I LIKE NEW YORK

Day 139 of the Lower Puna Eruption and the issue of the moment has to do with giving fissure #8 a name.

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Well, I'm back home in Honolulu after a 10-hour flight from Newark.  It must have been a decade since my previous trip to New York City, so I'm now up to at least a dozen times.  How great is this city?

BestCities.org has NYC as #2 to London (6).  #3 is Paris (5), #4 Moscow (1), #5 Tokyo (100+), #6 Singapore (15), #7 Dubai (1), #8 Barcelona (2), #9 San Francisco (100+) and #10 Chicago (10).  I've been to all 50 top cities (numbers in parentheses indicate the number of times), although it's possible I missed Prague (#23).  Honolulu does not make this list.

TimeOut (see map) has NYC at #3, with #1 as Chicago and #2 Porto.  Porto?  I've been to Lisbon several times, but, frankly, never heard of Porto.

Conde-Nast Traveller has NYC at #1, and the next five in Europe (Paris, Rome, Venice, Barcelona and Amsterdam).  My best stop, maybe ever, was in Venice (this where I met my Blue-bar Pigeon), and I really enjoy Amsterdam.

Then there is the highly regarded Mercer Quality of Living Survey, rating 231 cities.  Mercer is headquartered in NYC.  This report has NYC at #45.  #45!!!  The best U.S. city, San Francisco, is at #30, then #35 is Boston and #36 Honolulu.  The Top Three:  Vienna, Zurich and Auckland.  Other continents:

• Asia:  #25 Singapore
• South America:  #79 Montevideo
• Africa:  #84 Port Louis (located in Mauritius, I truly enjoyed my stay here)

At my advanced age, I now only go to cities that are safe.  Japan...Singapore...even Bangkok.  I feel secure.  Honolulu is the second safest city in the USA, next to Sunnyvale, where Google and Apple are located.  The Blue Cube (left) is here, named after former Astronaut Ellison Onizuka.

Violent crime in NYC has been dropping since 1991, and homicides are at the lowest number since the 1940's.  In a ranking by The Economist of 50 top cities, NYC was the 10th safest, but only 26th for personal safety.  Why the difference?  Didn't feel like checking.  I any case, I felt perfectly save walking from Stephen Sondheim Theater at 11PM on 43rd Street to the Sheraton on 53rd.

So much for the numbers.  I've long been intimidated by NYC.  Those films had a lot to do with my feelings.  Today?  I like New York City.  Their subway is, indeed, a bit frowzy and unsettling.  But confidence would come with further use.  I saw no serious homeless problem.

What NYC has is everything.  More people, (8.6 million) versus Honolulu (0.352 million).  They have 25 times more.  Maybe it doesn't feel 25 times noisier and crowded, but the variety is bountiful.  The cuisine options are overwhelming.  Broadway shows are enticing, although expensive.  If you haven't been to the Big Apple in a while, go.

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Super Typhoon Mangkhut continues to flood mainland China.  In summary:

• strengthened to 180 MPH
• made landfall over the northern Philippines at 165 MPH
• struck Hong Kong at 109 MPH, where highest flood level was reached since 1904, causing at least $1 billion in damages
• closed all Macao casinos for the first time ever
• 79 killed thus far
• forced 2.45 million to be evacuated in mainland China

Hurricane Florence:

• reached Category 4 strength at 140 MPH, the first major hurricane this year in the Atlantic
• made landfall as a weak hurricane over North Carolina
• so far, killed 36
• rainfall exceeded 30 inches
• current damages, $17 billion, mostly flooding, with more to come
• flooding even reached New York City today, as subways were inundated

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