The President & the homeless man

Last night, walking home, I noticed an unmarked police car blocking my street, East 12th. Film crews have chosen my street before, so I assumed that's what it was. Just a few months ago, they filmed a scene of Boardwalk Empire at John's, the Italian place at the end of the block, and they cordoned off the entire street and turned it into a huge tented buffet of food service for the actors (my apartment stoop was turned into a technician's hangout). But, this time, I turned the corner and saw that two tow-trucks were busy towing all the cars parked alongside our tiny little road, and two more cop cars were driving up and down the street directing a garbage truck, which was picking up garbage off the sidewalks.

A woman was poking one of the garbage bags looking for recyclables (a popular occupation in New York for those trying to make extra cash) and she turned to me wild-eyed and said, "The President is coming down this street! Down this street! We gotta clean it all up!" I figured she was just a crazy homeless person, so I kept walking.

The President of the U.S. driving down this tiny street? No way. A woman was selling tortillas out of a cooler perched on a shopping cart in front of my stoop and a cop car pulled up and bought a tortilla then told her to move. "The President is coming down here soon." Whoa, Obama was really coming down this street?

For the next two hours, more cars and more garbage was moved in preparation. I had no idea that it took this much effort to prepare for the president just driving by. Apparently, he was at a fundraising dinner at Gotham Bar & Grill on the other side of 12th St, so his motorcade decided to make a clear shot across the island, passing my apartment. I waited on my door stoop for an hour, reading a magazine. Then it got cold, so I went upstairs to my apartment. I went downstairs to check up on the street scene twice more (which is a lot to say considering I live in a 6-floor walk-up), but each time, it was still too early and the president had not yet finished dinner. Then I fell asleep on my coach. When I woke up, I sprinted downstairs only to catch my neighbor exclaiming, "I saw him! I saw Obama!" By the time I got outside, the train of black cars was gone. Damn!

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This morning, on the subway platform (why do so many of my posts start out that way?), a rotund homeless man wearing a santa cap sat on a bench and began hollering the words to "I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas." Things like this are always amplified in the morning because normally nobody talks and, despite hundreds crowded on the platform, there is usually no noise at all. So the homeless man kept singing "White Christmas" and he started making up nonsensical words to the tune, echoing loudly, causing those of us on the platform who desperately try to ignore each other to turn and smile in conspiracy: Yes, this is our city.