#NoDAPL

These folks asked me to take their photo and send a tweet about it, so I did:

Maybe it made a difference.

Post-Election Post-Its for Post-Traumatic Stress (Union Square, Manhattan)

Ms. Rodham Goes to Washington (Fort Greene, Brooklyn)

I took a train to this fortuitously named subway station in Brooklyn on Saturday night. The name  proved prescient in 1992 and hopefully will prove just as prescient today. 

A Crossroads of Contrasts (Times Square)

Times Square has always been a crossroads of contrasts. Its old image--as an epicenter of porn and depravity--contrasts with its newer identity as a showcase for Disney and so-called wholesome (i.e. commercial) family fun in the form of Applebee's and Ripley's Believe it or Not. And yet (in another contrast), pockets of porn still linger, side-by-side with packed tour buses and Broadway theaters. There's also the wealth of the world travelers who clog the sidewalk contrasted with the growing number of homeless who sleep on it. And this video shows a musical contrast in the Times Square subway station: a Michael Jackson wannabee dancing within earshot of an Amish chorus.

The Gem State (Boise, Idaho)

I spent a few days in Boise, Idaho, this week. The downtown was old-style and human-scale. The domed capitol building, surrounded by a lovely park, conveyed the sense that democracy was within reach of the people. And I found something comforting in the presence of coin operated newspaper dispensers, which I haven't seen (or at least noticed) in ages in New York.