What are Your Essential Items for Life in NYC?

[Starla14]

My little brother is graduating from high school this weekend and will be coming to NYC in the fall to study Jazz at New School. I'm putting together a graduation gift basket of items that are essential for anyone who lives in NYC.

So far I've got:

A Village Voice
A subway map
A metrocard
A street map
A Duane Reade preferred customer card
A subscription to Time Out

What else?? I need help!!

Thanks!

[Schadenfrau]

You forgot the most important thing of all: good walking shoes.

[Starla14]

Good idea :)

Maybe I could include a pair of Dr Scholls insoles!

[Ninjahedge]

Money.

[lorcar]

credit card(s).
condoms.
sunglasses.
gangs of NY dvd, or other related movie (manhattan?).
since he's coming for the jazz, you may want to add something related (blue notes, apollo theatre, or harlem in general: tkts, books, movie, pictures)

[NewYorkDoc]

I'd drop the Village Voice and pick up the Times. Just a personal preference.

[shocka]

That is actually a really cool idea.

Essential, maybe something to memorize on the trip to nyc (be it, plane, train, car, boat etc.)
- http://www.ny.com/locator/algorithm.html



Here are some nice to haves

- IPOD/MP3 Player
- $10 gift certs to a couple restaurants around Union Sq

[Marco]

D.Trumps mobile number.

[infoshare]

There is one must see film (http://www.indoctrinate-u.com/pages/welcome.html) for anyone who is about to start thier college education. I have taught collage courses in several different universitys in NYC and I can tell you that this film is "spot-on".

Cheers

Meet The Professor!
Indoctrinate U, Evan Coyne Maloney's devastating exposé of American college campuses, tells the stories our nation's professoriate doesn't want you to hear.

At colleges and universities across the nation, from Berkeley and Stanford to Yale and Bucknell, the charismatic filmmaker uncovers academics who use classrooms as political soapboxes, students who must parrot their professors' politics to get good grades, and administrators who censor diversity of thought and opinion. With flair and wit, Maloney poses tough questions to America's academics and university administrators -- who often call campus security rather than give him straight answers. And Maloney gives a voice to those whose stories of harassment, intimidation, and censorship make our nation's universities, supposed bastions of impartiality and free inquiry, seem mere mainstays of groupthink and indoctrination.

But Indoctrinate U can tell only representative stories from some campuses. Every day, at colleges and universities across the nation, professors and university administrators continue to scorn their students' academic freedom and belittle the once-lofty goals of "liberal education." This page will complement the film by presenting more stories of the American university's unconscionable abuse of the public's faith and of its educational mandate. Please check back soon for updates.

[Front_Porch]

Oh, schade is many things, but a pest is not one of them!

ali r.
{downtown broker and schadenfrau fan}

[Stern]

This might go without saying: A cellphone.

[BrooklynRider]

How exciting to leave high school and come to New York. This is a good Jazz town.

I'll add these to what the others suggested...

Backpack or some sort of satchel
A really good scarf and hat for winter
A good umbrella that collapses to a small manageable size
Warm gloves
Hankerchiefs for those muggy mornings in the subway (for sweat)

Since he's at the New School...

Movie Passes (Regal Cinemas, Loew's/AMC, Angelika, Film Forum, Landmark Sunshine Theater)
Gift card for Whole Foods
Starbucks gift card


Encourage him to bring these as well:

Good manners
A sense of humor
A love of diversity
Compassion for those less fortunate
Abandonment of chain restaurants
Curiosity
A sense of adventure
A good pick-up line
Clean underwear

[Front_Porch]

Nice avatar, BR.

I might throw in a Zagat restaurant or nightlife guide.

[BrooklynRider]

^ OOOOH!! That's a good one.

[lofter1]

A Rent Stabilized residential unit :cool:

Metrocard

Membership to MoMA

Ray's Pizza (Prince Street)

Good walking shoes

Knapsack

New York Public Library card

My new Canon SD800 :D

Cab fare to JFK ...

[MikeKruger]

an NFT guide, I didn't see that mentioned here.