It was "magical" compared to what I remember.
My wife and I met an unbelievable amount of nice and kind people randomly throughout the city.
At one point we got on a city bus to head to a certain area for touring and shopping. There was a large black woman driving the bus, smiling and greeting everyone who got on. When we saw an elderly woman step on, I noticed the bus was full and offered her my seat. She gave me a big beaming smile and I saw the driving with as big a smile in one of the mirrors. At the next stop there were more elderly and one of the young black men got up next and there was a steady sequence of people doing the same. There was an amazing vibe happening on that bus, maybe it was the driver? Who knows.
The whole trip was like that, though. I couldn't explain it to my wife and she was just loving, so why mess it up by downtalking it?
Anyway, I hear it's nothing like what it was a couple of years ago and bloomingnazi has destroyed all of Guiliani's progress. Very sad to hear.
Oh, screw Paris. They were rude as hell. The folks in the countryside were wonderful however. When Paris falls I hope they seal the borders to the city and leave them to work it out for themselves.
You go on and take that bus to Paris.
I visited NYC in 2002. I couldn’t believe how clean it was.
San Francisco’s Market Street and financial center was a cesspool of litter from workers and excretion from bums.
In NYC, Battery Park was clean and they kicked the bums off the benches before the tourists woke up. Wall Street was clean. Even the subway platforms were reasonbly clean and the subways felt reasonably safe, riding even until before midnight.
Giuliani did a hell of a job. I was extremely impressed.