Wouldn’t you like a stadium or sports complex named after you or your company? Perhaps your immediate thoughts are, “At what cost?” In the case of Citi Field, the answer is $400 million dollars – $20 million dollars per year over 20 years. That’s a lot of money, but nothing to worry about with a little help from your friends – the U.S. Taxpayers in the form of a $45 billion dollar bailout.
This is what prompted New York City Council members James S. Oddo and Vincent Ignizio to propose that the new park be named Citi/Taxpayer Field. The cheeky remark was circulated and commented online.

The naming deal was made in 2006. However, by 2008, with the banking/economic crisis in full swing, Citigroup was in dire trouble as a result of heavy exposure to troubled debts in sub-prime mortgages. A government rescue ensued.

Citi Field in Flushing Meadows–Corona Park was completed in 2009, built as a replacement for neighboring Shea Stadium as a new home for the New York Mets. It was designed by Populous and featured elements of the legendary Ebbets Field (1913-1960), located in Flatbush, Brooklyn, and home to the Brooklyn Dodgers. You can see the design influence here in the photo of the exterior entrance to Ebbets Field. See Citi Field here, as viewed from the Roosevelt Bridge overlooking Willets Point.

Shea Stadium was built in 1964 (dismantled in 2008), funded primarily by the 1964 World’s Fair. It was used as a multi-purpose arena and had numerous rock groups and events. Pope John Paul II made an appearance there in October 1979. Perhaps its most legendary claim was the Beatles’ opening of their 1965 North American tour. Two years later, in 1967, the Beatles wrote With a Little Help from My Friends. Apparently someone from Citi was listening and later took their advice 🙂

One of the defining characteristics of New York City is the passion, fervor, and obsession of many individuals in pursuit of activities, some of which might not seem worthy of an adult’s time and effort.
Most people understand that chess is a serious game – various pieces, each with its own special movement abilities and rules, make it somewhat formidable to the newcomer. And a number of its champions are known to the public, most notably Bobby Fischer.

But Scrabble is a game that is seen by most as a past time, most often associated with their childhood. A game that can be easily learned and enjoyed by all. To see it taken seriously by adults may come as a surprise. Except in New York City, where nearly everything is taken seriously by someone or some group and where board games are no exception – the perfect activities for a city limited in free space.

Stefan Fatsis, a former journalist for the Wall Street Journal, took time off from his job to investigate the world of top-level tournament Scrabble. He became obsessed with the game, and the book Word Freak emerged from his more than three years of nonstop Scrabbling. Published in 2001, the book became a New York Times bestseller.
Fatsis describes the exotic subculture of characters he met in the Manhattan Scrabble Club and in the northwest corner of Washington Square Park, such as:
G.I. Joel Sherman, a jobless, gastrointestinally challenged, full-time Scrabble player,
Marlon Hill, an anagramming Malcolm X,
Matt Graham, a pill-popping stand-up comic,
Joe Edley, a nonconfrontational human-potential devotee who nonetheless irritates fellow players in his dual role as champion player and National Scrabble Association executive,
Lester Schonbrun, an armchair Communist who began playing in the early 1960s.

The northwest corner of Washington Square Park, seen in the photo, has been the haunt of Scrabble players for years. In fact, this area’s use for Scrabble play was taken into consideration in the recent redesign of the park. Here, on the new enlarged stone tables, you will find serious Scrabble players with time clocks, Scrabble dictionaries, and score sheets. World-class championship players can be found among them.
The Scrabble players in Washington Square Park were also featured in the 2004 documentary film Word Wars.

What type of people take an ordinary game to the level of obsession? Johns D. Williams, Jr. of the National Scrabble Association says: “Scratch the surface of any champion in any individual sport and you’re often going to find an obsessed misfit who’s deficient in many parts of his life.”
You have to give up something to be a world-class word freak 🙂

Note: The Southwest corner of the park is the realm of chess. See Chess Monsters here.

