There are phenomena in New York City which are the result of the unique confluence of numerous factors – population density, large ethnic groups with their cultural traditions, and what I perceive as a certain lawlessness and laissez–faire attitude regarding victimless crimes in New York.

It’s really a question of numbers. Any densely populated city affords opportunities not found elsewhere. For example, there is always some need for emergency umbrellas with the onset of an unexpected downpour, but only a place like Manhattan will offer enough potentiality to actually buy umbrellas, set up on the street, and make it a venture, as I wrote about in Opportunity.

For some time, there were the squeegee men – individuals, particularly in the Bowery area, who worked washing the windows of cars stopped at traffic lights. What started in New York as a annoying “service” eventually became tantamount to blackmail – the windshield washing was done hurriedly without asking permission and was followed by demands for payment. Mayor Rudolph Guiliani effectively eliminated the squeegee men as part of his Quality of Life campaign.

One activity that remains and can be often seen around the metropolitan area is the sale of flowers on highways. This is obviously a dangerous activity for both the vendors and motorists. Arrests are occasionally made and fines collected. According to a New York Times article, many of these flower vendors are Ecuadorean – you can read the story of one man’s trials and tribulations here: Hard Way to Sell Flowers: Dodging Cars and the Police.

Turning corners and not waiting for pedestrians, double and triple parking, jay walking, counterfeits of luxury products sold openly on the street, known drug dealers chatting with police officers – all somewhat surprising activities in a first-world city in the 21st century.
But Americans don’t really like rules. I often think of the wild west as symbolic of the American temperament, with New York City keeping that tradition alive 🙂

The hookah is a social instrument, so it is not surprising that it would be adopted by students. Hookahs are now common in colleges around the country, as are hookah bars (this site gives a national hookah bar directory by state – Update 1/17/12: Blocked link.). Smoking bans in the city have made smoking all but impossible indoors. There are certain exemptions for cigar bars – hookah bars have been battling over this for some time. There are a number of hookah bars all over New York City – an area of Astoria (in Queens), known as Little Egypt, has quite a number of them.

The hookah originated in India and, as most know, is ubiquitous* all over the Arab world, particularly in Turkey (read more here). In the last few years, the trend has been adopted by students, as seen in the photo, taken in Washington Square Park.

There can be a certain naivete, however, when things become trendy. All of a sudden, the reinvention and new adoption, with perhaps some minor tweaks, somehow leads participants to believe that the old rules don’t apply. Hookahs are a good example. A variety of hookah tobaccos are used, called Shisha, including varieties that are flower- and fruit-flavored. But no matter – the evidence still indicates that although the water filtration makes the tobacco less harsh, the exposure to the dangers of nicotine are actually as great or even greater than cigarette smoking. I read that there are non-tobacco herbal alternatives, but websites have maasel on this list, including Wikipedia – my reading indicates that maasel is a fruit-flavored tobacco…

*A note about ubiquitous: Doesn’t this word now seem predominantly used in a gratuitous manner by those trying to impress with their vocabulary? I saw it on a Top Ten Catchwords of the Literati, along with juxtaposition and iconoclasm.
However, I also saw the word described as one used by pseudointellectuals, as well as a number of other articles that found it overused.

Photo note: For those of you who are wondering what it says on the bottom of that girls T-shirt, see here.