Inwood; A lack of self respect

You see it everywhere. At it's best; overflowing from trashcans. At it's worst; simply thrown in the street with out a second thought. Litter. It is everywhere. Garbage is filling our streets and it isn't an accident. No- it is on purpose. Everyday Inwood residents with out any moral conflict, throw their garbage in the street.

The trash ranges from take out boxes, to beer bottles. Fast food soda cups, to half eaten fast food. It is disgusting and wreaks of a lack of self respect. Not to mention respect for the neighborhood, respect for your neighbors and respect for yourself.

It has become all too easy in a society that exists on an island like Manhattan, to forget about the impact our lifestyle has on the rest of the world. In a world where people go starving everyday and work endlessly to provide their families with the very basic necessities to simply keep living- New Yorkers and Inwood residents don't even have enough respect for their community to pitch in and throw away their trash properly-- not to mention even trying to recycle.

I think that it is time that we wake up as a community and as citizens in a country where we are free to choose how we live our lives- to make GOOD choices.

This "let someone else do it" attitude is awful. It is sickening and what is worse is the influence it has on young people. This problem will not solve itself. In fact it shouldn't even exist.

In Germany- for instance- the garbage problem got so bad, that they have now found a way to recycle almost everything on a daily basis. The also passed an ordinace to get rid of all redundant packaging. I.E.; Toothpaste doesn't need to come in a box when it is already in a tube. Their trash mostly consists of food waste- which is biodegradable. But it took their country an economic collapse to change their habits. What is it going to take us? Staten island is going to fill up sooner or later...

Already our country is facing some questions that will tell us whether or not we will continue to exist as a free nation- that is able to make its own choices. Currently we are demonstrating to our current government that we enjoy being sloths and pawns, and that we will gladly submit to their every whim if only they will baby us and run themselves and our lives for us. Are we really so lazy that we would rather live in squalor and filth than take charge of our communities and try to make our neighborhoods a better place to live for us and our children? We are telling our government with our apathy that we want our ability to choose how we live taken away from us.

In return our government tells us that it wants to keep us uneducated by cutting funding to schools- Our reply? Sure- as long as my taxes stay low.

In another answer to our apathy- we will clean up after your mess by hiring people with your tax dollars to do it.

Do you see where the problem is? This is only one example of the consequences of our apathy. It is in our own sick inability to throw away our trash properly that we have raised taxes on ourselves -which the city sees as necessary to keep us from burying ourselves in garbage. -Tax money which could be used for better things. I encourage you to take pride in your community! Love your neighborhood enough to walk the extra ten feet to that garbage container on the corner!

Quit twisting the screw on this community- throw away your trash, or better yet, RECYCLE! - it is disgusting and a detriment to the health, education and overall well being of your neighbors and children when you chuck your garbage in the street.

Have some self respect.

Review: Amy's Restaurant- Chinese and Asian Cuisine

It has been recommended to me that in my search for GOOD Chinese food, I try "Amy's."

I went for a walk earlier today 'cause it is so nice out. I was looking for a place to buy a glow in the dark pumpkin to put in my window. Long story short, ended up walking down 207th street to hop on the train to go to Target cause none of the stores here had a light up one I liked. BUT on my way.... I passed AMY'S! I went in and got a To Go menu and here I am. No light up pumpkin- I decided it was a waste of money- but I am getting some Chinese food!

AMY'S RESTAURANT

586 W.207th st. New York, NY 10034

TEL: (212) 567-3175

FAX: (212) 567-3197

Open from 11am to 11:30 pm

It is 5:55 PM and I have just finished ordering the dinner combo 'Beef and Broccoli' Or L 11 for $6.50. It comes with your choice of chicken, vegetable or pork fried rice ( I chose chicken) and a can of soda. The lunch combo is a dollar cheaper, but not available after 4pm. Delivery is free and they accept all major credit cards. I also ordered Miso Soup for $1.75.

