Share Your Photos of Light in New York City

Damon Winter/The New York Times Alice O’Malley, a photographer, said she chose her apartment, with its west-facing windows, because of the afternoon light. Now, a 25-story luxury hotel is under construction in the lot opposite her building.

In New York City, pockets of natural light can be hard to find, even in sunnier seasons. And as new buildings gleam higher in the skyline, those living closer to street level are living in deepening shadows. With the winter solstice occurring this Saturday, Cara Buckley of The Times wrote an article looking at the short- and long-term impact of scarce natural light on the lives of New Yorkers.

We invite you to take a photograph showing how light â€" or the lack of it â€" affects your daily life in New York City and submit it to us using the form below. How does light reach your apartment or office? Does light change the look of your block at a particular time of day? How are you surprised by light in the city? And what are your strategies for coping with the scarcity of it?

We look forward to seeing your images â€" a selection of them may be published on NYTimes.com this month â€" and hearing your stories about living in a city that can feel as if you are, as one person Ms. Buckley interviewed described it, “surrounded by the walls of a castle.”

Please submit your photograph by Dec. 27, 2013.

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A Backseat Transformation

Dear Diary:

As a habitual participant in the weekly car dance â€" a.k.a. alternate side parking â€" I have a front-row seat from which to witness all sorts of human behavior.

Recently, while I was sitting in my “mobile office” in the West Village, a black car slid into the unclaimed spot right in front of me. Out stepped a young man in his late 30s dressed in blue jeans, some sort of team shirt and baseball hat. In an obvious hurry, he popped open the trunk and fished around in the wheel well compartment collecting hidden bits and pieces of clothing, and then jumped back into the front seat. I could see his partial silhouette as he struggled to change into the clothes he had retrieved.

Less than 10 minutes later he emerged dressed in black tights, black studded platform boots, belted hip-length T-shirt, long necklace of exaggerated silver balls, red knit hat purposely pulled into a tall peak, bright orange lipstick, oversize diamond-shaped white framed sunglasses and a yellow clutch purse. Using nearby storefront windows as his mirror, he checked the look, making quick, nervous adjustments.

I was stunned at the transformation and couldn’t help but watch as he made his way down the street, continuing to check his reflection in any available window. I found myself wondering where he came from and whom he pretended to be when he was in his jeans and T-shirt. It made me sad to think that he was forced to hide his true self inside a wheel well.

Read all recent entries and our updated submissions guidelines. Reach us via email diary@nytimes.com or follow @NYTMetro on Twitter using the hashtag #MetDiary.

A Pornographer’s Farewell

Ting-Li Wang/The New York Times Al Goldstein was seldom at a loss for words, even toward the end.

Of all the surreal communications I received over the years from Al Goldstein, who died this morning, one was captured in its entirety.

It was a voice mail message he left me in 2007, a typically late-Goldstein mini-epic of elegiac narcissism.

We ran it then, slightly expurgated of course, and resurface it here:

Andy Newman, a strange voice, Al Goldstein.

I’m losing my teeth, and life sucks,

but I wanted to thank you and your wife, I hope the baby’s good.

No need to call me, again I have no teeth.

The noise you hear may be a cue ball on a pool table.

I’m going to a dentist today, borrowed $10,000 from [name withheld]

The best thing I’m doing is I’m writing a weekly website, not Google, it’s Booble, B-O-O-B-L-E.

If you ever have time, read it â€" it’s the best writing I’ve done.

I don’t have a job,

Christine and I broke up.

40 years is too big an age difference…

I’m living in Rockaway.

But I just wanted to send my love and appreciation

for your many kindnesses.

Maybe I’ll get a job at Starbucks.

I’m looking for a job at 10 bucks an hour.

I’m 71. I’m old news, I’m yesterday’s paper on the bottom of a bird cage

But I just wanted to thank you

because I was thinking of how kind and fair you’ve always been to me.

[Name withheld] is still an incompetent lawyer.

And again the weekly website’s good because it’s a $1,000 a month not a week,

But again it’s the best writing I’ve done.

Say hello to your wife, if you have another child.

My son, I haven’t talked to in eight years

‘Cause as you know he didn’t invite me to graduation at Harvard.

Basically life sucks.

I won’t kill myself but I would love to die.

I would love to die because I feel that if there was a relationship…

I ruined it. I went for hedonistic orgasms

Instead of building up intimacy.

I have been the biggest fool in the world

I regret my successes in pornography

I regret my failure in relationships…

I regret how even though I read John Stuart Mill to Jordan every night

I [expletive deleted] up that relationship.

And the shrink at the V.A. told me why:

‘Cause Jordan wanted to be respectable

And I’m an outlaw.

Expensive lesson.

Anyway good luck to you.

I last spoke to Al Goldstein in April of this year. The voice at the other end of the line at the nursing home in Brooklyn was thin. A stroke had robbed him of much of his coherence.

“I don’t function,” he said. “And I’m sort of … ephemeral, I don’t do that well.”

