Not being from NYC, I feel like I’m missing out everything that makes it special. Sure, I’ve been to all the big touristy things, and to the well-known restaurants. And, yeah, that’s all interesting enough, but I want to love the City, to not feel like it’s just a tourist destination. What should I check out, and why? What makes the City special to you?
I’m open to suggestions in any of the 5 boroughs. And if you think NYC isn’t worthy of love, sure, I’m happy to mull that over, too.
Okay, I don’t really think NYC is worthy of love having done my time there, but why don’t you tell us what you like and maybe we can make some suggestions based on that. Are you a nature lover? Maybe we can suggest a park other than Central Park (which, btw, is wonderful and, despite the assertion of old Odd Couple reruns, not particularly dangerous). Shopping? Maybe try Century 21 in the Wall Street area, rather than Macy’s. Or maybe someone has another suggestion. Is art your thing? What kind? Maybe someone can suggest a museum other than the Met or MOMA.
You need never eat at the same place twice. Long before you finish the cycle, the contents of the cycle will have changed out from under you and you can start over without repeating yourself.
The subways.
Battery Park (especially the sailor’s monument)
The Empire State Building (I don’t think most New Yorkers truly appreciate it).
I think people appreciate it as an icon but many folks born here (which I was not) avoid doing touristy-seeming things even if they’re interesting. I was working in an office near dowtown on 9-11-01, and in the weeks afterwards I informally polled my colleagues to see how many had actually gone up to the top of the World Trade Center. Almost everyone who grew up outside of the city had done it (many as kids), but very few of those who grew up in the city.
Why do you need to be talked into liking NYC? If you like urban living, it’s urban living concentrate. If you don’t, there’s no convincing you to spend more than a day or two a year there. I read somewhere recently (I forget the context) that the English people are proud of London and the French proud of Paris, but Americans in general are not proud of New York. I guess there a lot of reasons why that is, but it’s our world city, folks.
Anyway, I like these, which aren’t that touristy: the Greenway bike path down the Hudson from Inwood to the Battery (if you don’t mind the risk, biking is a great way to get a different view of things); a million choices for cheap ethnic food in Jackson Heights and Flushing, Queens; the Cyclone (the scariest roller coaster in the world because it’s so freakin’ old) and the Wonder Wheel and all of Coney Island (plus the Russian food in Brighton Beach) (and the bike path down Ocean Parkway for that matter); Central Park north of the reservoir; water taxis (I take them for no reason) and the (free) Staten Island ferry; a thousand free outdoor concerts all summer long; the fact that at these free concerts the city will easily churn up a few hundred or a few thousand fans of Algerian rai or Senegalese pop music or free jazz or someone like Jimmie Dale Gilmore; bluegrass at the Baggott Inn on Wednesday nights; the Russian baths; the fact that if you decide you want Tibetan or Peruvian or West African food you can look into Zagat’s and there is a choice of restaurants; the Sunshine, Film Forum, Angelika, and all the other little cinemas; the salsa and merengue blasting up my air shaft on summer nights (really); the quiet side streets of Harlem early in the morning; the Babel you hear on the streets every minute of every day; the fact that you could pick a block at random that you think you’re familiar with and there will always be something you hadn’t noticed before or something that had changed since you’d been there last.
My top touristy things would be the Museum of Natural History (I go once or twice every year), Shea Stadium (named for the famed guerilla leader, Che Stadium), the 3-hour Circle Line trip all the way around, Central Park, the Empire State Building at dusk, a walk across the Brooklyn Bridge, Chinatown and Little Italy at night.
For off-brand museums, there’s The American Folk Art Museum. The Museum of Sex (233 Fifth Avenue) is not great (in my opinion – I’ve only been there once), but it is different than MOMA, I’ll grant it that.
I could do the negatives too, if you’d like.
Ichbin Dubist’s Brooklyn suggestions are good! I would also recommend the Queens’ Museum panorama in Flushing Meadow Park. It’s a detailed scale model of the entire city. You can also visit the Queen’s Hall of Science and see that big globe in the park.
When I was a small child I had grandparents in Queens and in Brooklyn. We lived upstate and then in Maine, so visited rarely. When we saw the big globe we knew we were almost at Gram’s and when we saw the Statue of Liberty off in the distance, we knew we were at Grandma Ricky’s (and, in fact, wave our hands in the air and yell “Brooklyn!” It was adorable, I’m sure.) More than 35 years later, those places make me “feel” NYC. See, I think it’s got to be a personal thing.
I may not love NY anymore, but, more than anyplace else, I think you have to develop your own relationship with the city.
I can’t tell you exactly where it is or how to see it but NYC has a soul. You just need to open up to it.
Damn, I love playing tourist in my own city. Last Thursday I went to Broadway in Bryant Park for lunch (second time this year), then walked back home by the United Nations and picked up some Japanese pastries and Kona coffee.
Yesterday I took my daughter for a long walk through Central Park, and while I was feeding her near the Conservatory (where they sail the little boats) the woman who shared my wife’s hospital room walked by. Her kid is huge even though he’s the same age as my baby!
When visitors come to town I like to go to a neighbourhood I don’t know well, armed with a walking tour book, and figure out who lived there.
Do you take it so far that you patronize overpriced, overcrowded restaurants, block sidewalks along Fifth Avenue, and collapse in total writhing self-hatred when you get home?
I hate Central Park. For some TRULY great parks, check out Prospect and Van Cortlandt Parks. And be sure to stop and check out the 168 St subway station (the deepest one in the system, but also the most interesting) on the way up to VCP.
If you haven’t trotted down to the Strand Bookstore at 12th & Broadway, you’re missing something.
You should also go to the two rivers (East & Hudson) just to gaze at the skyline. And go across a bridge or tunnel to see the actually NYC skyline.
Only during restaurant week…
I walked up out of the subway at 86th St., went to the bank, and strolled east down 86th street amongst all the people and I was just enjoying it immensely. All the lovely ladies from all around the world, couples out for a stroll, moms with kids in strollers, people just out walking around doing their thing, it was a great evening. That’s one thing I would surely miss if I left. I don’t even know what you’d call it.
People-watching. I love it. The night that Harry Potter was released a few weeks ago, I stood on line for three and a half hours on East 86th Street. It was far more amusing than I’d anticipated it being.
I think that the times that you really learn to just love a city are when you are doing the mundane things, not the touristy things.
Both Paris and New York, I like going to and just basically acting like I live there. I like to get up on Sunday morning, walk somewhere to get a newspaper, a coffee and an egg sandwich.
I like to watch sports in a bar.
I like to go to the movies, find a cheap place to get a quick lunch.
Just sit around outdoors and read the newspaper and work on the crossword.
In Paris, I played chess in Les Jardins Du Luxembourg. I got falafel from some weird arabic place, a gyro and french fries from some greasy greek place. I got a haircut from someone who spoke no english. I found a place with Chinese take out and beers near my hotel. I think that’s the kind of stuff I remember more than being herded from floor to floor up the Eiffel Tower.
Visting the Statue of Liberty isn’t going to do it for you.