We're in the Marriot, not a crack house. And it's NYC, not Sao Paolo. I think my friend Dave needs to actually spend some time in New York City. :).
Don't buy any bridges. And if you're driving, stay off the cross Bronx Expresseway. It's moidah during rush hour.
-M<
Dave as in David D has spent TOO much time in NY.
I gave basic smart tips for any big city. Just wear a Telx hat and you are safe. That is like the crips there in NY. Lots of respect from the gangs. Otherwise no one can make bets with their bookie, fo'get 'about it....
Enjoy your travels everyone! Come early, stay long, network with all!
David
The Host of Nanog43 in The City!
I hate to break the news to the New York bashers, but New York is one of the safest American cities. This is not a controversial statement.
New York has a lower incidence of crime than Miami, Detroit, Seattle, Los Vegas, Houston, Atlanta, DC, Los Angeles, and Philadelphia.
http://www.baruch.cuny.edu/nycdata/chapter09_files/sheet002.htm
I refuse to go to NANOG events in Florida - now there is a dangerous place as well as a foreign country ...
Roderick S. Beck
Director of European Sales
Hibernia Atlantic
1, Passage du Chantier, 75012 Paris
http://www.hiberniaatlantic.com
Wireless: 1-212-444-8829.
Landline: 33-1-4346-3209.
French Wireless: 33-6-14-33-48-97.
AOL Messenger: GlobalBandwidth
rod.beck@hiberniaatlantic.com
rodbeck@erols.com
``Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth.'' Albert Einstein.
I hate to break the news to the New York bashers, but New York is one
of
the safest American cities. This is not a controversial statement.
While I generally agree with what Rod is saying, saying "NYC is safe" is
like saying "all routers are cisco"
There are safe areas, and there are not safe areas. I don't know how the
Brooklyn side of the Brooklyn bridge rates, but I don't think I'd be
overly concerned. And, since people going to NANOG tend to have a
herding instinct, there shouldn't be a problem.
New York has a lower incidence of crime than Miami, Detroit, Seattle,
Los Vegas, Houston, Atlanta, DC, Los Angeles, and Philadelphia.
Yes, but in at least most of those locations, my Florida or Utah CCW is
valid.
There is no disagreement between Mr. Rubenstein and myself.
Roderick S. Beck
Director of European Sales
Hibernia Atlantic
1, Passage du Chantier, 75012 Paris
http://www.hiberniaatlantic.com
Wireless: 1-212-444-8829.
Landline: 33-1-4346-3209.
French Wireless: 33-6-14-33-48-97.
AOL Messenger: GlobalBandwidth
rod.beck@hiberniaatlantic.com
rodbeck@erols.com
``Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth.'' Albert Einstein.
I hate to break the news to the New York bashers, but New York is one of
the safest American cities. This is not a controversial statement.
While I generally agree with what Rod is saying, saying "NYC is safe" is
like saying "all routers are cisco"
There are safe areas, and there are not safe areas. I don't know how the
Brooklyn side of the Brooklyn bridge rates, but I don't think I'd be overly
concerned. And, since people going to NANOG tend to have a herding instinct,
there shouldn't be a problem.
New York has a lower incidence of crime than Miami, Detroit, Seattle,
Los Vegas, Houston, Atlanta, DC, Los Angeles, and Philadelphia.
Yes, but in at least most of those locations, my Florida or Utah CCW is
valid.
On May 22, 2008, Rod Beck sent me the following:
I hate to break the news to the New York bashers, but New York is one
of the safest American cities. This is not a controversial statement.New York has a lower incidence of crime than Miami, Detroit, Seattle,
Los Vegas, Houston, Atlanta, DC, Los Angeles, and Philadelphia.http://www.baruch.cuny.edu/nycdata/chapter09_files/sheet002.htm
I refuse to go to NANOG events in Florida - now there is a dangerous
place as well as a foreign country ...
Interesting data, but potentially skewed due to population differences.
New York City's metropolitan area population is 18,818,536, whereas
Miami is only 5,919,036.
Miami: 7116.2 per 100,000 = 0.071162 crimes per person
0.071162 * 5919036 = 421,210.44 crimes
NYC: 2771.0 per 100,000 = 0.02771 crimes per person
0.02771 * 18818536 = 521,461.63 crimes
So it's not really that there is less crime, there's just less chance of
a particular person being the perpetrator or victim.
Also, my population numbers are based on 2006 data provided by
Wikipedia, and therefore are not to be trusted.
Now that we have television shows like Miami Vice (which are available here in Paris in French), I expect the American public to be less biased in their views of New York. It is all a question of what cities are used as the background for the crime shows.
Roderick S. Beck
the area in BKLYN where the Mariott is fine, its a one of the better
neighborhoods - i believe its Brooklyn Heights, though can be confused with
DUMBO and downtown brooklyn as they are all adjacent
/christian
<voice = "Crocodile Dundee">
That's not a router. Now *that's* a router...
