Walter Peck and the EPA can suck it.

I've been spending some time off Staten Island lately. Many of you who read this...all 4 of you know how much I enjoy and love this city. It's hard to explain exactly why I do...I don't suppose there is one word, nay seven words that can explain why and how much I love this town...but there are examples.

Only in New York City will you see some guy dressed in just cowboy boots, briefs and a cowboy hat entertaining the masses in any weather. And only in New York City will he actually make sense and make a crappy day good.

Only in New York City will you see 55,000 screaming fans go from cheering for a baseball team to cheering for an insane fat man running down a stadium staircase.

Only in New York City would you find a museum devoted to mass transit and its history....in an old subway station.

Only in New York City will you get away with naming a town Flushing and not have to many jokes made about it.

Only in New York City will you run into an old friend...and another...and another...and another, and actually enjoy it, because it's one of those things that "only happens in New York."

Even before Rudy became mayor, people from all over loved this city. Some people may say they don't like it, some may be afraid of it, but for a long, long, lonnnng time now, we have always welcomed everyone with open arms (or in John Rockers case open fists.)

Some may not like to admit it, but they are proud of this place. I sure as hell am. This is why I enjoy showing it off. This summer i'm going to be showing more people around town then I ever have before, and for some unexplainable reason...i'm giddy as hell about the thought of it. I secretly love seeing the awe and wonder on peoples faces when they get off the subway in Times Square.

I love smelling the New York City air, however bad it may be while riding the Staten Island Ferry. And I love seeing people look over at the Verrazanno, jaws to the floor at how long it is.

And, cause it's me and I can't call this an offical blog post without someway mentioning my guys...I love seeing people wave at firefighters and ask for pictures. Cause you know that those outta towners...when they go home, they'll tell their friends and realitives, "I met a New York City Firefighter."

I got a friend in Texas, who told me she has a wall of New York City stuff. Another friend in Alaska, who is probably the most New Yorkiest Alaskan in the state. My friend Joe, though he may go to school in Pennslyvannia, has a sticker on the back window of his car that says, "PA Plate, NYC Driver", just to let everyone know that he is a pride Yankee, A born and bred New Yawkah.

New York City is...it's something magical. It may be a sauna right now, and it might as well be the tundra in January, but even at those times there are certain things that make it something to see...be it the helpful guys on the street ready to give you an umbrealla in the middle of a summer thunderstorm(even though theyre usually cheap and last 10 mins, but it really is the thought that counts here, just go with me.), or the random stranger who will help you push your car out of a winter snowdrift...it's the spirit of the city that makes it what it is.

Some say that our post 9/11 caring and thoughtfullness has gone. It hasn't...it's always been there, before and after that September day. Remember the blackout of 2003? The unbearable heat? The hours of darkness? Ok...now do you remember that stranger who helped you out of a dark subway tunnel? That was a New Yorker. Remember that really good movie you saw on your first date? The one where Meg Ryan was having a moment in the diner? That was Katz's deli in Manhattan.

We do things our own way here, we're more unique then unique. It's hard to sum up in words why I love New York City....but I think I just began trying.

I'm angry at Canada and California.

First i'm angry at Canada for their stupidass mounite police. Their dumbass pants annoy the piss out of me. It looks like they have godammned racoons in their drawers. If, by any horrible chance I find myself in Canada and I meet a mounite...so help me god if I don't kick him in the crotch for wearing those things, unless in fact he has already kicked himself in the crotch for wearing them. Why...why must you wear STUPID PANTS?!?!?!

While I was thinking of that...I thought of how Canada had to mess up ham or bacon or whatever it is...I don't know what they call it up there....it's bacon here but ham there...why can't they just friggin have what we have instead of confusing a simple food?!?! Why Canada!??! WHY?!?!

I'm angry at California for stealing every good police chase. I was talking to Kaia last night and we were discussing the time one of the more inebrated citizens decided to walk on to a military base and take a tank out for a leisurely drive through a nice quiet neighborhood. When I say through a neighborhood, I mean actually through it. Houses, campers, cars....he tore ass through it like a movie. After a few minutes or hours of running around in said town he decided to go on the freeway with pretty much the entire state police about 5 miles behind all the while this is of course making news everywhere...even had the live audio feed of the cops asking "See anyway to stop this thing?" to which another cop says after a few seconds of silence; "no....he's driving a tank." How does this end? The smart tank driver gets stuck on a freeway divider. Millions of dollars go into devolping these things and a little concrete wall beats it. Only in California.

Can anyone explain to me what the fuck is wrong with the world???

