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The Mean Streets?

Here’s a lengthy article about the “Red Light District” of northern NJ, South Hackensack. It’s about 25 miles from where I live, and one of our close family friends used to be a night-manager at the main motel that’s profiled.

The writer seems a little conflicted about what to make of the area. Sure, it’s a haven for sex and drug use, but it’s not like there’s any actual drug dealing going on there (that goes on in Paterson and Newark), just consumption. In fact, the more blatant aspects have been cleaned up, and crime rates are dropping each year:

The hookers who once trolled the highway were cleared out some years ago, but dozens of prostitution arrests in the past two years show the world’s oldest profession continues to be a moneymaker – behind closed doors.

Still, that hasn’t stopped officials from talking about redevelopment. The idea is, because the town is connected to Teterboro, a small airport used by Big Money, there should be high-end facilities to get a piece of the money. The problem with that is that Big Money doesn’t care about Teterboro’s amenities (the Plaza 46 Diner notwithstanding). The airport brings in traffic because it’s hassle-free and close to NYC. I can guarantee that P. Diddy doesn’t look at South Hackensack as a place to open a new club; he just likes being able to get his jet off the ground without the delays of Newark, Laguardia or JFK.

It all seems to come off as a non-story: some go-go waitresses are turning tricks; some people are cheating on their spouses; there’s a porno store; one of the 9/11 hijackers stayed at one of the motels the week before the attack (but there was no warrant for the guy, so the FBI & CIA remained uninformed). Probably the most objectionable part of the story for me is this:

Although the strip has been trouble for the town, in some ways it’s also been a blessing. Seizures have brought needed money to the Police Department, which has used the money to purchase four patrol cars, a communications system, new handguns and rifles, and new bicycles the past few years.

Because it implies that the police department busts some “behind closed doors” small-scale crimes to keep funding itself.

Ah, well. As the owner of the local car dealership put it:

“It’s a vibrant area that employs many, many people,” said [Eddie] Goldberg, the former head of the Business Alliance of South Hackensack. “There are no vacancies in any of the stores and there is no blight.”

Read the whole shebang.

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Prison Cuisine

About six months ago, I wrote about how a friend-of-a-friend is in prison, and how harrowing it all looks to me, as an outsider.

Fortunately, it’s not all hellish, according to John Mandala of The Cellblock Cafe:

Eventually, I learned these “tricks of the trade,” and added my own creations, such as shredded fried roast beef with ketchup and mustard or fried mashed potatoes in butter. Within a few months, I was nicknamed, “Chef-Boy-Ar-Dee.” I soon realized that creating and sharing a tasty, nourishing meal was one of the few enjoyments prison life offered. Surprisingly, I began to experience another kind of nourishment, one of the soul. Creative cooking opened up an avenue of communication, which transcended prison politics, and a healthy meal crossed most cultural barriers as well.

More than a decade later, as a result of good behavior and other accomplishments in prison programs, I am now at Sing Sing Correctional Facilities medium security annex. I share a single stove with 75 men who are Jamaican, Puerto Rican, Dominican, Asian, African-American, Italian and Caucasian. This experience has allowed me to be exposed to different cooking methods, recipes and to taste various types of food.

Without further ado, here are the prison recipes.

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Year Zero?

A week or so ago, I mentioned a whole lot of reading that I’m doing as part of my attempt to understand what can be done to help New Orleans recover from the devastation of last August’s hurricane.

The fact that I’m starting with Virginia Postrel and Jane Jacobs probably indicates that I don’t think that federal micromanagement is the way to go. One of Ms. Postrel’s early points in The Future and Its Enemies is that there is no “scratch” from which to start, in a dynamic society. Even annihilating swathes of the city doesn’t mean it’s Year Zero in NO,LA; there are tons of people who have claims on their homes, who don’t want to move away for good, and don’t want to live in federally subsidized housing projects.

