so far so good sunday

Hey, so funny how it works. Turned out okay yesterday. The weirdest ride I got yesterday was a couple looking for specific motel/hotels . I took them from 125th and Broadway to a HoJo's in the Bronx, yeah I know, they still exist? Then when that one turned out 'no vacancy' they asked to go back over the Macomb's Damn Bridge to a motel, yes, an actual MOTEL in MANHATTAN! the ride was very efficient at 14.50 and they gave me a 20 and told me to keep the change. It was a very lucky ride to get 20 dollars and still be in Manhattan. Plus I learned a lot from that ride. I now may have more knowledge on how to go crosstown to Yankee Stadium, and if anybody wants a cheap motel, I could mention that place. 

I saw a raccoon today crossing 5th avenue. I got a blurry picture I'll show you later.

Here's what's going on today: Half Marathon

after 2 weeks:

This shit sucks! Guess what everybody, I've gone 3 hours without a fare! Like an idiot I waited at a hotel, for an hour, and right when I was number two, it took another fricken' hour, I was boxed in, but there was no way I was wasting anymore time, while the limo drivers took everyone and we watched!! 

Some jerk had the nerve to tell me that I should get off the waiting line, because he made 80 bucks in the time I waited. I guess I should have given him a fucking prize. You win some and you lose some. I am pretty sure when he has a bad day, I'll be making a boatload of cash. The world always balances out, that's my philosophy.

I should really switch to nights. It was all good till' the sun came up.

I have a lot on my plate right now. I am starting to think about going back to school to study urban planning, and also a few friends and I are planning to form a wedding photography company. It all requires money, which I'm kind of short on.

5/17 shots

NW Corner of Driggs Street and Manhattan Avenue, 

Williamsburg, Brooklyn

Brooklyn was always the cool borough in New York City, but lately the influx of money, coupled with so much real-estate being turned over in hopes of much larger profits has been shocking. This particular corner is one of the best examples of the gentrification in Williamsburg. On one corner a brick building with peeling paint holds a sign that appears to be older than the average age of the neighborhood population. Around noon, the establishment is full of patrons eating and drinking out in front. By night at the northeast corner, people chat with cigarettes in hand while their drinks grow less robust inside. And of course, at the southeast corner, people watch it all from their new apartment's floor to ceiling windows. Once again, the coolness of a neighborhood is attempting to bring in people who pay to be cool, and yet rather than living in such a lifestyle, they seclude themselves in private fortresses.

SE Corner of Driggs Street and Manhattan Avenue, 

Williamsburg, Brooklyn

It was getting past late, and on to early, in other words, it was morning. I hadn't realized until I stopped at my favorite pick-up dinner, that the sun had already been progressing upwards in the sky. Everybody had gone home already for the most part, but I lucked out and got a fare all the way to Far Rockaway, Queens, or somewhere in the area. 

When you get this far out to the limits of New York's borders, things start changing, and it doesn't look like the New York so many are familiar with. The Rockaways are a set of neighborhoods on a finger peninsula, on one side of the peninsula, the lower New York Bay, pretty much the Atlantic Ocean. On the other side is the smaller Jamaica Bay, where I have visited a bunch of times to look at wildlife.  

Averne, Queens

A smooth dark freshly paved road surrounded by new, I'm assuming affordable, houses. Seemingly miles from civilization, but not a mile away, the elevated subway line:

Averne, Queens

However, it wasn't running that day, the subway doesn't always run as predicted here.

Averne, Queens

On either end of the main road, the salt water is only steps away, and the breeze is strong. The Housing, affordable, due to the inconvenience of travel.

Holland, Queens

Broad Channel is a small patch of houses on stilts in between the Rockaways and Howard Beach. A lot of fishing here. 

Broad Channel, Queens

Cross Bay Bridge, Jamaica Bay, Queens

Starbucks, Howard Beach, Queens

This Starbucks Coffee house may look common to you, but for this New Yorker, to see a Starbucks in its own suburban house with parking on either side is super rare. So with such easy parking I had to stop, go to the restroom of course, and then order the smallest coffee I could.

South Conduit Boulevard, Ozone Park, Queens

Yes folks, still making my way back to Manhattan, and not a building in sight.

Van Wyck Expressway,  Jamaica, Queens

So the lack of train service to the Rockaways, meant at least one person's route to JFK Airport was derailed. This is what he told me when he got in my cab at Columbus Circle, so I got a quick trip to JFK, thanks to the unreliable Metropolitan Transit Authority. In all truth, the subway system is way better than it was, but there is always room for improvement. Above the Van Wyck is a monorail designed to transfer from both the 'A' line, and the 'E' line and bring people to the airport for a fee of another 3 bucks I think. The problem with this, is that people going to the airport would much rather a direct transit, without any transfers. 

