Westin New York at Times Square, Broadway Ballroom - 3rd Floor
Street:
270 West 43rd Street at 7th Avenue
City/Town:
New York, NY
My Status: Maybe Attending, Maybe Not
In The News
Issues Pressing, Obama Fills Top Posts at a Sprint New York Times Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton was not sure what Mr. Obama wanted to talk about when she was summoned here last month, said another person close to the transition. She had heard speculation about jobs, but only after she arrived at Mr. Obama’s office did he ask her to think about being secretary of state.
I had three stops prior: 34th Street, Water Street, and a Momo stop in Jackson Heights. Then I showed up at Rudy's a little after 7:30. The winter tent is on in the backyard. The heater is on. There was a crowd there sure. This was more than five people. Josh, the other person on Drinking Liberally payroll, was holding court. I spent a minute with that huddle, then walked over to a corner crowd, one woman, about five men. Laura and Lucas were engaged and Lucas had organized a gathering with his fellow city planner friends. The guys were from all over the place, Bronx, Brooklyn, New Jersey, Westchester. I talked mostly to Laura to start with, then to Lucas, then to others, there was a Tom.
Justin Krebs showed up late. He gave a shout out to Lucas from the other end of the tent. A little later he walked over. He was his garrulous self. Trivia: this guy is not on Facebook. Now you know why the organization is not growing faster.
He bragged about the 99 cent menu items in his neighborhood, which was right there. "I live right round the corner." Laura asked him if he ate vegetables. What are those? He asked. I feared he might ask me what a cow looks like. Like Bill Clinton says, most New York politicians could not tell one end of the cow from another. Nepal is the Arkansas of the world. We are poor and proud too. Then she asked if he had sheets. He said he had blankets. Standing back to back he mentioned "truck driver." A little later he said it was Rudy's 75th anniversary in a few hours, on the 5th. I guess the place was around also during prohibition. That might have been a Mirza reference.
Laura went out and brought food for her crowd, shared the fries with me. She gave me her card to become Facebook friends with.
Hello Stephanie. Hello Brooke.
There was some kind of a loud beer game going on at the other end of the tent, more than a dozen people participating.
A little after 10 I left.
When he talked about the 99 cent pizza place on 41st and 9th, he said, "I wonder how they make money." He is right on the dot. To me that place is in the same league as Dell and Walmart, it is a terrific business model. You drive the price down and make money on volume. I don't go there just for pizza, I go there for business inspiration.
I showed up a little early, so walked around. When I showed up five minutes before seven, noone else had showed up. And I am thinking, this is going to be like that Rudy's experience: After A Week Of Freedom, Rudy's? SAFO?, The Four White Manhattan Organizations. Hardly anyone is going to show. But by the time I went to the bar, got my drink - and the bowl of nuts - and got back, one person was there, Josh Silverstein, the host: Joshing Politics. I was surprised he seemed to know my name after I introduced myself. Does that fit the definition of notoriety? For a low profile guy like me? Then Tracey showed. It is possible she was surprised to see me. Then this guy who has a four month old kid who he claimed did pushups. Then Margaret of Citizen Action. Oh yes, you are a regular, she said. That is when I realized maybe Josh also faked it, he does not know me, or of me. And this guy Marshall. He hovered around until Tracey walked up to him and brought him in. Yes, this is the place. 80 minutes later he was complaining to Tracey about "Obama magnets." We supported Obama, but we are not an Obama group, Tracey said. I had a laugh. The guy was figuring out where exactly he was, what was this event, what was this organization.
None of the oldies showed up. Otherwise I had come resolved to never call Lewis Cohen a white asshole male ever again. I have been learning Barack's new kind of politics. Heather, Abhishek, Lewis, none showed. I guess they don't do the After LinkUp thing these days.
Tracey ran with her characteristic running commentary most of the time. She is really good at that. I have always been impressed with her encyclopedic knowledge of local politics. This day her talk was even more panoramic than ever. On national issues, and personalities, I would go head to head, but on local my mind used to go foggy. Dan Jacoby, whose knowledge of local politics is hardly encyclopedic, but back then everyone knew more local politics than me, his attitude would be like, let's talk local politics, let's make this guy uncomfortable.
When she asked everyone how they felt about Hillary's nomination, I saw an opening to speak, but the topic changed faster than a New York minute. I for the first time heard the name Nydia Velazquez, apparently the frontrunner to be Senator since Hillary has moved on. That's curious, because right now I happen to be temporarily living in her district.
And then snippets of comments here and there that are a window into the economically hard times in the city, Ph.D.s doing cooking jobs, people looking for jobs. This too shall pass.
Overall I was so glad to have showed up. It just might have been the most relaxed I ever felt at a DFNYC LinkUp. I was actually there. My first six months with DFNYC, my mind would be 10,000 miles away. The Dean 2004 alum feeling is a good feeling. My primary day to day focus on my startup, I am in the city, finally.
I walked out and away while the rest of the group had stood up, but they were still talking, they had not decided to leave just as yet. I walked out into a welcoming, bustling, impersonal New York street.
Tracey explores your mind while talking nonstop. That is her style. I also long called her the dynamo of DFNYC. Heather is high on knowledge, Lewis is high on authority, Tracey is high on dynamism. Abhishek brings in diversity through the door, soft-spoken diversity. And I have always been intrigued by the collective leadership concept of DFNYC. Women do group dynamics differently. At some level it is downright fascinating.
DFNYC also has a way of mixing political talk with informal, personal talk, casual mentions. The setting helps. This was half a dozen individuals sitting on couches, not 50 or 150 people standing up, drinking beer. There is something special about a DFNYC LinkUp that way.
Men's fear of women, white folks' fear of nonwhite folks, novelist Anita calls it the powerful's fear of the powerless. It is guttural, it is ignorant.