All of which is to say, I’m not in agreement with Representative Baker (R-LA), who proposes an $80 billion federal program to “to pay off lenders, restore public works, buy huge ruined chunks of the city, clean them up and then sell them back to developers,” according to the Times. Or, more expansively:

Under his plan, the Louisiana Recovery Corporation would step in to prevent defaults, similar in general nature to the Resolution Trust Corporation set up by Congress in 1989 to bail out the savings and loan industry. It would offer to buy out homeowners, at no less than 60 percent of their equity before Hurricane Katrina. Lenders would be offered up to 60 percent of what they are owed.

To finance these expenditures, the government would sell bonds and pay them off in part with the proceeds from the sale of land to developers.

Property owners would not have to sell, but those who did would have an option to buy property back from the corporation. The federal corporation would have nothing to do with the redevelopment of the land; those plans would be drawn up by local authorities and developers.

So, from what I gather, the plan will involve massive federal involvement and funding, coercive land sales (why not just employ eminent domain, while you’re at it?), and a close alliance with “local authorities and developers” who are among the crookedest in America.

One of the best things about the article — besides the line “the bill has become increasingly important to Louisiana because the state lost out to the greater political power of Mississippi last month” — is that virtually every positive quote about the program seems to be delivered secondhand by . . . Rep. Baker!

Give it a read.

And mourn the likely departure of a NYC institution, while you’re at it.

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Roth Rules?

Well, we tried listening to David Lee Roth again on the 3-minute drive to Amy’s bus stop. The first thing we heard was ‘Diamond Dave’ saying, “We have on the line a representative from the UAW.”

First thing to flash into my head? The episode of The Simpsons where Bart breaks his leg at the beginning of summer. He decides to chill out and watch Krusty the Klown:

Bart: [laughing at Itchy & Scratchy] You know, this isn’t so bad. I’ll just spend the summer getting better acquainted with an old friend called television.

[kids cheer, Krusty appears and laughs]

Krusty: Hope you enjoyed that, kids, ’cause Krusty’s out of here for the summer. In the meantime, we’ll be running [groans] “Klassic Krusty”. [laughs uncomfortably] Enjoy. . .

[the Krusty Show from February 6th, 1961 comes on]

Krusty: [chuckles] Good evening. Tonight my guest is AFL/CIO chairman George Meany, who will be discussing collective bargaining agreements.

Meany: It’s a pleasure to be here, Krusty.

Krusty: Let me be blunt: is there a labor crisis in America today?

[looks bored, lights cigarette]

Meany: Well that depends what you mean by “crisis”…

[Bart groans]

I can’t begin to do justice to the visual, which consists of an old Dick Cavett set, and Krusty in a black suit, with a white pocket square, smoking away.

Anyway, that was just about my feeling this morning, listening to the over-the-hill former lead singer of Van Halen discussing labor relations. The NYPost was pretty savage this morning (I’d link to the article, but the link would go dead in a week):

Something was missing yesterday as David Lee Roth took over for Howard Stern.

In a word: humor.

For a moment, it was like those Sunday mornings when I zip down to Dunkin Donuts (also 3 minutes away) and click through the stations. The hip-hop station always has its “public issues” show on, which is kinda jarring.

Of course, they put that on 8am on Sundays, not weekday morning drive time.

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Stern Effect

I’ve listened to Howard Stern‘s radio show since 1983 (I was 12). A lot of my friends refuse to believe this. Others think it makes perfect sense. When Howard first announced his move to satellite radio, many asked me if I’d buy a receiver and pay $12.95 a month to listen to him.

“Of course I will!” I said.

At the time, there was a lot of skepticism about Howard’s move. The stereotype was that his listeners were poor schlubs who wouldn’t pay to listen to radio. The analysts contended that Howard would have to draw at least 1 million new subscribers to Sirius to warrant his massive contract.

Fortunately, a friend of Amy bought her a Sirius receiver last year for Christmas. We activated the account a few weeks ago, and I began listening to The Chill when I was around the house.

Last week, I thought I’d buy a newer unit, and get a car kit installed so I could listen on the way to work. Know what I discovered?

