City Hall Gift Guide

It's the holiday season once again and New Yorkers are starting to feel the pinch of the recession. Let's face it - no one wants to shell out lots of cash for expensive gifts. And no one wants to travel around the entire city looking for the perfect gift. This year, you can find five great gifts right in the City Hall neighborhood, regardless of your budget.

"I would prefer a homemade gift over a retail gift because it shows the person put time and thought into it," local Christian Torres said. As a gift idea he suggested creating decorated cards, which are absolutely free if you already have supplies at home. For the less artistic, the CVS on Fulton Street sells plenty of seasonal cards at a range of low prices. Combine a store-bought card with a homemade cookie basket to show the person that they "really mean something to you," Torres said.

Another inexpensive gift -and one that's selling fast- is the male Teddy Bear Hamster ($15), said Pedro, an employee at Petland. "They're cute and they're cuddly," he said. Although these hamsters require additional care, like a sturdy cage and vitamins, they're the most frequently purchased animal at the store, located on Nassau Street between Beekman and Ann streets.

Conveniently located next door, The Silk Shop features a wide selection of inexpensive coats ($20). A practical gift like a coat is perfect for the freezing temperatures of the upcoming NYC winter. "It's worth it, if it keeps me warm," said Megan Mallory, a junior at Marymount Manhattan College.

For just $25, you can tell someone how much they mean to you with a "gift of love" (pictured below), suggested Joe Cardinale, who works at New Dimension. "I could personalize it," he said about the item, "It's always a good sell." But if hearts are too romantic, don't worry. You can find a variety of other personalized items like plaques and trophies in the store, located on Nassau Street between Fulton and Ann streets.

So what's the most expensive great gift of the season? A limited edition box of 36 Godiva chocolates ($50). The box features mouth-watering treats like the "mocha snowflake" - a milk chocolate snowflake stuffed with a mocha filling. And for those of us who can't afford the special holiday box, the South Street Seaport store also sells a little chocolate Santa ($7).

Now you're all set! Happy Shopping!

Today in Pictures

Modern Meals

This is New York City, where variety is the flavor of life and modernity is the side soup that goes along with it. And if you're looking for both, then europa café is the place to go. Although sometimes this sleek shop, located on the intersection of Water and John streets, seems too modern for it's own good.

I'm talking about the employees, who act like perfect robots as they prepare your food to perfection, take your money and give you your receipt - all in stony silence. No smiles, no words of greeting and no ability to explain to me what in the world French brie is.

Almost in stark contrast to its frigid employees, the décor of europa café features cheery red tabletops and glowing orange lamps hanging from high ceilings. The restaurant, with its tiled floors and clean countertops, sells sandwich wraps ranging from a classic Turkey Club ($6.95) to Balsamic Chicken zesto ($7.95), quesadillas ($5.75), and delicious-looking yogurt cups ($2.65). It also sells small pizzas, salads, fruits, daily-baked desserts, and freshly squeezed orange juice.

When I arrived at the shop today, I scanned the room - filled mostly with people in suits - for my frequent lunch companion: Pace University Junior Elina Kolo. (You've met her before, in this previous post.) She had already started on her "lunch special" : half of a sandwich - stuffed with turkey, cheese, tomato, and bright green lettuce - along with a small soup for only $6.75.

"My co-workers go to the café across the street because it's a little cheaper," Kolo, who works at The Body Shop, explained to me. "But here, you really get your money's worth."

The NYC Street Vendor Project Spreads Overseas

Could you imagine leaving the luxuries of New York City - its useful subway system, designer boutiques, and Grande mocha lattes - for a place where about only 0.4 percent of the population has indoor plumbing? Well, one New Yorker can. And this January, Fulbright award recipient Sean Basinski will travel alone to Lagos, Nigera - all for the sake of street vendors.

In 2001, this 36-year-old University of Pennsylvania graduate established the New York City Street Vendor Project - located right on William Street - to act as a collective voice for street vendors. "If street vendors are strong and organized, there's no saying what we can do," Basinski said in an informal New York University journalism class interview.

