After a five year wait, my green card arrived in the mail today! I’ll be moving to New York City sometime in the next 2 - 3 weeks, depending on how quickly I can pack, how soon the movers are available, and how soon I can get a cheap flight.
A bit of background - my brilliant wife took a job working in the production department of the Metropolitan Opera in October of 2018. She’s a US citizen by birth, so she was able to go down there right away.
I am not a US citizen (and didn’t even have a valid passport at the time) so I stayed in Canada. We sold our Toronto house in 2019, and bought a condo in Sugar Hill (a subset of Hamilton Heights, which is itself a subset of Harlem - I’m still coming to terms with the names of neighbourhoods!). I moved most of our stuff down there - by a strange coincidence, on August 26, 2019. Five years later, on August 26, 2024, I got the green card in the mail! By a strange oddity of the calendar, both dates were Mondays.
For something I’ve been preparing for for the last five years, I’m still a bit overwhelmed by it all!
And while I’m fairly aware of the opera scene in New York, I don’t have a clue about the rest of it - where are the open mics for singer-songwriters, poets, and Celtic musicians? Where are the jazz clubs, the indie rock clubs, the folk clubs?
Any advice or recommendations gratefully accepted!
No, unfortunately. Once you apply for the green card, you may not cross the border (except in extraordinary circumstances). My wife has come up to visit when her schedule allows, but I left the US on August 27, 2019, and I haven’t been back since.
Congratulations! No advice other than to enjoy yourself, but also pace yourself. Moving to a new country can get overwhelming, even one with a common language.
Congratulations! To which borough? Peoples’ suggestions might depend on your answer.
I’ll initially suggest the tour boat that circles Manhattan. They give some history about the city, and you see the entire waterfront of the island. Also take a tour of the Public Library, the main building on 5th in Manhattan. It’s a free tour and it was excellent.
I’ll be in Sugar Hill, a subset of Hamilton Heights, which is itself a subset of Harlem. I’m between Jackie Robinson Park and Riverside Park, with places like the Audubon Terrace, The Grange, Dance Theatre of Harlem, and Grant’s Tomb not far from me.
The Southwest corner of Sugar Hill, as I remember 145th and Amsterdam, is at least a half-hour’s walk from Grant’s Tomb. It’s a pretty good hike, especially if you’re not starting out from 145th and Amsterdam. Funny, I lived on 121st and Amsterdam for three years, the block George Carlin grew up on, and I never once visited Grant’s Tomb despite it being three blocks away and me being interested in American history.
If you’re there by the 11th make sure to check out Tribute in Light (my photo) that night. The base in in Lower Manhattan but it can be seen from miles away. Pro tip: It’s on all night on the 11th but it’s on until about 10pm or so for a couple of nights leading up to the 11th as a dry run.
Ft. Washington park takes you under the GW which is very high over the water & the Little Red Lighthouse is under the bridge. If you enter from 181st St it’s probably a mile + elevation thru the switchbacks to walk essentially ¼ mile west. If you get on the greenway further south it’s not nearly the elevation change that it is where the bridge is.
Thank you.
I’ve shot it from all over the past years & have some incredible photos of it; at least 4 different places in NJ, Brooklyn & obviously Lower Manhattan, including Ground Zero & last year from the air.
I think this year’s target is one of the observation decks in midtown so that we’re above the city looking south.
Yay, bienvenue a New York, Votre Excellence! I’m sure all your wife’s colleagues will have a plethora of recommendations for local musical activities. Keep us posted on when you’ll be performing when you start getting local gigs!
(In the meantime, allow me to put in a plug for IndieWorks Theatre Company, some of whose artists I’m acquainted with, who do fun shows!)
Thanks. Nice. Then definitely I recommend the boat tour that goes around Manhattan Island, on a good weather day.
My son went to college in the Upper East Side and we also took some of the bus tours, but they weren’t nearly as good and informative as the boat tour.
I’ll also second the Public Library tour that I mentioned earlier.
Visiting the High Line looks very interesting, but that was completed after his schooling years. As the song goes, I ain’t never been there but they tell me it’s nice.
I have been there, a couple of times. I’d say visit it in your second or even third year there, IOW, do not make it a priority. It’s basically an old elevated railroad that they turned into a rail trail, mostly thru residential areas. Most of it is narrow which means if people are walking toward you (almost always) you can’t pass the slowpokes in front of you as the path is only two people wide, which also means you’re walking single file with those you are with, which isn’t ideal for conversation either. All the residents on the lower floors know there are a ton of people walking by so they keep their shades drawn/blinds closed; at ground level you get to look in the windows whether that’s retail or a lobby with a guard or whatever. Yes, there is some greenery there but there are so many better parks that are wider than 12’
An update - it looks like the movers will take my stuff from Toronto next Tuesday, Sept. 10th, and I’ll fly down or take the train on Thurs., Sept. 12th. That’s Plan A, at any rate.
I love Plan A - it’s my favourite unfulfilled fantasy!
I’ll look into the boat trip - thank you, @Bullitt !
I’m afraid the High Line is a necessity at some point - I promised fellow poet Lucas Crawford that I would read his collection “The High Line Scavenger Hunt” in situ when we read together at the Free Times Cafe pre-pandemic.
I also recall being told the best way to see the Statue of Liberty is to take the Staten Island ferry. I’m very keen to re-visit the Ellis Island museum, which I saw when I was down for an audition in the late '90s or early 2000s - I know it was before 2001, because I was staying at the Marriot WTC…
And yes, I’m well aware of the Village Vanguard, Blue Note, Birdland, and Lincoln Centre jazz venues - what I’m really wanting to explore is the hundreds of other jazz, folk, and indie rock venues with open mics and artists I’ve never heard of… Suggestions welcomed!
