what I did not find in NYC

back from a mini trip, we had a delightful time, very interesting place. These are the things we never saw-- it is actually a very conservative city compared to places like LA or Miami.

No Liquor stores

No Gas Stations (actually saw one in Manhattan and gas was still 30c cheaper than LA)

Not that many homeless, probably a lot to some but less than we anticipated.

No hookers or transvestites

No cheap drinks

No 7-11s

Very little sun

Not many in the goth, piercings or tatoo crowd

A few strollers but not many, but a bunch of dogs

what I did not find in NYC

Sounds like bliss, compared to UK! Tabby.

what I did not find in NYC

No Liquor stores--about one every 3 or 4 blocks

No Gas Stations (actually saw one in Manhattan and gas was still 30c cheaper than LA)--very few south of 96 Street in Manhattan

Not that many homeless, probably a lot to some but less than we anticipated.--a lot less than there used to be

No hookers or transvestites--ditto at least for hookers

No cheap drinks--you have to know the dive bars

No 7-11s--but plenty of Korean markets, bodegas open 24 hours

Very little sun--blocked by buildings--less skin cancer :-)

Not many in the goth, piercings or tattoo crowd--not in Manhattan

A few strollers but not many, but a bunch of dogs--you must not have been in the residential neighborhoods

There are plenty of gas stations in the other boroughs, but in Manhattan why bother? According to the US Census Bureau, 3/4 of the households in Manhattan do not own cars!!!

There are lots of liquor stores -- but they tend to be small shops, and they are easily missed if you do not know where to look.

7-11%26#39;s here are in much the same position in NYC as Domino%26#39;s Pizza -- why do we need a chain when there are plenty of independent local stores doing the same thing just as well, or better?

GWB, I rarely worry about fuel levels in my truck (yes Lotuspath, a PICKUP) as we have gasoline for sale on each corner. Do many drivers in Manhattan run out. I would think that one must really keep an eye on the gauge.

Chipper

Chipper, probably not --as noted, most people who live in Manhattan do not keep cars. Those who do live there and do keep them tend to use them to go to the country on the weekend, where gas is cheaper anyhow, so they fill up out of town (some of the cheapest gas around, by the way, is just across the river by the Jersey entrance/exit of the Holland Tunnel.)

Those of us who drive from elsewhere into Manhattan will usually get gas closer to home. The motorists who use Manhattan gas stations the most are probably taxi drivers.

A couple of months back The Washington Post had an article about the lack of gas stations in Manhattan. It seems that their numbers are dwindling which is a real problem for taxi drivers.

As for strollers, I recall seeing many during the day in the Upper West side--babies and toddlers out with their nannies.

Very interesting observations, I also get asked a lot about gas stations (and supermarkets).

May I ask, did you venture around town, or stay in midtown, because if you went to the Upper West Side, lots of strollers and kids, and lots of dogs.

East Village - goth, piercings, tatoos, tranvestites, you probably did not notice!!!! Sometimes it is very hard to tell - LOL!!!!

Cheap drinks, as stated, you have to know where to go.

Liquor stores - all over.

7-11%26#39;s, none is too many (and we do have a few, one on 23rd Street off Park Avenue South.

Glad you enjoyed your trip.

Intersting list, longboard, and probably reflective of what other viisitors from warmer climates and car-cultures have observed. I%26#39;m not clear if you were disappointed, relieved, impressed or what by these perceived absences. So perhaps I%26#39;m off-base here, but here goes...

Random thoughts and observations:

A. Funny, but so many people seem excited to see real crime and vice in the flesh - so to speak - in NYC. My relatives from L.A. used to come here frequently in the 1980s, and got such a giant kick out of seeing ho%26#39;s, heroin addicts, ';crazies';, ';bag ladies';, and trannies on 42nd St and Alphabet City. Every visit, they insisted that my parents drive them around Times Square at night. They absoutely LOVED it! Until my aunt had her purse stolen in broad daylight in the West Village. They haven%26#39;t been back since.

Now that NYC is safe and clean - which is not bad per se, obviously, since we all reap benefits of that - more tourists are visiting than ever before. However, they won%26#39;t see the NYC of the movies ';Fame';, ';Taxi Driver';, ';Dog Day Afternoon'; etc, because those days are over. Perhaps you%26#39;ve been watching too much ';NYPD Blue?';

Besides, why would any average tourist want to visit here in that atmo anyway? Isn%26#39;t that what drove millions of residents and visitors like my aunt away 20 years ago?

B. ';Conservative'; - not sure what you mean. Do you mean the lack of skimpy clothing on women? (Again, it%26#39;s winter. If you want to see a$$ cleavage on both sexes, come back in August.)

C. Political success!

Your observations are exactly what Mayor Giuliani, Mayor Bloomberg, Donald Trump, Speier-Tischman, Fisher Development, Forest-City-Ratner and other politicians, financiers and real estate developers have been working and striving for since about 1994 - a NYC that is not threatening or frightening to the average tourist, college student%26#39;s parents, former resident, or newcomer, with no off-beat characters or any obvious visual ';vices'; in Manhattan.

Oh, how I miss it. ;o)

C. Regarding the list, as others have stated, there are plenty of places in NYC to find the items on your list.

1. Liquor stores - already addressed above

2. Gas stations - ditto. I am living proof of the statistics - I%26#39;m an adult native NYCer who has never owned a car.

3. Homeless people - you can either view this as another success of reducing homelessness (a false assumption), or as a success in hiding and concealing homeless people in the outer boroughs or suburbs (e.g. Camp LaGuardia).

In 2005, when my spouse and I had our wedding, many of our out-of-town friends and relatives gushed their first day here how there were ';no homeless people';. The second day, many of them got up very early to sightsee, jog, etc - can you say rude awakening? By 8 AM all the homeless people were gone.

4. Hooklers - ditto. One of my least fond memories of my days in Brooklyn in the 1990s was the direct relationship between the ';clean up'; of Times Square and the increase of homeless people and hookers in my neighborhood.

5. Obviously you didn%26#39;t look here:

www.drinkdeal.com

In NYC, never pay retail.

6. Re: 7-11s. Thank the Lord!

7. As was stated, we have tall buildings, we%26#39;re located in the northeast and it is winter.

8. Goth, peircings, tatoos - that is SOOO Twentieth Century. Goth%26#39;s been over in NYC for at least 5 years. I%26#39;m sure CA will catch up soon.

9. Strollers - New York babies are born directly into adulthood, with the ability to walk through Midtown at rush hour, ride the subway and hail taxis at about 3 months old.

Try the Upper West Side at 11 AM. Strollers galore!!! Watch your ankles!

I%26#39;m curious where you spent most of your time and what you did. If you reply you were in the Greenpoint, Brooklyn most of your visit, I will become very worried.

Besides, we love trip details anyway, so let%26#39;s hear it! Thanks.

I certainly was not dissapointed, we enjoyed the city immensly, we live close to LA which is a dreadful place, san diego is a really nice city, san francisco is pretty good but has slipped. I guess the stroller thing was in reference to our visit to the village area , everyone seemed to have a dog but not many kids, we did see a bunch in central park.

As far as the liquor, I really wanted a little Jim Beam for the room but could not find any close to the hotel so I kept getting stuck for the $8 drinks at the hotel, which was a fantastic place at the Marquis, it just got a liitle expensive. As far as the other things they were just observations, not complaints.

The observations were interesting, and I, for one, did not take them for complaints at all.