Hiromi

Hiromi

Bike Messenger, Knicks Fan, Turtle Owner

“As a kid, I always noticed bike messengers being out in the city and it always looked like the most bad ass job, so I thought maybe I’ll try to do that and see if I can make it through one month.”

“ My growth as a New Yorker and how I see people here has been widely changed the last 10 years. Normally people have these bubbles. They’re home, they have their neighborhood. Then there’s a train line that runs into work. And then they have a bubble around work. The majority of their life in the city is just time spent between these two bubbles. It’s such a different thing to have the whole city laid out as your office.”

“I’m very happy about how my life has turned out so far. I’m one of the few people I know who actually love my job. Most bike messengers do. I feel very privileged being able to spend 10 years doing this really cool job.”

“If you’re looking at traffic from the sidewalk, it looks dangerous and chaotic with thousands of cars, honking and jaywalking. But when you’re in the middle of it and flowing through it, it feels like a current. If you get cut off by a cab, you just float around on the other side and the rest of the traffic float with you. It is a flow similar to being a pedestrian. That’s why New Yorkers get mad at the tourists when they walk with a map and just stop. It’s like they’re stopping the current of people. So if you want to stop, you gotta find a safe spot like a garbage can or something and stay behind that.”

“The other day I met this Mexican food delivery guy. I passed him on the street and was like: I wonder if he’s an immigrant, if he got kids, he looks my age. Then he started talking to me because he thought I had a cool bike. We talked for a couple of minutes and it turned out he was a skydiver instructor from the west coast. He was just delivering food to stay afloat. I was like wow- I totally misread your story. That’s amazing to me. You have people from all walks of life here. Everyone’s got their own story.”

“The Village I grew up in was a whole different world. All my class mates had different backgrounds. Artists, cool hippie parents. It was a warm community. Now it feels like a cold place where rich people happen to live. It feels strange that my childhood neighborhood doesn’t exist anymore. It’s still there. On the map, but it’s not the same neighborhood.”

“New Yorkers. Your minds are so dirty. Keep on living it.”

Favorite neighborhood? The Greenwich Village. It’s no longer the place I grew up in, but it’ll always have that special childhood place in my heart.

Favorite street to stroll? 125th Street.

Why? The culture, character, flavor. It’s real.

Favorite restaurant? Rafiqi’s Halal Cart.

Favorite bar? The Corner Bistro in the West Village. It’s a neighborhood institution that makes one of the better burgers you’ll ever come across.

Hidden gem? Liberty State Park. It’s a great place to decompress without having to go far from the city and the ferry ride/view is tight.

How to be(come) a New Yorker? Walk fast, jaywalk when convenient, don’t look up, don’t make eye contact, don’t ask questions, and don’t get in anyone’s way.

Your New York soundtrack? Nas — Memory Lane.

5 THINGS THAT TELLS A STORY ABOUT HIROMI

DRAWING “When I was a little kid I thought garbage trucks were really cool and I draw pictures of them. I never thought it potentially could be my future career. Now I am applying for a job in the sanitary department.”

CONTAINER “I had bed bugs in two different apartments, so I had to throw out all my things. At one point in life this was the only thing I ever had. It has all my most valuable things in it. If I come home and there is a fire, I would grab my turtle and this.”

YANKEES HAT “I wear a cap every day. I feel I get to sentimental about certain things, so I just threw a few caps out. Now I only have two left.”

YANKESS TEDDY “He’s from my first baseball game I went to watch 20 years ago. I get really into it. It feels like a TV show where you follow characters, grow up with them, get personal with them, but it’s better and unpredictable.”

BIKE “Without the bicycle I don’t know what I would have done for the last 10 years. I get a feeling of freedom and there is a deep connection to it. It is more like my livelihood and lifeblood.”