Most would assume that the expenditure of money is the only thing that separates one from the dark ages and the 21st century. If you read my posting The Dark Ages, you can see the state of a radiator in a certain individual’s apartment (see the renovation here). That individual, thinking as any reasonable person might, expected that spending money and hiring a professional who came highly recommended would easily remedy the situation.

The photo shows the finished job. The assignment was to remove the old radiator, replace it with a smaller, more compact model, and install it at floor level away from the wall. What I got was the radiator propped up at an angle on two hacksawed pieces of conduit, thus avoiding the work of removing riser pipe. I was assured that the uneven heights of conduit were necessary to create the pitch necessary for water flow in the steam system. The whole arrangement looked like a circus act. I was shocked and awed.

Now the most common suggestion from others for a simple solution to this type of problem is always to have him come back and fix it or even hold back payment.
But the real problem is that I made a grievous error in hiring. The contractor was not really capable of doing this plumbing job to an acceptable standard. So what avail is it to have him come back? The work would have to be policed and micromanaged, an extremely stressful process with dubious outcome. No, better to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous work and hire another to make it right.

Why do we suffer so? Because New York City has a captive audience for residents, and generally speaking, for these types of services in rental properties, the individual has virtually no consumer leverage. Take it or leave it. I understand that this type of problem is not unique to the city, but it is very exacerbated in New York.

In hindsight, I think the best response to the completion of the work, had I not been so stunned, would have been, “Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Contractor.”*

*Note: The book Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman is a collection of anecdotes by the Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman. In one story, Feynman makes a serious faux pas at a party, to which he is told, “Surely you’re joking, Mr. Feynman.”

On April 5th, 2007, I posted Caravan of Dreams, showing a man wheeling a mattress and couch down a busy Village street. But I should have saved that title for today’s posting, because this is what I was really searching for when I used the word caravan. I have seen these processions of trash before, but they are not an everyday occurrence, and my last attempt to photograph one with a small point-and-shoot camera was met with an angry, hostile outburst by the homeless owner, essentially accusing me of exploitation. So I refrained at that time.
The indignant attitude of those on the fringes of NYC may come as a surprise to some, but this is typical New York Style – pride can been seen at every strata of local society. Although homelessness is not a crime per se, many of the activities of the homeless are, frequently necessitated by the lifestyle. The rights of the homeless and the legality of their activities is the subject of endless debate.

Last night, I witnessed the caravan in the photo on Washington Square North (the owner can be seen sleeping on the left near the milk crate). See closeup photo here. Early this morning, he was on the move again.

There is an apparent element of lunacy here – acquiring and moving mountains of what appears to be trash. Plus, tending to this cache is a full-time job. Belongings are affixed typically to shopping or hamper carts. These wagon trains of carts ala trash are then moved incrementally and sequentially – a tedious job. But then again, work can be therapeutic. And much of the booty are bottles to be recycled for cash. Perhaps this monumental nomadic enterprise is exactly what keeps their owners sane, giving their life meaning and making them feel like members of New York society with real property ownership (frequently overnighting in the best of neighborhoods). On the other hand, I’m still just a renter…

This morning, I have been reading websites like bombingscience and wetcanvas. My head is swimming with grafiiti terminology and threads on the various ways and means of working with Armor Etch, Etchall, bath, etc. Creams are too thick and dips too thin. Mixing with shoe polish or paint. How to apply it. Getting the stuff in markers. And the sites are laden heavily with expletives directed at anyone not in the know and asking “stupid” questions.

Technology and ingenuity cut two ways, and in the case of graffiti, purveyors have upped the ante with acid. If you have seen work like that on the subway car window in the photo, this is not the result of scratchiti (scribing), giraffiti, or conventional graffiti, but rather the handiwork of individuals who use acid etching solutions to permanently write on glass. The problem has become epidemic in subways, on retail store windows, and anywhere there is a public pane of glass. There are now laws regarding the purchase of acid-etching materials as well as buying spray paint. Of course, there is controversy regarding legislation and the sale of art materials.

