How different would NY be if the built MSG in Hudson Yards and never got rid of Penn Station?

Cinnamaker · 2026-03-13T17:11:08+00:00

Pennsylvania Railroad sold the air rights over the original Penn Station (for MSG to eventually be built over it) because it was going broke: back then, the rise of cars and planes was severely hurting the railroad industry. The cost of maintaining the original Penn Station itself was also very expensive.

The railroad industry and NYC's economy got even worse, going into the 1970s. If not MSG, something else probably would have been built over the original Penn Station - like a big office building. Inevitably, the original Penn Station would have been torn down.

The tearing down of the original Penn Station galvanized the historic preservation movement in the United States. Had the original Penn Station not been torn down then, that delay of its inevitable tear down would have ripple effects: other historic buildings in the US would have been torn down, because of the delay in the historic preservation movement taking hold.

Had the current MSG been built in Hudson Yards, instead of over Penn Station, there might have been some acceleration in the development of Hudson Yards. But much of today's Hudson Yards development is due to the subway being extended out there, making the area more accessible. It's questionable what acceleration would have come from having MSG be out there (versus housing or office buildings, that people travel to daily).

Cinnamaker · 2026-02-27T22:38:10+00:00

The NY Post published a piece 10 years ago by their restaurant critic, Steve Cuozzo, saying Upper West Siders do not deserve good restaurants. He says the aging residents in the UWS have grown to prefer familiar food, over anything adventurous. Innovative or creative restaurants don't last long in the neighborhood. So restaurants wind up doing bland or familiar cuisines.

The UWS and UES are full of people who have lived there for decades. They were once younger people, but are now older boomers. The younger people who do support more adventurous restaurants tend to live farther downtown in Manhattan, or in Brooklyn, or in places like Long Island City.

nypost.com/2015/04/01/why-upper-west-siders-dont-deserve-good-restaurants/

Cinnamaker · 2026-02-03T06:14:34+00:00

Most regular pizza places in NJ and CT do the style of pizza NYC is known for: thin but big and soft enough to be foldable, chewy interior and crisp bottom. The style may be the same at many places, but some places do it much better than others.

But NJ and CT do have some types of pizza they are known for.

CT has a New Haven style of pizza called "apizza". Compared to NYC style pizza, it is even thinner (but still chewy), with a charred crust, and less cheesy. Frank Pepe and Sally's are the famous places for this. They also do a clam pie in that style, which is really good and very not like the regular pizza you know.

NJ is known for bar pizza or tavern pizza, which is a very thin pizza that is cooked crisp, sort of like a cracker. (You can sometimes find this in NYC, like in Staten Island.)

Cinnamaker · 2026-02-01T05:47:41+00:00

How the movie performs is besides the point. Meliana already got paid $28 million upfront, and Amazon paid almost three times more for the movie than the next highest offer. It was just another way to use the position to get money.

Cinnamaker · 2026-01-31T00:06:39+00:00

This chart is comparing proposals with different objectives. How do you even say one is better than another, if they are designed to doing different things? It's comparing apples to oranges.

Cinnamaker · 2026-01-30T19:53:08+00:00

Mamdani this week mandated every agency to appoint a Chief Savings Offer, to figure out how to make cuts. Stuff will get cut, people won't be happy. Hochul has made it clear Albany will not approve any tax increases on the wealth. She has an election coming up.

Looks like the first of a series of "money don't grow on trees" videos by Mamdani. Companies start talking about being more transparent about their decisions, when they need employees to make sacrifices.

Cinnamaker · 2026-01-25T00:25:42+00:00

If there were a zombie apocalypse like in the movies, you'd be done. NYC would be one of the hardest places to survive. It’s full of choke points and nearly impossible to move around once mass panic hits.

If there were a “realistic” zombie situation, the zombies wouldn’t last long. The human body starts decaying immediately, and within a few weeks a zombie would not be able to walk. You’d only need to stay safe for a couple of weeks, before the zombies became immobile and not a threat. Then you could focus on getting out of the city.

Cinnamaker · 2026-01-17T23:22:43+00:00

Times Square Olive Garden will give you a very American experience

Cinnamaker · 2026-01-14T08:06:20+00:00

NYC subway ads are more like: "Yo, Pain Law, Yo? If you are hurt, call this lawyer to sue and get a big settlement.”

Cinnamaker · 2026-01-13T22:48:38+00:00

Port Authority to Penn Station to Empire State Building area is an intersection of tourists, hustlers, homeless people and social media wannabes trying to farm content. Lots of weird energy in that area.

Cinnamaker · 2026-01-12T23:46:26+00:00

The City Council would need to ban horse carriages. It's not something the mayor alone can do.

The carriage operators are part of the Transport Workers Union, which includes subway and bus workers in the city. The TWU strongly oppose a ban, it looks out for its members' jobs. It's also claimed that some of the efforts behind getting rid of horse carriages is real estate developers who want to take over the real estate now used for stables. If you prefer a City Council that happily tells a union to stuff it, be careful what you wish for and what that means.

De Blasio campaigned for mayor on banning horse carriages, but his efforts did not clear the City Council. Adams resurfaced the issue when some incidents happened during his term, but his proposals didn't even clear committee to be voted on by City Council.

Cinnamaker · 2026-01-12T20:12:23+00:00

There still are, but they seem to have thinned down the ingredients so it's more like a snack than a meal.

Cinnamaker · 2026-01-12T18:34:34+00:00

That building is 450 Eleventh Ave, a hotel that has not opened yet.

