Welcome back to this week’s installation of Undiscovered New York. New York has a longstanding love affair with all things Italian. From the Feast of San Gennaro to some of the world’s best pizza outside Italy, to our town’s infatuation with the Cosa Nostra, it’s hard to deny that Italian culture has strongly influenced New York culture. In fact, many visitors come to New York specifically to check out Little Italy, a well-known strip of Italian restaurants and shops around the intersection of Mulberry and Grand Street in downtown Manhattan.
For those who came to check out Little Italy, have a cannoli and grab some calamari at Umberto’s, it’s certainly a fun time. Seems like a good dose of Italian culture, right? What if I were to tell you there’s another, some would even say better, Little Italy in New York? Well that’s just what I’m trying to tell you paisano, and it’s in the Bronx.
Curious? Why not click that link below and find out the story behind Arthur Avenue, New York’s other Little Italy. What is it exactly? When discussing the Bronx’s very own Little Italy, we’re generally talking about the intersections of 187th Street and Arthur Avenue also known as Belmont by locals.The area surrounding this intersection is a virtual feast of Italian American and immigrant culture in New York, offering a huge array of authentic Italian food markets, butcher shops, bakeries, old school red sauce joints and plenty of Italian gift shops.
Enough with the chit-chat, what can I eat? If you like Italian food, welcome to paradise. Ground zero is probably the Arthur Avenue Retail Market, a one-stop Italian bazaar full of all kinds of hand-made Italian foodstuffs like sausages, olives and freshly made pasta. Once you’ve worked up an appetite (probably immediately) stop by Mike’s Deli for one their amazing sandwiches stuffed with Italian meats like prosciutto. Don’t forget to hit some of the other area favorites, including Teitel Brothers for Italian specialties like olives and anchovy paste, Terranova Bakery for some hearty Italian-style loaves, Calandra’s Cheese for some mozzarella, and Madonia Bros. for some superb cannoli filled on the spot. What else should I check out? The best part about Arthur Avenue is that you can make a day out of your visit.Not only is Arthur Avenue home to Italian culture – lately it has become home to a large populations of residents from Mexico, Kosovo, Montenegro and Albania. The Bronx Zoo and Bronx Botanic Gardens are also both within easy walking distance of Arthur Avenue.Both sites are as good a spot as any to take a leisurely stroll or nap and perhaps sleep off that sausage and peppers you had for lunch.And if it’s baseball season, you’re no more than a 10 minute subway ride from a Yankees game.
How do I get there? Perhaps the closest subway stop to Arthur Avenue is the Fordham Road stop on the B and D lines. From there, you can jump on the Bx-12 or just walk your way a few minutes east. Another alternative is the Metro North Fordham Road Station, which stops nearby.
A very special “Thank You!” to Steph Goralnick, for all the awesome photos in this story.
I mentioned last week that I was getting ready for a trip to England — and I was a bit panicky about the fact that I hadn’t finished packing. The truth is, whenever I pack for an international trip, I pack with two “me”‘s in mind: Me The Tourist (who, at all costs, needs adequate underwear and hair products) and Me The Photographer (whose head would explode if she forgot her camera charger or, God forbid, her camera). So since I’ve already written about what I pack on any trip abroad, today, I’d thought I’d talk about how I prepare from a photographer’s standpoint. My husband is English, so this trip is a bit different than if I were leaving for a country I’d never visited — I actually met my husband while I was living in England, and have returned to visit his family many times. Still, I generally follow the same procedure for my trips back to Ol’ Blighty as I do when I visit any other country. It goes something like this:
1. Research the location. On this particular trip, we’ll be spending 6 days in Gloucester, 6 days in Cornwall, and 2 days in London. Now, if I didn’t know better (and without doing a bit of research), I could blithely fly into England expecting to just take shots of Big Ben and the Tower of London, but obviously, there’s so much more to England that that; furthermore, each region has its own sights and cultural differences. In fact, if I just Google each location or pick up a guide book or two, I’d find that each of these locations are known for at least the following:
Gloucester: a port town on the Severn Estuary, famous for the Gloucester Cathedral (where certain scenes from the Harry Potter movies were filmed). It is surrounded by the Cotswalds and the Forest of Dean. Also, my father-in-law is an avid archer, so maybe I’ll get the opportunity to view a competition? And because of my photoblog, I’ve made the acquaintance of another photographer and photoblogger who lives in Bath, about 1 hour’s drive away. She’s offered to take me around on a day trip for a shoot. I’ve actually never been to Bath, but I do know that it’s on the River Avon, near hot springs from which the Romans built a temple and baths (hence the name, I suppose). According to Wikipedia, Bath was “the leading centre of fashionable life in England in the 1800’s,” with some stunning architecture in support. I’m really looking forward to this trip.