Related Postings: Good Fortune, Marshall Chess Club

Had I known of Otto Lilienthal’s impressive early pioneering efforts in human flight, it may have inspired more serious and potentially successful efforts of my own as a child. But, having neither the funds, knowledge, or resources, my earliest attempts consisted of jumping off my father’s Chevy with an umbrella to obtain some type of gliding experience. Of course, there was none. Somewhat later, I learned to travel the forest canopy, moving from treetop to treetop ala Tarzan.

As an adult, still desperate to become airborne, I took 10 hours of flying lessons in the 1970s. But I slowly realized what every aviator knows: flying is a hobby for the rich, or at least those with disposable income who are willing to make the sacrifice. And, down the road, some investment in a plane or high rental fees would be necessary. An interest in hang gliding was quickly curtailed with tales of accidents and spinal injuries.

Much later, while perusing magazines in a New York City shop that advertised itself as having an exhaustive selection of titles (over 3000), I was quite shocked to see a magazine on RC (radio-controlled) jets. As a child, I had seen tethered U-control planes with their operators circling in a dizzying affair. I had no idea that hobby aircraft had advanced to the point where there existed genuine ducted fan engines powering scale model jets.

But where to see such a thing in New York City? Nowhere. Or so I thought. Yesterday’s second excursion to Floyd Bennett Field confirmed what I had read. There is an active club of RC Aviators operating on an unused runway at the decommissioned airfield. A number of enthusiasts were on hand and the displays of flying were very impressive, however, what I was seeing was exclusively propeller-driven planes. Secretly, I was hoping to see some jets. Soon, my wishes were fulfilled, and a couple of jet fliers turned up and flew their aircraft. See my photo gallery here.

I also learned that not only did RC propeller planes exist in both fuel-powered engines but jets also were available with electric ducted fan turbine engines. Surprisingly, an entire setup, including the radio transmitter, can be had for a few hundred dollars. At the other end of the spectrum, some run into the tens of thousands. There are even RC Concordes; I was informed of one perfect scale model with a working hydraulic nose, real windows, etc., costing upwards of $30,000. Beats an umbrella and a Chevy 🙂

Note: I will be posting a video of my excursions to Floyd Bennett Field and of the various activities there. Check back here in a few days.

I can’t think of anything that seems more antithetical to Manhattan than bowling. Firstly, it has a definite suburban cache. I realize that bowling is a serious sport requiring skill and discipline, but growing up outside the city, bowling was an act of desperation for bored and frustrated teenagers – one of the few activities sanctioned by adults.

Also, bowling, like tennis, requires large amounts of space. In New York City, space is a luxury and is costly. Activities and usage of space always has to be considered, and like every business in New York City, usage is metered. To survive, you need to know the cost in dollars per square foot per hour. Bowling is not a particularly profitable use of space, which is why you don’t see many bowling alleys here – there are only four in the borough of Manhattan. They are typically low visibility, located off the beaten path like at Chelsea Piers or on upper floors like Bowlmor.

Bowlmor is located at 110 University Place in the heart of the Village. Its bold bright signage can be easily overlooked, competing with a plethora of other attractions and Union Square nearby.
I have been familiar with Bowlmor as long as I have lived in the city. It has been in business since 1938. Bowling was quite popular at one time in New York for 100 years, from the mid-1800s through the 1950s (Richard Nixon bowled there in 1955). The first lawn bowling grounds in the United States were built in downtown Manhattan (in an area still known as Bowling Green). But the familiar specter of rising rents and declining space put an end to many bowling alleys. Bowlmor is the only one remaining from those early days. However, it did go through its own near fatality.