Midtown

You know you drank too much when

A long while back I had this customer:

He came in, and sank in to the usual back-seat corner. 

"9th and 30th street." 

I don't remember where exactly, but that's a good example. Then he told me this.

"Where'd Alan go?" 

"What?" 

I said, after I looked back and saw him staring right at me. 

"Where'd.. Alan... GO?"

"Uhh.. I don't know... What you're talking about sir?" 

I didn't know weather I should laugh, cry, or shit my pants. 

There was a long pause, about a minute. He looked at me, slumped further in his seat and said, 

"Fair enough." 

I guess I won this round of, am I crazy or just messing with ya.

temporary brake

I got some bachelor shenanigans to attend to, all weekend I think. So I'm off this weekend, and I don't think I'll have much time to edit more pictures or write another journal entry.

 

I got 12 more to edit, but this is the only one I've done along with the large one up top, both from the edge of New York City's universe:

Far Rockaway, Queens

More old Taxis (part 2: Fords)

Oops I forgot to post the old pictures of Ford taxis in movies. So again from the site IMCDB.org, the Ford in NYC taxis from the 70's to the 90's

73' Ford Custom 500

"Taxi Driver"

75' Ford Ltd

"Nine and a Half Weeks"

79' Ford Ltd Crown Victoria

"Night On Earth"

90' Ford Crown Victoria

"As Good As It Gets"

92' Ford Crown Victoria

"Thirteen Going On Thirty"

More old Taxis

Alright bare with me here, I can't stop surfing the internet finding examples of old New York taxis. I promise this will be my last post of old taxis, but promises are made to be broken. All the pictures were found on IMCDB.org. Can you believe there is an entire site dedicated to finding the cars used in movies and naming them all!!! Did I die and go to heaven? I know a lot of movies get their history wrong, or they just don't care about history, so if you see any car I posted, and want to add some info about how it really looked, or it never being a taxi, don't hesitate to comment.

Again I must remind you if you don't know already, that the NYC taxi wasn't always yellow. Each cab company would choose their paint scheme. The yellow dominance was introduced by John D. Hertz, a national taxi company owner (Yellow Cab Co.), and later of rental car company fame. He believed that yellow was the most noticeable color.

By the way I just saw my first Chevrolet Malibu hybrid taxi yesterday, I think it was owned by a fleet, so there should be a handful of them within the year. 

72' Dodge Polara

"The Seven-Ups"

Nothing says, I live in the era when everything

sucks, quite like this car.

Everything about this car is genuine. the red number 83 indicates this as the 83rd car of a particular taxi company. The taxi fare decal on the front doors and even the medallion number on the roof-light are very accurate.

57' Dodge Coronet

"The Best of Everything"

77' Dodge Coronet

"Murder She Wrote"

Could this be the ugliest car ever made?

55' Dodge Coronet

"North By Northwest"

80' Chevy Impala

"The Confession"

In the early 80's the Impala and the Caprice were virtually the same. 

59' Checker 

"Breakfast at Tiffany's"

Note the green and yellow colors, beautiful.

37' Buick Special

"The Natural"

I wonder if cabs ever had white wall tires?

36' Buick Special

"The Pantom"

This roof sign seems very accurate. I don't think any taxi was satisfied with a simple "Taxi" sign. I wish more movies would get this right.

36' Cord 810 Westchester

"The Shadow"

This car is amazing! Pop up headlights inside the wheel well?!!! How cool is that!!!!!??? Again the roof-light is very comparable to the DeSoto Skyview taxis, very historically acute. 

Right when aviation was getting started, everyone wanted to be a pilot. That dash makes the driver feel as though he were flying. I wouldn't be surprised if it had an altimeter. 

But my main question is: Was this ever really a taxicab?

42' DeSoto Skyview

"Saboteur"

The Skyview was aptly named for a glass roof in the back. Both the glass roof, and the ample room in the back made it the most desirable cab.

46' Plymouth De Lux

"The Shadow"

53' Plymouth Cambridge

"Funny Face"

Location: Washington Square Park. that's right, 5th Avenue went right through the arch and around the fountain.

65' Plymouth Fury 3

"Blindfold"

57' Plymouth Plaza

"Breakfast at Tiffany's"

55' Plymouth Plaza

"Funny Face"

37' Pontiac Delux

"The Natural"

57' Studebaker Scotsman

"The Best of Everything"