Where There's Smoke, There's... Community?

 

By Frank Filocomo

Desperate times call for desperate measures. 

Last week, 75 year-old Bob Terry made history. A very cool boomer with a sort of Dave Brubeck-adjacent aesthetic (maybe it's the frames?), Terry hosted a massive gathering of cigarette smokers in Washington Square Park. 

After giving the crowd some obligatory admonishments about how smoking is bad for you (blah blah blah), Terry started ripping stogies with a youthful and care-free swagger. 

Bob Terry, credit: Helayne Seidman, New York Post

The gaggle of smokers amassed quite the buzz on social media.

 

Bob’s cigarette meetup in New York City today was a big success pic.twitter.com/ZZ7dxmqfzy

— Nicotine (@nicotinearchive) November 22, 2025

 

You can't deny the good vibes here...

Also courtesy of Helayne Seidman

Unfortunately, vices like smoking and drinking loosen people up, thus making them more amenable to conversing with each other. 

Alcohol, as they say, is a "social lubricant." 

I suppose cigarettes are, too. 

But, you have to ask yourself, what's worse: not smoking and depriving yourself of community and social connection, or smoking and getting your dose of communion with your fellow travelers? Look, I'm obviously no doctor, but there may be a case that the former is worse. I don't know; I'm just asking questions! 

What's encouraging is that people are getting creative about combating isolation. 

Loneliness After College

 

By Frank Filocomo

A few years back, when I was a student in NYU's Wilf Family Department of Politics, my classmates and I would spend hours studying and comparing notes at Bobst Library. Given the difficulty of our classes, especially our quantitative methodology course, it was imperative that we band together for these little sessions. Often times, after we were done going over our regression models, we'd shoot the breeze, commenting on everything from our favorite professors to our preferred pastimes in the West Village. On occasion, we'd grab coffee at the nearby Starbucks and get a bite to eat at the reasonably-priced Washington Square Diner, not far from the IFC theater. 

Bobst Library

While I was a commuter student at NYU and, thus, never experienced dorm life, I still had something of a college experience. It's often said that for NYU students, the Village is your campus. That's mostly true.

After college, though, I admittedly felt a bit listless. Like, "what now?" My MA thesis had been submitted, classes completed, and, alas, I no longer had to take the train to the 8 St-NYU stop.

Some of the friendships I made lasted for a while, but those soon fizzled out, too. 

I was struck when I heard a similar - though more pronounced - account of this post-college loneliness in Business Insider. 

Grace Reed, who used to share an on-campus apartment with her roommates in Syracuse, felt lost upon returning home after graduation. That apartment, she explains, was more than just a place to crash; it was a little community-hub:

Our apartment had been the home of weekly wine nights, tarot readings, and movie screenings. It was where our friends performed musical numbers and hosted themed parties. And a few houses down the street, there was always a game of Catan ready to be played.

After spending most of my college career working to shed the socially anxious persona I developed in high school, my senior year of college gifted me the life I always wanted.

Now, though, back at her childhood home and scrolling through job-listings, a mind-numbing and hopeless activity, she longed for her college life. 

I often find myself scrolling on Instagram, looking back on old pictures, and trying to remember how it felt to be living in those moments. When I see posts of people hanging out with friends, I feel a pang of desire.

Again, I didn't have a college apartment, but I know this feeling well; it's the feeling of collapsing paradigms. When you're used to regular socialization, your mind and body become accustomed to it. Social connection, after all, is hardwired in us. Then, when that paradigm ends, it can feel like a sort of deracination. 

Post-deracination, however, can be a time to build up from the bottom again. This requires a sort of inventiveness that college doesn't really prepare for. Because college is a highly-structured environment, regular socialization comes to you. Upon finishing school, however, you need to find it for yourself. 

The search for third places can be arduous, but without these essential places of community, we fall ill, physically, mentally, and spiritually. The quest, therefore, is a necessity. 

In the meantime, though, it isn't bad to practice solitude, the art of being content with being with yourself. This is exactly what Grace did:

Thanks to a spontaneous trip to the craft store and helpful YouTube tutorials, I've gotten into jewelry making. For the first time since graduating, I've found something to do for myself — a hobby that stops me from spiraling into memories and grounds me in the present.

I've also returned to old pastimes, like creative writing. My journals have seen more activity than they have in years, which has helped me appreciate this chapter.

Solitude mustn't be conflated with loneliness. I wrote about that for this blog here. 

The secret sauce, I think, is a balance between solitude and communitarian activity. Like all things, it takes work. 

Cars: Just Say No

 

By Frank Filocomo

My war against cars continues...

The coldness of the city, which every New Yorker can feel, is compounded by its prioritization of cars over people. 

In the Big Apple, pedestrians take a backseat - no pun intended - to these four-wheel death contraptions. 

