This one Halloween in New York, instead of children going out into the dark night for treats, it was adults who decided to go two by two, flashlight in hand. Instead of trick-or-treating for candy though, they searched for open restaurants and safe passages to reach home.

I’ll never forget this one Halloween in New York when taking a cab home from Midtown, it was like crossing a borderline and entering a fallen land – light to dark, upper to lower. And then later, walking twenty blocks to the nearest lights for evening entertainment. Along the way, some restaurants were lit with candles, hinting at an old New York, one that the city hasn’t known for over a century.

If it wasn’t for all of the inconviences including no electricity, phone service or Internet (not to mention water or gas), I would have said this was the coolest night ever. Indeed, the dark streets and long shadows cast by what little light existed made the lower half of Manhattan feel cinematic – like dangerous Gotham in the moments before Batman’s arrival.

I’ll never forget this one Halloween in New York and what it felt like to wander the streets in the dark, and despite the effects of one of the strongest east coast storms ever, to be walking in one of the world’s greatest cities in such a moment as that.