You can’t find a Sirius unit for sale in the NY/NJ area. The Sportster Replay, which I planned to pick up, is impossible to find. Most of the other units are also sold out. (The Circuit City & Best Buy stores I stopped in sure had a lot of XM units for sale. Good for them.)

Now, I knew that Stern would easily pass the 1 million mark, but I have a feeling that next quarter’s financial statement will include a shocking amount of new subscriptions. But that’s what people get for underestimating the appeal of Howard Stern. For 20+ years.

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Gin & Pecans!

Back in the office today, for the first time in almost 2 weeks (except for a one-hour stop last Wednesday when I filled out 3 months’ worth of expense reports). What do I find waiting at my desk? A jar of glazed pecans and a giant bottle of Tanqueray! It’s like the holidays never end!

Should I worry about the fact that my associate editor bought me the gin (one of those 1.75L numbers that comes with its own handle)? I mean, if I’d dropped more hints about the two volumes that I’m missing from the new Proust translation, would she have looked for those instead?

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My bad

A couple of posts ago, I mentioned that Woody Allen’s films have sucked for more than a decade now. Last night, Amy & I watched Sweet and Lowdown, and enjoyed the heck out of it. Samantha Morton was just impossibly good, the music was great, and the fact that there was no “Woody” character in it was refreshing. Sure, the “I’m an artist, so I can’t be tied down” shtick was a little cartoony, but Sean Penn’s character didn’t need that sort of depth.

So I stand corrected: Not all of Woody Allen’s post-1989 flicks have been awful.

But I still can’t sit through more than 90 seconds of Curse of the Jade Scorpion.

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Resolved!

Great article from Virginia Postrel in the NYTimes today about New Year’s resolutions:

In the early 1980’s, [Nobel economics laureate] Professor Schelling applied similar analysis to individuals’ internal struggles, seeking to develop what he called “strategic egonomics, consciously coping with one’s own behavior, especially one’s conscious behavior.”

The problem, he suggested, is that pretty much everybody suffers from a split personality. One self desperately wants to lose weight or quit smoking or run two miles a day or get up early to work. The other wants dessert or a cigarette, hates exercise or loves sleep.

Both selves are equally valid, and equally rational about pursuing their desires. But they do not exist at the same time.

[. . .]New Year’s resolutions help the earlier self overrule the later one by raising the cost of straying. “More is threatened by failure than just the substance of the resolution: one’s personal constitution is violated, confidence demoralized, and the whole year spoiled [. . .]”

So there! Read it all!

(I just read Postrel’s The Future and Its Enemies last week. It’s a heck of a book, when it comes to identifying the shifting alliances of political ideology and the perniciousness of technocrats. I recommend it highly.)

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Resolutions

I’m not sure what resolutions I can make for 2006. In the past year, I read more (and more deeply) than I ever have, experienced that revelation of love that culminated in popping the question to Amy, and did all sorts of charitable activity. I didn’t write as much as I want, so maybe that oughtta be it.

My big project (and those never work out for me, so it’s silly of me to mention it) is to read a lot about urban planning and city dynamics, to get a better idea about the historical development of American cities. If that leads to an essay of some kind, you’ll be the first to know.

Another resolution: I resolve to revamp my music-oriented Mad Mix blog and post more often. I have some ideas for a new graphic layout for it, and a way of making sure there’s a substantive post at least once a week, but it’s a matter of execution (as ever).

Here’s yet more Proust, quoting a doctor:

“Everything we think of as great has come to us from neurotics. It is they and they alone who found religions and create great works of art. The world will never realise how much it owes to them, and what they have suffered in order to bestow their gifts on it. We enjoy fine music, beautiful pictures, a thousand exquisite things, but we do not kow what they cost those who wrought them in insomnia, tears, spasmodic laughter, urticaria, asthma, epilepsy, a terror of death which is worse than any of these, and which you perhaps have experienced, Madame.”

That said, Woody Allen’s films have sucked for more than a decade now.