Lionel Nation - Uncut Unfiltered Unbelievable: Lionel’s NYC Walking Tour Through Urban Madness
Aired: 2025-05-08
Duration: 08:49


=== Level of Mental Illness (07:31) ===

[00:00:03]  It's that time.
[00:00:05]  It's that time, my friends.
[00:00:08]  Perambulating to a meeting.
[00:00:10]  But enough about me.
[00:00:12]  This is what you want to see.
[00:00:14]  The streets, the bowels.
[00:00:17]  I'm on my way today to a...
[00:00:20]  I'll tell you about it afterwards.
[00:00:23]  It's a unique meeting of sorts that I will talk about.
[00:00:28]  But first and foremost, I want to just mention today Or now.
[00:00:34]  Just how I cannot believe the level of mental illness that I'm seeing.
[00:00:41]  See the horse?
[00:00:43]  See the horse?
[00:00:47]  See that?
[00:00:49]  Can you make out the horse?
[00:00:52]  Anyway.
[00:00:53]  The level of mental illness that I am seeing exhibited by people that I normally consider to be somewhat rational.
[00:01:02]  Is out of this world.
[00:01:06]  Check this out here.
[00:01:08]  This is the most real estate dog.
[00:01:16]  When you walk by and see this, it just sits there.
[00:01:20]  That's the dog tripod.
[00:01:23]  I cannot believe the level of absolute insanity.
[00:01:32]  Very good place, by the way.
[00:01:33]  This used to be a place called Taboon.
[00:01:36]  And you see that fire?
[00:01:37]  You see that?
[00:01:37]  Can you see that fiery...
[00:01:39]  What is it?
[00:01:40]  Can you see that?
[00:01:41]  Maybe you can't.
[00:01:42]  It's this kind of like a...
[00:01:44]  The hearth.
[00:01:46]  Can you see it there?
[00:01:47]  It looks like a pizza oven.
[00:01:49]  It was called a Taboon.
[00:01:52]  And it's Middle Eastern, Israeli.
[00:01:55]  Very good.
[00:01:57]  Falafel.
[00:01:58]  I mean, let's face it.
[00:01:59]  How can you screw up falafel?
[00:02:02]  Seriously.
[00:02:03]  Now, by the way, check this out.
[00:02:05]  These are the neighborhood guys who sit around.
[00:02:09]  Oh, we almost saw a collision.
[00:02:13]  Check these guys.
[00:02:14]  They sit here all day and just raise hell.
[00:02:18]  I'm a kid.
[00:02:21]  I'm 38. Speaking a language that is yet to be deciphered.
[00:02:29]  But they're harmless.
[00:02:32]  Lest you have any consideration for ambiguity, no trespassing, no smoking, no drinking, no loitering.
[00:02:40]  Everybody's loitering.
[00:02:42]  Everybody's drinking.
[00:02:43]  What are you talking about?
[00:02:45]  But those fellers sit.
[00:02:47]  Didn't bother anybody.
[00:02:49]  Back to what I was saying.
[00:02:51]  I can't go into detail.
[00:02:53]  You wouldn't know these people.
[00:02:55]  But Mrs. L and I today were beyond shocked.
[00:03:02]  At the level of insanity that we are dealing with on a regular basis.
[00:03:09]  Seriously.
[00:03:11]  People that we consider to be, you know, friends.
[00:03:14]  You know, regular friends.
[00:03:17]  I think there was a suicide here.
[00:03:20]  I know there was one around the corner from us that was sad one day.
[00:03:24]  I saw this blanket.
[00:03:26]  Not a blanket, but a sheet or something.
[00:03:29]  Or what appeared to be the remnants of a human being.
[00:03:31]  See these things?
[00:03:32]  These are what kill you.
[00:03:34]  This is what kills you when you come to New York.
[00:03:37]  Watch it.
[00:03:38]  Look how fast these things are going.
[00:03:41]  I know this may not seem...
[00:03:42]  Look at this.
[00:03:43]  Imagine getting hit by this.
[00:03:45]  From people from other countries who have no conception of driving, much less rules and that sort of...
[00:03:56]  Back to what I was saying.
[00:03:59]  Insanity.
[00:04:00]  People losing their mind.
[00:04:02]  People, I think, with a series of mental illness mixed with a lot of substance abuse that goes unheralded and unnoticed and unaddressed.
[00:04:17]  This is one of the oldest.
[00:04:20]  This is the Hell's Kitchen Columbus Branch Library in Der Hood.
[00:04:26]  You know, I walked in one day just, I don't know, perangulating about.
[00:04:32]  And I was really...
[00:04:33]  I don't know.
[00:04:36]  Take it back.
[00:04:36]  I like libraries.
[00:04:38]  Or libraries, as some people say.
[00:04:40]  I really do.
[00:04:41]  I like them.
[00:04:43]  This is a great little bar called Waylon.
[00:04:47]  Isn't it good?
[00:04:48]  Waylon.
[00:04:49]  Waylon and Willie and the boys.
[00:04:51]  Luke and Bob, Texas.
[00:04:53]  A lot of borrachos here.
[00:04:56]  People sitting around.
[00:04:57]  The smell of weed.
[00:04:59]  Omnipresent.
[00:05:01]  And androgyny.
[00:05:03]  Androgyny is in the air.
[00:05:05]  Notice, not non-binary, but androgyny.
[00:05:09]  This guy running.
[00:05:11]  There's no way to run half speed without looking like a fool.
[00:05:15]  You know what I mean?
[00:05:16]  Oh, up here.
[00:05:18]  Famous, famous place called Desi Restaurant.
[00:05:23]  All of the taxi drivers would.
[00:05:30]  Show up here.
[00:05:32]  And it has a smell that is so wonderful.
[00:05:37]  A smell of curry and cardamom.
[00:05:42]  It's legit, legit.
[00:05:44]  And there's a little cafeteria sort of in the back and the side where the legits eat.
[00:05:52]  Phenomenal.
[00:05:54]  This!
[00:05:56]  This!
[00:05:57]  For you Westies fans, this!
[00:06:00]  This is the famous Skyline Hotel.
[00:06:03]  This used to be a haven for the Westies.
[00:06:07]  Coonan, Featherstone.
[00:06:10]  Notice this, interesting.
[00:06:12]  You see an American flag, flag of New York, and an Israeli flag.
[00:06:17]  Your thoughts and comments, ladies and gentlemen?
[00:06:24]  No comment there.
[00:06:25]  That's a losing proposition.
[00:06:28]  Trust me.
[00:06:29]  Pick the hill you want to down.
[00:06:35]  Talk about things you can change.
[00:06:39]  No.
[00:06:40]  No, that's kind of interesting.
[00:06:43]  Back to what I was saying, mental illness.
[00:06:48]  Unbelievable.
[00:06:49]  The amount of stuff that we have to deal with on a regular basis.
[00:06:53]  I'm not going to make any deal about this fellow on the street.
[00:06:58]  We should have a thing called Man on the Street.
[00:07:01]  I wanted to have an actual show called Man Interviewing Men on the Street.
[00:07:09]  I don't know what this is.
[00:07:11]  It's him.
[00:07:12]  Okay?
[00:07:13]  Let your imagination run for that one.
[00:07:17]  I don't know what that's about.