How is it that weirdass former humans that molest kids get to walk off scott-free? and don't say it's the money. Money had nothing to do with it here. Martha had money and she went away. The problem is with the California judical system. Now, to my friends out there on the left coast, I have nothing against you...it's your ass backwards "justice" system that irks me. When the press, who by the way went apeshit overboard with this whole trial, when they interviewed the jury, one of the jurors claimed that the mothers behavior was a bit eratic. Now...the last time I checked...was it not the kid who was getting molested? What the hell should the parents behavior have to do with the kid getting screwed with my Jacko? And are we all forgetting how fucking bizzare that thing is? And yes i'm not going to refer to that biomechincal expierment gone wrong as a "he." Anything that has noses fall off on a regular basis and was once an african american but is now whiter then Donny Osmond in Harlem is not a human anymore. This....thing dangles it's own children off balconies, and lives the life of a child...this is not behavior that should warrant a passing "oh well." This thing needs to go away for a long time. My faith in the justice process has been seriously damaged today.

And speaking of overly rich indivduals who are spoiled and shouldn't be getting what they want but are...And I know i've beaten this horse into the ground quite a bit, but bloomberg...wow...i'm actually seething about this Olympics "deal." A few people asked why I didn't talk about it much when State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver last week shot down the West Side Stadium proposal in favor of rightly continuing to push for further progress downtown. I didn't talk about it becuase I wanted to wait for the July 6th vote from the IOC. If anything, I knew that with the way New York politics work, this thing would not be done till at least then.

Boy was I right. As i'm preparing dinner Sunday night, NY1 comes in with breaking news. Seems that a deal was reached with the Mets and Yankees for a stadium to be built on what is now a parking lot for the Mets Shea Stadium. Once the new stadium is built, Shea, which is only roughly 40 years old will be torn down. If we get the Olympics, a years worth of time and a shitload of public money will be used to convert the stadium from a 45,000 seat facility to an 80,000 seat olympic stadium, all the while the Mets will be playing in a proposed new Yankee stadium in the Bronx.

Ohhhh...where to begin with how wrong this one is.

Wellllll...Shea for starters and as previously noted is only around 40 years old. As far as buildings in NYC go, thats practiclly a decade. Strcturally...there is nothing wrong with the place. The Mets never fill the stadium, even on a good weather or game day a good 30% of the seats are empty. Now why would there be a need for a new stadium if you can't fill the old one? And the last I checked...the Mets aren't exactly World Series contenders.

Now...the area around Shea for the most part is kind of barren with the major exception of Flushing meadows Corona park, most notably featured in the end of "Men In Black." So one would think that not many people would have an issue with building around there. Wrong again! Where the proposed Media center would go presently lies a bevy of auto-body shops and the homes for the people who work there. These aren't the high-class auto body shops, these are mom and pop shops being run by people who are just barely making enough money to feed their families. Where pray-tell will the city put these people? That deafing silence you hear is the answer the bloomberg administration has.

Now for the Yankee part of this deal. This hasn't been talked about to much. Now, I don't know how many people who read this are Yankee or even baseball fans...but Yankee stadium is more then just a building in the Bronx. This is a New York City landmark. It has been home to everything from thrilling World Series Championships to knock down boxing matches to Prayer services for those lost on September 11th 2001. It holds more memories then all the ballparks in the major leagues combined. To simply give it up would be a devastating loss to the city of New York.

Now lets do my least favorite part. Lets look at the numbers.

The new Mets stadium would cost $600 million. This would thankfully be payed by the Mets. The city would pay $85 million, while the state would pay about $75 million for infrastructure improvements around the area of the stadium. If we win the olympics, the citys olympic administration, NYC2012 would kick in $142 million while the city and state would kick in $108 million. Hold on....did anyone ask the public if they want this? I certianly don't, and I know a great many people who would not like to see their money go to another stadium while our Fire Departments and Schools need the money. What is that bloomberg was saying about not having enough money to improve public transportation on Staten Island? But we have enough for the olympics? The olympics which a majority of the people probably don't want...

I get pissed god dammit!!

I was speaking to my buddy Mellissa on her cell a few minutes ago. Her part of the island is experiencing a blackout right now. It's interesting how most phones won't work during a blackout, yet cell phones do. It's amazing how the cell phone has changed New York City. Seems like everyone has at least one cell, some have two and i've heard of some higher ups in city government having as many as 4.

It's ironic then that our subways, the most famous in the world are not wired for cell phone service. This means if you're underground and need to make a call...you're outta luck. This is not good for a major city that is as susceptible to attacks and disasters as ours can be. Blizzards, terrorist attacks, heat or Canada induced blackouts(it's their faualt dammit. This is my blog and my opnion. They messed up toast.) have proven how un-ready the MTA is in the event of an emergency.

