the party. On Monday, you should have received an email detailing the two ways to enter the contest and increase your chances to win (and you can do both). Here’s a recap: 1) Get your friends to donate $14 by sending them your unique link To enter the contest, go to Reshma's website to get your unique link to share with friends. Then, use that unique link to send to friends and post to your social networks asking people to donate $14 to Reshma’s campaign for NY-14. Each person who donates will give you another chance to win. So if nine of your friends donate, you’ll have nine extra chances to win. Also, you'll receive an additional chance to win by donating $14 yourself. 2) Make phone calls to voters in the 14th District The other way to increase your odds of winning is by talking to voters about why Reshma is the right person to represent New York’s 14th District in Washington. By RSVPing here, you’ll be able to make phone calls from home and help spread Reshma’s message of new ideas and new leadership. For every 25 calls you make, you’ll receive two extra chances to win. It’s time to shake things up and put an end to the status quo. Let’s start thinking about the future. Reshma embodies the type of new leadership we need for New York City. Please, help me get her elected. I encourage you to make a donation to Reshma’s campaign today. Hope to see you next Thursday. Best, John Legend

It's not easy being a moviegoer these days. Having emerged from my post-Oscar coma a few weeks ago, I've been struggling to stay on top of the city's cinematic bounty, whether it's the longer, uncut 'Metropolis' (Film Forum), the 'Cremaster' series (IFC Center) or 'Iron Man 2' (everywhere).

None of these need help luring audiences. But if there's one series that should be getting a lot more attention (and crowds) than it is, it would be 'Social Dramas and Shimmering Spectacles: Muslim Cultures of Bombay Cinema,' playing at the Walter Reade Theater through the May 27.

Bollywood has failed to cross over in this country, and that owes a lot to its reputation for frothy, ridiculous spectacles. What most people don't realize is that periodically, Indian cinema isn't just entertaining, but relevant as well, particularly at this point in time, when issues like Islamic radicalization and cartoon images of the Prophet Muhammad dominate the news.

WNYC's Richard Hake and Arun Venugopal discuss the new Bollywood film series.

If you've overdosed on the standard talking points -- the Us vs. Them geopolitics of Islam hashed out on cable news, ad nauseam -- consider this series a tonic of sorts. Its 13 films range from historical blockbusters like 'Mughal-e-Azam' (set during the extravagant, 16th century reign of Mughal Emperor Akbar) to modern critiques of India's Partition and the place of Muslims in society ('Garm Hawa'), to recent movies about radicalization, like 'Fiza,' starring heartthrob Hrithik Roshan as the Muslim turned terrorist.

I've actually seen "Fiza," earlier, and thought it got pretty ridiculous by the end. But what it does accomplish -- which rarely if ever happens in Hollywood movies -- is provide a window into the mind of someone who decides to become an extremist.

The film festival was organized by Richard Allen, an NYU film studies professor, along with Ira Bhaskar, who teaches at Jawaharlal Nehru University, in New Delhi. Their recent book, "Islamicate Cultures of Bombay Cinema," looks at the full history of Muslim historical films, the genre known as the Muslim Social, as well as movies about courtesans, like the hugely popular Pakeezah.

I met up with Allen at a recent party launching the film series. It was a fairly lavish affair, organized by the Indo-American Arts Council. Guests were required to come dressed in Mughal attire, and of course I obliged, if primarily out of fear.

More than mere spectacles, Allen thinks some of these films were instructive as well regarding basic issues like gender divisions.

"These were films that once addressed to the Muslim community, 'How are we to deal with the pressures of social change on traditional social life. How are we to deal with education?'"

And in the absence of any meaningful artistic examination of issues related to Islam emerging from Western popular culture, he thinks India -- namely Indian culture -- has something to say to the rest of the world.

"It's a history that involves a partition and a history that involves communalism," he said. "But it's a history that more than any other country one can think, in this contemporary period, lived through and lived with how to negotiate conflict and how to resolve conflict. So there's tremendous opportunities for India in this regard."

The film festival runs through May 27.

For a style that is not merely reviled, but a complete hindrance to such acts as walking, running or skipping, low-slung pants have been remarkably resilient. Check out this UC Berkeley advice page for parents on dealing with the problem -- it goes back to the year 2000. Just how have these things stuck around so long?

No matter. Members of New York's black community are starting to say enough. Enough of the shuffling, boys, and enough of the exposed keisters.

Earlier, it was State senator Eric Adams, who took out billboards in the Brooklyn: "Stop the Sag"

Now, it's senator Malcolm Smith, who's placing similar ads on a dozen buses. The $2200 expense is being paid for out of his campaign kitty.

This stuff's gone global. Low-slung has been targeted in Louisiana, in St. Louis, in Florida, even across the pond, in England.

One thing I learned, the last time I took on this weighty topic (in 2008), is that some girls think boys look mad hot when they've got the right amount of bunched-up boxer peeking out of their pants. Can any public service campaign compete with that?

Another thing is, some kids really know their prison lore. In fact, it was a 12 year old in Flatbush who taught me that low-slung isn't just about lacking a belt. It's apparently about advertising one's sexual availability, ie. accessibility.

