New YorkNew Yorkcarlos dangerAnthony Weiner

New Yorkers Quit All Kinds Of Things, All The Time

No, Mr. Weiner, NYers Quit Things All The Time
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By 

Deputy Managing Editor, HuffPost

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NEW YORK, NY - JULY 11: New York City Mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner attends the Council of Senior Centers and Services of NYC Mayoral Forum at New York University on July 11, 2013 in New York City. Weiner is in the race to succeed three-term Mayor Michael Bloomberg after he was forced to resign from Congress in 2011 following the revelation of sexually explicit online behavior. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)

New York City Democratic mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner recently announced that he would not be dropping out of the race, despite the revelation on Tuesday that he engaged in a lurid online exchange with an Indiana woman as recently as last summer.

In an email to campaign supporters, Weiner responded to calls for his withdrawal from the race Wednesday, saying, "New Yorkers don't quit, and I'll never quit on you."

But New Yorkers, individually or collectively, have quit on a number of things over the years. Sometimes it's when the community has deemed them to be no longer worthwhile, or this or that thing has become obsolete, or maybe was never really such a great idea in the first place -- or it was an obstacle to a goal that one or a small group of us was after.

And the city even has a special website just to help residents who want to quit!

From folks who didn't fit in to annoying roadblocks to the ambitious, here are just a few things we've quit on:

