Weather? But this is The City!

[kickaha]

Alright, quotes from clueless Brooklynites about how you'd expect 3" of rain in an hour "in Kansas, but this is Brooklyn!" (what, you think the city limits protect you from weather, as well as the real world?) aside...

Comments

[badger.livejournal.com]

"Things will be better for us Eloi when the dome is finished!"

[ginkgo.livejournal.com]

OMGZ!

I hope you were listening to NPR when you drove to work.

There was one woman who called in to say--honest to god, but paraphrased--"I'm an Upper-East-Sider lost on the Upper-West Side. I had to call my husband to pick me up in his truck because I was so confused."

*Blink*

People were calling in to talk about how helpless they were *walking* today. I'm sorry. Yes, traffic was bad. Get out and walk. Buy a map at a bodega. Learn your freaking city. Sheesh.

People who didn't know how to walk on the surface were criticizing the MTA for not being able to move them. Certainly, this would be an issue if there were a catastrophic event. Not knowing how to walk your own ass is no reason to put the blame solely at the feet of the MTA.

Rhar.

Done for now.

Maybe.

:D

[kickaha.livejournal.com]

Dear fucking god, it's a city of 8 million idiot children.

Dear Lost In Upper-West Side... it's a grid. JUST LIKE YOUR UPPER-EAST SIDE. Replace 'E' with 'W' on the E-W streets, and you'll have your N-S coordinate. Water and Central Park are flipped relative to each other. That is all. Oh, and please turn in your brain, you're obviously not using it.

Yeah, every time I think "It'd be nice to live in the City..." something like this reminds me why I don't.

[georgmi.livejournal.com]

You find analogous behavior everywhere, though. Every year, when the Snoqualmie floods, the news reports manage to find someone who lives on the annual flood plain for Chrissake to provide the same exact sound bites: "I never expected this", "I've lived here for [umpty] years, and it's never been this bad", and "I don't have flood insurance, what will I do?"

Get a freaking clue, people.

One could also point out that the vast majority of people actually *are* prepared and coping just fine, thank you, but that those kinds of folks don't make for interesting news coverage, so you only get to hear from the morons.

Though what do I know? I had no idea at any point last week where the hell I was. (But I damn sure could have figured it out if I'd needed to.)

[kickaha.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Manhattan is a snap. 1) It's (mostly) a grid. 2) Once you realize it's angled about 40deg from true N/S, you compensate for sun position pretty automatically. 3) It has HUGE FREAKING LANDMARKS (Central Park, anyone?) that are kind of hard to miss. 4) It's an island - you have a discrete boundary.

It took me about 3 or 4 trips down there to feel comfy with mid-Central-Park south to just north of Wall St (which is most of the S end of Manhattan), and that's the area that's distinctly non-grid-like. Anywhere north of well, Houston, is a grid with only a couple of exceptions, like Broadway. South of there, it's just a couple of grids aligned with the waterfronts, and the only odd areas are where they run into one another, kind of like downtown Seattle's grid hitting up against Denny.

But people who *live there* can't figure this out? Whiskey Tango Foxtrot??

That's okay, I can't figure out people who get lost in Seattle either, for many of the same reasons listed above.

[georgmi.livejournal.com]

And in Seattle, you have a HUGE FUCKING ROCK to orient against, if you're too dumb to read a street sign.

[kickaha.livejournal.com]

Ayup. And two mountain ranges. And one downtown. And recognizable bodies of water. And, and, and, and...

I think the only city I've found easier to navigate (short of the downtown/Denny boundary) is Salt Lake City. It's *one grid*, and surrounded by peaks, with a lake. It's basically just one unified coordinate system, and addresses frequently skip street names altogether. I lived at 1215 McClelland, but I usually told people 1215 S 1200 E, since McClelland was one block west of 1300E.

[dhw.livejournal.com]

Back in Denver for a wedding a number of years back, a woman was asking the clerk at the hotel how to get somewhere. Clear, sunny day.

"Go south on Monaco, you can't miss it."

"How do I get to Monaco?"

"It's one block that way." (points)

"Well, how will I know which way is south?"

Me: "The mountains are to the west."

"How does that help me?"

[kickaha.livejournal.com]

That's when you give her pedestrian directions that include the freeway. :P

[ginkgo.livejournal.com]

Eh, people in NYS & city take whining and neediness to a new level.

[georgmi.livejournal.com]

Heh, "My neighbors are whinier than your neighbors." :)

Not that I'm sayin' you're wrong...