Cornwall: the most southwesterly region of England, and where my husband calls home. It has beautiful wild countryside, with amazing cliffs into the ocean, quaint villages (“As I was going to St. Ives…”) and those “moors” that English authors always seem to put in their books.
London: Seriously, can you say enough about what London is known for? In addition to Big Ben and the Tower of London, there are open-air markets, amazing architecture, Westminster Cathedral, black cabs, high-end shopping, the theatre district, the financial district, Hyde Park, the Thames, the punk scene … seriously, the list goes on ad infinitem.
Also, obviously, there are the stereotypical things that England is known for: cups of tea, scones and clotted cream, pubs, pints, double decker buses, The Tube, and so on. The point is, you really can’t over-research a trip destination: Google it, buy guide books, search for bloggers who live there, whatever. Information is power.
Finally, a quick look at weather.com shows that the forecast calls for 50 degree temperatures, rain and fog in all places. Lovely.
2. Get an idea of what you’re going to want to shoot. Note that this is a bit different than “get an idea of what you want to see.” The point is to start thinking about the various locations from a photographer’s eye. For example, of course you could just walk up to a pub and capture an image of it (and frankly, I do recommend doing that when in England, some of the pubs are just beautiful). But the truth is that the pub isn’t what makes pubs cool, so much as the pub culture. It’s the whole atmosphere of the pub that makes it great: the laughter and banter among the regulars, the darkness inside (for some reason, all pubs are dark inside, regardless of the time of day), the low overhead beams requiring you to duck as you walk in, the sloshing of the foamy beers over the pint glasses, the flirting of the bartenders with the patrons, and so on. A photograph of you in front of a pub will record the fact that you were there — think of images that will record what you experienced. If this concept is new to you, feel free to jot down some ideas prior to your trip: “When in London, I want to get a shot that shows how focused the guards are at Buckingham Palace.” “When in Bath, I want a shot that shows the detail of the architecture of Bath Abbey.” You won’t need to your notes with you and tick off the items as you grab the shots; but a quick glance before you head out for your day trip might help you remember what it is that you want to capture to remember once you return home.
3. Pack your photography equipment accordingly. Given all the information above (sprinkled with a bit of previous experience), here’s what I packed:
My Nikon D300 camera body. Obviously, I was going to bring a camera body, but I have two. In this case, I brought my better one, but I don’t always. If I’m traveling to a place where it is generally unsafe, or if I’m traveling somewhere where it could get dirty (like a beach vacation, for example), I take my older camera — it still takes great shots, and I won’t be (as) devastated if something happens to it.
My 24-85mm Nikkor zoom lens. This is sort of my standard, dependable capture-pretty-much-everything lens. I will likely use this lens more than any other lens I bring. It will take nice clear shots of architecture, details of architecture (I’m thinking about Bath, here), and a pretty decent portrait in a pinch.
