I did just land from manning the Zope.org booth at Linux World Expo NY (for better or worse). It was great to be back in New York, a city that I love but haven't been back to since July of 2001, shortly before I moved west. The primary reason has been time and finances. While JetBlue does offer extraordinarily cheap and timely service between the KSLC and KJFK airports, once hotels and general new york shopping, living, and drinking come into the picture, it becomes something that is all too easy to put off for some better times.
So, it was great to have Zope Corporation sponsor me to be there. It was too damn cold (while Salt Lake city is too damn warm - 51+ degrees Fahrenheit! In January! It's bloody spring skiing out there, with a dangerously low snowpack). But cold is always a good excuse to drink more Scotch.
During the expo, I was in a hotel on the corner of 40th street and 5th avenue, right by the beautiful New York Public Library and Bryant Park. But for my last night there (I stayed an extra night in order to have some extra time to enjoy the city), I relocated down to a hotel on the borders of Chinatown, SoHo, and Little Italy. I love that part of town. I went out to dinner with Chalu Kim of eGENIUS and the New York Zope and Python Users Group, and friends. I did get to finally see the new Prada SoHo store. It is an interesting store with some cool architecture. The clothes were beautiful pieces of art in their own right, particularly the accessories. But I still much prefer the beautiful minimalist gallery style of the Helmut Lang flagship store and neighboring flagship parfumerie.
Yesterday morning, I woke up at the hotel and started walking south, from ChinaTown to the Land of Legal Buildings in Lower Manhattan. As I kept walking and walking, past the Brooklyn Bridge and various churches, I found myself at the site of the former World Trade Center. The experience was incredibly eerie - the day was cloudy (light clouds, but still grey) and the streets were generally empty (financial district on a cold saturday morning). Combining this big hole in the ground (where work is actively continuing to restore transportation services) with the shells of damaged and bandaged buildings surrounding the site added to the eerie feeling, as the only sounds were of construction and the wind blowing through said empty damaged buildings. One such very tall building is still completely covered in black with a single pipe sticking out through the garments bellowing steam and water (and had a large icicle attached), and next to it lies a very large old building - ornate and with the copper(y) roof of its period. Peeking through holes in the fence one could see the sidewalks surrounding the buildings still covered in debris and neglect. Right across the street from the former WTC site in a small building that now houses the remains of a Burger King, second floor office space is available.