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Simplify
I’ve been saying since July that this city has been acting funny. And it’s gotten worse with the official news of our downtrodden economy. The only difference between now and July is 773 points and the fact that other people are finally noticing the strange behavior around town, too.
Even those who don’t really follow what’s going on have picked it up by now: we need to get over to the bank before everyone else and get that money under the mattress. Stat. Meanwhile, the rest of the population is gathering menacingly on street corners waiting to get their taste of the spoils from recent bank withdrawals.
Obviously, it’s a scary time. Stretch leggings are still being sold as an integral part of every fall wardrobe.
Seriously, we have an important election, a Depression-level economic crisis brewing, and human brains that are incompetent at processing the data associated with systems this large (diplomatic and economic relationships, government, war).
The on the ground atmosphere isn’t going to improve while so many people feel like they have nothing to lose, and that attitude isn’t likely to change until they can feel confident in the keepers of their money.
Ultimately, I’m just looking to avoid the feeling-threatened-outside-my-own-door part. But, crappy atmosphere aside, the other side of this coin isn’t so bad: maybe it wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world for New York to cut itself down a few notches (not so much in the extreme fashion Wall Street chose), but we could stand to ratchet back the velvet rope mentality a bit.
The part of living here I’ve always liked is the access to all kinds of people and events and things to see and places to go and stuff to try. You put up with the crappy traffic and screaming sirens and tiny apartments to get that stuff, and frankly, it’s not available in the way it used to be. Or it doesn’t feel available in the way it should be.
So how about we forget the ‘exclusive access’ lounges for a while and stay home to watch Sarah Palin turn herself into a leprechaun on Thursday night have some plain old fun. (Just don’t call it a Staycation.)