In Streetsblog NYC, Nolan Hicks reported on a pedestrian that was struck and killed by a van making an illegal maneuver:

According to the NYPD, the driver, whose name was not released, pulled out of a parking garage on Morton Street just east of Seventh Avenue at around 8:30 a.m. But instead of turning right to drive eastbound on one-way Morton, he made the illegal left, and then struck and killed the 27-year-old woman. 

This, regrettably, is all too common.  

Too many drivers are indifferent to the welfare of pedestrians, and think that the world revolves around them and their vehicles. 

Thus, following the rules of the road become secondary:

Residents of the area said that many drivers make the illegal left turn to head the wrong way on Morton from the garage because it eliminates the need to circle around the block with a right on Bleecker Street and then a second right onto Carmine Street before making the left onto Seventh Avenue.

So, this young woman, who had her whole life ahead of her, is dead because some self-centered ass wanted to shave a few minutes off of his commute. 

This is, in many ways, emblematic of our me-centric culture. 

A few days ago, I was crossing the street in front of my building. Our municipal government, which is profoundly incompetent, somehow managed to make the crosswalk more dangerous by placing these ambiguous stop signs, and then subsequently removing them. 

See below:

New crosswalk sign.

These signs, aside from being ambiguous in intent, are inconspicuously placed outside of my building. Many drivers disregard them and plough through the crosswalks without yielding to pedestrians. 

So, when I went to cross the other day, a vehicle saw me, but didn't stop until the last second. I put my hand up, gesturing for him to break. He rolled down his window and shouted, "Hey, s****head!"

Again, what a total ass. 

Pedestrians must be made to feel safe when crossing the street. 

Please also see Streetsblog NYC's blueprint for how our new mayor-elect, Zohran Mamdani, can make our city more livable. 

As Kevin Duggan writes, it is incumbent on the city to "reduce the dominance of cars."

Is the Real Enemy Capitalism or Oversized Government?

 By Christopher Turturro

The more we allow government to intrude into our lives, the worse things are going to get.

In 2025, the demonization of free enterprise is all the rage. Everyday, I hear more about how capitalism isn't working, and that we need a change in our system, etc. While I agree that the status quo is no longer sufficient, capitalism is not the root cause of the problem; bloated government is. Because government is overreaching and ineffectual, radical ideologies seem more appealing to the little guy. This is happening all over America, especially in major cities. 

The overpriced cost of living has pushed people to their breaking point, so much so that people here in NYC were willing to vote for a Socialist/Communist, who just became the Big Apple's next Mayor. People are revolting against a free market system that they feel is rigged against them. But the system wasn't always this way, and capitalism isn't the enemy. The real enemy is government overreach and control through financial and regulatory means, which is negatively impacting all of our respective bottom lines.

Take NYC, for example. We pay city tax, state tax, local tax, federal tax, and sales tax. Just like that, about 25-35% of all our money is gone before it even gets into our pockets. This is all under the guise of morality for the "greater good" in our city while it continues to decline. After we receive our post tax paychecks, the rest of our purchases are also subject to sales taxes. We then pay taxes on land we already own and purchases that were previously taxed on other individuals, such as used automobiles. What do we get for all this taxation in NYC? For starters: terrible infrastructure, some of the worst roads in the country that destroy your vehicle, utility companies such as Con Edison that are partially taxpayer funded and keep raising rates yet can't keep up with the demand during summer season. Regardless of the fact that our taxes fund these companies and programs, we receive no help from government when our vehicles fall apart due to crumbling roads, or when our homes have no air conditioning in the summertime for hours or even days. In addition, NYC has a law enforcement agency that is more focused on generating extra revenue for the city than enforcing Constitutional law and helping citizens.

Through over taxation, government has destroyed the incentive to work harder, put in overtime, and advance. Why? The harder you work, the more you're punished when your paycheck comes, and during tax season. Doesn't sound much like a capitalistic, free market society to me. What happens when you don't get a return on your investment that you had no say in depositing? You become angry and frustrated and instead of blaming the people who hold the cards, you blame the cards themselves. America was a country built on community, individualism, and freedom. The more we allow government to intrude into our lives, the worse things are going to get.

Things didn't always used to be this way. Take, for instance, how life was in our country just a short time ago, in the mid- to late-20th century: families could survive off of one parent's income with a home, kids, and a vehicle. Even an annual vacation. Most of American history shows us that families were able to thrive in a household where one parent worked and the other took care of the family if they so chose to. To blame our current day issues on capitalism is very disingenuous and to turn a blind eye to the real problem and blame a free market economic system is deceitful. The only difference between then and now is the magnitude in which the government has grown. All the choices they supposedly made on our behalf have not benefited the average American, and have affected the cost of so many things in our country.

It's crucial that we continue to speak up against government overreach and corruption. Doing so will take time, prudence, and determination. 

Christopher Turturro, born and raised in Brooklyn, NY, is an HVAC mechanic and 

U.S. Air Force veteran.