My 70-200mm Nikkor zoom lens. I really struggled with whether or not I wanted to bring this one: on one hand, it’s so damned unwieldy. On the other, it takes such beautiful shots. In the end, I decided to take it, because one of the things I love about England are the amazing faces, and this allows me to take tight shots without people knowing I’m taking their photograph. Also, as I mentioned above, I was hoping that my father-in-law would show off his bow-and-arrow for me, and this way I can frame a nice tight image without worrying that I’m going to be in the way of an errant shot. This will be a great lens if we go to an open-air market in London, or to Hyde Park — in London, no one will bat an eye at the large lens, and I’ll be able to get some great shots.
My 100mm Nikon telephoto lens. This lens is actually manual, so it can be a bit tricky to use; but oh how I love the results — it takes some of the most amazing portraits. Since it’s not very big, I went ahead and stuck it in the bag — I’m thinking of doing family portraits for Christmas presents this year, so while I won’t take it out on daytrips, I’m hoping to do a few sittings while I’m there.
My 2GB memory card. This baby holds 2,100 hundred shots. Because I shoot so much, this actually wouldn’t be enough for a two-week trip, but it’s certainly more than enough for a day’s shoot, and I download my photographs every evening anyway. Which brings me to…
My MacBook. I know, I know — my sister laughs at me that I take my laptop everywhere, even on vacation, but the truth is that I love nothing more than winding down each night with a glass of wine and processing my photos. It ends a day perfectly for me.
My Nikon Coolpix. I never go anywhere without my point-and-shoot — it’s sort of a throw-it-in-my-daypack-and-forget-about-it camera. Also, it has a wider angle than any of the other lenses I’m taking with me, so when we get to the top of those Cornish cliffs and I want a true panoramic view, this camera will definitely come in handy. And of course, it’s great for those “party-pic”-type snapshots that are always so great on holidays.
Chargers and power cords for everything above.
For those of you who have point-and-shoots: obviously, your packing list will be much smaller than the above. In your case, I would definitely pack (a) an extra memory card (or a really, really large one) if you don’t want to take your laptop and download every day, (b) your charger, and (c) your manual, so you make sure you know exactly how to play with your aperture, ISO and shutter speed settings, in order to maximize the kinds of shots you want to get. Trust me, once you get the hang of it, you’ll be surprised to find that some of your shots rival those that can be taken with an SLR camera.
On your next trip, I challenge you to try to put a little forethought into your trip from a photographic standpoint. Also, I’ve been getting some great questions over the last few weeks — if you have any questions, or would like me to cover something specifically, feel free to send them to me at karen.walrond@weblogsinc.com. At some point, I’ll feature some questions and answers here on the site. And of course, in coming posts, I’ll share some of the shots I’ve captured on this trip.
In the meantime, keep clicking those cameras!
Karen is a writer and photographer in Houston, Texas. You can see more of her work at her site, Chookooloonks. And for more Through the Gadling Lens, click here.
There’s been a growing chorus of China watchers who have been saying–for years now–that one day, it won’t be annoying Americans overflowing the world’s greatest cities, but equally annoying Chinese tourists. But there’ll be even more of them, as China’s middle class is predicted to explode from something like 6 percent of their 1.3 billion population right now to 45 percent in 2020.
I don’t doubt that this will be true one day. The question is, though, will that day be any time soon? Given the recent global meltdown, many have seen a monumental shift in economic power, from America and the west to China and the east (as well as other regions with emerging markets, such as Russia and South America). But the market crashes in a wide swatch of developing countries have really brought this “decoupling” theory–in which emerging markets are no longer linked to the fate of the US economy–into question.
I think to examine this shift in economic power and to answer the bigger question of should we be worried, it may be effective to look at one small part of the puzzle: initial public offerings (IPOs). You remember those from the heady tech-bubble days, right? By most measures, the US IPO market had a tremendous year in 2007, with the most capital raised ($53 billion) since 2000. But compared to China’s $90 billion haul, the US seems to be losing its financial dominance. In 2007, for the first time, Chinese IPOs raised more capital than their American counterparts.
Yet this does not suggest an immediate collapse of US financial dominance, for China’s IPO market has been disproportionately inflated by a slew of mega SOEs. As the three domestic Chinese markets mature, however, they face a daunting array of challenges to maintain recent paces of IPO fundraising. In the long-term, with China’s increasingly deep capital pool and continued high economic growth, the US must significantly reform its legal and regulatory structures to remain competitive.