And now, he's taking that mentality overseas to Lagos, the sixth largest city in the world, with a population of 8 million, according to a 2006 Nigerian census. Basinski, who has spent one year in Africa before, will now remain there for six months, where just plans to "spend a lot of time talking to vendors in the streets and the markets." He said he aims to discover what street vendors in Lagos and New York can learn from one another. Basinski will study vendor laws and the lack of street vendor organization in the country, he said. He also suggested he might make a short film based on his experiences.

"I'm sure I'll have a lot of new ideas and I'm sure I'll see things differently," he said, "I think it's going to be thrilling."

But before he goes, Basinski has to find and train someone to manage the Street Vendor Project in his place. The project primarily educates NYC street vendors about restrictions and regulations. Some violations, like setting up to close to a building entrance, can result in $50 tickets. With each ticket handed out, the fine can escalate to $1000 or more.

Some Community Board One members, like John Fratta, call for even more police enforcement against vendors. Fratta asked for increased NYPD enforcement on Fulton Street, according to the minutes of a July 2008 Community Board One meeting. Basinski, on the other hand, thinks police education about vendors is the greater need. His other goals include opening license lists, opening more streets to vending and reducing fees, Basinski said.

Trips out of the country and possible movie plans make Basinski's job seem almost easy. Yet, he faces challenges in dispelling community myths about vending and in getting vendors to support each other by attending meetings. "They are struggling to get by and... they have no reason to believe that what we are doing can actually achieve change," he said in a follow up e-mail interview.

From Street Vending to Poetry

Would you like to get $100 just to stand outside with a street vendor for one day?

That's what one native New Yorker did when his friend offered him $100 just to keep him company at his vending table. When Tony, who was strapped for cash, realized that his friend earned almost $4,500 a day on Fifth Avenue, he decided to try vending for himself on Fulton Street, between Broadway and Nassau Street.

Tony, a 42-year old military veteran, has been vending "on and off for about 10 years" and tries to fight the economic recession with street vending and poetry. Although he's never performed in public, Tony said he's considered using his poetry to get customers. Maybe you've joked with him before, or haggled with him over the jewelry and shawls he sells on Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays.

Vending is a step up for Tony, although it isn't exactly his childhood dream of being a police officer. After his military service from 1985 to 1988, Tony's life spiraled into depression and drug addiction. He lived on the streets, under bridges and in subway cars. Although he felt that he had lost everything, Tony began to turn his life around.

"It took a long time to get my mind right," he said, "I tried different programs, but then I realized it wasn't the programs; it was really what was going on within myself."

That's what he turned to poetry, which he recites with a fast and steady rhyming beat. Tony's poems focus on his past struggles, as well as his feelings of revival and rebirth. "I believe each word serves a purpose," Tony said of his own writing.

Soon, Tony said he will start attending poetry readings and use his talent to make more money to keep food on the table. Until then, he plans to rely on vending to support his girlfriend, daughter and granddaughter. Faced with the upcoming winter and economic downtown, Tony plans to switch his wares over to gloves and hats, as well as offer his customers a discount - the "recession special."

November Events

Now that Halloween's over, the next big thing to look forward to is Thanksgiving, right?
Well, let me fill you in on some neighborhood events to hold you over until then.
(I've organized them by date so you can easily check out the days you're available):

Click here for a full calendar of Community Board One meetings.

Nov. 14, Nov. 15 and Nov. 16: Dance New Amsterdam presents
Bicipital Groove or Echo My Instincts, which "explores changing roles in the dance community."

Nov. 15:
-If you want to be pampered (for $25), check out Trinity Church's Spa For the Soul.
-If you'd rather spend your money on something else, the Panoramasian Dance Project will
perform at Pace University at 7:30 pm ($25 public, $22 students, Pace students free).

Nov. 21:
-Like free events? Well today you've got two, and they're both in the same place! At the
Park Row J & R Music World store, you can get autographs from Brian Wilson (12 noon)
and Twisted Sister (5:30 pm).
-Another event to attend without spending money: Understanding Blogs for Business.

Nov. 22:
-Design your own Thanksgiving Day card! And explore the South Street Seaport Museum's
19th century print shop (12 pm, 211 Water Street).
-The New York City Police Museum offers a free safe teen driving course (12 noon)

Nov. 27:
-Not sure what to do before eating that big, much-anticipated Thanksgiving meal?
Trinity Church sponsors an organ recital and demonstration by Isabelle Demers.

