Snowball Fight in Riverside Park, NYC

The great thing about snow in New York City is that it becomes a social event quickly. 

In Riverside Park today, these kids prepped a sled full of snowballs and decided to pelt them at some young adults, late to the hill, on the urging of one of their friends.

Snowstorm Set to Hit New York City

A winter storm is headed for the Northeast, with up to two feet of snow and winds hitting 60 miles an hour expected to hit New York City by Friday evening. More than 240 flights have been canceled so far. Meanwhile, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority warned of slower subways and reduced or suspended Metro-North and Long Island Rail Road service.

On the home front on the UWS, school kids rejoice because they know the hills on Riverside Park will be primed for sledding! Get the snow pants out!!

US Postal Service Stops Saturday Delivery

Here is an interesting piece tied into culture. The U.S. Postal Service is slated to end Saturday delivery. The postal service said a switch to a five-day letter delivery schedule would reduce yearly losses by $2 billion; weekend delivery will continue for packages.

I know that Canada hasn't had Saturday postal delivery for the past 30 years and in my experience, only the UK has managed to make their postal system efficient. I know, the UK is a fraction of the size of the USA but still, you'd marvel at the speed of mail delivery in that country.

With the rise of email correspondence and document delivery through cloud-based services, there is no doubt the postal service is seeing a massive down tick in usage and stopping Saturday delivery is just smart business. The question to ask is why has it taken USPS so long to respond to a marked 6 year trend. Are American's more demanding of their social services? Will there be a massive out-cry? Lets see what falls out.....

New On-Demand Car Service - Zypsee

Zypsee is an affordable, easy-to-use taxi alternative for NYC.  This service lets you request rides using your iPhone or Android phone while you wait in comfort inside -- your phone lets you know when your driver has arrived.  No more standing on a cold street corner or hunting blindly for taxis.  This all happens for a cost comparable to street-hailing a yellow cab. 

NYCUrbanLife readers that register for the Zypsee Beta will be eligible to get heavily discounted bonus rides now through mid-March.  These are frequent promotions (3 x weekly) where Zypsee lets Beta Users ride for 50-100% off.  Additionally, Zypsee will give a discount off all other rides.  All they ask in return is that Beta users be patient and persistent -- hey, it takes time to ramp up driver capacity and as they do service quality may vary.

Qualified users can download the app (http://get.zypsee.com) on their smartphone or searching for Zypsee at the iPhone app or Google Play Store.  Register using invitation code 302-00-001 to get the NYC Urban Life discount.

Be sure to check back in here and leave your feedback about your experiences with this new, innovative service.

Broadway Sings at PS166

PS166, on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, has a long history of musical theatre with its highest profile graduate Richard Rogers, the school's namesake, inspiring arts integration into the school curriculum. In recent years Broadway performer parents have organized a musical show at the school to raise funds for programs that would otherwise have been cut by city budget tightening.

This years musical performance will be held on Sunday, February 10 at 6:00pm. The repertoire will include some of Broadway's favorite love songs sung by favorite Broadway stars.

Tickets are on sale; you can purchase tickets online http://bit.ly/Vz1Ao3.

-------------------------
Sunday, February 10, 2013, 6pm.
Seating is on a first come first served basis.

$15 - Kids
$30 - Adults
$100 - Premium Front Row seats with a "Meet and Greet" with the performers after the show (limited availability)