New York
| New York City. Gotham. The Big Apple. This is quite a town. It's arguably the greatest city in the world, and I love it. I'm a proud product of the Mountain West and I don't relate all that well to the culture of the east coast, but there is something about the city of New York that appeals to me in a number of ways. It's a big, tightly packed, fast paced, walkable, truly cosmopolitan city. When I'm in New York I feel like I'm at the center of the universe. Rarely am I tempted to travel to the east coast, but thanks to Tee having a secondary office in midtown Manhattan, I've had several opportunities to spend time in New York over the past 4 or 5 years. I feel fortunate to be able to get an often well needed dose of this town. Although Los Angeles is the capitol of movie-making and most music production, New York remains the center of the news media, business, and fashion worlds. New York also can brag of the most famous theater district in the world, "The Great White Way", as well as several truly great sports teams and venues (Yankees, Mets, Rangers, Knicks, Jets, Giants, and Metro Stars). With a number of world class museums, art galleries, concert spaces, hotels, clubs, and restaurants, New York is the epitome of a great American city. And thanks largely to the efforts of Mayor Guliani throughout the 90s, New York is a clean, vibrant, welcoming place, and is considered the safest big city in the world. New York is still rough around the edges. With it's fast paced and aggressive attitudes, it's no wonder why people often think of New Yorkers as rude and arrogant. I won't try to argue against that characterization. No doubt that one needs a thick skin to get on well here, but I think the reputation of the rude and elitist New Yorker is often a bit overblown. I find that there are easily as many friendly, affable New Yorker as there are snooty, belligerent ones. The city of New York is comprised of 5 boroughs, with Brooklyn and Queens occupying the far western portions of Long Island, Staten Island and Manhattan being their own independent land masses, and the Bronx remaining attached to the New York State mainland. Manhattan is the most well known and most visited part of New York. It's also the only borough I'm at all familiar with. Manhattan is made up of a large granite (the island is almost solid granite) protrusion rising a few hundred feet above sea level. Manhattan is flanked on its west side by the Hudson River, and on the east side by the Harlem River (on the north) and the East River (on the south). Manhattan's street layout consists primarily of avenues and streets. The space between avenues is typically much larger than the space between streets (roughly 3x). Avenues run North-South, starting with 1st Avenue on the East Side, and going westward to 12th Avenue. Streets run East-West, starting with 1st Street in Greenwich Village, and increase in value up to 220th Street at the north tip of Manhattan. Below 1st Street is considered to be the Downtown area of Manhattan. 1st to 14th Street contains the general "Village" area. The area west of Broadway is Greenwich Village, and to the east is East Village. 14th to 34th Street west of Broadway is Chelsea, known for its large loft apartments and studios. 34th to 59th Street is generally regarded as "Midtown." 9th to 110th Street contains the Upper West Side and Upper East Side, respectively. Between the two lies the green oasis of Central Park. 110th to 145th Street lies the village of Harlem. 145th to 220th Street has no special designation, but does contain the neighborhood of Washington Heights and the Cloisters. Although I have my favorite spots in Manhattan, I try and explore a new section of the island each time I visit. Because of the city's compact nature and walkability, it's always fun to take a day, choose an specific area of town, and merely meander through it's streets and shops. The flavor and character of each neighborhood is always readily apparent, and I often feel that I can visit an entirely different city via a 5 minute subway ride. For the first time visitor to New York I would suggest doing the more tourist oriented activities associated with New York such as a visit to the Statue of Liberty, Rockefeller Center, The Empire State Building, Central Park, or attending a Broadway show. I would also highly recommend a "circle island tour" on the ferry. However, after you've had your fill of the more well known sites and activities, I would suggest taking time to "live" in the city for a couple of days, getting a sense of how the people in New York actually move, eat, shop, work, and play. It's always proved to be some of the most satisfying time I spend here. Most places I recommend seeing while in New York you can find linked to at the bottom of this text. However, I must also mention the fact that Tee and I both love stand-up comedy, and New York is a great place to find it. While there are many comedy venues, I'm really only familiar with two. The more mainstream and accessible is Caroline's in Times Square. It's easy to get a ticket at the venue as long as it's not prime time on the weekend. Caroline's is a well known club and the typical lineup will undoubtably include well known names. In fact, because this is New York, you may often find a true comedy star making a surprise appearance at any of the major comedy clubs in town. These clubs even often serve as regular "hang-outs" for some big names in comedy. The Comedy Cellar is a club in the village that has a very different feel than that of Caroline's. While Caroline's is clean and well-lit, with quite "safe" and accessible comedy, The Comedy Cellar, like it's location, it's grittier, darker, street-wise, with a much more edgy and free-wheeling brand of comedy. I enjoy both, but because Caroline's provides a type of entertainment often found in many other cities, I prefer The Comedy Cellar due to it's "New Yorkness." This having been said, it's more difficult to secure good seats here, and the service is poor in the rude, inattentive style common in New York. |
_______________________________