By know everyone knows how people were trapped for hours in the subways during the 2003 blackout. The MTA royally messed up. Supposedly they didn't know where all the trains were when the power went. Say a woman was giving birth or an elderly man was having heart troubles and they needed to be evacuated quickly. Certianly a cell phone could have helped.

Washington D.C. , Santiago,Chille, Madrid,Spain and Singapore all have their mass transit systems wired for cell service, yet New York...the city that spearheaded and pretty much created modern day mass transit, the city where all the innovations should be happening...has essentially paddled water on the subject. They claim there looking into it. But last time I checked, when they look into things...nothing seems to happen other then empty promises. As my friend Colby once took a jab at there slogan... "MTA, going your way....if your way is standing still."

3am and i'm writing. And for a change it ain't a crackpot movie script idea or Banner article. I don't know where i'm going with this so tighten the seatbelts on whatever piece of Staples or Ikea made office furniture your ass is sitting in right now.
I'm going to be 23 on the 21st of this lovely, scizo weather month. 23 and I don't look forward to it. Could be due to the fact that the past few years of my life haven't excatly been stellar. Most of you know the sob story. For those that don't...I don't exactly feel like going into detials...but for the sake of giving this part of the story some depth...Lost my mother, Lost my job, lost faith in some "friends", and basicly lost trust in almost all humanity.
Everyone gives the usual line of "It'll get better, just wait." Well, for an impatient person such as I, waiting is for lack of a better term...stupid. I've dealt with the rough blows and pitfalls for long enough at this point and I feel as though I've waited long enough. I'm not out looking for pity. I don't want a handout, I don't even want a pat on the back. I just want a good break.
I'm not saying my life is terrible. I know for a fact that compared to others, I've got it good. I got a nice home, got food and something resembiling a modern American family.
In the past 23 years i've learned that holding on to things is not entirely a bad thing as some have thought. People tend to try and forget the past and look to the future and blindly think that there problems will be solved by some amazing machine. Way I see it, you can't go forward unless you go back a lil bit. Though, try as I have, I can't seem to look back and find the answer as to how to help pull through this pit that has been the last few years of my life.
Now before all 2 of you who read this get nervous..I ain't planning on going anywhere or doing anything drastic..save for maybe buying a pair of shorts.
And not everything has been doom and gloom, as evidenced by the fact i'm not pale white and dressing in all black saying "life is death and I hate the living."
This also could be that pre/post birthday blues manifesting itself in some sort of 3am rant that i'll forget about when I wake up in the morni...er...afternoon. This could also have to due with the fact that I had a conversation with a friend tonite in which I was given praise on some of my previous rants and encouraged to write more. Frankly I didn't think the rants were that great and I'm not sure what to write about now so i'm just emptying whatever is left of my brain for the day on to here. I'm sure it'll stop making any sense shortly, that is if in fact it has made any up till now.
I still disagree with said friend in regards to my writing ability. I just put down what I feel and hope it makes a little bit of sense. Most of the time it has something to do with the FDNY, so for me that makes sense. And now I can offically say this makes sense cause i've mentioned the FDNY.
Speaking of which, I visited Staten Island's newest house today, Engine Company 168. The house isn't exactly new persay. It was built over a year ago, but thanks to the shitheaded excuse for a mayor, didn't get an Engine. It did however get am EMS Battallion. The house, which is in the Rossville section of the island, is enormous, with the ability to hold at least 2 engine and 2 truck(ladder) companies. That part of the island has been one of the many that is suffering from rampant overdevolpment and an immense population boom. Yet up untill now, had very little fire coverage. So after presure from my boy, City Council speaker and Democratic mayoral hopeful Gifford Miller, and councilman Jim Oddo, we finally got the Engine. We still need more though. But i'll save that rant for a later time.
So what else is there to write about? At this point of the night, after the week and day and year i've had my brain is pretty well fried. I could write about how I hate being 22 and still single but everyone under the sun has hear that 40 million times at this point. I could write about how my back and shoulders are killing me but then i'd be sued by Major League Baseball for using one of their storylines(even thats scripted folks.)I could write about how todays weather was more fun then a barrel of monkeys but then i'd be lying. I could also write about how I have the most comfortable bed ever, but instead I think i'll go sleep in it. G'nite. And have a Pleasant tomorrow.

Insert generic depressed sounding heartbroken song quote here.

I love movie montages where people get ready and I cannot explain why but it's cool.