I flew out of Hong Kong at 6:40pm on Sunday. I arrived at 9:50pm, the same day. Neat trick, I think.
Initial observations on New York: it is cold, and people are unfriendly (again).
I ran into what game theorists would call a "coordination problem" at JFK: a stream of people waiting for taxis, but no mechanism to facilitate sharing of cabs. Customers pay more, fewer people take cabs, and the world suffers.
I think a key issue here is the cultural norm and lack of social capital (trust): New Yorkers aren't socialized to think collectively about services, and don't think to ask each other where they are going.
I wouldn't complain, but I could tell that there were people whose destination was downtown. I tried to to "ask" by talking to the people next to me in a slightly elevated tone, but no one took the hint.
In Hong Kong, a comparable ride would have cost 100 HK. My ride was 45, plus tip.
Loisaida is a term derived from the Latino (and especially Puerto Rican) pronunciation of "Lower East Side", a neighborhood in Manhattan, New York City. Loisaida Avenue is now an alternate name for Avenue C in the Alphabet City neighborhood of New York City, whose population has largely been Hispanic (mainly Puerto Rican) since the late 1960s.
1 comment:
I hear ya. Maybe you and I are just cheaper people than most. I once spent an hour at the Syracuse airport shamelessly asking people if they'd split a cab. Eventually it worked. (Another time, I got a free ride from someone being picked up by his buddy.) In any case, I think group taxis do exist in NYC airports - there's a desk inside.
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