Repost: NYC Tip—Avoiding the Oldest Sidewalk Scams in the City

September 1st, 2011 by NYU Local Staff and Kenneth Hsu

This was a piece of primo advice from Kenny Hsu, aka Kenny City, our departed City Editor:

On average, every NYU student is scammed at least 2.46 times during his or her college career. Yes, I just made that statistic up. But no, I’m not talking about sketchy emails from Nigeria asking for just a few thousand dollars. Instead, we’re perpetually prone to the top scammers in New York, where they’re much more convincing and most often do their work on (you guessed it) the sidewalk — kind of like GreenPeace, except without the peace.

So educate yourself on this list, you gullible yuppie with your parents’ money in your wallet (that’s what they think of you; not me!). It might just save you $20 and a whole lot of embarrassment:

The “Shake My Hand, It’ll Only Take 10 Minutes” Scam (Scene of the crime: Union Square, West Village) – Anyone who’s lived at any of the Union Square dorms might be familiar with this one. A young man holding a box of candy approaches you politely and offers his hand. If you choose to accept the handshake, please cancel all appointments scheduled within the next ten minutes. You’re not going anywhere. The same guy who seemed polite five seconds ago is now aggressively persuading you to give him $5 for a fruit roll-up. Like all of his cohorts (they travel in teams, like Children International canvassers), he’s trying to raise money for his family, his school, his basketball team, or any combination of these. After 10 minutes of trying to pry his hand off yours, you have no other option but to cave in. Hey, at least you got a fruit roll-up.

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NYC Tip: Washington Square, Our Campus

May 13th, 2011 by Kenneth Hsu

Returning home for the summer usually involves sharing stories from college, and both casually and self-importantly reminding friends that “yeah, NYU doesn’t have a campus.” While those who go to real college get schwasted at frat houses, NYU undergrads become regulars at East Village bars, intern in Brooklyn, and in between, master the New York City subway system. Then, we subtly brag about it through Facebook updates. Fuck a campus, we go to school with Matilda.

But as I’ve learned in recent years, this fascination with an atypical college experience is anything but universal. Last semester, Dan wrote a poignant post that received over 40 comments from NYU students admitting to seriously considering transferring. It’s an unsurprising story: expectations of your “dream school” in the Village are difficult to meet when you’re on your own… in a school that loves the idea of being on your own.

“No matter what, no one is going to fulfill your dreams for you,” Dan wrote. “Not strangers, not friends, not boys, and certainly not New York University. Nope, you have to make your own uppers.”

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Sternie Returning $300,000 Made From Bin Laden Shirts

May 9th, 2011 by Kenneth Hsu

While half of NYU’s student population crowded the World Trade Center the night of Osama Bin Laden’s death, one Sternie unsurprisingly rushed to his computer to make some money, or more precisely: $300,000. But here’s the catch: he’s not getting any of it.

Only a few hours after President Obama made his announcement, 23-year-old Maurice Harary created Osamadeadtees.com, a website selling self-designed Osama-themed shirts and stickers. And within a few days, he reportedly made $300,000 after selling selling approximately 25,000 shirt for $12 each. We repeat: he made $300,000 in one week. That’s one way to pay off student loans.

However, according to CBS, Harary is returning it all, claiming that “celebrating over the death of someone, whoever it is, is evil in my eyes.” That’s right, he’ll soon be refunding all $300,000 in potential profit because he feels that “it’s not a positive way to be making money.” He even admitted himself, “I didn’t know it would be that viable of an idea.” To which we ask, is this guy really in Stern?

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Nissan Van Chosen As Taxi Of Tomorrow

May 5th, 2011 by Kenneth Hsu

Remember those mini-vans your friend’s mom would pick you up in during elementary school? Well, beginning 2014, you’ll also be calling for one on the sidewalk. Yesterday, Mayor Bloomberg announced that the Nissan NV200 (pictured) won New York City’s Taxi Of Tomorrow competition, beating out two other (and in our opinion, much better looking) proposed models from Karsan and Ford.

But despite its soccer mom look, “it promises comforts geared toward a more urban creature” — sliding doors, cell phone charging stations, reading lights, airbags, passenger-controlled air conditioners, and most importantly, transparent glass roof. That means your cab seat will probably be more comfortable than your own bedroom. These cabs are expected to hit the streets of New York in the Fall of 2014.

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NYC Tip: A Review Of Storage Companies For The Summer

May 3rd, 2011 by Kenneth Hsu

Finals week is next week, which most likely means two things: a) you’re starting to panic about finals, and b) you have no time to panic about anything else but finals. Unfortunately, for those still in NYU housing, the end of the semester also means you have to start packing and storing your belongings somewhere in New York.

To help you avoid any summer storage drama, our staff and a few readers offered tips on where (or where not) to store your stuff. Rates were calculated for storage from May 18 – Sept. 1.

