Our Friendly Neighborhood Terrorist

Every morning, millions of New Yorkers stop for coffee on their way to work. Of those millions, I’d say that most are skipping the swill of Starbucks, and going straight for the chronic: the breakfast cart Joe.

Vendors of all kinds line the sidewalks of New York, but in the morning, the breakfast carts are out in full force – and yet, even if there are three seemingly identical carts in a row, serving the same sugar-topped pastries, squished up against the glass in the front, all three of them will have a line.

This would be a mystery to me – if it wasn’t for the coffee. Vendor coffee is a breed all its own. To me it’s similar to “gas station coffee”, whereas if you were in a blind taste-test, it would take one sniff of the cup to pinpoint its origins. Of course, from there, there are sub-categories (Mobile, 7-11, Love’s, etc. – but I’ll put that in my trove for another time).

I didn’t really believe in the vendor coffee until I tried it, and I must say, it deserves mad respect. Here’s why:

A) It’s a dollar. If you’re getting ripped off, it’s $1.50 for a large cup of Joe. Where can you get ANYTHING for a dollar these days? In a large?
B) It’s liquid crack. It may not even really be ‘coffee’ in the traditional sense – perhaps it’s water and 25 years of residue from the inside of the big silver brewers. But it is…crack-ish. Or so I can imagine…if I knew what crack was like...you get my point.
C) There’s lingo. But it’s not lame lingo like “Tall Decaf Mocha Cappuccino” it’s cool lingo like “Regular, black, sweet.”
D) It’s a dollar!

Much like me with my fruit guy, you’ll be hard-pressed to find anyone who cheats on their vendor. Day in and day out of coffee and pastry getting leads to a pretty serious relationship. They know your face, your order, and exactly how much cream to put in your coffee to make your day.

This is a symbiotic relationship that at times, resembles one you’d see on Animal Planet.

NARRATOR: “Watch how the Executive approaches the cart. Notice the exact change in his hand. The Vendor sees the Executive; there is recognition. The Vendor proceeds with his craft as the Executive looks on. Then, an exchange. Notice the head nod as both Vendor and Executive utter simultaneous “Thank yous”. The Executive rushes off, and the Vendor moves on to the next Executive in line. This truly is nature in its purest form.”

This special relationship is why it sent waves of shock, followed by pangs of deception through my workplace upon hearing that our old coffee vendor (he disappeared about a year ago…) was just arrested as a terror suspect.

For real.

The story broke several weeks ago, and as it became a National interest, and pictures of Najibullah Zazi started to surface, several people here at IRG recognized his face. I didn’t – as he was not “my Guy”.

The more we researched, the more it seemed as though this man, who was arrested in Colorado after investigators uncovered bomb-making materials and blueprints in his home, was in fact the coffee vendor who set up shop at the end of our street. The end of our street, mind you, is in the Financial District of Manhattan, just a stone’s throw away from “The Bull”. He was located directly across from the MTA building, which is on our street.

Turns out, it was him. About a year ago, Zazi disappeared seemingly overnight, and was replaced by another man, who remained on the same corner (until this news broke, of course). About a month ago, one of my co-workers saw Zazi at the cart, conversing with the new vendor and said Hi to him; asked where he’d been. Apparently, he was back in New York sorting out some logistics of transferring the business over to the new guy.

Not a few days later, Zazi was arrested in Colorado, and we were all like “Is that the coffee guy?!”

Unbelievable.

You know, this is super unfortunate on so many levels if you ask me. Not only for the obvious reason that a man who worked 50 yards from where we work is suspected to have used his off-hours to plot terrorist attacks, and not only because most people here feel as though they had a friendly rapport with the guy, but because this takes us all back to Square One.

Living and working down here post 9/11 is interesting, to say the least. If you’ve read some of my past posts, you know that New York is still shaking in some respects. Forgetting what happened is not an option, and moving forward as if all’s well is difficult, if not impossible. There are times in which this city feels very vulnerable. This is one of them.

Personally, I want to have faith and trust in humanity. I want to believe that I don’t have to be legitimately afraid of my coffee vendor because he resembles the men who concocted and executed the attacks on 9/11. I refute racial profiling, and try to treat people – all people – in one general way: as I would like to be treated by them.

But stuff like this, Man…really burns me. I mean, what the Hell, Dude?

This clown just solidified and validated people’s fears, and some people’s hatred. He has managed to poison more hearts and has brought justification to judgment. And all I can do about it shake my head, and try to not let it affect me - as affecting us was probably his ultimate goal, right?

I can also hope that his efforts – whatever they were – have been thwarted.

Big sigh.

That said, I've still got "my Guy" - and he's great. I will continue to greet him every morning with a winning smile and a dollar, and I will accept his liquid crack in return. I will appreciate the fact that he knows how to make it just right. I will trust him, and I will believe that he is earning an honest living, and not “casing the joint”.

I will proceed unafraid, and unaffected. Which is, in my own way, giving a good old New York middle finger to people like Zazi.

After all, I have to – I can’t afford Starbucks.


http://www.theledger.com/article/20090926/ZNYT02/909263014?Title=From-Smiling-Coffee-Vendor-to-Terror-Suspect


**UPDATE: Najibullah Zazi appears on the cover (and is featured inside) of the latest TIME Magazine. This just arrived today. Jesus H!