Fire escapes and firehouses in New York

New York City, like any large city, has a mixture of old and new buildings. Some are high tech marvels, with all kinds of ways to limit fires and reduce the risk to occupants.






















In some neighbourhoods the fire escapes are prominent fixtures, part of the design and appearance, and they alone provide the best potential for escape. Do these things get tested once in a while? Should we be concerned?

The Fire Department of New York is the largest municipal fire department in the US, and second largest in the world after Tokyo. FDNY employs over 11,000 fire fighters and over 3300 paramedics.








On September 11, 2001, 343 members of the FDNY were killed as they responded to the attacks on the World Trade Centre. There were 75 firehouses, like the two shown here, in which at least one member was killed.










There are 217 firehouses in the five boroughs of New York and like fire departments everywhere, they answer the call, no questions asked, every time. And if a fire fighter wants to park his or her car on the sidewalk in a fire zone, while it isn't right, no one seems to notice.








And not noticing doesn't make it right either.


Photos by Jim Murray. Copyright 2014.

The rhodos of VanDusen Garden

While walking through VanDusen Garden earlier this week we took a path through the rhododendrons which were magnificent in colour.

The rhododendron, which apparently originated in the nation once called Rhodesia, is a genus of over 1000 species of woody plants in the Heath family. Some viewers will remember another notable member of the Heath family: Edward Heath, former prime minister of the UK during the early 1970s.






The smallest of the rhododendrons can be 10 to 100 cm in height, and the largest can reach 30 metres.

The rhododendron is the National Flower of Nepal, where it is considered edible and enjoyed for its sour taste. Sour indeed as it is served pickled. You can't make this stuff up.

Photos by Jim Murray. Copyright 2014.

New York City ~ it's the people

Things I found of interest during my first trip to New York City:

I imagined a dirtier, grimier, more polluted city. It isn't. In fact, Manhattan seems quite clean and orderly for its population density. The garbage bags appear through the day, and then, somehow, disappear.

There are surprisingly few panhandlers on the streets. In Manhattan the homeless are largely invisible. The why of that is of concern, especially when we know there are over 50,000 in municipal shelters every night and thousands more living rough. Why aren't they more visible? It's easier to see the rich; they are everywhere as are the working class citizens who serve them. Where are the homeless?



Transit is great. It's relatively inexpensive, easy, dependable and safe. There isn't the graffiti on the subway cars here that one sees in some of the major international cities.

There is a great deal of horn honking going on. Short toots for no reason at all and a wall of sound for something more important, like waiting more than 15 seconds for a delivery truck driver to finish his job. Or maybe they were honking at Jeem for standing in the street.


Yellow cabs are everywhere. Except when it rains of course.



For a city that never sleeps, it's relatively quiet when you are away from the tourist centres. Where we stayed, finding a cafe or coffee shop open past midnight was not always easy, the 3 Star Diner being an exception (open 24/7) and a retro kind of place in every sense. So retro it isn't fashionably retro.





There is a wonderful sense of making the best of the old city, yet celebrating the new when it works. New York is a walkable city and the architecture is stunning at every turn.















Conversations are easy to start in cafes, coffee shops and bars; not every person is spiritually attached to their smart phone. New Yorkers seem to love talking with people and about almost anything.


The people are amazing. They are friendly and eager to help. Look at a map in a subway station and only a moment goes by before someone says "Where do ya wanna go?" They seem genuinely proud of their city. They don't need to be told they live in the greatest city on earth. They know. It's the people that make this a great city.

Photos by Jim Murray. Copyright 2014.

Everyone is taking pictures ~ "slaves to their gadgets"

Everywhere, everyone seems to be taking photos. With their phones and with their cameras, it is never ending. Of a scene, of themselves and sometimes of both. It's as though it didn't happen, or I wasn't really there, unless there is a photo on my wall (the digital wall on a social media site, not an actual wall).













Earlier in May the prime minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu spoke for many of us when he ranted against the constant photo taking, the selfies, the apparent inability to set the phone down...





"You are slaves to your gadgets" he said, without knowing he was being recorded. His rant went viral.







It's true: all those people taking photos. Sending live transmissions and talking while they are "shooting" the World Trade Centre or the Statue of Liberty. All the time. Everywhere. Some people take pictures of each other taking pictures of each other.





Still others take photos of people taking photos. What's with that I wonder? But wait a minute, I'm one of those people.

I don't think of myself as a slave to my gadget, and no selfies for me. I use the camera's timer.

Photos by Jim Murray. Copyright 2014.

The heart of the American Dream: The Church and The Exchange

In the heart of what was once the Occupy Wall Street movement stands a wonderful old Anglican church called Trinity.















This is the third Trinity Church to stand in this location; the first was built in 1698. Many of the grave markers reveal a time before the American Revolution.





Behind the church, behind the grave yard, is the centre of American business: The New York Stock Exchange. It was founded in 1792.





There is a contrast between the old and new here. Just as there is in this country. The Occupy movement fizzled, though the questions about distribution of wealth remain. Nicholas Kristof recently wrote in the Times about economic disparity and the American Dream, how that dream has faded, perhaps even disappeared, and became the Canadian dream.

In his column, Kristof mentions three facts that might seem surprising to many Americans, especially here in the wealthiest of all cities:

• American women are twice as likely to die as a result of pregnancy or childbirth as are Canadian women
• the six heirs to the Walmart estate are worth as much as the bottom 41percent of all US households put together
• the top 1 percent in the US have wealth and property worth more than the entire bottom 90 percent

Kristof suggests at the end of his piece that the American Dream be brought home from exile, which might imply that the Dream was somehow removed from America, in this instance by Canadians. The truth is that the Dream was stolen by the rich and powerful of America itself, with the acquiescence of the Church and the deliberations of the best government money can buy. Getting it back, both the Dream and the government, will not be easy.

Photos by Jim Murray. Copyright 2014.