After last week’s visit to Westchester, my buddy Chris over at NYC Visit, which gets people to visit NYC (apparently, we need more visitors still) asked me, why not write about New York, which itself is as polarized as the suburban areas. He asks this question, which I thought sort of didn’t need any further tampering to make its point:
“How many Park Slope families take the kids to the Bronx Zoo or the NY Botanical Garden or to as a couple for a stroll through the beautiful estate gardens of Wave Hill above the bluffs of the Hudson River in the Bronx? Or, when was the last time a Manhattan couple went to Brooklyn’s 5th Avenue…or even to Williamsburg to say the Brooklyn Brewery?
“Or, do those families on the Lower East Side ever venture down to Lower Manhattan to see the Waterfalls or to go for a run in Battery Park City? Or, an Upper West Side family traveling to good ‘ol Peter Luger’s for one of the best steaks in the world. All accessible without spending a penny on gas? People from all around the world (46 million of them!) come to NYC, yet we New Yorkers don’t explore our own backyard enough.
“Whether’s it’s ethnic food in Queens, bucolic Staten Island with even a new Gray Line sightseeing tour set to debut next week, the Bronx or even neighborhoods throughout Manhattan and Brooklyn that we’ve never explored simply because we’re so accustomed to our routines of staying in our own ‘hoods.”
The man is right, of course. (Except that as a former resident of Brooklyn’s 5th Avenue, I find that suggestion not so charming. Talk about lipstick on a pig. Also, I can think of better things to do in Williamsburg – like visiting Gimme! on Lorimer, which is like, so much more espresso-riffic than their new Mott Street branch.)
Pesky differences aside, admit to yourself that you don’t get out enough, and that there are times where you take this whole “greatest city in the world” thing on faith, mostly because how would you know? None of that no-car/I-hate-the- subway-on-the-weekends bull, please. It is precisely for this sort of situation that things like Zipcar were invented.
I’d say that you would have to visit all five boroughs at least once a year to stay in mental shape, New York-wise. I hold myself to that. For the Bronx, like Chris suggested, I always seem to end up at marvelous Wave Hill, just a short walk up from the Metro-North Riverdale Station. Definitely one of the city’s hidden treasures. Perfect on a humid / potentially rainy August morning. Everything in the magnficent gardens seems to bloom just a little more fiercely. A million miles from the NYC day-to-day. At least my NYC day-to-day. I can’t speak for you. Maybe you live in a secret mansion with Hudson River views and proper British gardens.
Queens-wise, well, that’s easy. Pick the kind of food you’re after and hit one of the dozens of online portals to endless discussions about what’s worth eating. Me, I just head to Woodside Avenue in Elmhurst for the crispy duck salad at Shallot, a restaurant that has yet to fail me in three-plus years of being a loyal customer. (I defected here from Sripraphai, and never looked back, once they finally got a handle on the type of spice I was looking for in my food.)
Brooklyn’s easy — just pick a neighborhood you don’t live in and rarely visit. (I always choose Williamsburg, mostly because it’s the neighborhood most unlike anywhere I have ever lived in New York.)
Manhattan, of course, is easy (if not hugely subjective). However, if you’re asking, I like to plan a walk from Battery Park to at least Central Park, twice a year, in fall and spring. I also like to book the most expensive park-facing suite I can find and have someone else foot the bill, but lets not get carried away.
Finally, there’s Staten Island, and if I had to choose one thing to recommend, I’m not joking when I say that’s difficult. For purposes of really expanding your horizons, go for a hike in the central greenbelt (lots of trails, really!) and then hit the cooler-than-cool Jacques Marchais Museum of Tibetan Art. Sitting on the side of what I believe is Todt Hill, designed to look like an actual temple and never lacking in the incense department somehow, the illusion is quite effective. A must.
Image: Jacques Marchais Museum, via Google Images