Tough Guys?

I have always been very proud of the state of New York of which I was born and raised. Now that I’m living in Manhattan, I have a ton of pride towards my new home and could not see myself living anywhere else in the country. We have great sports teams (although I hate the Yankees, I do respect their tradition and wins), an unbelievable nightlife, and it is the center of the Universe for business. Tons of movies have been made about New York, generally giving our city an image of being full of tough guys: Goodfellas, A Bronx Tale, The Untouchables, Analyze This, and The Soprano family lives just over the bridge. New Yorkers love being portrayed as tough and having that “I don’t take nothing from nobody” attitude. That being said, I am shocked at how scared and pathetic New Yorkers get when it snows out.

Since as early as I can remember, New York was never able to handle snow. When I was in elementary school, the district would close down the schools a day early for the chance that it might snow tomorrow. If it snows in the city, all public transportation stops immediately. It’s not like the fact that it snows in New York should surprise anyone, we are in the Northeastern part of the United States. Is the state government under the impression that we live in a Puerto Rican climate and snow is a freak occurrence? Every year it snows and mass hysteria breaks out, this is nothing new. I lived in Indiana and they never had snow problems. If 5 feet of snow came down, we still had classes and people drove faster for fun. But not New York, it’s a state-wide emergency if there’s a 2% chance that it might snow.

Yesterday morning, reports came out that it was going to snow later that afternoon and everyone was talking about a huge storm coming our way. It was as if the cold war started again, people were running to the stores to get enough food and supplies to last through the blizzard, children were crying and screaming, people took off work early. I had plans for yesterday around 7 which were cancelled at lunchtime because of the dangers of traveling in the snow storm which is supposed to start in a few hours. If anyone actually listened to the weather report and “severe” storm warnings, they might read that we were only expecting around 5-7 inches of total snow. I think the final total in the city was 4 inches when the storm ended. For a city which fought off a 200 foot ape when King Kong climbed the Empire State Building and houses more potential mafia people than anywhere in the world, we sure get frightened by a few inches of frozen water. I’ve seen the movie Godzilla and when he attacked Manhattan, I don’t remember the 4,5,6 subway line being shut down. However, a couple of snowflakes fall and we have to shut down the bus system immediately.

So to all you New Yorkers out there who become little school girls when it snows, toughen up. We’re suppoed to be the “How you doin?” city. Not the “I’m doing just fine! My brother-in-law picked me up from the airport and everyone’s been real nice!” city. Step it up, be tough, and lets try to act the way the rest of the world thinks we should.