Have a Relaxing Weekend.

Greenwich Hotel. Or The Standard.

Enjoy your trip!

Brooklyn One hotel on the waterfront in Brooklyn. Easy connection to the walking paths along the river, Citibikes, the Brooklyn Bridge and all the great restaurants on Henry Street (Noodle Pudding is a must, but bring cash). Subway on Henry Street.

PLUS, you get to look at Manhattan, the harbor and the Statue of Liberty. Easy access to Manhattan, but no Manhattan hotel has the views.

We go every once in a while and stay a night and we live in Manhattan.

We LOVED CitizenM on Bowery. The hotel has a great bar, and a graffiti museum in the stairwell that leads up to ANOTHER great bar – on the rooftop.

Oo! Thanks for this tip! I like apple cider vinegar in my water sometimes. I’ll have to try it with seltzer.

Sorry, Sima, not Seema!

I appreciate your concern, Stella, and wonder if there is some confusion around these statistics. As a woman living in a major US city, I have always walked to work. And public transit here is good. Before moving here, I also lived in places where I drove to work, and I always appreciated that time. It was a little part of the day where I could mentally decompress, sometimes while driving along the gorgeous coastline. It’s hard to beat starting the day with an ocean drive. With the ocean so close, my community was certainly motivated to care for the earth well, and we found many ways to do that.

In case this is helpful, I’ve also lived in multiple US cities where biking to work is considered normal.

Also: someone on the Cup of Jo team is sure approving comments early in the morning! Thank you!

Stella, I am an American who fully agrees with you. I don’t know which cities the two anonymous posters below live in, but the vast majority Americans drive to work. I live in a mid-sized city in Ohio and used to have a 30 minute commute by car. I hated every minute of it, and that length of commute is considered tame. (My family is from Los Angeles and do not bat an eyelash at a 1-2 hour commute.) It was a major factor when we bought our home that both me and my husband would be 15 minutes or less from our places of work. (In his case, it influenced the place where he accepted a job offer.) To each their own, and sorry to sound self-congratulatory, but these choices have made a huge difference in our quality of life and reduce our carbon footprint by a lot.

I think part of this is that non Americans forget/don’t realize how big the US actually is. We have many rural and small cities that simply don’t have public transportation and it can take quite a bit of time to get from place to place. I live in a mid size Southern city and drive about 25 minutes each way. It’s just the way it is. There aren’t really other viable options here.

Stella, as an American living in Europe, I find that Europeans will often compare the USA negatively to Europe without understanding the reasons for the differences.
Europe was densely populated many centuries prior to the first European settler arriving in North America. European civilization had much more time to develop the infrastructure for walkable, livable cities and towns. In the US, most of the development took place in the 20th century, after the mass production of the automobile, and the development was structured around the automobile (suburbs and city sprawl). This is also a result of the US being such a big country. Now, we are grappling with the urban planning decisions of the mid 20th century and discovering their impact on environmental and human health. Much is being implemented to make positive changes but progress is naturally slow as the existing infrastructure is extremely difficult to work with compared to what you have in Europe.
It’s frustrating when Europeans are so quick to judge America for not being just like Europe. There really is no comparison.

We lived in the country for several years, and the driving drove me INSANE. 40 minutes to school. 40 minutes to Walmart. 40 minutes to the doctor/dentist/vet. 40 minutes to a playdate. Everything in completely different directions. Doing more than 2 in one day was unfathomable.

Yup, the US has a stubborn car fetish.
Now our government’s plan (pushed by auto lobbyists, of course) is to push EV cars in place of gas cars. So moving from one non renewable resource to another (companies are already planning to mine wetlands for the natural materials needed for batteries, many of these wetlands on Ingenious lands.) And I read just the other day that these EV auto companies (and investors) are super happy the glaciers are melting, because, guess what? It is making it easier to access the materials needed for electric car batteries. Yay!
And forget about public transportation infrastructure investment. That would just make too much sense (and not enrich investors).
In my city, SF, a roadway is falling into the ocean and is covered in sand for months yet people are screaming to keep it open (instead of turning it into a park for families to walk, bike, etc).
Contrary to what @A.H. thinks, it is not so impossible to transition away from cars to public transit, bikes, walking. It is our political system and people’s resistance to change that are the stumbling blocks.
I can confirm–Americans are not community minded (look at the resistance to masks). Most people want to jealously guide their possessions and value property over life. That is why we live in a police state and have the largest number of incarcerated people in the world.

