***New York***

[El Floppo 29,128]

3 minutes ago, Jayrod said:

So, thinking about the future....what is the city like right now?  I've heard that restaurants are now open.  What are the rules/expectations of visitors?

I'm looking at possibly coming out there late Summer in case you are wondering about specifics, around mid-August.

It's been so fluid, hard to say what end of summer will be like...other than stinking hot and humid.

Restaurants did just open up (and book immediately) at 25% capacity indoors, along with enclosed outdoor sidewalk dining. Pretty sure everything still has to close at 10pm. Stores are open, as are most hotels. Hotels have restrictions on things like room service- definitely check into that.

The cold crappy weather has put a hurt on outdoor stuff here the last few weeks, but in my E Village, LES neighborhood people have been going out, filling up outdoor dining and drinking. It's busy as hell when the weather was nicer...felt like more people out and about than normal because they're all forced into the sidewalks rather than indoors.

I'd think by summer things will be more normalized for restaurants. Not sure about nightlife, theater, etc...hopefully by the fall, which is a nicer time to visit, tbh.

[Jayrod 5,052]

10 minutes ago, El Floppo said:

It's been so fluid, hard to say what end of summer will be like...other than stinking hot and humid.

Restaurants did just open up (and book immediately) at 25% capacity indoors, along with enclosed outdoor sidewalk dining. Pretty sure everything still has to close at 10pm. Stores are open, as are most hotels. Hotels have restrictions on things like room service- definitely check into that.

The cold crappy weather has put a hurt on outdoor stuff here the last few weeks, but in my E Village, LES neighborhood people have been going out, filling up outdoor dining and drinking. It's busy as hell when the weather was nicer...felt like more people out and about than normal because they're all forced into the sidewalks rather than indoors.

I'd think by summer things will be more normalized for restaurants. Not sure about nightlife, theater, etc...hopefully by the fall, which is a nicer time to visit, tbh.

Thanks.

Our main draws are just seeing the various parts of the city, simple dining and museums.  Not sure if the MET and MOMA are opened back up yet, but they are a critical part of our plans.

[El Floppo 29,128]

7 minutes ago, Jayrod said:

Thanks.

Our main draws are just seeing the various parts of the city, simple dining and museums.  Not sure if the MET and MOMA are opened back up yet, but they are a critical part of our plans.

I think the museums have been open for a while now, at limited capacity with reserved times.

[jobarules 790]

58 minutes ago, El Floppo said:

It's been so fluid, hard to say what end of summer will be like...other than stinking hot and humid.

Restaurants did just open up (and book immediately) at 25% capacity indoors, along with enclosed outdoor sidewalk dining. Pretty sure everything still has to close at 10pm. Stores are open, as are most hotels. Hotels have restrictions on things like room service- definitely check into that.

The cold crappy weather has put a hurt on outdoor stuff here the last few weeks, but in my E Village, LES neighborhood people have been going out, filling up outdoor dining and drinking. It's busy as hell when the weather was nicer...felt like more people out and about than normal because they're all forced into the sidewalks rather than indoors.

I'd think by summer things will be more normalized for restaurants. Not sure about nightlife, theater, etc...hopefully by the fall, which is a nicer time to visit, tbh.

King Cuomo changed it to 11pm

[El Floppo 29,128]

4 hours ago, jobarules said:

King Cuomo changed it to 11pm

Ah...thanks. I guess that was part of the recent reopening.

[El Floppo 29,128]

19 hours ago, Jayrod said:

Thanks.

Our main draws are just seeing the various parts of the city, simple dining and museums.  Not sure if the MET and MOMA are opened back up yet, but they are a critical part of our plans.

And seriously...end of September into October is a great time to be here. August is the worst time (besides now). If you have flexibility in travel dates, I'd highly recommend moving it back..will gain some extra covid protection as well.

[Jayrod 5,052]

3 hours ago, El Floppo said:

And seriously...end of September into October is a great time to be here. August is the worst time (besides now). If you have flexibility in travel dates, I'd highly recommend moving it back..will gain some extra covid protection as well.

Unfortunately, the fall is not feasible.  My wife is a teacher (start of school) and I referee college football.  There isn't a single 4-5 day stretch where we both would feel comfortable taking a trip out of town in the Fall.

Would early summer, like mid-June, be better?  I've thought about the 4th of July, but figure it would be a lot more expensive.

[RUSF18 3,903]

7 hours ago, Jayrod said:

Unfortunately, the fall is not feasible.  My wife is a teacher (start of school) and I referee college football.  There isn't a single 4-5 day stretch where we both would feel comfortable taking a trip out of town in the Fall.

Would early summer, like mid-June, be better?  I've thought about the 4th of July, but figure it would be a lot more expensive.

Potential covid restrictions aside, much better to be in the city in mid June than August. 

[jamny 6,596]

While NY could use the tourism, I would not recommend to anyone I know to come here this summer. I guess it'll be cheaper and less crowded but it wont be a great NY experience.