I wrote about the graffiti phenomenon in March 2007 in an article on the retail shop Scrapyard. I think most people find the whole acid etch graffiti thing quite disturbing once they realize that the damage is permanent and that the entire glass window must be replaced at great cost. Many retailers afflicted with the condition tend to just leave it in place, saving money and not running the risk at having vandals do a repeat performance. For new subway cars, the transit system has availed itself of a 3M product: Scotchgard Anti-Graffiti Window Film,  a Mylar protective film not affected by etching acids.

Oh, I didn’t tell the whole truth. Conventional wisdom and most articles you will find about acid etch will state that the damage is permanent. Not quite true. It can be removed in a laborious process of grinding and polishing. I once spoke with a worker removing etchings from a retail store on Broadway. There is a company, Unscratch the Surface in California, that does this – you can watch a video of the process on their site. A new industry is born to deal with the unkindest etch of all…

Photo Note: This photo was taken on the F Train in Brooklyn. For a second shot with the city skyline, click here.

There are different types of crashes: the type which I photographed and posted on this site on May 4, 2007 (Yellow Fever), and the type you see in the photo – a computer hard drive crash.

And why was there a crash? Because there are different types of fools: the type seen in the Middle Ages who were extremely clever and entertaining, often employed in the royal court and featured in many Shakespearean plays, and the type who, though computer savvy, when tired and things aren’t working properly, start reconfiguring cables of their computer system with reckless abandon.

And, of course, there are different consequences to such behavior, some rather benign and others quite dire, like a hard drive crash (made worse by not having made proper backups of ALL their work, losing some things forever).

Lastly, there are different types of people, and they react variously to such occurrences. There are some who take things in stride and others whom it would be advised not to be around when such things happen. And this is why today, you don’t get a wonderful, insightful photo and story on some fascinating, perhaps obscure, part of our wonderful city, but rather a photo of the inside of my G4 Mac when I was replacing its main drive…

Photo note: For those of you who find today’s photo uninteresting, trust that you would much prefer this photo to one of your author and the state he was in when this occurred and it became clear that the damage was irreparable 🙂

This is the time of year when conversation in NYC frequently turns to heating. Ironically, in 2007, in the largest city in the United States where wealth abounds, people paying thousands of dollars per month in rent are still frequently concerned with getting adequate heat. During the heating season (October 1 through May 31), the City Housing Maintenance Code and State Multiple Dwelling Law requires the following:

*Between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m., heat must register at least 68 degrees Fahrenheit when the outside temperature falls below 55 degrees;
*Between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m., heat must register at least 55 degrees Fahrenheit when the outside temperature falls below 40 degrees.

Do you see the problem here? Firstly, most people not from the arctic tundra find these minimum requirements much too low – 55 degrees inside after 10 PM? Fortunately, most tenants get much more than this. Secondly, these indoor temperatures are actually not measured. Boilers typically have basic settings – on and off (based on outdoor temperature); high, medium, low, etc. Unlike a private home where a thermostat regulates indoor temperature, no such mechanism exists in a multi-unit apartment building. So, there is either too much heat or too little. Many run too hot. Add to this that it is generally not a good idea to turn steam systems on and off (in the apartment) and that the shutoff valves frequently malfunction anyway, and it is not uncommon for New Yorkers to open windows in mid-winter. Thirdly, landlords are always looking to cut costs, but in NYC, rent control and rent stabilization laws exacerbate the situation. With rental income regulated (nearly 1 million apartments in NYC are still rent regulated), landlords are much more inclined to hold back services, repairs, and upgrades.

So, with rats gone wild, dogs (and horses) relieving themselves in the streets, all the city’s trash put out on the streets on pickup days, the homeless living on the streets year round, drafts through old windows, and not enough heat, New York can, at times, feel like the Dark Ages…

Related Postings: Wildlife Control, Stephanie, Dead to the World, Garbage a la Mode