. . . I hope they don’t gang aglee. Tours are suspended for rain, so keep your fingers crossed for sunny skies . . .
For those of you who already know where Green-Wood is: The tour will start at 1:00 inside the 9th Avenue Gate at 20th Street; tour guide is John Cashman (price is $6). You can reach him at tombstonecashman@msn.com (!).
For those of us to whom Brooklyn is an unknown quantity: We’ll be meeting at the Barnes & Noble on 6th Avenue & 23rd Street in Manhattan around 11:30, and my friend Brooklyn-bred Michael will lead us, via the F train. Why don’t we gather 'round the magazine rack at B&N, so early-comers can sit and read? There’s a rest-room there, too (you cannot pee on the graves).
The tour itself takes around 2 hours and is pretty easy stop-and-go walking, no major hills. So, who’s in? My coworkers Thea and Brenda may be there. and my friend Terry. Biggirl? Billdo? Oxy? Ike? Who’s in?
The 5th Ave Fair is on the 18th also. If anyone has any energy left after the walking tour there is about 20 blocks of food and cheap crap on sale, bands playing in the street and other fair fare.
If needs be, my new (and not fully furnished or moved into) apartment is about 5 blocks away and can be made available for a pit stop.
Oooh, you live near such a cool cemetery? I am so jealous. I just have a little Italian Catholic cemetery near my house (which actually is still pretty cool).
I’ll certainly be going back into Manahattan after Green-Wood, so anyone who wants to hit the 5th Avenue Food Fair, we can make up a party!
No peeing on the graves? Not even Johnny Torrio’s or Boss Tweed’s?
Green-Wood thoughtfully provides a john for the bereaved (and the morbid sightseers), just inside the main gate off 20th Street and Fifth.
Eve: Biggirl means the fair on Fifth Avenue in Brooklyn, not Manhattan. Look for the Domincan church ladies down arounf Fifth Street…they sell the yummiest deep-fried turnovers, stuffed with spicy fish.
Since we’re going to meet at the B&N (which, just to be pedantically clear if anyone’s from out of town, is on the west side of 6th between 21st and 22nd), we could also swing by one of the most historically significant cemetaries in Manhattan: The Third Cemetery of Shearith Israel is just around the corner on 21st.
I will meet Eve and others there. Whom else can we expect?
There seems to be some directions confusion . . . The flier I have says “take the R train” and “it’s at the 9th Avenue & 20th Street Gate,” whereas Michael says “the F train” and Ike says “no, it’s the 5th Avenue $ 25th Street Gate.”
So I e’d the cemetary to get this cleared up. Details to follow.
I’ll be there. But considering I’m coming in from way out of town, perhaps you could expand on the directions. Like, for instance, starting from somewhere in the area NYC dwellers laughably refer to as “upstate”. And keeping in mind that I’ll actually be doing something most Gothamites regard as insanity - driving my own car. In past trips to NYC, I’ve driven to Staten Island and taken the ferry across to Manhattan. Is that still a reasonable possibility or does anyone have a better idea?
“FOR TOUR FIVE ON SUNDAY I’LL BE INSIDE THE GATE WHICH IS_ AT PROSPECT PARK WEST (NINTH AVENUE) & 20TH ST. ABOUT 12:50PM. TOUR STARTS AT 1 O’CLOCK.”
_
So, that’s settled. Now, Michael says we’d get there via the F train, while the brochure says the R. Any Brooklyn subway experts care to dive in on this one?
Nemo, you’re driving into Manhattan? That’s crazy-talk. I can’t give you driving directions, all I can say is that we’ll be meeting at the magazine rack at the B&N on 6th Avenue (“Avenue of the Americas” on the street signs) at 21st Street, and we’ll be taking some subway from 23rd. Try to be there no later than 11:30.
Nemo, are you at all near a Metro-North station with a parking lot? Seriously, I’d strongly advise that, because driving in would leave you with two unpleasant choices:
Meeting us in Brooklyn, but getting from north of the city to Brooklyn in less than 2.5-3 hours will require such a bizarre concatenation of circumstances (i.e., no major construction work on roads and bridges - which, if you’re taking the Tappan Zee, is already a non-starter - and no accidents) that it’s just not reliable. Which leaves:
Meeting us in Manhattan, and that means finding parking. There is legal, on-street (read: free) parking about, but very little of it is near where we’re meeting up (and in fact, very little of it would be near any reasonably central location in Manhattan). Getting street parking usually means driving around for at least 15-20 minutes, and then walking another 10-15 minutes to where you’re going.
There is quite a bit of garage space near B & N, but that, of course, means money - although less of it on weekends than during the week. If you really wanna know I can check the lots at lunch and see what they’re going for on a weekend.
Now that I’ve told Michael that tour is at 9th Avenue & 20th Street and not at 5th & 25th, he says, “Hmmm, the ass-end? Maybe the F is not the best way to get there.”
Can any Brooklynites suggest the best subway route from midtown Manhattan?