"It means you want to be someone's girlfriend," the kid giggled, as the full, dark implications of his statement took hold of me.

That was corroborated by a couple former prison inmates who are lending their support to the anti-low-slung campaign.

"In prison, if you're sagging, its not a fashion statement, it's an invitation," said Lance Fuertado, who with his brother Todd runs the King of Kings Foundation (and does the motivational speaking circuit). "You take that the way you want to take it but that's a true statement."

But when I asked a Far Rockaway kid, Sharife Wright, about that, he shrugged.

"I ain't gay," he said. And if anyone were to think so, he added, "I'm gonna hurt 'em."

Meet Bobby Miga. He's a Christian musician, just moved here from Nashville. The guy's homeless right now -- apparently the family lost it all in the recent, devastating floods. I was drawn to his bright blue cutoffs, his wrist gear and a cross-shaped tattoo on his calf, made up little Chinese characters. But check out that bicep design: the bar code, he says, is morse for 'Man of God.'

And the digits represent Psalm 139:

For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother's womb.

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.

and 2 Peter 1:3 - 11 (I hope I notated that right):

His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.

Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.

I hesitate to bring up the Facebook cause "Mayor Bloomberg, take the Hero Street Vendors to Dinner" yet again for fear of seeming like some sort of lackey. After noting it during a discussion with Soterios Johnson, and then with Brian Lehrer, one might wonder what sort of secret pact I have with the vendors -- you give us constant mentions, we provide you with a lifetime's supply of pashmina scarves and snow globes. Oh, we have lots of little yellow cabs as well, you want those?

But if the temptation is great, that's simply because the stakes are so tangible, and so modest. Will the mayor return to Blue Fin, if not a Sbarro pizzeria? Having already honored the police officer who was alerted to the Times Square bomb by the street vendors, does he have it in his heart to honor the vendors themselves?

The Facebook page was started by the Street Vendor Project, and through the course of this day it appears to have won a considerable following. Not 5, not 25, but more than -- wait for it -- 143 fans!

The latest posting is by Assemblyman Nick Perry, who appears to have typed with more passion than grammar:

In light of reports that the Mayor has failed to invite the real heroes, the vendors who alerted the police to the smoking SUV, to dinner. On behalf of my grateful colleagues, and as Chairman of the NYS Association of Black and Puerto Rican Legislators, I would like to issue a dinner invitation to Lance Orton and Duan...e Jackson to dine at Blue Fin restaurant with members of our association.

Yes, we noticed the typo as well, which is funny, because today, when Mayor Bloomberg actually named the vendors during some remarks, he didn't do so well either. Here are those remarks as circulated by his office:

We also did have two, at least two, vendors working the streets, one of whom I did a little bit of television with this morning, that work in Times Square and they were very helpful as well. And Desmond, I think his name is name is Devin Jackson this morning, couldn’t have been a nicer guy. His family was there, and he was as proud as you could be to have helped contribute to making this city safe.

A little later, he appears to have corrected himself, perhaps with the help of a fast-thinking aide.

Over the last eight years, we’ve also urged New Yorkers if you see something to say something, as I’ve said it. Lance Orton and Dwayne Jackson – I might have got his name wrong – Dwayne Jackson, were the two in Times Square that did exactly that, and that’s what we hope that everybody will do, and I am hopeful that those who are responsible for this will be found.

Not to be a stickler, Mayor, but it's "Duane" Jackson.

Law lu oe-ru fwa nga-l new ziva’u awngahu.

Which is to say, it is clear to me that you want to come with us.

Toruk a-husahaw lu mi lehrrap. (A sleeping Toruk is still dangerous)

To compare the just-opened Broadway musical 'Promises, Promises' to its source material, the 1960 Billy Wilder film 'The Apartment,' is admittedly a bit unfair, a little apple-and-orangey.

More to the point, 'The Apartment' is one of the all-time great New York City movies, a film that beautifully captured an era's conflicting currents: rapid corporate growth and careerism, sexual liberation and sexual exploitation. That it can be classified a romantic comedy seems startling, given the suicide attempt it depicts and the constant melancholy that pervades the film. That's not only a testament to Wilder's craftsmanship and the acting of Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine, but to the era itself, when audiences were sophisticated enough to juggle humor and deep pathos.

Can any adaptation compete with that? Well, this production of 'Promises, Promises' is a revival of a 1968 show that did very well -- it ran for more than three years, powered by Neil Simon's book and a Burt Bacharach score -- so yes, it is possible.

The plot revolves around one Mr. C.C. Baxter, an earnest enough, dutifully diligent chap working at the Consolidated Life mega-insurance corporation. Baxter is a mere cog in the vast machinery of Consolidated Life, and can't reasonably expect to advance far anytime soon. But as it does so often in New York, the matter of real estate intrudes: Baxter is single and has an apartment on West 67th, a location much coveted by his superiors, all of them married, all of them cheating on their wives with any of the multitudes of young, attractive female employees. Baxter's apartment key starts making the rounds through management, and as his place becomes a reliable getaway, he finds himself rapidly climbing the company ladder. But can Baxter end his perpetual loneliness and find himself a woman? The one he has an eye on is Fran Kubelik, a lovely but quietly troubled waitress in the office cafeteria (played by MacLaine in the movie) who clearly stands apart from her female coworkers in her lack of desperation. Unfortunately, Fran is in love with another man, the very married Mr. Sheldrake, who also happens to be Baxter's boss.

