1. On Sunday, Stephen and I went for a walk along the river, which was glowing. The midtown skyline was visible in the distance, only about seven or eight miles away, a three or four hour trip by way of the broken subway system.
2. I recently posted a picture to FB and one of my college classmates asked if I was familiar with the rose bush under the GWB. I told him that the rose bush and I were old friends, both IRL and on FB.
3. “Where is everyone?” — me, Sunday afternoon
4. We walked up to Broadway and 141 to our favorite new Japanese restaurant, ROKC. I’ve never been to Japan, but Stephen assured me that this is exactly how restaurants look in Tokyo. I guess I don’t have to go now!
5. Inside we had bowls of ramen and listened to jazz (flute). We didn’t order the fancy cocktails this time, but it was still a perfect way to spend a late-autumn afternoon.
6. Friday morning, I went running. By now it was cold and windy. The park was mostly asleep.
7. I distracted myself by thinking about Vancouver, which has a very progressive transportation system, with separate lanes for bikes.
8. Lately I’ve become obsessed with the idea that New York City needs to eliminate parking from one half of all the streets, charge for the remainder of the spots, and use the revenue to build legitimate bike lanes that cars and SUVs can’t invade the way they always obnoxiously do when you’re on a bike. It’s time to stop subsidizing parking for the minority of people in the city who own cars.
9. I wasn’t optimistic that my parking reforms were going to be implemented in the near future, but it’s good to be a little angry when you’re running. It helps you go faster and ignore the cold.
10. At least until I turned the corner, and the rising sun warmed me up for a few seconds before I turned back into the wind.
