Man takes a stroll through New York City..
— American AF 🇺🇸 (@iAnonPatriot) February 22, 2026
This place is absolutely COOKED. 💀💀 pic.twitter.com/Lc9Yx5kPUd
I looked at those wares vendors had laid out all over the sidewalk, and I'd like to bring some lateral thinking to the problem. The product you see there is almost entirely women's handbags. It could become utterly uncool and dumb to carry a handbag. A handbag is literally a burden. It makes you vulnerable to theft. You don't need it. Designers whose clothes you may not be able to buy make a customer out of you by offering this carrier of their name, causing you to feel that you need it more than you do. Wake up to the post-handbag world and those guys hawking handbags will disappear.
What, beyond your iPhone, do you need to carry these days? The closer you can get to nothing, the better you are. That's the idea to sell, but who is motivated to sell it? I know I'm being silly, at my age and my distance from New York, to try to influence the anti-handbag trend, which has to hinge on the pleasure and freedom of the consumer, not hatred of street vendors. These are guys making a living, and if your aim is to walk down an uncluttered, uncrowded street, reroute off Canal Street.
By the way, I used to live in NYC — from 1973 to 1984 — and 2 things about me back then: 1. I avoided Canal Street, unless I was swooping into that one place where I bought art supplies, and 2. I never carried a purse, I went out of my way to figure out how to carry everything in various pockets, I had a whole feminist/hippie conception of what I was doing, and I regarded women with purses as embarrassingly uncool.
Posts
60 comments:
And by "you," I mean women.
On this dude's X page I see the following:
Chief Nerd
@TheChiefNerd
·
15h
Replying to @TheChiefNerd
UPDATE: To register to shovel snow in Mamdani’s NYC you must present two forms of ID, plus a social security card
All the people who know keep telling me that I should desire to live there. And from what I've been reading, Mamdani is already making it even better. It's getting hard to deny the draw.
Heh.
I avoid NYC, but the video looks typical of my rare visits in the past 15 years.
That art supply store closed in 2014: "The slow demise of Pearl Paint began in 1996 when a box of cash broke open while being shipped by UPS. The quantity of cash inside the parcel led to an investigation that revealed a daily skimming of the store's cash receipts, leading eventually to a prison sentence for Robert Perlmutter, to management from outside the family, and to subsequent bankruptcy.[4] Also cited in this 2017 interview with the family were a lack of interest in the art supply industry, a decline in sales after the September 11, 2001 attacks, illness, all compounding the difficulties from the criminal settlement against Robert Perlmutter which barred him from participating in any management or decision making."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pearl_Art_and_Craft_Supply
What ?? I didn't see a single three-card monte hustler. Canal Street has really gone downhill.
In the words of Kool and the Gang "Can't get enough ... of that funky stuff".
I recall being lectured here by NYC residents about we're just not cut out to live in such a vibrant urban environment.
I reckon so.
What percentage of Manhattan residents "rent" v. own? What percentage of "renters" pay below-market or NO rent?
What percentage of Manhattan residents pay income tax?
What percentage of Manhattan real estate is tax-exempt?
Manhattan is awesome. It is also a big stinking middle finger to the middle class (and proud of it!).
If you don't desire things you don't need and live without them, then you can enjoy a joyful and conservative life. I'm not sure that will work out in NYC.
Women could adopt the suit jacket/blazer. A man's suit jacket, with its various pockets, is his purse. Wallet, keys, phone, glasses, tobacco and delivery system when it used to be ubiquitous, change, theatre tickets, Racing Form or other reading material, &c.
Also the suit jacket can be tailored to flatter your figure. Men's generally are cut to make you a generic broad-shouldered male and hide your tummy. Women could have more options depending on chest, butt, belly, arm fat, etc. CC, JSM
Ref funky downtown Manhattan: Nearly every female celeb who lived there in the 70s got raped. Debbie Harry, Madonna, Fran Drescher, Kelly McGillis, on and on. Seemed to be the cost of doing business to pay cheap rent and live close to the hot clubs. I suppose this is part of Mamdani's anarcho-fascist plan. CC, JSM
So how did all them ad-hoc retailers come by their inventory? Stuff just "fell off the back of a truck?" Flash-mob smash-n-grab?