If you know of any other events, feel free to share them!

Shop the Vote

Just hours before the 2008 presidential election, one Brookstone employee remains undecided, not only on which candidate to vote for, but whether to vote at all. He even considered writing Hillary on the ballot. Out of the 10 Civic Center workers and shoppers that I spoke to on Tuesday afternoon, De Yuan was one of only two people without a strong argument for either candidate. The other, Pete LaBrock, doesn't think either is qualified for the position.

Yet, both men could sense the Obama buzz in Lower Manhattan's political core. Along with six others, Yuan and LaBrock predicted an Obama victory tonight.

"I see people every day campaigning for Obama, but I don't see a lot for McCain," said Lana Grolikova, a Century Dental worker. These campaigners, mostly college students rallying behind Obama's plans for change, will be the deciding factor in the election, said Diane Allison, who works at the Christian Reading Room. But it's not just young people who favor Obama. Six business owners and employees I spoke to said that Obama will help bring customers back to stores currently suffering from the fallen economy.

"I think people will get excited about change and they will start spending more," said Sleepy's employee Tanya James, after giving me several other reasons to support Obama. Also, Obama's economic policies will generate tourism, which will help raise the value of the dollar, said John D., who works at Renaissance Jewelers II on Broadway. The mood in the store was tense this afternoon, with two of the employees arguing for McCain and John D. holding his ground in support of Obama.

But even Manager Rick Jude, a McCain fan, admitted that Obama would help the economy, albeit with reserve: "With Obama, we'll have a better economy. With McCain, we would have less money but much more national security."

The third Reconnaissance Jewelers II employee, Charisse S., remained firm in her strong support for McCain: "That Joe the Plumber is close to the heart."

None of these arguments helped to sway Yuan, still undecided, who continued to weight the options as I left the Brookstone store.

"One candidate has a bad track record, and one has no track record," Yuan said.

(Sign in front of Chambers Street polling station)

Looking Back and Looking Ahead

If you're a Civic Center local, you can probably remember the tragedy of Sept. 11, 2001.

I can't begin to imagine the chaos around City Hall that day. All I can really remember is my own fear for my father surge through my chest, a litany cycling through my head while they held us at school: Please, let Daddy have been far away from the World Trade Center. Sometimes that fear still pulls at my chest and brings tears to my eyes.

And today, those tears spilled out at the Tribute WTC Visitor Center, where I went with my journalism class. I didn't lose anyone in the attacks, but I still cried for the 2,751 people who died and for the families of the approximately 20,000 remains found in the rescue effort, according to statistics compiled by Tribute WTC.

What I saw on a film in one of the galleries impacted me the most during the visit. I can still hear the gravelly voice of an aging firefighter talking about the rescue effort, and the search for the body of his son. I can still hear him counting himself more fortunate than the others because he found his son's body in one piece.

"We were finding boots with feet inside. We were finding pants and jackets with body parts inside," Manny Papir, former Mayor Giuliani's deputy chief of staff, said.

Papir aided in the evacuation process on Sept. 11. During the evacuation it seemed as though he had lost all senses except for sight and it was only days later that he could distinguish smells again, he said.

Our tour guide, John Henderson, had also been in the area that day. He told us that he and his wife wore surgical masks while walking through the debris. They walked across the Brooklyn bridge and refused to turn back, he said.

"We're not looking back. There's nothing behind us that we need to see," Henderson said he told his wife.

Yet Henderson, who also works in NYU Graduate Enrollment Services, has come back to lead WTC Tribute tours around the site and through the galleries. As the tour neared its end, Henderson stressed to us that everyone can help in some small way. We can look forward to the World Trade Center Memorial and the Freedom Tower. We can spare a minute to remember those brave enough to try saving others even when all hope seemed lost.

"Are you guys ready? Let's roll," Tom Beamer, credited with leading a passenger takeover of hijackers on United Airlines Flight 93, said on Sept. 11, 2001.

Meeting Pete Hamill

"The City Hall area is better off now and it's a great location."

-Pete Hamill

"New York is a place where you can't judge often what people think."

-Pete Hamill

"Music is one of the great triggers."

-Pete Hamill

"Some people are New Yorkers the day they show up."

-Pete Hamill

"Youth needs the possibility of romance," Pete Hamill wrote in his book Downtown: My Manhattan.