Ursula K. Le Guin — ‘To make a thief, make an owner; to create crime, create laws.’

@lydia, I lived in DC for a long time and used public transport daily. By the time I was ready to stop dumping my money into expensive rentals and buy a property, it was an impossibility to afford a house in the city with access to public transport. So many people are relegated to the suburbs because of affordability. Additionally, there were safety concerns about taking public transport after instances of being harassed on the metro, followed off a bus, screamed at by a stranger etc. Often I would opt for Uber after dark for this reason alone.
Americans, like everywhere else, are just trying to survive and get by day to day. We cannot blame individuals for making choices to benefit them, it is the responsibility of the powers in charge to incentivize changes to the system.
Perhaps not where you are, but many Americans are actually community minded.
People resisted masks all over the world (even in Europe where I live) but America naturally gets the publicity. Of course, being worked to death and not having a solid safety net (I.e. universal healthcare) puts people on edge and makes them want (need) to guard their resources. But of all the people I’ve met around the world, Americans are some of the most open, friendly, and helpful to strangers.
Painting the country in such a broad, negative light is inaccurate and unhelpful to any cause. Living abroad has been helpful for me to see the positives about America and Americans and I am now more keen to understand the context of our issues and the mentalities of the people rather than just insult them all.

Most of U.S. cities were developed after private cars were popular. They are designed around driving. it sucks. It happened decades ago. We’re trying to make it better.

Most Americans who are lucky enough to live and work in the big cities take public transportation, walk, or bike, because driving & parking is very limited. Unfortunately, many of us cannot afford to live close to our offices; I’m in the Bay Area, and my husband commutes to work 2hrs each way. (He bikes to a train, but it’s a fluke that there’s a train near us.)

Yes!! I couldn’t stop thinking about Joanna the entire time watching the series. I even showed my husband a pic – “She looks just like her, right, right?!?!” He had to agree ;)

Yes!! I thought the exact same thing when I watched it. So glad other people see it too :D

Same! I hope that company felt the shame and agree to their staff working from home.

My husband used to have a two hour commute each way (via public transit to/from DC). It really sucked and not everyone has a choice, but companies really should do more to allow some flexibility in schedule. It was a factor in eventually moving away from the area to where he now has a 2 minute commute!

Another problem with American commutes is the tendency for companies to locate in large suburban office parks where there is little to no public transit or safe walking or bike routes.

Reminded me of a study I read that said married people who commute over 30mins each way have double the divorce rate of the already high 50% rate!

Me too!

Yes, I LOVE the newsletter!!!! What a gift to us all that we can get excited for some COJ content on Saturdays!!!!!!!

Thinking of you and your beautiful Slim. I love dogs and my guy is 6.5 years old which the vet says now classifies him as a senior dog (esp due to his breed). I adore and cherish him. Dogs truly are the best.

Slim is the BEST dog name. I knew a Slim once. He was a Good Boy, just like yours.

Omg my old eyes read your all caps as “I CREAMED!” 🫢 After clicking on the link, I’m sure many did both.

@anne, dying of laughter over here.

I was known for being very easy to scare on my office floor. People tried to make extra noise before entering when they saw me in the printer room and I would still jump. Open a door and someone is behind it? Jump. Rounding a corner as someone is coming around? Jump. Even when I am at home, in the bathroom, or cooking in my kitchen, and my husband enters, I will freak for a moment, and then clutch my chest.
I have absolutely no clue why that is, it annoys me to no end, and suffice to say, we would not be compatible at all, RKM 😆

Hahaha Lisa I’m exactly the same! Once I was eating a biscuit as a rounded a corner in the office and sprayed crumbs in a colleague’s face by jumping and spluttering.

OMG! I have been this way my whole life! Someone opens a door, I scream. Someone creeps up behind me, I scream. Co-workers just shake their head at me.
Except the last one. She came up behind me and poked me. As I screamed, I wound back my arm to clock her, stopping just in time. But according to her, there’s something wrong with ME!