New York's downside

The City of New York is probably the most popular city in the world with all the literature and publicity that abound. It is the financial center of the world, the city where the economy of the world is decided in board rooms and fine dining restaurants and bars.

For all its perceived wealth, New York has its downside, the sleazy side of its glittering life style where in Times Square the city, rightly dubbed, does not sleep.

There are scavengers in the subways, men and women who go over the garbage bins in search of food. One was collecting Metro bus tickets and putting them into the machines in hopes that the remaining amount will drop into the slot.

Even as we were waiting for the stage play, “Phantom in the Opera”, a man went over the garbage and collected tin cans and plastic bottles.

At one station, there was a woman dirty and in rags, sitting by the bench as if lost in her own world. Nobody bothered.

There are “high class” beggars. They have placards asking for money. While we were lining up at the theater, a woman came along with a sign “I have two kids and I need money for milk and my apartment.” Another, a bearded man, carried a placard, “Give money for hot dog and a beer.”

There are many homeless in New York. We were strolling by a park and there was a man huddled in a corner of a subway exit, with all his possessions bundled beside him.

One was better. He had his worldly goods on a bicycle which carried a placard, “Give me money” while at one time, we passed by an amputee with the placard: “War veteran, needs help.”

The night before we left New York we passed by a couple begging in the streets. They had two suitcases and a poodle. I wondered how come they become homeless? How can the most powerful and the riches nation in the world have these helpless people?

My nephew, Raymund Uy and Ofelia Paderna who had joined us for two days of “touring” New York explained that the government has a program to get them off of the street into shelters but they refuse. They are also getting financial aid from the government but they still want to live on the streets.

The Catholic Church here also has a program for them. They were allowed to stay inside the church during the night where there are folding beds and have a chance to get a hot bath and a hot breakfast but they disappear early in the morning. Some return, others do not.

The homeless are not really the uneducated. There are lawyers who were disbarred and doctors who were stripped of their licenses for malpractice. They could not get a job.

Some sleep inside the church but not content, they also defecate there. The church had to be cleaned before Mass.

During my talk at the Five Corners Library in New Jersey City, the staff there directed that the door should be closed after we began the program. I was told that since food would be served, it was important that the homeless be barred from getting in because they would “raid” the food table ahead of the guests and members.

Garbage also piles up in the streets but they are in bags and scavengers don't touch them. The stores and buildings bring them out by ten in the evening. They are collected during the night so that when the city wakes up, the streets are clean.

There must be no buyer of cardboard boxes because they are piled high. However, most of them are folded to reduce their space occupancy.

I wrote earlier that the long walk made us wish we had trisikads. Well, they have them in Broadway and Times Square. In the past, the Americans condemned this form of labor which was common in China. Now they have them in New York and are patronized mainly by tourists.

Our trisikads proliferate and cause a lot of traffic jams, but the pedaled cabs here are not many. One reason: it costs US$35 for a ride for each passenger. Its cab has a seat for two. They are tolerated because they are few and also comply with traffic rules.

At the Columbus Circle, there are carriages drawn by horses. They cater to tourists or the people with special reasons to celebrate like those who just got married. They are as can be expected, expensive.

Fortunately here in New York and New Jersey, dog lovers abound but their pets do not litter as much as in Paris or as in Taiwan. In Paris there are more people who walk their dogs than here.*

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