Just another weekend in New York-

While this entry has little to do with mobile applications – I decided to share a slice of the uniqueness of New York.  It does , however go to the heart of why New York, with all of its diversity and culture enables mobile companies to be competitive.

Last Sunday my family decided to go to “The City” to see a Broadway Matinee play.    On our way in we got caught in traffic and the usual 90 minute (20 mile) drive stretched to over 3 hours.  We missed our play but decided to hang out in Manhattan.   We walked two blocks from the theater parking lot and were greeted by approximately 500,000 joyous parade goers.  This Sunday was the Dominican Republic day parade.   The music was as much felt as it was heard.  The cheers were deafening and the parade floats and marchers seemed to stretch forever.  You did not need to speak Spanish or be Dominican to just enjoy the Mass celebration.  

After about 30 minutes we walked the two blocks to the Madison Avenue street fair.     Madison Avenue was closed for approximately 20 blocks (over a mile) and became home for food vendors with the  cuisine of Mexico ,Italy, , China , Thailand, Poland, Israel, France,  Greece,  ;  and various American flavors from New Orleans, New York (where else can you really get a Knish?) and Southern BBQ.   Needless to say, we did not go hungry.  Music form every ethnicity played from stalls that sold anything and everything.   We stopped along the way to listen to a Klezmer Jazz band that was outstanding.

After we satisfied our palette, we started to walk back to 6^th Avenue and decided to stop by St. Patrick’s Cathedral.  They were having a special Spanish Mass that we watched for a couple of minutes before we continued our walk. 

Before we got back to 6^th avenue, the gravitational pull of the Nintendo flagship store attracted by teenage son.  We successfully extracted him without monetary damage to any credit card.  We showed the family Rockefeller Plaza and then walked the last block back to the DR day parade.

After another hour we left to go home.   Where else could you go through such a diverse range of the DR parade and the Madison Avenue street fair by just walking 2 blocks?  New York New York , it is unique.

My next blog will go deeper into the competitive values of a diverse community and employee base.