A Nicer New York, If Temporarily

The watchdog group Americans for More Civility has bestowed a "Civie" on New Yorkers for our behavior during the Transit Strike last December. Aw, that's so sweet - and it's an extra, unexpected bonus that "Civies" sounds a lot like "skivvies." Gothamist has to agree that our fellow New Yorkers were more tolerant than usual - and even went out of their way to help people (like Felix Salmon, who took a ZipCar and offered people rides!). Yes, that was a nice thing to realize during the transit strike, and sure, we went back to being rude and obnoxious, pushing, shoving, glaring, spitting and honking our way around town. But if there's one thing New Yorkers are good at, it's giving their opinion, so if we were to measure NYC's civility by willingness to explain the best way to get from point A to B (though maybe with a "asshole" or "duh" thrown in), we'd be winning awards left and right.