Las Vegas and Back

I was in Las Vegas last week for the first time since 2003. The infamous strip has changed since then, but was still, in so many ways, the Las Vegas I remembered. If there was one change that stood out, it was that the raunchiness and open debauchery was more prevalent than what I previously [...]

Homeward Bound Again

The below post is something I wrote over two years ago. I hate to repost old thoughts, but some things are worth repeating.
There is usually only one good thing about working late: the car ride home. Most days I leave the office around 7:00 pm and take the subway up to GCT to catch the [...]

A Greener Kind of City

I spent a few days earlier this week in San Francisco and for the second time in six months was struck with how much more environmentally friendly of a city it is compared to New York. Sure, New York has its proponents of living a green lifestyle, and it has made strides towards greenliness over [...]

Yearning For Simplicity

I had always wanted to live in New York. Now I’m in my sixth summer here, and while I have never actually lived in Manhattan, I have spent the vast majority of my life the past five years studying, playing, working and commuting on the island at the center of the world. But I feel [...]

A Growing Problem

Last week I drove to Washington D.C. from New York. The traffic was out of control.  I left Thursday late morning, well after the morning rush hour. Getting out of the Bronx and across the George Washington Bridge took much longer than expected because of traffic. There were no accidents or construction projects. The delays [...]

Reflections of London

For years now I have been trying to get myself to London to see the sites and experience one of the world’s greatest cities. In the summer of 2003 I travelled with a friend around many of the great cities of Western Europe, but London was noticeably not included as we didn’t have the time. [...]

Lawyer Layoffs

It’s getting ugly out there for lawyers. A profession that has been fairly well insulated from economic downturns in the past is now being roiled with unprecedented numbers of layoffs. Each day brings more bad news. I check sites like “Above the Law” or “AmLaw Daily” and read headline after headline of white shoe and [...]

The Flight to Phoenix that Almost Wasn’t

I had quite the adventure last Friday as I traveled to the airport. It started with my decision to save some money and take public transportation to JFK International Airport. Having done the trek before, I knew the easiest way to get there and was confident that I would be fine, so long as I [...]

Moving In for the Long Term

We have signed the contract. We have locked in our interest rate. We have reserved a moving truck, ordered new furniture and have submitted the down payment. Yes, we have bought a house and close on January 22nd. It’s a bit nerve racking these days and experts’ views on what is to come differ greatly. [...]

Snowy Halloween

Another Halloween is upon us. For the past many years on Halloween I have walked through the streets of New York and even the halls of Grand Central Terminal only to find all kinds of goblins, ghouls and freaks (or at least noticeably more so than on a normal day in the city). But this [...]

Home-Grown Concerns

Some say that home ownership is wonderful, but purchasing a home is a horrible experience. I must say that I agree with the latter. After sitting on the sidelines for years and paying specific attention to the market for the past fifteen months, my wife and I are now ready to take the plunge and [...]

Life in the City: Before and After

Prior to moving to New York I had this idea of how I wanted to live my life there. It may have been just a dream, but it was what I wanted to do. In my four and a half years since coming to New York, my life has worked out a bit differently, although [...]

Unprecedented Times

These are unprecedented times, at least for my lifetime. From where I sit at work, I can hear the hedge fund guys speak with our clients/investors and with other hedge funds. Things are bad across the board out there. Sure, the DJIA falls quite a bit each day, but there are so many other gauges [...]

Complying with Compliance

During my last year of law school I interviewed with one of the bulge-bracket investment banks in New York for a position in the regulatory compliance / anti-money laundering department. While I was hoping to get a job with a law firm, I was at least interested enough in exploring other opportunities. At the time, [...]

On Zurich

I spent this past weekend in Zurich and enjoyed exploring the city. For being a fairly well-known global city, I thought that Zurich was surprisingly small. As of the end of last year, the official population of Zurich was listed at less than 400,000 people, a number that pales in comparison to most other global [...]

Planning for Swizterland

So far, so good. I sit on the 39th floor in midtown and have a great view looking south over the island of Manhattan. This is my second day at my new job and while I am not sure what I am doing, I like the people, the environment and the work (from what I [...]

A New Beginning in New York

In the past few days I have been in New York, Newport, Rhode Island and Minneapolis. I had a decision to make and wanted to be as informed and thoughtful as I could, given that the decision will affect me and my family’s life and the direction my career will take for several years. After [...]

Baseball in the Bronx

Last week I had the chance to attend the New York Yankees baseball game. Having grown up playing baseball, I enjoy watching the sport, although I don’t find myself watching a full nine innings until October. I follow it peripherally throughout the season, but when the playoffs come each fall I suddenly turn into a [...]

The Streets of New York

Someone once mentioned to me that his favorite thing about New York City was that a day in the city became truly an adventure for each of your senses. He explained that unlike walking around other U.S. Cities, New York provides something for the eyes, ears, nose and reflexes. I have to agree.
Where else can [...]

A New York Visit Redefined

My brother came to visit us a week after my wife and I moved to New York several years ago. We had literally just finished unpacking and settling into our new apartment when he arrived. We did not know the area and I was hesitant to drive out to JFK International Airport and pick him [...]

Cuernavaca Summer

Six years ago today I was in Cuernavaca, Mexico wondering what I was doing there. I arranged to stay with a host family while I was there and spent six weeks in Spanish classes and activities before returning to Hawaii for my last year of college. At the time, I was hoping to improve my [...]

Moving On

I have reached that point in the past few days when you are ready to just move on. A decision has been made and the rest is just a matter of time. I am ready to leave New York and, provided I can find a job worth moving for, could go wherever I wanted. I [...]

The Great Saunter of 2008

One of the things I wanted to do in life was to run/walk a marathon. I did that on Saturday and more. Shorewalkers, a New York City-based organization dedicated to preserving the city’s shoreline while improving members’ health and stamina hosts an annual walk around the island of Manhattan each May. A friend and I [...]

Manhattan Unleashed

Manhattan’s greatest achievement may also be its greatest downfall. Bordered by two rivers (the East River is actually an estuary or tidal straight, but whatever) and set back in a protected harbor, the island’s geographic location helped it become one the world’s foremost centers of business, finance, art, design, publishing and almost everything else. In [...]

A Shift Eastward

I read this morning that the New York metropolitan area, according to 2007 statistics, contains approximately 19 million people. This is far short of the 35.7 million people Tokyo now is estimated to encompass, but is significant nonetheless because it represents a growing population in the New York area. Yet, numbers can be deceiving. Sure, [...]