While I wait for my food to come I am flipping between my 12 channels. There is this new show on called "Gossip Girl." It looks like the OC has found its way to the Upper East Side. On channel 13 though is the documentary "New York Goes To War." I will probably flip between the two as they are both so extreme and the only other option is "Save the Last Dance." **quietly barfing**... Maybe I will just watch the news.. despite that there isn't a lot of good news these days.. Maybe they will do a feature on puppies that are being adopted by a chicken or something..

Wow,,, this is taking a while. It is 6:44pm. I called back.. they said " give me a few more minutes." ugh... really? I had such high hopes.

BUZZ!!!! Yay!!! The food is here! It only took an HOUR. It is 6:57.

ok.

It was a really long wait for that food. But here I am. Brown Paper Bag of Chinese food in hand.

And I open it.....

Crap. I should have asked for chopsticks. But it does come with utensils as well as duck sauce, sweet and sour sauce, and soy sauce. Lets hit the Miso!

eww.

Oh God. This is awful. It's like water. Geesh. The peices of seaweed are HUGE. and the tofu is all disintegrated. Bleh. I add the soy sauce packet to it. Bleh. Nope. I just wasted a $1.75. Hey Amy-- you need to fix the Miso. It's not workin'.

My friend who recommended Amy's said "They have the best CHINESE food in the area." Miso is Japanese... so I suppose it's like when you go to get a pickle at an Italian deli and it still tastes like a cucumber. So. Yea. It is gross-- Don't get it.

Ok. The beef and broccoli with chicken fried rice. There is a lot of rice in here, but not a lot of Beef and broccoli. hmm.. oh well. I have my own chopsticks -of course- and dive right in.

The beef tastes good. It looks healthy. It isn't SOAKING in brown sauce like some places do it. It is good. YAY! The beef is GOOD! The broccoli is fresh! BUT-- the food is almost room temperature because it took so long to get here. Sure the problem is easily solved by just walking in and getting take out, rather than delivery. But I didn't want to leave my house-- I got work to do here!

So, the beef and broccoli- the whole dish is just fine. It was just a little underwhelming. As is the chicken fried rice- it was good, but it just was a little too salty for my taste. I am full though now. I just wish that I had gotten more beef and broccoli and less rice. Even the crappy Chinese places give you almost equal portions. But this is the dinner special. It is cheap and maybe it is because of that they give you less.

On the menu you have options. You have the ability to choose Small, for 6.95 or regular for 8.95. I am sure both of those probably had a little more than I got with my 'dinner combo' size.

The chicken fried rice had a lot of onions in it. Some of the pieces of onion were pretty big too- not sure that I was into that. There was a good amount of chicken in there though and that made it nice. They also had some egg mixed in.

But really, the thing I am happiest about is that the broccoli was cooked just right. It was almost like they had steamed it. It was cooked just the way I like it. The broccoli was also very very fresh. No where near the blooming stage like at the other places up here.

So. Here is the scoop.

It took a long time to get here, but I liked most of what i got.

Honestly- I knew the miso soup was going to be pretty crappy. I just had this feeling. So just don't order that. If you want a lot of one thing-- don't get a combo- get the regular size from the normal menu and not the Combo menu.

Also- I got a fortune cookie. I had never gotten a fortune like this. It was pleasant and an actual fortune-- not just stupid sayings like "Patience is a virtue" or "peace is a state we should all live in." I can't tell you what the fortune was-- because it won't come true if I do. But just go to Amy's ( don't get the Miso) and get your own fortune.

This place IS worth the INK.

LONG wait. Good CHINESE food.

BAD Miso soup. OK prices

7.5 out of 10.

I will order from here again and see if it comes sooner. I will also try and order something more interesting, to see how they do at some of their own "Chef Specialties."

Oh- and Gossip Girl is Desperate housewives for high school kids-- right down to the narrator's weird voice.

Meh,, I'm going to go get a Freezee from the Bodega.

Sunday in the park with Santería

So.
I, as do many other folks, jog in Inwood Hill Park, as well as Fort Tryon Park. The hills are huge and it is a great work out. Well- on one of my first jogs in the park I winded myself on a hill and had to take a breather -stopping at one of the outlooks. I paced a bit and walked around. I decided to go onto the little outlook and look over the edge.