The current "Promises, Promises" stars Kristin Chenoweth of "Wicked" fame and Sean Hayes, aka flamin' Jack from TV's "Will and Grace." The show opens on a musical item. As Hayes' Baxter sits at his desk, lost in his workplace reverie, swarms of men and women employees dance around him. But to say this is dance isn't completely accurate: the movements are so acrobatic, so hyperbolic, as to be laughable. And that's the point. This was the 60s, after all, the early days of the sexual revolution. For women, that didn't just mean reproductive rights (the pill came to market in 1960, the same year as "The Apartment"), it also meant they were entering the workplace in larger numbers, and being exploited in larger numbers. The over-the-top dance moves suggest that this wasn't love or romance, it was merely ridiculous: men and women with very adult passions but childlike restraint.

The idea is repeated elsewhere, namely in a very funny musical number, "Turkey Lurkey Time" which makes explicit the animal side of human hookups. This is what's fun about seeing a musical adaptation of a movie like "The Apartment" -- the chance to see how a core idea is translated from the screen to the stage, at times exuberantly.

Overall, however, "Promises, Promises" can't compete with "The Apartment." Sean Hayes is likeable but his C.C. Baxter is neither as pathetic nor as eager for promotions as is Jack Lemmon. And Kristin Chenoweth, despite a couple great songs that left me wanting more (like the moving "I Say a Little Prayer"), seems underused. She also lacks something that made Shirley MacLaine's performance so memorable: that sense of a young woman who has aged prematurely, who has grown wise because she is being used by someone she can't help but love.

Most disappointing is the role of Mr. J.D. Sheldrake, which is performed by Tony Goldwyn (who's been in lots of productions but whom you might remember as the slimy best friend of Patrick Swayze in "Ghost" -- remember?). Goldwyn seems like boilerplate Wall Street casting, slick and selfish and not much else. In "The Apartment" the role went to Fred MacMurray, one of those classic mid-century actors whose every word or gesture, no matter how gentle, wields a certain strength or menace, depending on the character.

The standout performance of "Promises, Promises," the real revelation for me, was Katie Finneran. She's only in a couple scenes, playing the highly-soused Marge MacDougall, but her sheer bombast, through slurred syllables and over-the-top gyrations, is incredibly funny. For all her come-hither outrageousness, however, Marge simply wants to spend the night with Baxter. When things don't quite work out that way -- no fault of hers -- Marge's swagger drops and she goes meekly away. Just another lonely girl in a big, bad city.

This 30-something male accessorizes with a sheet of Bounce Outdoor Fresh.

'Nothing clingy about me, LOL'

But it's kind of sad, because the guy can never actually look at it himself, seeing as it's on the back of his neck. Nor can he apprehend the look on people's faces, when they stand behind him in the elevator, staring at his nape.

I was leaving a mayoral event uptown -- announcing the reopening of the Harlem School of the Arts -- when I caught sight of this sign for an old gas station. The lettering was unremarkable, but I loved how the vines had embedded themselves, something you don't often see in the big city.

I'd just taken my first shot, poking my camera through the chain link fence, when a voice stopped me.

'What are you doing?' the man asked. He was black, probably in his 60s, and he didn't look happy. Turns out he owned the gas station.

I explained, as cheerfully as I could, that I was quite taken with the creepers. Surely he'd relent, I thought, if I came across as a loopy nature lover, sort of like those over-enthusiastic British bird-watchers in safari hats, rather than a hard-charging journalist. I even showed him the image on the camera -- pretty, huh? Didn't work.

"This is private property," he said, for the fifth time.

"It doesn't matter if it's private property," I hardened. "I'm not trespassing. And I have the right to shoot it, just like I can shoot that building over there," I said, pointing at the apartments across the street.

"I was just asking a question about what you were doing," he said, raising his voice.

"Well, I answered you, didn't I?"

We went around in circles, making the same silly points. I knew I was right -- and confirmed it later with the folks at the New York Civil Liberties Union -- but realized pretty soon that this wasn't necessarily a legal issue so much as a cultural one.

Here I was, this guy with slick black shoes and Nehru-collared polka-dot shirt, oozing charm, yes, but also a certain camera-toting outsiderness. He, on the other hand, was about as local as they come. Maybe he felt used. Or maybe he was just a jerk.

I finally walked away, wondering if I'd lost. Then again, I did get the shot.

Marijuana lovers sang and preached the gospel of grass in Union Square on their high holy day of April 20. They did everything but light up (too many fuzz on the prowl, man). Snacking, however, was strongly encouraged.

4/20 side note: Stoner icon Kumar was mugged