What, beyond your iPhone, do you need to carry these days?
-----------------
You should always carry I.D. Makes it easier for the police to identify your body.
…too many economic principles on display to count. Maybe six or seven out of Mankiw’s ten…
Bloomberg did a great job reducing this problem when he was mayor, but it came back with a vengeance under de Blasio and continued to be a problem under Adams.
The context of this video is that there was a federal crackdown on Canal Street in October and it is already back to shady business as usual.
Perlmutter was skimming money from his own business toavoid paying income taxes. How very Canal Street.
I had no idea that Debbie Harry was raped. But now I know she was adopted, and was a heroin addict, and had cosmetic surgery, and that Chris Stein contracted some kind of weird disease, and that Debbie Harry's beloved voice coach was 87 years old and died five days after she was shoved to the pavement by a woman from a privileged background who was wasted on drugs and booze and who was pretty good-looking before she got fat.
You must have been incredibly cute in your hippie/feminist days in NYC, Althouse. Canal St. was always good for the show and for buying cheap baseball caps. Not to mention oogling the Asian babes.
I was just about to transition, but if I can't carry an awesome handbag then fuck it. That ruins it for me. That was going to be like, the best part. I was finally going to be able get all this...crap out of my pockets that, as a man, I have to put in there because I can't carry a purse. Shit, Althouse, are you sure? No handbags? God dammit.
This isn't just "edgy" anymore, it's third-worldish shithole stuff. And Democrats seem to love it.
Those guys won't go away if women don't buy handbags. If women don't buy handbags, they'll buy something else instead and those guys will be there selling it, whatever it is.
“Up and down Canal Street
Knocked on every door,
I’ll be a son of a bitch
If I can find…”
Song we boys used to sing, there are more verses, you can see where it was going. It appealed to young boys who knew nothing about sex.
…yah , I recall when it starts raining the bags and watches go away and the umbrellas and trench coats come out
…we also forget how important status symbols still are in many places row…
NY or not NY, I am on a rampage against handbags.
I thought about going to NYC for the Creighton basketball game and to see a show, but I decided against it. I understand the Muslim call to prayer is now broadcast in the streets and that Times Square is now being blocked by people facing Mecca and doing their prayer rug thing.
Broken windows writ large.
NYC is fast becoming a lawless Third World shit hole.
And Creighton lost by 30. St. John’s is very, very good.
Women with handbags and men in shorts.
“Reports indicate that these gatherings, which began this year on Friday, February 20, 2026, have occupied significant public space in Times Square. While some social media posts and outlets claim the area was "shut down" or "taken over," causing disruptions to pedestrian and potentially vehicular traffic in the busy corridor, others note it as a permitted event coordinated with the New York Police Department (NYPD) to manage public order.“
The tyranny of youthful fashion commitments
I am on a rampage against handbags
…now that’s an image for AI..
Mrs. Maynard and I will be in NYC from Wednesday to Sunday.
She has been a frequent visitor. I have not been there since the 1967 riots. My parents met there in the mid 1950's.
It will be interesting.
Correction: My adoptive parents. I was born in the early 1950's.
@ Maynard: bring waterproof shoes. The streets will be an ungodly sloppy slushy mess.
“I thought about going to NYC for the Creighton basketball game and to see a show, but I decided against it.“
You should still do that. I went to a Marquette game vs. Seton Hall — easy train ride from Penn Station. Then took in a jazz club in Greenwich Village that evening. Since its Seton Hall you can get club level seats at StubHub for $35.
NYC is still fantastic and fun. Take the X chatter for what it’s worth.
But I will say that Canal Street is getting worse. It’s just more course and the products hawked are new levels of shitty.