Just then, I heard a crow in a tree, and I noticed about 40 crows all looking at me. It was creepy. Then I noticed they were not looking at me- they were looking just to the left of me. Glad that I wasn't the focus of their hungry eyes- I looked down and there on the ground was half of a chicken tied to a tree branch. Now I say half, and I mean it. There was half a chicken tied to a tree branch, and the other half was no where to be found.

I asked a friend about it, and he told me that some people practice Santería in the park after hours, and this was part of what they do. Well of course this prompted a bunch of research on my behalf as I wanted to understand exactly why I may be finding half of a chicken tied to a log on my morning run.

Well, now this morning I went running in the park and I came across two guys taking pictures of something. I slowed down to see what it was. This time it was a living chicken. A big fat red hen, that was kinda beat up and looked like it had escaped the other chickens fate.

I can only assume that these are from Santería rituals performed in the dark after hours. That, or the recent Renaissance Festival in Fort Tryon is short a few chickens......

But anyway...

From Wikipedia:

"Santería also known as "La Regla de Lukumi," is an Afro-Caribbean religion derived from traditional beliefs of the Yoruba people of Nigeria."

Now, this religion has faced much controversy over its practice of animal sacrifice. In fact, in 1993 the issue was taken to the Supreme court when animal rights activists targeted the group saying their sacrifices of animals were cruel.

On this subject Wikipedia then states;

"The Supreme Court ruled that animal cruelty laws targeted specifically at Yoruba were unconstitutional: the Yoruba practice of animal sacrifice has seen no significant legal challenges since then."

I do have to say, I'm not fond of thinking that up in a public park there are people killing chickens at night.

But I guess I am also a bit confused as to why the pieces of the bird or the entire bird would be left there in plain sight where people can find it...

But all the same- this is certainly an ongoing practice in the neighborhood, and if you see half a dead chicken on your morning run--now you know what one explanation may be.

So in the words of Sondheim;

"Into the woods to go to the [Renaissance] Festival-! Into the woods! Into the woods! Into the woods-Then out of the woods, And home before dark!"

Have a safe jog in the park.

New York City Department of Parks & Recreation:
General Park Hours; Parks: Sunrise to 1 AM, Playgrounds: 8 AM to Dusk.


UPDATE:

So I went running again this morning, and who should I find on the path in front of me by the Dog Walk? My little red hen. But she didn't look so good. A few days in the park had made her weak and she was just sitting on the asphalt path with her eyes half closed while lots of green flies swarmed her. It was awful. I came close enough to her that she became alert, but then she just closed her eyes again as if to say " there ain't a thing you can do that could be worse than what I already went through."
The fact is she will probably die in the park.
I couldn't really allow that, so of course I run home and call 311. Sylvia answers and I tell her all the info. Then she tells me it may take up to 5 days to respond. What?? Really? Five?!
Okay,, well that is about all I can do other than trying to take a hen home with me and nurse it back to health in my bathtub or something.

So. The red hen is still there. On closer inspection it looks like someone ripped her tail out. It's pretty awful. I hope she gets some help.

So yea. I couldn't find any of the park people there.. oh but get this.. FIRST I went to Fort Tryon's Cloisters museum and asked the security people if they could help with the situation and locate the park people. They said "We have nothing to do with the park."
While that is all well and good, and I respect that. I also think it is a slightly miserable and self defeating stance on the situation. For instance-- you have nothing to do with the park? Therefore, I assume that park has nothing to do with you? Ok. Say the park suddenly can't afford to have it's grounds kept up, and is abandoned to the same extent as Inwood Hill park. I think the cloisters would find themselves in a bit of a pinch when bum encampments spring up in the land around them that they have 'nothing to do with'.

That is a bit of a rant, but it just sounded so silly when it came out of his mouth.

So anyway-- some park person within the next five days will probably find the hen- dead or alive- and then probably euthanize it anyway. It's sort of sad.