[El Floppo 29,128]

12 minutes ago, jamny said:

While NY could use the tourism, I would not recommend to anyone I know to come here this summer. I guess it'll be cheaper and less crowded but it wont be a great NY experience.

Cheaper and less crowded is a GREAT NYC experience, imo. Especially if seeing theater isn't important.

[jamny 6,596]

29 minutes ago, El Floppo said:

Cheaper and less crowded is a GREAT NYC experience, imo. Especially if seeing theater isn't important.

Yeah, I get that.

We travel a lot, especially to cities, and I would always look to make sure there was something good happening so the city would be hopping. Not Marde Gras or Oktoberfest hopping but not dead. To each their own.

[El Floppo 29,128]

3 minutes ago, jamny said:

Yeah, I get that.

We travel a lot, especially to cities, and I would always look to make sure there was something good happening so the city would be hopping. Not Marde Gras or Oktoberfest hopping but not dead. To each their own.

I hear you.

Ive been loving quiet, no vomit in the doorway, east village.

[El Floppo 29,128]

Nyc DOE chancellor Carranza just resigned.

I appreciate that he wanted to try to address the increased segregation in city schools. He seemed like a good dude with good intentions.

I don't like that his approach (and the mayor's) was to completely scrap the admissions standards/screening for high performing schools...without really providing a solution outside of making those schools standard-less. I'd like to think there's a method that doesn't involve scrapping what actually does work. And there isn't a planning place for the high performing schools to incorporate lower performing students (and I'm betting that these will be predominantly white lower performing students, which won't really fix anything).

His (and the mayor's) moves in this regard have directly affected floppinho as he waits to hear about high schools. The non-spexialized HSs he was interested in previously only took the top grade/test/attendance/portfolio kids. Now it's essentially a lottery. We'll see. We find out about private schools today...not feeling hopeful, in spite of any school being lucky to get a kid like floppinho. We just don't have the money or fame to be worthwhile as a family, regardless of his abilities.

Hopefully things will be addressed for 4th grade floppinha as she applies to middle schools next year. 4th grade is the year middles schools base admissions on. Carranza and Bill completely scrapped ALL screening for middle schools, so it remains to be seen what happens to the small group of really amazing schools, let alone specialized schools like my son's (music) or others like professional performing art school or ballet tech. Can anybody sign up for ballet tech without actually knowing how to dance? Or Special Music School without knowing how to play an instrument? Do we just throw those high performing, incredible schools away (which are all amongst the most diverse schools in the city because they have their own admission standards)?

Sigh.

 

[El Floppo 29,128]

Also...both Carranza and Bill sent their kids to highly screened, specialized schools. But I guess what works for them the rest of us aren't allowed to enjoy.

[Redwes25 2,100]

Good luck with the school process.  We are knee deep in it for my son who is in 5th grade.  We might send him to private school but we haven't ruled out public school yet.  Honestly, the entire system is a complete mess right now.  There needs to be some mixture of trying to be inclusive and performance and it is a hard line to draw.

Edited February 26 by Redwes25

[massraider 11,469]

On 2/17/2021 at 10:04 PM, El Floppo said:

I hear you.

Ive been loving quiet, no vomit in the doorway, east village.

If I lived where you lived, I would be loving this.

Are you EV?  I thought you were in LES for some reason.  

That DMZ between Houston and Delancey.  If you are north of Houston, good for you.  🤣

[El Floppo 29,128]

18 minutes ago, massraider said:

If I lived where you lived, I would be loving this.

Are you EV?  I thought you were in LES for some reason.  

That DMZ between Houston and Delancey.  If you are north of Houston, good for you.  🤣

Houston and A, on houston. A foot in both hoods. LES EVil.

[massraider 11,469]

3 minutes ago, El Floppo said:

Houston and A, on houston. A foot in both hoods. LES EVil.

You might remember I worked at Chantelle for a bit.  

I was there for a long time, without ever being outside the club on the weekends, during prime time. I was always inside early, and out at 5 am.  I had no idea the insanity there on the weekends.  

One night I got off early, on a Friday,around midnight, and decided to wander, Ludlow, Stanton, etc.  It was brutal.  

 

I had a couple of young dudes, Jersey boys, that used to come in, and they were kind of wide-eyed, and in love with everything in the city, the way I was when I got here.  They came in one night, and were excited to tell me they had just got a spot around the corner, and would see me a lot.  

I saw them like two months later, and asked them how it was going, they were both like, "This is a nightmare, soon as our lease is up we are out of this neighborhood...."   And those were kids, every place in they hood was their range.  Shows how bad it was there.  

 

 

[El Floppo 29,128]

1 hour ago, Redwes25 said:

Good luck with the school process.  We are knee deep in it for my son who is in 5th grade.  We might send him to private school but we haven't ruled out public school yet.  Honestly, the entire system is a complete mess right now.  There needs to be some mixture of trying to be inclusive and performance and it is a hard line to draw.

