[Icarus]

Gentlemen,

An interesting article on the Russian / Ukrainian diaspora in New York City just came out on the London Review of Books: In Brighton Beach. An excerpt:

Quote:

Walk down Brighton Beach Avenue and you’ll see that between the glossy stores selling Russian speciality foods there are now cheap but buzzing Turkish hairdressers, Indian groceries, Chinese nail parlours. These are the newest immigrants, the ones just off the boat. Russians have stopped coming in big numbers – there’s just a steady stream known as the ‘J-1s’. J-1s are non-immigrant visas issued to students. Many try to extend their visas into more permanent ones, and the term ‘J-1’ has become a synonym for pretty Russian girls allegedly desperate to stay in America. ‘You must come to such-and-such a party,’ Little Russia Romeos tell me, ‘it’ll be full of J-1s.’ The J-1s live in crowded apartments, sleep on mattresses and are regularly ripped off by landlords. A few lucky ones get to help Bella sell flowers: she gives them free board at her house and they babysit the kids in return. One of them, Oksana, a psychology student in Lvov, was at Cosmos carrying bouquets in a basket like Eliza Doolittle. She was born in 1992, and is bemused by Little Russia. ‘It’s so Soviet. Or what I imagine the Soviet Union was like. Lvov is so much more European and modern.’

[jimukr104]

i live in sheepshead bay, thats like 1 mile away. in the last 15 years the FSU people have gone to my area, and other parts of nyc. there are other areas with larger russian populations in the city.

[Basil Ransom]

Aren't these places mostly Russian Jews? If so, don't expect boatloads of blonde Slavic beauties.

[Icarus]

(09-05-2012 01:58 PM)basilransom Wrote:  

Aren't these places mostly Russian Jews? If so, don't expect boatloads of blonde Slavic beauties.

The article suggests that NYC is becoming what London is (or used to be): a safe haven for rich Russians and their spoiled kids. Moreover, everyone knows that Long Island is full of FSU hotties during the Summer due to the Work & Travel program.

[jimukr104]

most are russian jews ,however id say alot lied to get in . Regardless of religion, Alot of blonds. No different than whats in FSU. In fact i see just as many slim hotties in mini skirts as a % as i see in FSU. When i was in high school ,they started coming, my classes were filled with girls in high boots and micro skirts.
You do realize that brown hair and eyes is the DOMINANT gene in the FSU? The northern cities like Saint Petersburg tend to have more slavic blondes. However the dominant slavic gene is dark features, regardless of northern or southern cities.. Isreal has alot of blondes. I am not religious but but my ancestry is jewish, from Russia. Guess what? my mothers side was all blond hair and blue or green eyes. And they all have perfect little noses,lol. seriously , i saw just as many hotties in brooklyn night clubs as i do in kiev ones. Big difference is the brooklyn ones have money and aren't going to be impressed with you being American, since they are Americans also. They also tend to date only other Russians ,so i guess that proves when given a choice they pick thier own .After thier own they will date Isreali or other jewish guys ,regardless if they are jewish or not.Some like black guys also.

[Bacchus]

Good article.

I'd never heard of this scam before.

Quote:

Volodya’s first scam was as a taxi driver picking up visitors from JFK. On the drive into the city he would pretend he was partly blind: could the passenger tell him what was going on down his left flank? He would swerve about the road, making out he could barely drive. The passengers would panic and jump out, leaving him at least part of the agreed money, and much more than he would have got for the small drive he had taken them on.

This one reminds me of something a con artist did in The 48 Laws of Power, but with the Eiffel Tower.

Quote:

He rented an office for a week and put an advert in a local paper: ‘Rights available to build toll booths on the Brooklyn Bridge’. Some recently arrived Arabs responded. Volodya showed them the blueprints, his ‘rights’ to the bridge. The Arabs had big plans, they wanted to build more toll booths than there was room for. ‘I’ll have to see whether I can lobby that through with my senator friends,’ Volodya said. He got them to pay a small down payment, thirty thousand dollars or so, then took the next plane to Miami.