</voice>
Probably if you stick to common sense, it will be o.k.
If you see broken windows and/or lots of graffiti in the wall,
probably I wouldn't go there. ^>^
Since you will be seeing more people in NYC area,
you may get some stress to see lots of people,
but overall it's not that bad.
Just stick to your instinct, and common sense.
Hyun
Alex Rubenstein wrote:
A lot of it is common sense - New York is a GREAT city .. no question
and very safe overall. But common sense will tell you not to take a
leisure walk through Harlem at 3AM .. having said that, I've walked
through Central Park (65th St.) at various times of the night and never
had a problem, but then again that's different too...
Travel in herds and mind your own business - don't travel at 3AM (on
foot) and you'll be fine..
That really goes for any city when you
think about it...
Take care,
Paul
The part of brooklyn where the meeting is being held is often referred
to as MetroTech brooklyn:
IMO, its a nice place to relax and get a feel for life outside of
Manhattan.
The days of The Warriors (come out and plaaaaaaaYYYYYAAYYYYYY) have long
since passed.
As someone else said, a car would be a mistake, as parking in Manhattan at
night is both very expensive and very scarce.
I hesitate to weigh in here, but my observation after several years of doing a fair bit of traveling to a wide variety of places is this: In any big city, anywhere in the world, there will be plenty of people ready with lectures on how "this is a big city, and is therefore a dangerous place. You need to be careful." Often, this will be repeated with escalating tones of alarm if it becomes clear that I've been ignoring it. Sometimes the claim will be that their city is especially dangerous, and sometimes the claim will be that it's dangerous just like any other big city. Sometimes it takes on the form of "this is a really safe city, but don't go out at night." It doesn't matter. Some cities really are dangerous, and some seem quite safe, but there's no quantifiable difference between lectures received in places that really are dangerous and places that aren't.
-Steve
Greetings,
I think the 0.02 take-away for this discussion is:
If you don't feel safe doing what you are doing, or being where you are, then stop/leave. In almost any big city, it's really not a problem - there are lots of people around and things are usually ok. However, your intuition is usually a pretty good guide. A corollary is, if you are scared, even if the area is "safe" certain actors will pickup on it. Therefore, the simple act of feeling uncomfortable will probably raise the likelihood of you getting into trouble.
Unless you've lived a very sheltered life, your "intuition" will usually give you warning WAY before you get into trouble. BTW - there are a lot of big cities that I have no concerns walking alone in at 0300. However, not all cities fit in that bucket. There are also places that you just don't go to even in the middle of the day.
Chris
I cannot resist a tale told to me, in fact, by a service provider, who was
at the Empiricon science fiction and fantasy convention in New York, some
years ago. At about 3 AM, six attendees decided to go to a Chinese
restaurant they knew was still open, and chose to take the subway. At the
time, this was _not_ a safe transportation route. To compound their strange
choice, they were all in costume.
As it was told to me, they were joined by four young men, wearing leather,
as is common to the Thief class in Dungeons & Dragons. Indeed, the laughing
young men pulled out daggers, or modern equivalents, and demanded purses.
At that point, things took an unusual turn. Some conventions allow no actual
weapons. Others will allow certain items, but "peace bonded" with a symbolic
seal on the scabbard. Three of the convention-goers were D&D players, and,
as things developed, things went considerably beyond "That's not a knife.
THIS is a knife."
In this case, the three drew what were, indeed, not knives.
They were swords.
After the smallest woman in the group broke one of the young gentlemens'
arms, with a firm blow from the flat of her saber, things became a bit
confused...but, soon afterwards, the four young gentlemen were spread-eagled
against a subway station wall, the waistbands of their trousers cut and
hobbling their ankles.
When the Transit Police arrived, had it explained that a sword was hardly a
concealed weapon, the young gentlemen greeted the constabulary with great
relief.
You see, the remaining three convention-goers were admirers of Star Trek,
and were suitably garbed. The young gentlemen knew only a bit about Star
Trek, but just enough, considering their recent experience with true blades,
to have absolutely no desire to determine, experimentally, if the leveled
phasers were real.
i am greatly amused by all the poor country hicks so worried about
having to go to the big scary city. when arriving, sweet virginia,
please be sure to scrape that <bleep> right off your shoes.
randy
Meh. I'm from the most remote pretend-city in the western world
and New York seemed fine to me. The subway wasn't dangerous in midtown
right out past three/four AM; there's always people going places and
in general seemed friendly enough to answer questions (and ask questions;
I had a native NY'er ask me how to get somewhere on the subway system!)
I'm sure there are places which are labelled "Don't go at night if you're
an unarmed middle-class white guy by yourself" but frankly, this place
isn't anywhere near as bad as historically portrayed.
I'm pleasantly surprised. (And annoyed that I'm leaving..)
adrian