Designer Handbags…just another Sex in the City troupe that needs to die.
He moves across Canal and then south on Broadway. So the crowd of vendors is on Broadway. That’s not a fancy shopping area. Main difference I can tell is if he had turned left to stay on Canal, the vendors are more likely Asian.
I guess men are now trending toward handbags…or man bags. There’s a marketing push.
I wind up carrying my wife's purse a lot ot the time and it weighs at least 5#. Her wallet has more stuff in it than a small file drawer.
Even before I started having to carry it, I had to listen to her complain how heavy it was. I was strictly forbidden to say anything like "well, if it is so heavy, why don't you just..."
Otoh, I did get $300 for an article about it and the need for mechanism to declutter their tool chests. So there is that. Of course she wasn't happy about the article.
John Henry
If the NYC Muslims went full Taliban and cleaned up the streets, Mamdani could win his next election in a landslide. Street knockoff vendors? Off with a hand. Body painted ladies in Times Square? Whip and cover. People smoking giant doobies in Midtown? More flogging. The dispensaries that sell to them? One bullet per.
But of course Mamdani doesn’t want that kind of Islam. He just wants the kind that reminds European-Americans our day is over. CC, JSM
When I travel, I wear a travel vest. This is a lightweight vest with 15-20 pockets that turns me into the Bananaman. Wallt&passport in one pocket, phone in another, tablet in another. Ricola I a a chest pocket, water bottle in another, sandwich, sleep mask and other necessities in others.
Fully loaded I can carry twice as much as my wife's biggest purse. Most of the pockets have zippers.
Added Benny is getting stuff out of pants pockets make the plane seat more comfortable
Seems like someone should design a stylish line of pocketed vests for women to replace the purse.
John Henry
Idiocracy on display. The love/worship of shiny trinkets. stolen? who cares, right?
ignoring the radical Islamic marxist communist in control... NYC is cooked.
I had a Scott E-vest which I liked. Nicely thought out but flimsy and fell apart quickly. Also about $100 last time I checked
I found a nylon vest on Amazon for about $25 about 5 years ago that is every bit as good.
Scott had also publicly requested that I not buy his products. He prefers tha us MAGAs shop elsewhere. Happy to oblige.
John Henry
planetgeo said...
This isn't just "edgy" anymore, it's third-worldish shithole stuff. And Democrats seem to love i
40% of the people that voted in Mamdani's election were not born in the United States.
It was a very low turnout election.
The majority of people who voted for Mamdani likely came from places like this.
But in New York and other places Democrats control Democrats give them money they take from us to buy their votes.
"A handbag is literally a burden. It makes you vulnerable to theft. You don't need it".
Depends on what you routinely need to carry and what you want to carry. For women most clothing does not have pockets or adequate pockets. Items are often too big or bulky to fit into pockets.
Must: Cell phone, eyeglasses and case, wallet with credit cards, debit cards, identifications, driver's license, medical cards (medicare, sup plan insurance card, part D) Medical alert information!! (I am not allowed to have any MRIs and do wear a necklace just in case ). Keys to car(s), home, office other buildings I need to get into. Receipts when out for tax purposes.
Want--nice to have: folding knife or mutli-use tool. Pens, small Notebook/or post-it note pad. Small magnifying glass. Some tissues. And in some circumstances...my gun.
You couldn't pay me enough to go to NYC!!!
"...What, beyond your iPhone, do you need to carry these days?..." I can think of something I might be carrying in that setting, fits in a pocket.
No plans for NYC in my immediate future, but this seems to be a rather dramatic presentation of street life under Mamdani. Has enough time passed yet, for the full flavor of Muslim Socialist Rule by Foreigners to steep in to NYC's consciousness? I don't think so. Good and Hard, baby. I'd say 'stay frosty', but I think mother nature is taking care of that in a day or two......