Manhattan Mini Storage (17 locations)
By far the city’s largest storage company, rates for MMS vary by location but generally fall within $70-100 per month, not including the various student discounts. The website lists closet space at the 2nd St. & 2nd Ave. location at $290 per month, but that number is probably significantly lower after you prove you’re an NYU student. However, the other random locations (Chelsea, Financial District, Harlem, etc.) might mean you need a car or cab to haul your stuff there. Call 212-Storage for more details on a student discount.

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Last Night’s Ten Best Tweets About Osama bin Laden

May 2nd, 2011 by Kenneth Hsu and Surekha Ratnatunga

While President Obama’s late night announcement was clearly reason for a patriotic celebration at Ground Zero, it was also a victory for New Yorkers with Twitter accounts. To help you sort through the tweetstorm, a few of our staff members selected some of the best tweets from last night.

First, Gawker‘s Max Read drops an FYI to Lady Gaga right before Obama delivered his speech. Gaga’s tweet has since been deleted, and she made sure that everyone knew that she indeed turned on CNN.

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Bloomberg Suggests Sending Immigrants To Detroit

May 2nd, 2011 by Kenneth Hsu

Speaking on NBC’s “Meet The Press” yesterday (before, y’know, that happened), Mayor Michael Bloomberg had at least one suggestion for fixing the country’s immigration problem: sending immigrants to Detroit. Trust him, it all makes sense.

“Take a look at the big old industrial cities — Detroit, for example. The population has left. You got to do something about that,” Bloomberg said, before suggesting that the federal government “pass a law letting immigrants come in as long as they agree to go to Detroit and live there for five or 10 years, start businesses, take jobs, whatever.”

Indeed, Motown hasn’t exactly seen its best years lately — the city’s population has decreased 25 percent in the past decade, and according to the Detroit News, the actual unemployment rate is almost 50 percent. While local and national leaders continue to work towards fixing Detroit, officials like Bloomberg are proposing such two-birds-one-stone ideas to help rejuvenate the country’s economy while tackling some other issues as well.

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Vote For NYU Comedy Team’s Roast Of Penn State

April 29th, 2011 by Kenneth Hsu

NYU comedians Alex Edelman, Tony Grayson, Gabriel Laks, and Andrew Tavin are competing in the 4th annual National College Comedy Competition (NCCC) for a chance to perform at Just for Laughs comedy festival in Chicago this summer. In this final round of voting, however, they’re pitted against the comedy team at Penn State. Both teams filmed a five-minute video roast of the other school. Quickly register and vote for NYU here.

In this case, it would probably make more sense for me to embed Penn State’s roast of NYU in this post. But blogging standards aside, it’s obvious our team’s roast warrant more laughter than Penn State’s, who attempt to poke fun at our suicide rate, our alumni, and our peaches (?). They even mock us with a character very craftily named “Emma Snob” — very witty, guys.

The NCCC’s original pool of 32 different schools has been narrowed down to eight, including NYU. In the next round, teams will be judged by a panel of entertainment and comedy bigwigs. The funniest school will finally be announced on TBS.com/college on May 9th.


City Calendar: Reefer Madness, Snoop Dogg, Nyle, Yelle, The Kills, Zach Braff & More

April 28th, 2011 by Kenneth Hsu

THURSDAY

LOCAL PICK: NYU C.A.S.T.’s Reefer Madness: The Musical @ Silver 703 — 8 p.m. (through Saturday) – Producing NYU’s best, non-Tisch theatre every semester, C.A.S.T. is getting students high with their new production of “Reefer Madness: The Musical.” We suggest you bring your own snacks from Rosie Gray’s bakery. Dope, huh?

AHM@NYU Mesmerise @ Kimmel 912 — 7 p.m. – Legendary slam poet Suheir Hammad is performing at this closing event for Asian Heritage Month.

Snoop Dogg @ Wellmont Theater — 8 p.m. – Yes, it’s New Jersey, but you can probably fly back to Manhattan, if you know what I mean.

Zach Braff, Eva Mendes, Jason Sudeikis, Will Forte & More @ Apple Store SoHo — 5 p.m. – Finally confess to Zach Braff how much Garden State changed your life.

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Meet Other (Animated) NYU Students On Shaker

April 28th, 2011 by Sara Trigoboff and Kenneth Hsu

Ever want to meet people on NYU campus while technically not on NYU campus? If you haven’t seen their staff outside Stern yet, you can thank Shaker for their new Facebook app, which was recently launched exclusively to the NYU community. Try it and meet random strangers in Washington Square Park, but with one catch: they’re animated.

Yep, sign up for the Shaker app and immediately find yourself — or a walking, faceless avatar of yourself — in a cartoon version of NYU campus. For now, that means an animated WSP, complete with the fountain, arch, benches, and of course, other NYU students also on the app. Think of it as J-Sex’s expansion into The Sims.

As Shaker’s explanatory/biography video explains, the app is meant to “bring Facebook to life.” Indeed, each other user on the Shaker NYU campus is color coded by their relationship to you: people that you’re already Facebook friends with are blue, people you have mutual friends with are in yellow, and people you don’t know (yet!) are gray.

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