The dramatic year-to-date declines in the Shenzhen (65%), Shanghai (60%), and Hong Kong (45%) indexes suggest that China has not decoupled from the US economy. Last month, China’s Securities Regulatory Commission (SRC) announced they would stop processing IPO applications in an effort to bolster lagging capital markets, a call back to 2005 when the commission froze offerings for an entire year.
At a fundamental level, investors expect higher returns on the Hong Kong, Shenzhen, and Shanghai exchanges because of the country’s record economic growth and low capital market penetration relative to the EU and US. Perhaps more important, China has only recently opened its monolithic state-owned enterprises (SOEs) to partial privatization, most often through IPOs; for instance, five companies raised 39% of Chinese equity capital in 2007, with each IPO greater than the largest US IPO, Blackstone ($4.1 billion).
Before the freeze, Chinese IPOs only raised $7.3 billion this year-to-date, in part because three-quarters of its largest state enterprises have already publicly listed. Now with the devastating global credit crunch, the IPO market in China should significantly contract in the short-term. There are also several systemic cracks that pose barriers to maintaining China’s recent pace in growth.
Pervasive insider trading. Chinese courts do not have the ability to handle complex insider trading cases, and in fact, almost never pursue punitive actions. This vulnerability to manipulation will deter foreign investors from the market.
Poor corporate governance. Because state-run enterprises are notoriously opaque, preparations to bring their accounting processes to international standards for an IPO may take up to three years. Even publicly listed companies do not exhibit the same level of transparency as their US counterparts, which again deters investors.
Decline in secondary market interest. According to an analysis by JPMorgan, the secondary IPO market is not attracting sufficient interest, in large part due to the influx of “stock flippers,” with firms unable to assemble adequate order books.
Collapse of confidence. Declining corporate profits, fear of oversupply, and significant volatility of the Shenzhen, Shanghai, and Hong Kong exchanges have already led to a crash in the 2008 IPO market, with the short-term outlook equally dim.
In the short-term, China’s IPO market does not pose immediate danger to US financial dominance since their recent transactions have been inflated by a slew of mega SOEs being brought “online” to the three domestic exchanges; three-quarters of the major SOEs are now listed, so supply should dramatically decrease. The country’s capital markets also suffer from several fundamental flaws, discussed above. On the US side, a 2007 study indicates that there still exists a significant listing premium for the New York exchange, as firms receive a “governance benefit” from being more closely regulated than in Shenzhen, Shanghai, and to a lesser extent, Hong Kong.
“[Chinese companies] ask, ‘Do we list on London’s AIM now, or do we bite the bullet and spend the next six months making our company better and stronger, and try to meet US stock requirements and list in the US?'” explains Jocelyn Choi, a senior vice president at Lehman Brothers in Asia explains. Ultimately, there remains and will remain for the near future a tangible prestige cachet for any small and mid-cap firm to list on an US exchange.
However, in the long-term, China’s burgeoning middle class and ever-increasing pool of capital and foreign reserves present tremendous risk to the US’s ability to raise equity, particular from multinational firms. Furthermore, while Chinese firms continue to favor American capital markets (half of the 25 top-performing US IPOs in 2007 were companies based in China), increased capital liquidity back in the home market would make such a move unnecessary. I recommend two policy changes to be implemented for the US to remain competitive:
Revisit Sarbanes-Oxley. While proper disclosure provisions have attracted investors, and hence multinational firms, to the US IPO market, the excessively burdensome regulatory practices within Sarbanes-Oxley is at the same time driving private firms to raise equity in London or Hong Kong. The $4.36 million cost for the average firm to stay SOX-compliant can often be a deal-breaker in itself.
Address frivolous litigations. Multinational firms see the high risk of class lawsuits and legal liabilities of a US listing as an important reason to list in London or Hong Kong. We need to reform the legal system to prevent frivolous and excessive litigation.