I'll admit it. I was jealous. New York was my city, my secret love. And now this 73-year old writer named Pete Hamill felt that same possibility of romance with its sleek buildings, its tough character and its rich history!

But I got so caught up in the wonders of Downtown - in which Hamill wove his own personal New York narrative together with the separate, intricately detailed threads of the city's history - that my outrage had faded when I finished it a few days later. Instead, I was pretty impressed.

My respect for Hamill increased tenfold when he visited my journalism class on Wednesday and spoke about his personal writing process. For Hamill, language beats to a musical rhythm. He walks around, collects his memories, jots down ideas on a yellow pad and strings together his words in a steady cadence that captures meaning and emotion and possibilities.

The ability to help others represents one of writing's possibilities, Hamill said. He said this notion arose from a past memory in which his mother admonished, "Don't you ever look down on anybody unless you're giving them a hand to get up."

This influenced the first piece he ever wrote, which was about an evicted Williamsburg tenant. Readers then found both job offers and a place to live for the evicted man, Hamill said. This desire to help people guided Hamill throughout his entire journalistic career, in which he wrote for the New York Post, the New York Daily News, and New York Newsday, the Village Voice, New York magazine and Esquire.

Don't let all of those publications and all of Hamill's sucesses intimidate you, though. In journalism class, Hamill was both friendly and patient. But the thing that really stood out to me, the thing that really made me feel like I could understand a little bit more about him than I had previously, was this:

"Within the label of poverty, there were dozens of people who were not impoverished," he said.

The public library, filled with paperback fictions and tomes of knowledge, represented the most important place in Hamill's life. And what he meant was that although he may not have been monetarily rich, Hamill felt rich whenever he went to that library and immersed himself in another literary adventure.

And for that, I highly respect and admire Pete Hamill, even if he is having a love affair with my city.

Some Ghoulish News

Halloween is just around the corner, which means scary fun for the kids. But this year, even the adults are shaking in fear. This year's ghouls are real. And in the Civic Center, locals have names for them: economic recession, construction, and Mayor Bloomberg.

If you're thinking of brushing this off as another urban legend, think again. Take a walk down Church Street, where you can see victims with 'for sale' and 'for rent' signs on their store windows. Many side-street stores have lowered their metal grates for the last time, unable to remain open as the economy flounders.

The sinking economy has also brought about a decline in customer turnout at Civic Center shops, according to an informal survey of local store owners and workers. Shoppers try to save money and buy less. Also, the seemingly never-ending construction - especially on Fulton Street - hurts business at small side-street stores, the survey revealed. New construction plans for 2010 will only worsen this problem, blocking many other streets and sidewalks.

Locals said the scariest ghoul of all was Mayor Bloomberg's quest to override term limits. And on Oct. 23 the City Council voted 22-29 to approve Bloomberg's third-term run. Opponents charged Bloomberg of bribing his private charities for support. The LaRouche PAC warned against Bloomberg's third-term bid and the economic bailout by handing out fliers around City Hall park on Tuesday.

Another scare is the redevelopment threatening the South Street Seaport. Developer General Growth Properties plans to demolish historic buildings and replace them with "a 42-story residential/hotel tower and a 12-story boutique hotel," according to AMNY.

But don't let this year's real fears scare you into staying indoors and missing out on traditional Halloween spookiness. There are still plenty of free and social events in the neighborhood. Trinity church will host three different free, open to the public activities on Halloween night. Other upcoming events at the church include a choir concert on Oct. 28 and a wedding workshop on Oct. 29. Visit the church from now until Nov. 14 to see the art exhibit "A Variety of Gifts."

For a different venue, check out South Street Seaport on Halloween and sail on the adults-only Haunted Ghost Ship. More events include a scavenger hunt at the South Street Seaport Museum on Oct. 25 and a Diabetes Fundraiser Walk at Pier 17 on Oct. 26.

If you're still not shaking with excitement at the prospect of all these events, try attending the Pace University performance of "All Shook Up" from Oct. 29 to Nov. 1. For those with a passion for acting, the Actors Theatre Workshop now offers "semi-private" classes.

Whichever event you choose, don't do what I'm doing, which is trying to look 12 so I can go trick-or-treating and get some free candy.