New York is amazing because of the people you get the opportunity to hear. Today, I got to hear George Soros, Nouriel Roubini from NYU and Jeffrey Sachs as they shared a stage talking about the current economic crisis, the "bubble on a much larger bubble" as Soros described it.
Shortly afterwards, the chief economic advisor to Barack Obama, Austan Goolsbee, held an hour-long debate with his McCain counterpart, Doug Holtz-Eakin, on campus. Part of the panel from Columbia's side was Joseph Stiglitz. This was more about politics than economics, but it was interesting to hear the two of them debate issues such as health care or the cost of the war in Iraq.
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Looking for New Jersey's Sweet Spot
Over the weekend, I visited Alyssa in Princeton where she is working at ETS. She and I went on a search. We wanted to find New Jersey, not just any old New Jersey, but the essence of New Jersey at its most scenic. This blog post is the story of that search.
At first we thought we'd found it in in Princeton. How can you not love a town which has a fake gothic university, fake tudor houses and looks so much like a gingerbread fairytale you just want to rip a piece off the pavement and wolf it down? When Alyssa pointed out that, despite a large student population, Princeton has only two bars in it, we came to the realization that we did not in fact love this town much, and it was not the scenic New Jersey we were looking for. But it had to be close. The scenic I heart New Jersey moment we wanted was out there. We knew it. We just had to find it, amongst the rolling hillsides around the town. So we set off on our bikes, searching.
We rode and rode, the sun came up, the leaves flamed yellow and gold. Then, suddenly there was a sign. Scenic Outlook, it said. Autumn Hill.
This had to be it.
Through the knotted woods we rode, over gnarled roots and exposed loam, so fast the foliage blurred around us. Past the rusting hulk of a bus. Paths twisted in all directions, we thought we'd lost our way. But then a second sign: Scenic Outlook.
Before us lay a calm glade with slabs of rock and a curtain of vegetation on its far side, through which the scenery opened: rows of prim town houses, fanning out like the wings of a dove towards the horizon. Green and beige corduroy bands of luxurious lawn undulating in soft swell to where, far off in the distance, the low purple crest of hills.
New Jersey. A feast for all senses, but especially the sense of irony.
At first we thought we'd found it in in Princeton. How can you not love a town which has a fake gothic university, fake tudor houses and looks so much like a gingerbread fairytale you just want to rip a piece off the pavement and wolf it down? When Alyssa pointed out that, despite a large student population, Princeton has only two bars in it, we came to the realization that we did not in fact love this town much, and it was not the scenic New Jersey we were looking for. But it had to be close. The scenic I heart New Jersey moment we wanted was out there. We knew it. We just had to find it, amongst the rolling hillsides around the town. So we set off on our bikes, searching.
We rode and rode, the sun came up, the leaves flamed yellow and gold. Then, suddenly there was a sign. Scenic Outlook, it said. Autumn Hill.
This had to be it.
Through the knotted woods we rode, over gnarled roots and exposed loam, so fast the foliage blurred around us. Past the rusting hulk of a bus. Paths twisted in all directions, we thought we'd lost our way. But then a second sign: Scenic Outlook.
Before us lay a calm glade with slabs of rock and a curtain of vegetation on its far side, through which the scenery opened: rows of prim town houses, fanning out like the wings of a dove towards the horizon. Green and beige corduroy bands of luxurious lawn undulating in soft swell to where, far off in the distance, the low purple crest of hills.New Jersey. A feast for all senses, but especially the sense of irony.
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Autumn Colour
The countryside around New York is ablaze with colour at the moment ... the photo is from the Stokes National Park, in the north west corner of New Jersey, where I went hiking on Sunday.
Saturday, October 11, 2008
True Story of How a New York Waterfall became an Icecream
Saturday night we (Stacey, Abhishek, Alyssa and Kay) went looking for the New York waterfalls ... didn't know the city has waterfalls? It had three, done by the Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson (an icelandic artist sounds like someone who would be able to create waterfalls, right?). Okay, they weren't quite real (but then again, nothing in New York is). One of them was under the Brooklyn Bridge. We went to see it on its last day, but it wasn't there. Ack! Switched off early? Switched off in respect of the plunge of Wall Street (not too far away)? I am still not sure, but there was no waterfall.
To console ourselves, we did the obvious: went into Chinatown, and gave the evening a happy ending with vegetarian dim sum and delicious ice cream to celebrate the Indian Summer.
To console ourselves, we did the obvious: went into Chinatown, and gave the evening a happy ending with vegetarian dim sum and delicious ice cream to celebrate the Indian Summer.
Wednesday, October 01, 2008
Home is where the Harlem is
I fought the subway, and the subway won. After 6 months of hour long commutes and too many late-night waiting for the train which never comes sessions and many other adventures, I threw the towel in at the Manhattan Transport Authority (and wished it had been something heavier). My living situation in Brooklyn was also never really something I was happy with. I will miss the burrough, though, and my cool roommates Nate and Jessica, and the neighbourhood of bars and restaurants, and Prospect Park, and the fabulous Park Slope Co-op.
I am really glad I had the experience of living there at all.
For the end of my stay in New York, I am living on 142nd Street, in an area of Harlem known as Hamilton Heights. Its two subway stops north of Columbia on the 1-Train, and only three subway stops from Times Square on the express A-Train around the corner. Most days, I ride my bike to Columbia. Here is my neighbourhood on Google Maps. I have a room with a lot of light on the top floor of an older (pre WWII) building on a quiet street. My flat mate, Kay, is from Texas and has a Texan's laidbackness and generosity.
The area here is completely different to Park Slope, which can be characterized (or caricatured) as where you go when you're earning very well and have, or are about to have, spawn, none of which is true of me. Hamilton Heights has a strong Dominican and other Latino population; there is a lot of life on the streets. Gentrification is happening here too, but more slowly than in the part of Harlem with which I am familiar (south of 125th Street).
I am really glad I had the experience of living there at all.
For the end of my stay in New York, I am living on 142nd Street, in an area of Harlem known as Hamilton Heights. Its two subway stops north of Columbia on the 1-Train, and only three subway stops from Times Square on the express A-Train around the corner. Most days, I ride my bike to Columbia. Here is my neighbourhood on Google Maps. I have a room with a lot of light on the top floor of an older (pre WWII) building on a quiet street. My flat mate, Kay, is from Texas and has a Texan's laidbackness and generosity.
The area here is completely different to Park Slope, which can be characterized (or caricatured) as where you go when you're earning very well and have, or are about to have, spawn, none of which is true of me. Hamilton Heights has a strong Dominican and other Latino population; there is a lot of life on the streets. Gentrification is happening here too, but more slowly than in the part of Harlem with which I am familiar (south of 125th Street).
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