Toward the end of the conversation, he rallied a bit.

“I had a love letter from this girl Vivica, who is leaving from Oklahoma on her way to Michigan,” he told me. He wanted to tell her of his impure thoughts. “But I haven’t made any sexual move in 10 years.”

New York Today: Car Pileups

Jabin Botsford/The New York Times When it’s not snowing, roadways can still be dangerous.

Updated 5:53 a.m.

Good morning on this mild Thursday.

If you haven’t fled the city yet, there are still a few days left to experience the joys of the season: Christmas windows, holiday parties and heavy traffic.

Speaking of traffic…

There have been several sizable pileups around here recently.

Last week: 25 cars on the Bronx River Parkway in Yonkers and 45 injuries. And 27 cars on I-95 in Greenwich, Conn.

This week, on the Gowanus Expressway in Brooklyn: around 30 cars, 9 injured.

Traffic experts blame a wintry mix of weather-related road conditions and human behavior.

When it’s snowy, people slow down. They sense the risk because of low visibility.

While the air is flurry-free and people can see, they may be less careful, said Bo Duffy, a spokesman for the New York State Department of Transportation.

“And that’s when conditions are ripe for black ice,” he said.

An added danger: sudden rain, which can wash away the salt scattered on highways.

Here’s some anti-pileup advice:

Drive more carefully when it’s close to freezing out.

If you have to stop, brake repeatedly to alert other drivers.

Don’t tailgate.

Here’s what else you need to know:

WEATHER

This is odd: a very nice day.

Mostly sunny, with a high of 44.

Enjoy it; rain’s coming this weekend.

COMMUTE

Subways: Check latest status.

Rails: Check L.I.R.R., Metro-North or New Jersey Transit status.

Roads: There’s a truck stuck in the outbound Lincoln Tunnel. Check traffic map or radio report on the 1s or the 8s.

Alternate-side parking is in effect. It is a Gridlock Alert Day.

DE BLASIO WATCH

From Michael M. Grynbaum of the City Hall bureau of The Times:

- The mayor-elect makes an announcement at an educational center at 1:30 p.m. in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. The location has people speculating he could make his much-anticipated pick for schools chancellor.

- He will likely be grilled by reporters about his role in the race for City Council speaker. He’s been strongly lobbying for Melissa Mark-Viverito of East Harlem, who all but declared victory Wednesday night. [New York Times]

- The mutual disdain between Mr. de Blasio and Mayor Bloomberg is starting to show. [New York Times]

COMING UP TODAY

- Representative Charles B. Rangel is expected to announce a bid for his 23rd term in Congress.

- City officials announce plans to recycle food waste at a treatment plant in Brooklyn and turn biogas into heating fuel.

- Elected officials rally at City Hall to let undocumented immigrants in New York get driver’s licenses.. 11 a.m.

- Drop cans of food at Flatiron’s North Public Plaza and City Harvest will deliver them to hungry New Yorkers. 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. [Free, plus discount coupons for nearby stores]

- The Brooklyn Children’s Museum is free today, with extended hours. 3 to 7 p.m.

- Save some room for sacred Renaissance polyphony: St. Bartholomew’s Church in Midtown serves up a lunchtime concert. 1:15 p.m. [Free, $10 suggested donation]

- There are choirs aplenty at the St. Patrick’s Cathedral Christmas concert, but it fills up, so get there early. 7 p.m. [Free]

- A 17-piece band plays East Asian infused Jazz in Sunnyside, Queens. 7 p.m. [Free, donations welcome]

- Beyonce’s Mrs. Carter Show World Tour arrives at Barclays Center at 8 p.m. [Tickets start at $174]

- For more events, see The New York Times Arts & Entertainment guide.

IN THE NEWS

- The city’s immigrant population is at an all-time high of 3.1 million, and the Chinese community has grown the fastest. [New York Times]

- New Yorkers’ life expectancy is rising, thanks in part to the influx of immigrants. [New York Times]

- The City Council took a step toward banning e-cigarettes in the same public places where regular cigarettes are banned. [NY1]

- The city’s largest school bus operator is shutting down, leaving up to 40,000 public school students busless after the winter break. [New York Daily News]

- iPhone-wielding Williamsburg residents are hounding a man who may be Bill Murray. [Gothamist]

- Scoreboard: Knicks outlast Bucks in double overtime, 107-101. Wizards whip Nets, 113-107. Devils beat Senators, 5-2. Penguins nip Rangers in a shootout, 4-3.

AND FINALLY…

Most New Yorkers still rent their slice of the city, a new census survey found.

While in many Midwestern cities close to 50 percent of people owned their homes, in New York City just under 33 percent of people do.

The website Curbed took a closer look at the maps to see where homeowners live within the city.

It found heavy concentrations:

- Along Central Park on the East Side.

- In a chunk around Union Square and N.Y.U.

- On a curving expanse of the Northern Brooklyn Waterfront.

Joseph Burgess contributed reporting.

New York Today is a morning roundup that stays live from 6 a.m. till late morning.

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