nyc 2: icons

the world appears to be a small place, we can see most of it without ever leaving the comfort of our front rooms.
as with most casual tourists my visions of new york are coloured by what i have seen on the tv or at the movies, heard in songs or read in books. so there are several things that for me scream new york.
the first of my new york icons is the yellow cab. if you were to look up ubiquitous in the dictionary one definition would be the yellow cab, they are everywhere. they seem to hunt in packs. there is rarely a flow of traffic that doesn’t feature a cab or three. in fact there seems to be far too many of them, so much so you have to believe that some of them are not real cabs but they are there because of the new york tourist board making sure that this aspect of new york’s image is maintained just for the tourists.
like the legendary black cabs of london i have witnessed an occasion or two when the cabbie has pulled the new york equivalent of “sarf of the river? no way”.
i have to say my few rides in a yellow cab have been both exciting and disappointing. the excitement comes as the trip from the airport into manhattan gives you a chance to see some parts of the city you probably won’t get to see again. this time it was the spectacular view of the east river. additionally there is something anarchic about the way americans drive so you do feel that your life is in a precarious place. the disappointment comes in that the cabbie is not at all like those that appear in the movies, none of them are as witty, charming or philosophical as the ones that appeared in the classic series “taxi”. my experience of them is them chatting into their mobile phones.
still the ride from the airport is well worth the $45 plus tolls and taxes.
so the first of my new york icons is the yellow cab.