Two and half weeks in beautiful, peaceful Seattle; green, with nature rising up all around you, and the mountains an ever present back drop; full of mellow yet fascinating people; two and half weeks of hanging out with Seattle IMC folk, hanging out in Capitol Hill spots like vegan breakfast shop The Globe, or chill Victrola Cafe (where I always met someone I knew, or soon knew), evenings coding away on my laptop at metallic, but comfortable Aurafice, hooked up through the village magic of Seattlewireles, while chairs and couches around me fill up with the gay/alterna/goth crowd. None of this prepared me to be in hot, humid, angry, ugly, gray, fast paced, hostile New York. The city doesn’t like people, I can’t tell if it likes the people who live here, or the people who visit less, but it clear resents them. There is no where to be peaceful in New York, no where where you aren’t being chivvied for cash, and space, and mind share. I talk to friends about what I would want in a livable neighborhood (a coffee shop, an organic food store, maybe a bookstore) and they laugh at me, “What do you think this is, the Upper West Side?”, “Yeah, maybe if you have $2000/month to spend on rent.” Since when is it normal to consider a nice place to live a ridiculous indulgence?

But this all started out as a capsule review of alt.cafe, which so far is the only wireless cafe I’ve found in New York, and perhaps that will prove my point. Its a cafe, covered in “No Loitering” signs, a coffee ($2.25 for an iced coffee!) buys you “ONE Hour to consume food purchased on premise” the sign blares out. Its trying for the comfy, friendly, broken down arm chair feel, but its such an alien mood to New York that the facade crumbles quickly. (and the DSL or whatever they have here seems to be saturated)

And you can fucking smoke inside, which is gross.

Update, if you use the ESSID, www.nywireless.net, instead of alt.cafe you’re on a much better connection.

update 2003/8/23: I now live in Seattle and have started compiling a list of free wireless coffee shops in Seattle.