=== Hell's Kitchen Park Landmark (01:29) ===

[00:07:20]  It's him.
[00:07:21]  Uh-huh.
[00:07:22]  Okay.
[00:07:23]  Here's our Gevark.
[00:07:25]  Fusion.
[00:07:26]  Blue again.
[00:07:27]  Ooh, I like it.
[00:07:30]  You know what fusion means?
[00:07:33]  Fusion means I don't know what I'm doing.
[00:07:35]  I'm going to throw it all together and I'm going to hope to God it's workable.
[00:07:41]  These are the little ices.
[00:07:44]  Used to be made.
[00:07:45]  See these women?
[00:07:45]  They're from...
[00:07:46]  I don't know where they're from.
[00:07:48]  They're South or Central America.
[00:07:50]  There used to be the Corona Ice Lady.
[00:07:52]  This was the most famous.
[00:07:54]  In Corona Queens, the ice.
[00:07:57]  They would shave ice.
[00:07:59]  This, this of course, is a landmark.
[00:08:06]  At least to me.
[00:08:09]  Hell's Kitchen Park, ladies and gentlemen.
[00:08:12]  Hell's Kitchen Park.
[00:08:15]  The sound of kids playing.
[00:08:18]  Strange people, demented.
[00:08:20]  Looking off into space.
[00:08:26]  Look at this old architecture.
[00:08:27]  Look at this.
[00:08:28]  These are the old, the old style.
[00:08:31]  You don't see this anymore.
[00:08:32]  They've been here, oh my god, a hundred years.
[00:08:36]  100, yeah?
[00:08:41]  Can't really see your comments today.
[00:08:44]  Because if I look down, I'm going to walk into something.
[00:08:48]  They're pithy.