Orientation to New York City

soon to be in printed format and available as a PDF
http://www.rncnotwelcome.org/visitorsguide/index.html

So it would be prudent to have one's escape plan ready. The ability to suddenly change appearance and blend away into the background can come in handy.

See:

http://www.indybay.org/news/2004/03/1673636_comment.php#1674041


So does the ability to negotiate unconventional transportsation routes and liaise with local indiginents:

http://www.metafilter.com/mefi/30731

If you're going to NYC to protest, let me offer you a bit of advice.
Subways are safe, no matter what people say.
Head uptown, Bill Clinton's new neighborhood, it's become a very liberal bastion...any time of night will be OK...Don't worry about your money, ID, laptop or other posessions you'll need during your protest.
Check out 125th Street! The nightlife is fantastic, and things don't start to swing until about midnite...So, take the subway uptown- any time of night and have a blast!!!

"Hit 'em where they ain't" -- Willie Keeler

I'm in NYC. It's difficult to get a complete picture here of what everyone has planned, but that is *great*, because it should be that way.
One thing I have noticed is a trend towards agreement that the protests should be styled like the San Francisco March 20th 2003 protests which were decentralized with a common theme, of doing what you and your friends creatively come up with at your local intersection.
Yesterday's NY Press, which had a picture on the cover calling Michael Moore a fascist (it can be fairly conservative or moderate) had a little piece expressing exactly this idea. They were insulted, like many people are, that all the protest march permits are being denied, even for stationary events in Central Park. They're going to shut down vast areas of the city near the convention. So they were suggesting choosing a spot, getting a group and a theme, and doing something on surface streets, even if it just involves holding signs (there will be lots of democrat and moderate protesters too).
The surface street idea is great because the millions of non upper-middle class new yorkers all use the subway, while streets are all taxis carrying upper middle class people, and trucks carrying supplies. It would suck for truck drivers, but traffic jams already naturally occur here. It's summer too, and people need a new holiday at the end of August anyway. They had one last year in August with the power outages. It made people happy.

The thing with the police here is that they generally seem to be more working class than in SF. The paper said that they are 145th out of 200 large american cities in pay range, while I'd guess SF is #1 or #2. The way they come across reflects that. Most of them don't speak standard newscaster english, while police in some other cities make more of an effort to be at one with the middle class, and live in suburbs. They also really can kick butt when they feel like it. Just scanning nyc.indymedia for their behavior at various protests last year makes this point. They can control really large crowds of people and don't hesitate at violence.

It is extremely unlikely that anybody will black out the city by throwing a dog chain and fishing weight bola against the right high tension wire, or by plinking the right ceramic insulator with a .22 short fired through an improvised suppressor.

But even if they did, so what? Even in dark, there are still ways for a throng to pass time. Boredom wont be a problem. Forensic evidence might, but only if it gets left behind.

Most people, though, will be astute enough to heed this sublime nugget of pithy advice:

http://www.sfimc.net/news/2003/04/1603091_comment.php#1611471

It *will* be amazing, I can feel it. Either a staged 'terror' event will occur, or the reaction of the NYPD to an event the level of shutting down SF will appear to be a 'terror' event. Not that I actually want to go through one of those. But to miss them would be worse.

I stayed here for the last outrageous police attack during the NYC protest and listened directly via KPFA and indymedia - it was stunning to hear it as it happened. And it will happen again.

Undercovers will most likely be used in a hardcore way. I didn't hear about that much in the last NYC one, but it was clear in the Miami attack, and probably will be used here also, given that it's fascists in town, not just people gathering in the streets for a protest.

They've got little to lose of Bush continues to plummet. In which case they will be desperate.

hey,
can someone make up a list of trendy hipster cafes for me and my other white priviledged san franciscan middle class anarcho-yuppies travelling to new york. oh, also some good bars and clubs too. it should have wireless access to so i can plug in my new apple titanium notebook with bike parking for my new cannondale road bike, and should accept credit cards for my inherited platinum.

thanks,

spuds

Yes, even though we always make fun of the terror color alerts, there is no doubt that there are plenty of pissed off people around who could be in Greece for the olympics, or in New York, and could do something, especially given how easy it is to do simple things with the notion of threat. I was talking with friends about how the terrorists never need scratch a fingernail because they just have to increase 'chatter', but chatter could also involve phoned in threats and so forth.
On a tangent, here is an example in Seattle. Someone is killing this farmer's cows, and he is convinced that it is the ELF/ALF due to graffiti tag 'elf' written on a sign down the road, even though it doesn't make sense that ELF would kill cows: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2001962865_cows23m.html

Anyway, when my friend here didn't want to walk to Bedford park/Bronx during the blackout, he slept in Tompkins square where neighborhood freaks quickly set up a big bonfire that went like lord of the flies, as people through tires in it and drunk people tripped and got burned. Then someone stole his backpack in his sleep, but he found most of it because it was just books, but they kept one checked out from the library that he had to pay for. Yet almost every news outlet told a story that new Yorkers got along very well and were so friendly and there was no mayhem, in contrast to the 1977 blackout. The new Yorkers aren't really unfriendly at all, but just don't have as much "have a nice day" stuff at the grocery store, and are always saying 'bullshit'.

There aren't hipster cafes in Manhattan! I was surprised, but then I noticed that this isn't Seattle, Portland or San Francisco. The upper west and east sides have Starbucks every other block, so you could go there, and of course there are highly expensive places filling every block, but other than the Hungarian pastry shop at 110th and Amsterdam, I've hardly been able to find a halfway affordable coffeehouse place with refills where you can sit for a while w/o pissing off the owner. The cheapest beer I've located is $2 pints at 1020 halfway down the block from this. There is a nearby bar apparently owned by Bryan Flanagan who was part of the weather underground??? But I asked my friend if there is anywhere else in manhattan to go, and he can't think of anywhere. On the other hand, all over the Bronx and Queens and Brooklyn there are great little places with cheap food where the workers or owner will almost pull you in off the street if you show interest. Try Chinatown or greek places in Astoria. The pizza place under my friend in bedford park has slices for $1.50 which is about $1.50 cheaper than worse pizza in SF, and they actually speak italian and have the whole family working there.

For SF hipster haight street type culture, go to Bedford Avenue in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Aaron Cometbus works at a bookstore (you can tell by his handwriting on their little signs) at about 4th street I think). I believe apartments in that area cost about $2000/apiece, and there are lots of euro-american arty west coast types or even more so if you feel homesick, you can feel like you're in SF even though you're not.

Hey y'all come on up to 125th and Madison...that's where all the hipsters are. It's party 'til you drop, lots of trendy places which will be glad to cater to you guys from the West Coast. Party starts after 11 PM, so after a har day's protest, come on up and enjoy yourself!!