Hoofer's Paradise
Written: Sep 11 '00
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Pros: New York is a dynamic city of widely varying neighbourhoods, each lending its character to make up an eclectic whole that is greater than the sum of its parts. The city pulsates with activity and heart, a tangible energy you can feel in the atmosphere!
Cons: Accidentally ending up in a dangerous part of town can turn a fun trip into a nightmare.
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| NurturingFirst's Full Review: New York City |
When you hear someone say 'New York City', they're actually talking about Manhattan. Even though the city of New York is comprised of 5 boroughs, New Yorkers (as in 'Manhattanites') are so ethnocentric as to discount the others as necessary appendages not in the same league culturally or socially.
In other words, Manhattan is where the action is and everyone knows it. The other boroughs are bedroom communities for the hordes of people who converge on tiny Manhattan each morning as if fleeing from the hinterlands.
Manhattan is an island, so is entirely surrounded by water: the Hudson River to the west, Harlem River and the Spuyten Duyvil Creek to the northwest, the East River to the east and the Upper New York Bay to the south.
To get there by car you have a choice of many different tunnels and bridges which are dotted all around it (all but one collect a toll). You can also arrive by train or take the famous Staten Island ferry.
Peter Minuit bought Manhattan 374 years ago from the Manhattan Indians, a tribe of the Wappinger Confederacy. It was renamed New York City when transferred to the British in 1664.
George Washington was inaugurated as the first U.S. president in New York City 125 years later, in 1789.
In 1898 Greater New York was formed when Manhattan was joined with the newly created boroughs of Brooklyn, Queens, Richmond (commonly known as Staten Island), and the Bronx.
That's a mini-history of the city the world looks to for the latest in fashion, music, art, ballet, opera, musical theater, sports and education. There are dozens of museums, from the renowned Museum of Natural History, the Guggenheim Museum and the Museum of Modern Art to the Center for Book Arts.
The theater district offers up plays and musicals on every block, often several to a block. On one short stretch of W.44th Street, between Broadway and 8th Avenue, for example, you can see the Broadway shows Phantom of the Opera, Chicago, Swing, and Fosse! Playing just around the corner on W. 45th is Les Miz and Seussical the Musical. What a city!
Restaurants of every stripe call New York home from fast food joints to 21, Sardi's, and the Russian Tea Room.
Which is the best way to see New York City: by car, bus, subway, Hansom cab, bicycle or foot? Each mode of travel gives you a different perspective, but if you ask me, to really 'do' New York, you've got to hoof it!
New York is a city of walkers, evidenced by all the sneakers you see on everyone's feet. Women in suits carrying briefcases pound the pavements in white Reeboks on their way to the office. Men in labourer's uniforms lift heavy boxes wearing Nikes and Adidas.
Moms pushing strollers (or running behind them) wear Converse and Fila. Teens rush to school in Pumas and Skechers. Little old ladies shuffle along in Keds and little old men sit on park benches wearing generic brands bought at a discount store.
No, this is not a running shoe write-up. This is New York City! To walk its streets is to really know its ins and outs. There's a feeling of real satisfaction in watching the street signs go by as you stride: 33rd, 34th, 35th -- about a street a minute. You get your exercise and a visual feast as the neighbourhoods change under your feet.
There's Tribeca, Chelsea and Soho, Greenwich Village. The Financial District, Gramercy Park, Murray Hill, Central Park. The Upper West Side and the Upper East Side. Washington Heights and Harlem.
It's impossible to walk the whole island of Manhattan in a day and take it all in. When I took my friend into the city for her first time we started at the south end and tackled downtown. Next visit it was midtown, After that, uptown. Then, midtown again, where we stayed at a hotel right in Times Square. There is nothing quite like waking up in Times Square!
Each time I walk in New York I feel newly envigorated and wonderfully at home. What thrills me is that all my friends to whom I've shown my native city feel the same way.
New York has that effect on you.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
NurturingFirst
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Member: Marga Raudsepp
Location: Trenton, Ontario
Reviews written: 9
Trusted by: 4 members
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