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2006-06-24 - 11:00 a.m. What you see & hear on a NY street Sometimes New York seems much like any little town. It's Friday night. I'm sitting on the front stoop outside my crumbling 1878 brownstone, while across the street a woman comes from her SUV carrying a large metal macaroni pot. She crosses the street, and from the tall building nextdoor runs a little girl in summer clothes, with flashing red LEDs on her flip-flops, shouting, "Hello! You're here!!!" Her mom stands nearby with an old yellow lab on a leash. The dog too wags her tail. There are hugs all around. "This should be fun. Did you see the pot? Think it's big enough?" The first striking difference in the movement of city people you really notice are the pizza/sushi/restaurant bicycle delivery boys criss-crossing the sidewalks - through the dinner hours you hear the whirr of their bicycle wheels maybe every two minutes. They are everywhere! Then there's the clink of glass. Saturday morning is recycle day, so Friday night people are leaving clear bags filled with empty wine bottles and plastic water bottles curbside. Here comes one of the homeless dragging a shopping cart overloaded with what little possessions he has and three huge pods of bags bulging with bottles and cans. Later he will head uptown to the recycling center to claim 5 cents apiece for his trouble. My neighbor just came by, walking Digger, the block's famous "Doggie in the Window". Perched on a comfy mat set in an open wrought-iron box originally meant to house an air-conditioning unit, he smugly observes the canines and humans passing on the sidewalk below. I love seeing strangers, unaware they are being watched, stopping in their fast-pace day to have long animated conversations with Digger. Next day. I'm awaiting a visit from the Dead Slumlord's amiable son who is confident he can restore a bathroom to my apartment. As I sit on the stoop I watch the recycling men, for a half hour, loading their truck, holding up a city block of annoyed, honking traffic. My cell rings. My gf in North Carolina surprises me with a cheerful morning call: "Hi! It's nine AM. Do you know where your toilet is???"