So I am in New York City as I write this. Lex and I have been here a full day now and it’s pretty dam great. There are some things about it that are driving me crazy already but the joy and energy that I am getting by being surrounded by so many people using a city wisely and well is overwhelming that frustration.

I had to do some work today in the form of an interview (writing off this trip! yeah!) and then some writing so I spent a bit of time in a mid-town coffee shop. Besides watching a first date between a couple of people who had obviously met online (I think they hit it off. It was cute.), the coffee shop scene in Midtown is very 1995. There was wi-fi, but you had to sign on to it and it was wonky, the coffee was burnt and though I asked for it “for here,” it was given to me in a styrofoam cup.

Which leads me to my first real frustration: New York is completely not sustainable. I knew this, but it’s always shocking to re-discover and even more so now that I am so steeped in the subject everyday at work. It’s like the city just discovered recycling and still doesn’t quite get it. I mean, is it weird when I go to throw out something that I am taken aback to see wasted food, Styrofoam cups, glass bottles and discarded newspapers all mixed in the same bin together?

Sure, NYC residents have a smaller carbon footprint than most Americans thanks to their reliance on mass transit (which is phenomenal, natch), but when no one bats an eye at the fact that the bar (Volde Nuit) where we spent $120 on dinner (mussels, Beligan Frites and Belgian beer) uses plastic forks and plastic cups for the dips and everyone leaves lights on with wild abandon, they lose whatever green points they had scored. The vast majority of your electricity comes from coal people! Coal. Ever read anything by Dickens? Coal sucks!

On the other hand, NYC feels amazing to me right now. There’s two reasons for this. First, I love the energy that is ever present in this city that comes from the mass of humanity that is always everywhere on every street. I know that by the end of this trip I’ll feel a bit peopled out and will be craving some space from others, but I’ll still think it’s totally wonderful how the residents of this city use this city. My favorite part of it is how it’s all connected. Unlike Seattle, which is made up of discreet neighborhoods that one passes through, New York’s neighborhoods all melt together. That makes it okay, and even enjoyable, to interact with the city as you get from one area to another.

Also wonderful in this city right now (and this is new to me) is a burgeoning politeness going on. I know. It’s New York City. People are supposed to be rude and brusque and have no time for niceness. But it’s there nonetheless. Maybe it’s a high from the Obama win (I see many signs of joy about that, not just the one above.) For example, on the subway today, I saw a guy offer his seat to a woman. She wasn’t old or infirm or anything. She was just a woman and he was just being polite. Earlier in the day, someone actually said “Excuse me,” when she bumped into me! “Excuse me!” In New York. Something us up here. Don’t ask me what, but something is up.

Anyway, that’s my report from day one. I love the feel in the streets and soaking in the life that surrounds me at every step. Now, if it would just stop raining.

These three photos are of a guerilla installation at Melissa’s subway stop at Dyckman and 200th St. Totally awesome: