Refined by Fire

The mid-west has character. And the West coast, charisma. New York City, though ‚Äì she has personality and her individuality is with the people. I used to hear all the time about how America has no culture – obviously the voices of the ignorant, because if you’ve ever been to NYC, you’ll know that the variety people here bring a cultural flavor not even a pot luck at the county fair could touch.


Nearly twenty years ago, I trekked to NYC for the first time. My dad and I were on a trip headed back to New Jersey from Buffalo and decided to stop off for some site-seeing in the Big Apple. It was enamoring. All the concrete and steel was a goldmine to the fourteen-year-old skate punk that I was. And the cops didn’t even care that I was poppin’ grinds on their planters and rails. Certainly, couldn’t get away with that in Tempe.

It was cool and fun as my dad and I hiked around the valleys and canyons of skyscrapers and overpriced co-ops. Yep, all was well as we jaunted out to Ellis Isle to see the Statue of Liberty and a little genealogy until we returned to our car… well, where our car was supposed to be. Someone stole my dad’s brand-new car.

Man, talk about frustrations: brand new car stolen; I was supposed to return to Arizona the next day; everything I owned and cared about (music, clothes, and my skateboard – no one said I was deep teenager) was in the trunk of that car… and with my dad’s wallet! No money, no ID, we were hosed.

It is pretty silly to hold a grudge against a whole dang metropolis because two of her inhabitants pulled a dumb stunt, but that was my first experience here, and I hadn’t forgiven her for nearly two decades. I had no desire to be a part of this city until now.

We haven’t enjoyed the same attention as our West Coast Web cousins, but now there is a resurgence here. Tech is going through a re-birth and the buzz is starting to hum. I’m seeing “Silicon Alley 2.0″ and I’m not sure that’s a good name, kinda trite. Personally, I like Silicon Alley: Resurgence… but then, they’re both kinda corny. Corny sells, though. Maybe it’ll be something completely different. It’s coming soon, though. I can feel it.

In the coming months, NYC is hosting some wild Webish shindigs:

• Future of Web Design
• IDEA 2007 by the Institute of Information Architecture
• OneWebDay

Social gatherings of the geekhood:

• IA Meetup
• NYC Usability Professional Association
• NYC IxDA

And a host of entrepreneurial extravaganzas:

• New York Tech Meetup
• New York Dot Com Hatchery
• NYC Web 2.0 Meetup

(There’s actually a few sites in particular here that need an extra call-out.) NYC entrepreneurial must reads:

• AlleyInsider.com
• nextNY Digital
• cooperBricolage

Oh, and get some smarts:

Smart Experience

And that’s just a smidgen.

I’ve been coming up here just about every weekday for the past 6 months and I have to say, I have met some many interesting people involved with technology, art and design. And how many different accents?? It’s awesome, she’s awesome. NYC and me, we’re starting over, it’s a whole new relationship.