Not an easy fix, for sure. My kids have been in g&t since K, and the lack of diversity in that program at their school in chelsea is staggering. When we spoke to parents at our local playground as we were first going though the process, it was telling how many black and hispanic parents we spoke to knew absolutely nothing about the test or programs. They were aware of the school in the neighborhood (no gt program) and that was it. I will say that our son started K at a gt school in the LES that really nice reflected the neighborhood with a rich diversity. But they were broke and offered incredibly little program-wise for the kids. The difference between there and the place in chelsea we ended up was insane...all due to income of the parents and money given to the pta.

I'd like to see the test rethought or thrown out and use performance within a school as criteria for inclusion. I think it would allow schools to have more flexibility than a number on test taken by a four year old kid.

 

Do you have decent MS options prior to the screens dropping?

[Redwes25 2,100]

1 hour ago, El Floppo said:

Not an easy fix, for sure. My kids have been in g&t since K, and the lack of diversity in that program at their school in chelsea is staggering. When we spoke to parents at our local playground as we were first going though the process, it was telling how many black and hispanic parents we spoke to knew absolutely nothing about the test or programs. They were aware of the school in the neighborhood (no gt program) and that was it. I will say that our son started K at a gt school in the LES that really nice reflected the neighborhood with a rich diversity. But they were broke and offered incredibly little program-wise for the kids. The difference between there and the place in chelsea we ended up was insane...all due to income of the parents and money given to the pta.

I'd like to see the test rethought or thrown out and use performance within a school as criteria for inclusion. I think it would allow schools to have more flexibility than a number on test taken by a four year old kid.

 

Do you have decent MS options prior to the screens dropping?

I am in District 15 (Park Slope, BK) which was the guinea pig for this entire thing.  There is definately a mix of really good schools (MS51 where de Blasio's kids went) and much weaker schools. Even though we are farther along on this then the rest of the city it is unclear if this has been good for middle schools as a whole or not.  It is too early to tell even though the de Blasio administration points to us as a success.  First thing that has happened is there have been a lot of kids who may have gone to public school ending up in private schools.  Also, unclear if the change has improved the weaker schools yet (e.g. Park Slope Collegiate) though the strong schools do appear to remain strong so far.  

Also, you make a great point on PTA having such a big impact on a NYC public school.  The elementary school my kids go to is one of the best in the city and has done pretty well in the pandemic but a lot of that has to do with the PTA which has funded extra subsitutite teaches as needed and even full time teachers (including full time arts and music teachers that would have been let go this year to do funding issues for NYC).  You compare that to my kids "sister" school in the district, which is in Sunset Park, and they have almost no funding from the PTA and honestly most if its funding comes from parents in our school as we regularly do fundraising drives for it (as well as helping to support basic needs in the area (food drives, etc.)).  Our school is almot 75% white and the Sunset park school is like 90% low income and has a large portion of the students as ESL with a majority of the students either Chinesse immigtants or kids of immigrants. 

I am not sure there is an easy fix to all of this but think the way they went about it seems off and they don't have any idea if it will work or not.  It isn't fun when your kids get to be test subjects like this while the people implementing the policy had their kids test into the best schools.    

[El Floppo 29,128]

10 hours ago, Redwes25 said:

Good luck with the school process.  We are knee deep in it for my son who is in 5th grade.  We might send him to private school but we haven't ruled out public school yet.  Honestly, the entire system is a complete mess right now.  There needs to be some mixture of trying to be inclusive and performance and it is a hard line to draw.

Phew!

He got in to Trinity, Dalton, St Ann's and Friends. Aid packages work for us. Huge day in chez floppo. So very proud of this kid- he deserves it.

 

[Jayrod 5,052]

4 hours ago, El Floppo said:

Phew!

He got in to Trinity, Dalton, St Ann's and Friends. Aid packages work for us. Huge day in chez floppo. So very proud of this kid- he deserves it.

 

I'm a Missourian who doesn't know what exactly this means, but congrats!

[Redwes25 2,100]

On 2/26/2021 at 9:57 PM, El Floppo said:

Phew!

He got in to Trinity, Dalton, St Ann's and Friends. Aid packages work for us. Huge day in chez floppo. So very proud of this kid- he deserves it.

 

Awesome news!  Those are all amazing schools. You should be super proud. 
 

We actually toured Poly Prep today and seems like our son may end up there. If you end up at Dalton or Trinity our kids may actually end up playing each other in sports as I think they are in the same league. 

[El Floppo 29,128]

12 hours ago, Redwes25 said:

Awesome news!  Those are all amazing schools. You should be super proud. 
 

We actually toured Poly Prep today and seems like our son may end up there. If you end up at Dalton or Trinity our kids may actually end up playing each other in sports as I think they are in the same league. 

My college teammate/away game room mate went to Poly Prep and I've know some other kids since who went there. Great school and really great for sports.

Floppinho is a music/theater kid...probably won't be doing any serious sports, although I'm still trying to get him to think about it. 

[El Floppo 29,128]

Nothing like springtime in the city.

 

Standing in line to get my second shot in downtown Brooklyn.