The Progressive Monopolization of the Commons

By Troy M. Olson

One of the more frustrating aspects of New York City's local politics is how driven it is by progressive activists with pet causes, time on their hands, and no access to a mirror or larger perspective on life. But the average activist is largely harmless in the scheme of things. It's the multiplication of them pursuing a fact-free proposition that can be the problem. However, what compounds this in the city is what passes as the "leadership class" for progressives also monopolizes public time for these same issues far beyond its weight class. Transportation and trip modes in the city is a perfect example of how out of touch this group is.

In NYC, you would think that buses and bikes have taken over the city from Zohran Mamdani's "free buses" campaign plank (one of four top repeated slogans and issue planks that he either does not have the power to do or wouldn't do a thing in the scheme of things) to the TransAlt (Transportation Alternatives) bike lanes all over the city obsession.

Source: NYC DOT Citywide Mobility Survey courtesy of Reza Chowdhury's X 

Let's look at the facts: a bus makes up just 4% of the total trip mode in NYC, while a bike makes up just 3%. On the other hand, walking takes up 46%, vehicles 32%, transit 18%, and rail/subway 14%. These percentages add up to more than 100% because some will combine more than one in their daily commute to work or wherever else they're going. 

Walking is the most common trip mode in the city. And increasingly, its conflict is not with cars but with bikes, especially of the e-bike and scooter variety, who, unlike vehicle operators, lack the requisite understanding for their responsibility on the road, do not face the legal liabilities like someone operating a vehicle does, and pretty much do whatever they want at increasing levels. 

Many people in their various trip modes frequently break the rules of the road and the street. But those on bikes seem to not have grasped the consequences like the rest. Pedestrians and frequent walkers know they're going to lose a battle and perhaps their life against a car. Those driving a car, even the terrible drivers, have an ingrained sense of destruction of what a car accident will do not just to a pedestrian, but to the drivers. Bikes operate in this middle ground where they have become both a hazard and dangerous to pedestrians and a hazard and dangerous to vehicles too, although in this case they seem to lack the understanding of how vulnerable they are on a bike if they face off against a car. Putting a bike lane all over the city has not brought any greater order to this off-kilter relationship, no matter how many statistics NYC's Department of Transportation wants to roll out. People make value judgments with their eyes and experiences. 

NYC is a place that is totalitarian in its administrative code and closer to anarchy in its day-to-day realities. And the increasing anarchy in transportation to being driven by the 3% of those whose trip mode is with a bike of some form. The 4% part of this equation is part of the "free bus" plan that Zohran keeps talking about. A few things on this: while, no doubt, the honest citizens of the city would benefit from this, especially elders, there are already many fare evasions on buses just like there are in the subway. This is not going to be some game changer because it already happens, would make the MTA's finances even worse off, cannot even be done unilaterally by an NYC Mayor, and again... we're talking about 4% of trip modes. What about safety for pedestrians, the most common trip mode? What about congestion pricing? A tax on the second most common trip mode and as you can see above, utilized by every income bracket considerably more than bikes, buses, and yes, even the subway. 

In fact, during the congestion pricing discussion the last few years these same activists would use the data on how many New Yorkers drive (around one-third) for their commute to make the case that the majority is somehow with them. I have my issues with the MTA, but even its Chairman points out how flawed Zohran's transportation plans are for the city. 

A real discussion on transportation in New York City would be holistic and in proportion to actual trip modes. This is not what we're doing and this has not been at all how the public debate has gone this year. Progressives in leadership and in their activism are guilty of the same mistake they accused "car culture" of: they are not centering their ideas and transportation around the actual needs, realities, and preferences of people. They have been myopically obsessed with being anti-car and making it as hard as possible to own and operate one. So far they have been unsuccessful. We're not a city of bike riders using these bike lanes, they're still mostly empty years later. And those who do ride bikes are still going on sidewalks, still operating how they wish when they're in traffic, and, at the recreational level, they are even going into city parks where families with children and seniors frequently gather. Simply put, they control by law or by behavior a share of the public commons far beyond what is justifiable. 

I wish this were just an isolated issue. But it's not. Issues like this are why it's so easy to call urban progressivism an elitist philosophy and worldview.

On issue after issue, this is the case and nothing much will change until the hard organizational work to build out a civic alternative is done. NYC will never get more affordable, is about to get more dangerous, and to add insult to injury, we will keep paying more and more for less and less, until the day the "new Tammany Hall" and its progressive activist and leadership class is defeated and dismissed from its monopoly control over the city's politics and future.

Troy M. Olson is an Army Veteran, lawyer by training, and co-author of ‘The Emerging Populist Majority’ now available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Target. He is the Sergeant-at-Arms of the New York Young Republican Club and co-founder of the Veterans Caucus. He has appeared on CNN, CBS, and OAN. He lives in New York City with his wife and son, and is the 3rd Vice Commander (“Americanism” pillar) of the first new American Legion Post in the city in years, Post 917. You can follow him on X/Twitter and Substack at @TroyMOlson