That looks a lot like Canal Street circa late 70s/early 80s, back when squeege men would accost your car when you arrived in Manhattan via tunnel. Times Square was a dump, featuring porn shops, hookers and drug dealers. Then, Rudy cleaned it up. By the way, Canal St. is not Tribeca, it is Tribeca-adjacent. The "beca" means "below Canal."
If ICE did a surge down that block, they'd probably discover that those non-taxpaying street vendors illegally selling knock-offs and stolen goods are not African American citizens, but rather, African illegal immigrants.
If you're me, you need keys, eyeglasses, wallet, and phone. Each day, I have to juggle my placement of these essentials. Women have it tougher. Remember the bag carrier Gary from the HBO series VEEP? He persuaded me that some women really do need a bag. Funny that at the end of the series Gary ended up holding the bag in an altogether different sense.
Make New York Nairobi Again. Make Manhattan Calcutta Again.
If you need to carry things, you can have a knapsack. But some women want to go in a different direction and don't want to be typecast as backpack people. Now as a rabid anti-pursist, you chose to typecast them as handbag people.
I suppose it's part of the hippie credo to look down on handbag women as materialistic, but all the hippie generation did was shift the burden to women's backs. How common were rucksacks in the cities of the 40s or 50s? I suppose the resolution of the backpack-handbag conflict will be high fashion tactical vests. Keep the pickpockets confused about which pocket to pick.
The one where ann confesses she hates her vagina and wishes she didn't have to be uncool toting it everywhere... lol, friend.
Potato bags can be fitted with pockets. Low environmental impact and deter wandering, wondering eyes.
As a New Yorker, the main problem is not the street peddlers as much as the mentally ill, homeless, and drugged out people, and trash on the streets. At least the peddlers are being entrepreneurial, and the sidewalks are full of people just going about their day. One of the things I like about New York is that if I'm out and it starts to rain, I won't have to go more than 50 yards until I find someone selling umbrellas for $5 each. So I'd much rather the city devote its resources clearing up trash and rounding up dangerous people.
I carried my wallet in the wrong pocket, so the muggers pulled out my address book instead. As I walked away they tossed it to me in disgust.
Those handbags hold derringers. Besides the phone, carry a gun.
I am more repulsed by the pile of trash on the corner.
Obviously, the city places a low priority on removing these vendors. As long as they're not violent, I could not really care.
Photos of Canal Street in the early eighties are easy to find. It was nothing like what I see in the video.
Thanks to Giuliani NYC became accustomed to fairly clean and safe streets. Most people don't realize Giuliani did not just reduce crime and change policing - it was every agency. Sanitation, MTA, libraries..... City employees were expected to actually work and get the job done. It was a massive attitude shift. Bloomberg managed to maintain that. Under DeBlasio it all began falling apart. The vendor problem is just one of the downgrades. The city is dirtier, smellier (the stench of weed is everywhere), and less safe but we have miles more of bike lanes which the city carefully plows out.
Ca[r]nal treasures.
Pearl Art Supply also closed in Market St. San Francisco, but immediately reopened as Blick Art Materials in the same location (979 Market) and remains there to this day. Its one of those places I love to wander around in, wishing I had the talent to use all that stuff. Its a huge store.
One thing that hasnt changed in San Francisco and its suburbs is the mass of people with artistic aspirations, that can keep open a network of businesses that feed their fantasies. Even in the emptied-out downtown. One imagines all these people in the Sunset with an easel on their decks, with a cloth over it.
A fancy easel makes a great present for a San Franciscan btw. Especially for a tech bro.
Obviously much hipper in the 1960s. Even Phil Ochs always carried a purse:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_T9MHFldX1E
Post a Comment
Please use the comments forum to respond to the post. Don't fight with each other. Be substantive... or interesting... or funny. Comments should go up immediately... unless you're commenting on a post older than 2 days. Then you have to wait for us to moderate you through. It's also possible to get shunted into spam by the machine. We try to keep an eye on that and release the miscaught good stuff. We do delete some comments, but not for viewpoint... for bad faith.