In 1997, Bowlmor was purchased and rescued by Tom Shannon, who reinvented it as a trendy, chic nightclub operation. Their website uses words like sexy, naughty, tasty, and cool to describe what is essentially a nightclub with bowling. The business occupies two entire floors, with a total of 40,000 square feet and 42 lanes. It features glow-in-the-dark bowling, big screen video walls, a thumping sound system, a full service restaurant serving lane-side food and drinks, and a sports bar. They expanded in 2001 to a third floor with Pressure, a high-end event space.

So I finally decided to make a personal inspection. On my visit, I was welcomed and encouraged to take photos. There were several special private parties, including a function for Novartis Pharmaceuticals. The place was abuzz with balls, pins, and drinks. Bowlmor has been visited by many celebrities, evidence of its place on the A-list. You can see a showcase of autographed bowling pins here…

I remember one occasion where former Mayor Rudy Giuliani was chastising the press for asking questions he considered inappropriate at the time and focusing on the negative. Now although Giuliani was not seen as the poster child for warmth and tenderness, his point was well taken. The media and consumers of media are fueled more by the negative than the positive. Violence, infidelity, crime, tragedy, war, and crisis all certainly draw more attention than tales of goodness. Unless they are supreme acts of philanthropy in the league of Mother Teresa, some element of drama or sensationalism is needed to pique the interest of readers and viewers. Otherwise the story will be lost in the slush pile. People want to hear tales like that of former Governor Eliot Spitzer caught with a prostitute, not about a man who helps a disabled person across the street. Competition for people’s attention is fierce, and even extreme occurrences can become tiresome for many.

Children do not immediately come to mind when thinking about New York City, particularly for the visitor or resident without children. But they are part of the fabric of the city along with their parents, all doing what parents, children, and families do, reconfigured for city life. Although soccer is big with kids in America, I was still surprised to see a group in training one morning in Washington Square Park. This group was part of a program called Super Soccerstars, “founded in the year 2000 by Gustavo Szulansky, a New York City father of three and native of Argentina. With futbol in his blood and having spent countless dollars searching for quality programs for his own children, he founded the program determined to build the best children’s program anywhere.” You can read more about them here at their website.

The humanity of seeing children at play is a heartwarming experience – even more so in New York when it is so often unexpected. As I wrote about in Mary Celeste, schools and playgrounds pop up in the most inhospitable places, surrounded by the maelstrom of a frenetic city.

But children will do what children do, city or not, having adapted to the environment. And one thing they will do, if you stop and let them, is warm your heart and soul…

Related Posting: Little Burnt Out

OTB is a rather invisible enterprise, lurking in the underbelly of New York City. This is the type of place that caters strictly to a niche clientele, and those not seeking to place bets through the city’s Off Track Betting parlors will probably never notice their existence.

This is one of the few things in New York City which I do not consider a must-see. In fact, the atmosphere is rather unsavory, perhaps seedy. Unlike racetracks themselves, which have the added elements of horses, paddocks, jockeys, and an outdoor environment, OTB is stripped of all these human and equine elements and has reduced horse racing to a betting experience. Although one can feel some excitement at the close of a race, there is the distinct sense that the excitement is largely predicated on winning money with a leveraged bet. Unfortunately, it is also the home to many disenfranchised hoping to hit it big with a longshot or perhaps a gimmick bet like the exacta or trifecta.

At one time, these parlors were smoke-filled, adding insult to injury but certainly providing a sense of authenticity – a smoky haze conjures the right images for this type of place, evoking the feelings one might have in a pool hall or a dart area in the back room of a bar…

History of OTB: Approved by voters in a 1963 referendum, the official history of the New York City Off-Track Betting Corporation began on April 22, 1970. NYCOTB was designated to operate as a public-benefit corporation, a relatively new form of governmental entity run along the lines of a private enterprise whose profits accrue back to the taxpayers in the form of public revenue. The mission given us was three-fold: to raise needed revenue for the City and State, to combat organized crime’s hold on gambling by providing a legal alternative, and to help New York State’s racing industry.

Update: In December 2010, New York City’s OTB closed operations.