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Before You Go

A Few Things That New Yorkers Have Quit
The Dutch, For Starters(01 of11)
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Peter Stuyvesant ran this town, which was called New Amsterdam then. And then the Dutch gave it to the English in 1674 after the Third Anglo-Dutch War.So were they technically even New Yorkers at that point? Or was it the Dutch who quit? Moot point! The document Stuyvesant signed almost a decade earlier the first time the English beat them was called "The Articles of Capitulation." If that doesn't say "quitters," nothing does. (credit:<a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/61/Petrus_Stuyvesant_statue.jpg" target="_blank" role="link" class=" js-entry-link cet-external-link" data-vars-item-name="WikiMedia: Beyond My Ken" data-vars-item-type="text" data-vars-unit-name="5be32dc2e4b02df4d20703fd" data-vars-unit-type="buzz_body" data-vars-target-content-id="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/61/Petrus_Stuyvesant_statue.jpg" data-vars-target-content-type="url" data-vars-type="web_external_link" data-vars-subunit-name="before_you_go_slideshow" data-vars-subunit-type="component" data-vars-position-in-subunit="19" data-vars-position-in-unit="22">WikiMedia: Beyond My Ken</a>)
Sleazy Times Square(02 of11)
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Travis Bickle, in Martin Scorsese's "Taxi Driver," said, "Someday a real rain will come and wash all this scum off the streets."And then it did! Cleaned up (ironically) by politicians, of all people. Now the only people who go to Times Square are tourists and people who work there. (credit:<a href="http://www.flickr.com/" role="link" class=" js-entry-link cet-external-link" data-vars-item-name="Flickr" data-vars-item-type="text" data-vars-unit-name="5be32dc2e4b02df4d20703fd" data-vars-unit-type="buzz_body" data-vars-target-content-id="http://www.flickr.com/" data-vars-target-content-type="url" data-vars-type="web_external_link" data-vars-subunit-name="before_you_go_slideshow" data-vars-subunit-type="component" data-vars-position-in-subunit="16" data-vars-position-in-unit="19">Flickr</a>:<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/58289749@N00/527429559" role="link" class=" js-entry-link cet-external-link" data-vars-item-name="mockstar" data-vars-item-type="text" data-vars-unit-name="5be32dc2e4b02df4d20703fd" data-vars-unit-type="buzz_body" data-vars-target-content-id="http://www.flickr.com/photos/58289749@N00/527429559" data-vars-target-content-type="url" data-vars-type="web_external_link" data-vars-subunit-name="before_you_go_slideshow" data-vars-subunit-type="component" data-vars-position-in-subunit="17" data-vars-position-in-unit="20">mockstar</a>)
Tim Tebow(03 of11)
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At least to the extent that Jets fans (or even the Jets) were for the buzzed-about quarterback in the first place, definitely quit on that guy. He threw exactly eight passes during his single season with the team. Then he was cut. And picked up by the Jets' divisional arch-nemesis, the New England Patriots, mainly for spite. (credit:(AP Photo/Bill Kostroun))
Off-Track Betting(04 of11)
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The OTB organization filed for bankruptcy in late 2009, and a year later, with only 54 brick-and-mortar gambling establishments left across the city, the OTB shuttered its doors. (credit:<a href="http://www.flickr.com/" role="link" class=" js-entry-link cet-external-link" data-vars-item-name="Flickr" data-vars-item-type="text" data-vars-unit-name="5be32dc2e4b02df4d20703fd" data-vars-unit-type="buzz_body" data-vars-target-content-id="http://www.flickr.com/" data-vars-target-content-type="url" data-vars-type="web_external_link" data-vars-subunit-name="before_you_go_slideshow" data-vars-subunit-type="component" data-vars-position-in-subunit="12" data-vars-position-in-unit="15">Flickr</a>:<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/79361259@N00/5719273122" role="link" class=" js-entry-link cet-external-link" data-vars-item-name="thezartorialist.com" data-vars-item-type="text" data-vars-unit-name="5be32dc2e4b02df4d20703fd" data-vars-unit-type="buzz_body" data-vars-target-content-id="http://www.flickr.com/photos/79361259@N00/5719273122" data-vars-target-content-type="url" data-vars-type="web_external_link" data-vars-subunit-name="before_you_go_slideshow" data-vars-subunit-type="component" data-vars-position-in-subunit="13" data-vars-position-in-unit="16">thezartorialist.com</a>)
Farming(05 of11)
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Back in the day, Manhattan used to be farms! But we quit doing that. Now: mostly buildings and streets.But now we've quit not being farmers again! Makes us double quitters. (credit:Alamy)
The Phone Booth(06 of11)
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According to ScoutingNY, there are all of four outdoor phone booths left in Manhattan, all on the Upper West Side.You have to feel sorry for Superman, because it ain't easy to change your clothes hiding behind an iPhone. (credit:<a href="http://www.flickr.com/" role="link" class=" js-entry-link cet-external-link" data-vars-item-name="Flickr" data-vars-item-type="text" data-vars-unit-name="5be32dc2e4b02df4d20703fd" data-vars-unit-type="buzz_body" data-vars-target-content-id="http://www.flickr.com/" data-vars-target-content-type="url" data-vars-type="web_external_link" data-vars-subunit-name="before_you_go_slideshow" data-vars-subunit-type="component" data-vars-position-in-subunit="7" data-vars-position-in-unit="10">Flickr</a>:<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/97677397@N00/5642981933" role="link" class=" js-entry-link cet-external-link" data-vars-item-name="Ann Rafalko" data-vars-item-type="text" data-vars-unit-name="5be32dc2e4b02df4d20703fd" data-vars-unit-type="buzz_body" data-vars-target-content-id="http://www.flickr.com/photos/97677397@N00/5642981933" data-vars-target-content-type="url" data-vars-type="web_external_link" data-vars-subunit-name="before_you_go_slideshow" data-vars-subunit-type="component" data-vars-position-in-subunit="8" data-vars-position-in-unit="11">Ann Rafalko</a>)
Trans Fat(07 of11)
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Findings published a year ago indicate the reduction of trans fat at restaurants has had implications beyond improving the heart health of New Yorkers who eat.But don't tell us we can't just drink that stuff with a splash of high-fructose corn syrup out of a 24oz. cup, boy, or we will have to form a committee.Photo: In this Monday, Oct. 30, 2006 file photo, a Kentucky Fried Chicken employee uses tongs to hold up an sample of the company's trans fat-free Extra Crispy fried chicken in New York. (credit:(AP Photo/Kathy Willens, File))
Smoking Indoors(08 of11)
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For about a decade now, smokers in the city have had to go stand outside, like they're picketing clean air, in order to have a puff.And sure, that's a state law, but it still counts.Photo: A smoker enjoys a cigarette outside an office building on April 23, 2013, in New York City. (credit:Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)
The Dodgers(09 of11)
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Oh, too soon? No, Brooklyn, you didn't quit on the Dem Bums...One Dodgers scholar puts the blame squarely, 100% on Robert Moses for the Dodgers' departure for Los Angeles.Robert Moses quit on the Dodgers. And Moses -- the Haussmann of New York -- definitely a New Yorker.Photo: This April 7, 2013 image shows the site of the Brooklyn Dodgers ballpark, Ebbets Field, which was torn down after the Dodgers moved to Los Angeles in 1957. Today it's an apartment complex in Crown Heights. (credit:(AP Photo/Beth J. Harpaz))
Newspapers(10 of11)
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The names of the newspapers in this city that have been swallowed up into the brisk, metal drawers of the New York Public Library's acres of microfiche archives could fill a book.The book is called Defunct New York City Papers. (credit:Getty Images)
Term Limits(11 of11)
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Only appropriate to note in the context of a scandal in the city's mayoral race that term limits had been upheld in two public referendums before Mayor Bloomberg and the New York City Council voted 29 to 22 to give folks up for reelection a free pass in the 2008 election cycle.Given the controversial nature of the move, maybe it's hard to argue that New Yorkers gave up on term limits, but it's not like Bloomberg didn't get reelected.Photo: New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg speaks during the reopening ceremony of the Statue of Liberty, July 4, 2013, in New York. (credit:(AP Photo/Mary Altaffer))
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