It’s Tuesday and that means it’s trivia time again here at Gadling. Answer these 10 questions in the comments and come back next week to see the results. No Googling!
By the way, congratulations to last week’s trivia winner nzm, who did very well with 10 tough questions. Way to go!
Now here are this week’s brain-busters:
What is the name of Brook Silva-Braga’s 2007 documentary about round-the-world travel?
What lively street in central Bangkok, Thailand, is known as the world’s most popular “backpacker ghetto”?
The region known as Patagonia is located in which two countries?
What’s the name of the daughter of guidebook maven Arthur Frommer, also a popular travel writer herself?
Though cricket is India’s most popular sport, it is not officially its national sport. What is?
What is the name of French president Nicolas Sarkozy’s wife, a musician and former model?
Spell Iceland’s capital.
In the 1983 film National Lampoon’s Vacation, what is the name of the fictional theme park that the Griswolds drive across the country to visit?
Name four African countries that start with an “S”.
True or false: Brazil is South America’s largest country in area and also its most populous.
Look below the fold for last week’s answers…
Of the eleven countries whose name begins with A, all but two of them also end with A. Which two don’t end with A? Answer: Afghanistan, Azerbaijan
Who wrote the award-winning 1975 travelogue The Great Railway Bazaar? Answer: Paul Theroux
Name the African country whose flag is a solid green rectangle. Answer: Libya
Remember Sarah Palin? For what small Alaskan town did she serve as mayor from 1996-2002? Answer: Wasilla
What “hip, vibrant” online travel community features a Bounty Board full of assignments for aspiring travel writers and recently acquired the site Brave New Traveler? Answer: Matador
What is the official name of North Korea? Answer: Democratic Republic of North Korea (hah!)
In which South American country are the Nazca Lines (seen above) located? Answer: Peru
Which country’s residents spent the most on international travel during 2007? Answer: Germany
According to Forbes Traveler, what US tourist destination was the most visited spot in the world in 2007? Answer: Times Square, New York City
What US territory is the only one larger than a US state? Answer: Puerto Rico
Welcome to Gadling’s feature, Plane Answers, where our resident airline pilot, Kent Wien, answers your questions about everything from takeoff to touchdown and beyond. Have a question of your own? Ask away!
Ruthann, who’s my proofreader for Cockpit Chronicles and this column asks a question about her recent Delta flight across the Atlantic:
About 15 or 20 minutes after departure from Shannon, there was a loud thump/bang/shudder. Not like an explosion or anything, but more mechanical, something falling/moving/colliding. We were sitting in row 26, right over the wing centre, on a 757-2.
Initially I thought, did we just lose a panel? But then I assumed it was more likely to be cargo shift. Something heavy. We were climbing at the time of course. It felt like it was right below us, or very close, but I’m not sure what the cargo layout is near that section with central fuel tank, etc?
My nervous-flyer mother had her headset on listening to music, but still heard it and wasn’t too pleased. Luckily, I don’t think she heard how loud it was. It bothered some other passengers, who asked the flight attendants, and I guess they mentioned it to the captain.
He made an announcement saying it had just been sudden, unexpected turbulence. He put on the seat-belt sign, but of course there was no sign of turbulence. It was just one single thump, but I don’t suppose they heard it up front, either way.
I had hoped to look at the aircraft when we landed to see if it could have been a panel, but it wasn’t possible to see out of the airport terminal.
Is noisy cargo-shift common? What else could it be? How often do panels fall off/pop out? Can you hear them go from inside the cabin?
I assume the gear had been up too many minutes to blame any issues there, and I’m sure if there had been a problem with that, they would have mentioned it before approach/landing, wouldn’t they?
How much do pilots not tell their passengers? Where do you draw the line? Do you ever get semi-decent ear/eye-witness reports from those in the cabin? Do you appreciate them? Remember the lady who failed to mention the little crack she spotted on boarding Aloha 243?
