We need a recessional-- a theme song....

We are climbing out of the recession, for real.  The recession is retreating in the face of hope and prosperity.  We gotta believe it, people!  We need a recessional, a theme song.  Bryn Mawr's recessional was the plain old, vanilla, P and C.  Columbia used "New York, New York".  What shall we use for the Global Recessional?  We need something hip.  How about "Jai Ho", the translation of which is "may you win".  Suggestions for a Recessional?

Russo Realty

This realty office has been in Brooklyn for 30 years, at least.  I can't remember much from before I was three years old.  The front has always looked like this and I have never seen it open for business.  There are a bunch of signs on the front that say Notary Public.  It's located underneath the elevated F train tracks, at the Smith and 9th Street stop, where Carroll Gardens meet Red Hook.  Does anybody know what exactly that space is used for?  Anyone want to venture a guess?  Does anyone go in there to get things notarized?  Is it ever open?  Every time I pass by it I say to myself that the Brooklyn of my childhood will truly be gone when they tear down the Russo Realty building and put up "luxury condos." 

It seems the Chevy Lumina has taken the place of the Caprice as the car of choice for NYC highway patrol undercover.  Yes, New York City has a highway patrol department.  But seriously guys, a Lumina?  Couldn't you pick a car that doesn't stand out as the police car?  I don't see anybody else driving dark colored Luminas in this city except for you (I could only find a pic. of a white Lumina online).  This afternoon on 7th Ave. near my house I saw a Lumina break its undercover status in order to ticket a double parked car. Do you really need to be undercover to give a ticket for that or was it just opportunistic ticketing? Been seeing a lot of them on the Staten Island Expressway, the BQE and even on the Prospect Expressway.  They are out to catch speeders and so I suppose being undercover can be an advantage.  Yet, the one time that I did get pulled over for speeding it was by a non-undercover police car and the cop told me, "You'd better think twice next time you fly by a New York City Highway Patrol Car" and didn't give me a ticket.  He wouldn't have been able to say that had he been in one of those undercover cars.  Then again, who else drives a Lumina in this city? They should drive Prius or Mini Coopers, then no one would know who they are and they would really be able to sneak up and get ya!

WC for Dogs.... Here's an idea

When we were living in Hong Kong a few years ago we took the high speed ferry to Macau for a day. While we were taking a walk in one of the parks we noticed a sign indicating a designated toileting area for dogs. What a great idea! This would be great for New York if people would respect it! I can't tell you how many times I have slipped in something on the sidewalk. I would think people in New York would be concerned enough about their Manolos to enact some sort of dog toileting system. In fact just the other day my two-year old daughter commented that the dogs should deposit their waste in the potty.

Of course there are other systems, like the Paris system, where the streets are periodically flooded to wash away animal waste products and other substances you may not want to step into. They also have this state of the art vacuum-powered pooper-scooper that sucks up the waste. It's cool to watch people driving a pooper-scooper around the sidewalk. Every city, state, country has something to learn from someone else!