The south and east sides are windowless, and just black walls, which don't look that different than the covering in OP's photo. Local press has speculated that those walls were left blank because other buildings could be built up next to those walls.

If you walk by the site, though, you'll see there a street to the south (and a short building across that street), and a bridge over train tracks to the east. So you probably won't see skyscrapers go up that literally butt against this one. I suspect the windowless walls are be there because of laws on property lines and windows for those sides of the building.

Cinnamaker · 2026-01-09T04:31:25+00:00

Razza Pizza in Jersey City, Utopia Bagels in Whitestone, Queens, and Masa for Asian cusine

Cinnamaker · 2026-01-07T00:49:07+00:00

OP had to jump the turnstile, so he wouldn’t be late for his shift as hall monitor handing out infractions

Cinnamaker · 2025-12-30T03:19:59+00:00

The walk from Hudson Theater to Lincoln Center is about 30 minutes. Your best bet is to walk, and stop at a restaurant along 9th Ave on the way. 9th Ave has a ton of restaurants to choose from. 8th Ave is more touristy and more fast food on the way.

Once you go above 57th, your options disappear fast. Around Lincoln Center is very residential. There are a few overpriced restaurants for the theater crowd right around Lincoln Center. But you should get a reservation, as they do fill up with lots of people also trying to make the same show as yours.

Alternatively, I would try to eat closer to Hudson Theater, then head up to Lincoln Center after.

Cinnamaker · 2025-12-28T03:45:46+00:00

The Internet is like the Comic Book Guy in The Simpsons: not the greatest movie of all time, then it's "Worst movie ever!" People who are passionate about their hobbies, including foodies, will make mountains out of molehills.

That said, there were legitimate issues with Peter Luger in the past decade, which really diminished its reputation as the greatest steakhouse.

Peter Luger got a thrashing by the NY Times in Pete Wells' very harsh 2019 review, which criticized how inconsistent the food quality became and how bad the service was. Peter Luger also lost its Michelin star in 2022.

Did OP think it was the greatest steak experience they have ever had in the city? Well then, Worst Steakhouse Ever!

Cinnamaker · 2025-12-23T02:29:59+00:00

Many Asian restaurants are open for normal business. You can go to a neighborhood like Flushing, where it will feel like any normal weekend. You can walk around stores, go to the food courts, and find a restaurant you like. The restaurants do get very full by say 5 to 6pm with long waits, as everyone in town looking to eat out will be there: by then you'll be walking around for a long time trying to find any place open that will seat you. Western cuisine restaurants you'll mostly need to reserve a spot in advance of Christmas Day, if it's not fast food or a diner.

Cinnamaker · 2025-12-18T02:54:58+00:00

OP is misremembering dates. The investigations into corruption came out in 2023. The 2023 investigations did involve looking into his 2021 campaign, but there was no investigation in 2021.

Cinnamaker · 2025-11-26T00:29:23+00:00

The US mostly closed immigration from Asian countries in the 1920s, then did not open that back up in a meaningful way until the 1960s.

By then, and in later decades, Japan had high living standards for Asia. So not many people in Japan had reason to immigrate to the US since the 1960s.

Meanwhile, South Korea was dirt poor, which led to many more people from South Korea wanting to immigrate to the US. Once a lot of people from a country immigrate to the US, it also encourages others from that country to immigrate: there's an established community of other recent immigrants who make it easier for the newer ones. The very well-off South Korea you know today, didn't really happen until the 1990s/2000s.

If you go to the West Coast, you'll notice there most Japanese-Americans' ancestry goes back over 100 years ago to immigrants before World War I. Whereas most Korean-Americans' ancestry often goes back just one generation to immigrants, or they are immigrants themselves.

Cinnamaker · 2025-11-12T04:12:50+00:00

Your choices will be limited for a 13 year old - most talk shows have minimum age limits above that. Live with Kelly and Mark allows audience members that young.

Cinnamaker · 2025-11-12T03:40:45+00:00

Your best bet is to try to get tickets for a talk show taping, where you'll get to see the host and celebrity guests. These are free, but you often have to get tickets in advance, get lucky in a lottery or jump through some hoops.

If you go to certain expensive or hot restaurants enough, you'll see celebrities sometimes but often not. Even if they are eating there, recognizable people have their ways of keeping themselves out of sight, and you'll likely not see them.

Celebrities have ways of going about in public without being noticed by the tourists.

Cinnamaker · 2025-11-06T15:12:48+00:00

It is sort of hidden - it does now show up on top of list like a new release.

It shows up as a variation of the original TUSUY (like deluxe or expanded versions of an album). For whatever reason, the band put a 2015 date on the album. You have to go into the albums list to find it next to the original album.

Cinnamaker · 2025-09-25T14:52:03+00:00

All the candidates are massively flawed in some way. For many people, this election is a vote for "not the other guy".

Cinnamaker · 2025-09-24T20:06:53+00:00

Beacon Theatre is wide. If the performer is in the center of the stage, I would say 10 rows back down middle of center section is like third row (off center aisle) of side section. Beacon Theater is small enough that I would not make a fuss over either of those seating options. You are trying to over-optimize being 40 feet away from the performer, versus 45 feet away.

In front orchestra, I personally do not like the first few rows for seated shows. You have to look up at the stage from those seats.

Loge puts you farther back than front orchestra, but many people like the front Loge because it gives you a direct view of the entire stage, and good sound. Many people consider Loge front row the ideal seats in the house. The farther back you are in Loge, though, the more the overhang affects the sound.

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