"There is something in the New York air that makes sleep useless". Simone Beauvoir
The idea that NYC never sleeps is so patently true and has been made famous so repeatedly that we take it for granted. But it is THE defining sentiment about NYC and, in my opinion, its most important "brand attribute". When a human is healthy, the body is 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit. Midnight in NYC is like 8 or 9 pm
in most cities. Midnight is the day's "hump", not its conclusion. At midnight there are legions of New Yorkers (and visitors to NYC) beginning all sorts of purposeful (and legitimate) activities - stepping out to bars, going to work the night shift, doing late night shopping, or late night laundry or going to the gym or for a run in the par, or having an impromptu party on a roof or a stoop or the dozens of things New Yorkers do so that they can "not sleep". Unfortunately, it's no longer true. After a late night bike ride I took recently, I wanted to write "The city that never sleeps is in a coma" across the sky, or on a banner wrapped around MSG. My bike ride, unplanned, was precipitated by something I once saw as improbable as hell freezing over - the overnight shutdown of the NYC subway for disinfection. Caught near Lincoln Center a minute after the last A Train on a gorgeous late summer night, I decided to jump on a Citibike and cycle home to DUMBO. On a bike, you see and feel things you can't when you are insulated in a car or a train. And what I saw and felt, hurt. From block after block of empty retail space, to the countless hotels permanently shut down; from Times Square, all bazillion watts and zero people, to formerly noisy, nocturnal neighborhoods, like Hell's Kitchen, Chelsea and the East Village, now closed up like drums; from unused, haunted-looking schools to unkempt parks – I bicycled past and through it all. It was a city that seemed empty, and yet full of trash (and accompanying rats). Most unnerving of all - not one yellow cab on the traffic-less streets. Not one. Finally I paused in the middle of the Brooklyn Bridge, sat on a bench, and gazed at the skyline we love so much, and shed some tears. "A middle finger is more New York than a corporate ambush. I bleed for my hometown, and I’d die for my fans". Lady Gaga
I think many of us have been bleeding. I know I have. I lived through 9/11, blackouts, hurricanes, tropical storms, helicopters crashing into buildings, the Great Recession and exploding dumpsters, but could I get through this? Then, on September 10, I feel like I snapped awake. This was the day the Open Letter to Mayor De Blasio was sent by the Partnership for New York City, signed by 150 CEOs. In it they warned of the potential catastrophe caused by the erosion in NYC's quality of life. Reversing these declines, they said, would be a matter of survival for New York City. They painted it in life or death terms. https://pfnyc.org/research/a-call-for-action-and-collaboration/
I realized this was exactly how I felt. So I am making it my cause, and am putting together what I believe is a dream team of creative problem solvers to help the city we love in its time of greatest need. In its "Call for Action and Collaboration", the Partnership for New York City cites the support of "14 global consultancies" (from Accenture to McKinsey to PWC). This is awesome, and shows the depth and breadth of their intellectual back up. I also see the need for a slightly different kind of resource: creativity.
“Concrete Jungle where dreams are made of, there’s nothing you can’t do.” - Jay Z
Creative and cultural capital is exactly what NYC has in superabundance and at the highest levels of talent. To come through the other side of the pandemic, NYC needs big, audacious, imaginative ideas. On one level, this is survival. But I see this is an opportunity to make NYC better than it was before. There's nothing in NYC that can't be improved (well, other than Citibike - in my humble opinion). So the goal is not just to fix, it's to improve. This is where you come in. I am assembling most creative brains I know to come up with the biggest, most game-changing ideas to help solve the city's most serious and pressing problems. Let's make NYC a better place to live, one issue at a time. Welcome to We Heart NYC
If you love NYC, and you think of yourself as a creative person, please sign up. By creative, I don't mean necessarily that you have a "creative job" – although you may. Creativity lives in many places and comes in many shapes and sizes. My basic definition of creativity is that it's the ability to generate ideas, alternatives and possibilities to solve problems. The ability to think laterally. To use your imagination and apply it to the prosaic. To break "rules" intelligently. To believe 1 plus 1 can equal 3. Are you in? Here's the plan - each week we as a group are going to take on a "quality of life" problem – something we see and observe about NYC that is eroding in front of our eyes – and we're going to use our talents and abilities to brainstorm solutions to the problem. For each problem we tackle, I want us to come up with 2 viable ideas that we can give to civic leaders and say "run with them". This is a 3-stage process – 3 stages in one week, no less. This is a very tall order. Stage 1 is ideation: using a panoply of tools, we'll harness the group's creativity to find big and innovative ideas to help solve the worst problems. Stage 2 is about hatching these ideas: identifying the major concrete steps necessary to bring these solutions to life. Stage 3 is socializing and promoting ideas: by leveraging the strength of our social networks, our communication expertise and our New York pushiness, we channel these ideas to the civic leaders most able to champion them. One belongs to New York instantly, one belongs to it as much in five minutes as in five years. Tom Wolfe
You don't have to be New Yorker to part of this. You just have to love New York. You might have great insight into NYC from having been a visitor here. "Anytime four New Yorkers get into a cab together without arguing, a bank robbery has just taken place." Johnny Carson
At some point during the process, you'll need to work in small teams of 4 or so, so you need to be willing to do this and to share contact information with your team mates. I'm suggesting that we keep this all on Facebook and to form Messenger groups to communicate with team mates. I go to Paris, I go to London, I go to Rome, and I always say, “There’s no place like New York. It’s the most exciting city in the world now. That’s the way it is. That’s it.” Robert De Niro
In ideation, the most important principle is to keep it moving, keep it fast, keep it upbeat. Everything we do is about positivity and building on other people's ideas. In Robert DeNiro's statement above, it's always exciting (and probably sunny) in NYC, and that's the way ideation works. It's as hard to get evicted from this group as it is to get evicted from a rent-stabilized NYC apartment. The only grounds are: criticism, negativity and discussion of ANY politics. This is a 100 percent politics-free page. ANY discussion or mention of politics or politicians (good or bad) will be grounds for instant ejection. Now, let's have fun and get to work helping NYC!