Thanks Ruthann,
It’s really hard to know what could have caused that issue. A cargo shift is a possibility, but that’s more common on takeoff than during the latter stages of climb or cruise. Also, the cargo area on a 757 is well behind the wing or in front of it.
You may have heard something related to the hydraulic system, since that’s often a noisy component found in the wheel well below your seat. It’s always possible that you blew a tire, which could have been caused by a dragging brake that causes an excess of heat to build up on the wheel, although if it were hot enough, we’d have an indication of that as well.
It could have been a panel as well. There are air conditioning pack doors which have been known to come off and cause a good deal of noise. Most other panels that go missing, however, would be hard to hear from the cabin.
We have warning lights in the cockpit for entry doors, overwing emergency exits and the overwing doors that hold an emergency inflatable slide. So if any of those were to open, the pilots would have an indication up front. Generally, if it’s not threatening to the aircraft, then we don’t have a warning for it.
If there’s no indication up front of an issue, we’ll likely continue the flight. But it’s always a good idea to let a flight attendant know if you hear or see anything. It’s usually not an issue, but we’ll take it seriously. We’re often informed by passengers of flap track fairings that shake a bit or something that looks like a loose screw over the wing.
This information is easy for us to pass along to maintenance, who are required to look into the issue. Under certain circumstances, it could be valuable information. So it’s definitely appreciated.
As for what we tell the passengers, I can say wholeheartedly that we don’t lie. There are times in an emergency where it’s not possible to talk to the people in the back for a while, since an abnormal or emergency checklist can take a few minutes to go through. But there’s little incentive for us not to tell the truth. This applies for delays as well as mechanical issues.
We’re taught to be straight up with passengers and to use as much detail as we feel is necessary to describe the delay or problem.
Stephen asks:
I’ve always wondered, as an airplane taxis out for departure, there always seems to be a PA announcement for the flight attendants to “Cross-check.” What does this mean?
You’re actually hearing that just before the airplane leaves the gate or just after it arrives. I figured I’d let Heather Poole, our resident flight attendant, shed more light on this PA:
When you hear a flight attendant say “cross check” over the PA, they’re letting the flight attendants in other cabins know their doors are armed or disarmed. Arming and disarming has to do with the emergency slides. When a slide is armed, it will automatically inflate after a door is opened from the inside. Since we don’t want that at the gate, the slides need to be disarmed after we arrive.
So we’re attaching the slides to the door on taxi out, and then detaching them when we’re parked at the gate, using the words cross check to inform each flight attendant that the slides are either armed or disarmed as appropriate.
Thanks Heather!
And David asks:
Often times I see on TV the landing of a large passenger plane, from the rear angle; the plane moving away from the camera, and the plane seems out of line with the center line of the runway.
How many degrees can the nose gear be “off-center” to cause a problem? And what does it feel like?
Good observation, David. I’m convinced that camera crews and editors wait for the worst possible landing to show in a movie. Maybe it’s just an effort to add a dramatic flair to the film.
But what you’ve noticed happens during a crosswind landing. The goal in landing most airliners in a crosswind is to align the airplane with the runway at the last minute using the rudder. Opposite aileron will be needed to prevent the airplane from rolling in the direction of the rudder. This is something that applies to small planes as well and it’s learned during primary flight training.
When you see the airplane touch down in what we call a crab–slightly sideways to the direction of the runway–it means that the pilot didn’t use enough rudder (or even too much) to get the plane perfectly straight.
On the newer 737s even a degree or two off will turn what would be a good landing into a real ‘thumper.’ It’s part of what makes landing an airplane a lot like playing golf. There are just so many variables that need to be accounted for to get a nice approach and landing.
At least it keeps the job interesting.
I’ll leave you with this video demonstrating just how much of an angle the airplane can be off during a crosswind landing that probably shouldn’t have been attempted:
Do you have a question about something related to the pointy end of an airplane? Ask Kent and maybe he’ll use it for next Monday’s Plane Answers
