[TuringNYC]

When i was younger I would sometimes ride the F-train back and forth several times in the evenings just so I could think and put articulate thoughts into a notebook. This is before underground network connectivity, before smartphones, etc. The hum of the train was great and the speed of the F train at segments of Queens were exhilarating, a bit like listening to EDM while coding.

[busterarm]

I used to do a few different versions of this for most of the 30+ years I lived in NY. I used to love walking all over manhattan alone late at night. I would do like 10 mile walks just for the heck of it with music going. Or I would hop on the bike and do similarly.

When there would be friends involved, we'd usually be at Chinatown Fair all night until close, then walk down to Elevated Acre and hang out there (this was pre-9/11) until 3 or 4, then walk our friends from Staten Island to the Ferry. If the mood was particularly good, we'd take the ferry with them and then ride it back and everyone go their separate ways.

There used to be houseboats around lower manhattan back then and it was a nice (albeit sketchy) walk from Chinatown down to the tip of the island. There was also pretty briefly this wild hole-in-the-wall DUMBO nightclub projecting porn on the walls that we would frequently stumble into on our way down there.

Things like that were honestly the best part about living in NY, but also it's long in the past.

[TuringNYC]

Similar! I think my experiences were best captured by the song SOFI TUKKER - Summer In New York

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCuSci5BSyQ

A lot of this went away, not sure why. People are too glued to phones.

[1-more]

Summer 2020 I was out there after creating as much shareholder value as I could at my then-WFH 9-5. First it was delivering postmates on rollerblades, then I did it on my bike (working better and better apps every time to offset the depreciation inherent to riding a bike), then I'd just do a 4 boro bike tour Brooklyn over the Pulaski bridge up to Astoria, get souvlaki, take the Triboro to the Bronx and then head to Manhattan on a different bridge every time (High Bridge is still my fave). Just putting up like 40–60 mile rides noodling around that town. There's no better way to see the city, and no better place to bop around on a bike, in my experience.