The aftermath of the strong storm that hit Central Park on August 18, 2009:
The Central Park Conservancy, the non-profit entity that helps maintain the park, has posted an appeal in case you want to donate to contribute to the cleanup effort.
Mom and Dad were in town, so we spent time doing more touristy things in and around the area at the beginning of August . . .
August 1, 2009
Dinner at Agnanti in Astoria, including their Rooster specialty dish:
The kids went to Shannon Pot after dropping off the parents:
August 2, 2009
It rained in Ridgewood, New Jersey:
But we had a nice view of Midtown from the Secaucus Junction Train Station on the way back home:
August 3, 2009
One of the aforementioned Mets games at Citi Field.
August 4, 2009
August 5, 2009
A trip to one of Mom’s favorite NYC stores, Fishs Eddy:
We tried impressing the parents with the soft serve at Dessert Club, ChikaLicious:
August 6, 2009
Dinner at Taverna Kyclades in Astoria:
August 7, 2009
We rented a car to go up into the Hudson Valley for the day. This was the first car, a Chevrolet Aveo:
By the way, Old Yankee Stadium is still there:
We made a pit stop at the Palisades Interstate Park Commission Visitor Center (otherwise known as a place to go to the bathroom) on the Palisades Interstate Parkway:
On the way out, we (I) hit this mammoth pothole and popped a hole in the front left tire of the Aveo:
The nine-dollar-a-day insurance came in handy, so we returned the car to Budget at Stewart International Airport. This required a detour through Newburgh, but not before a stop at the US 9W Overlook above West Point:
Everything looked different than when we visited there last fall:
The detour through Newburgh, New York:
Then returning the car at Stewart International Airport. I had never been to Stewart, so it was a chance to check it out. While there, a well-intentioned State Trooper asked why I was taking a picture of the terminal. The folks cheerfully explained that we had a website where we put up pictures of anything and everything. He was alarmed, and took a look at the pictures we’d taken. Exterior shots of the airport were OK, but this image had, in his words, “no apparent aesthetic value,” language which I remembered hearing about:
You may wonder what the purpose of the Big Map is. Fair enough. I think the pictures have many purposes, including aesthetics (sometimes!) but also in terms of transmitting information. In the above image, there is an ad for Nyack in the foreground, the airlines that fly out of Stewart in the background and people in 2009 dressing a certain way and using particular types of luggage (carry-ons!). Many years from now people might be interested in these details. When I look at archival photos I’m often more interested in details that the photographer probably overlooked — stuff like clothes, cars, advertisements. Our own photos have adjusted over time with this in mind; it used to be that I’d avoid cars in a street scene until I realized that those details were what made images. Places like strip malls then become interesting — this is how we live today and what it looks like. Spots like IKEA that you wouldn’t normally think are interesting then become interesting — incidentally, I think the reverse is also true: sometimes those closeups of historic cornices are lame in that they’re interesting to contemporary audiences who get jazzed about old stuff, but they’re chronologically out of context (I’m not judging, either — I get sidetracked by cool old cornices all the time — but I also know that series of images of landmarked neighborhoods have a staleness about them; those are places that by definition remain static, and there’s less of a reason to run out to photograph them — of course those are the places that people love to look at). It goes on and on. But anyway, like I was saying, I think the purpose of photos changes over time. The utilitarian look of Stewart might be interesting years from now, even if it looks pedestrian today. In a way, it’s silly to talk about stuff like this, but the State Trooper made us think about it, so it’s worth remembering as you peruse the Big Map photos. (By the way, I’m smart enough not to take photos of the security areas, but those kinds of images will be interesting one day, too, in showing among other stuff how we live today.) For me, why do I want to take a picture of Stewart? Because I’ve never been there and I want to know what it looks like. And I want to fill in the spaces of the Big Map . . .
After seeing art, we stopped by Woodbury Common Premium Outlets to run errands:
Oh, and in case you hadn’t heard:
August 8, 2009
I took the car back to LaGuardia early in the morning, and waited for the bus home by the MTA Bus LaGuardia Depot. Again, a security guard asked why I was taking pictures, but he seemed satisfied when I pointed to this cool old bus:
So you see, an old timey-time bus is fair — and fair enough, more reasonable people will look at that and think, “Oh, cool!” and it makes sense that you’re taking a photo of it. But there are also the newer buses there — and in time they will become cool, too. Or maybe transportation will look totally different years from now and all these vehicles — or even the idea that there’s a depot to begin with — will have a different meaning to people. We — I — don’t know.
You can’t take pictures from the upper levels of the Guggenheim, but that leaves a lot to enjoy in the big rotunda on the ground floor of the museum:
Later, a drink at Pier 66 Maritime:
August 9, 2009
A visit to the TKTS booth in Duffy Square:
We got tickets to South Pacific at Lincoln Center:
I think Mom and Dad had a nice visit.
The Dim Sum Lunch A La Carte at Chinatown Brasserie in Noho is a good deal:
And the Soy Sauce Crispy Baby Chicken at Fuleen Seafood Restaurant in Manhattan’s Chinatown works magic with Pringles:
While you’re at it, watch these asshats post no bills:
The Tisch Children’s Zoo:
More Central Park Mall photos:
Dial and Discover Balto:
The Shakespeare in the Park Virtual Line Policy at the Delacorte Theater:
In May, the City closed Broadway between 42nd and 47th Streets to traffic and set up lawn furniture. The result is the Times Square Pedestrian Mall:
The original lawn furniture was hastily purchased from a local vendor and before it was recently replaced, gave the space a sort of whimsical beach look:
We’ve taken visitors there and it’s a hoot. It’s also been profitable as an event space and a bonanza for vendors. No word yet whether it is actually better for traffic — the ostensible reason for the experiment — but people have their theories.
We made yet another trip up to Malouf’s Mountain Sunset Camp in the hills next to Beacon, in Dutchess County:
Malouf’s website explains the deal:
Wow!! Camping without a car? No camping gear? No problem! Welcome to Malouf’s Mountain Sunset Campground, a hike in, hike out, fully catered camping resort. We can supply you with almost everything needed to spend a relaxing weekend in the woods.
Whether coming from the south or north, enjoy a scenic train ride on the Metro North Hudson River Line. From the Beacon train station our shuttle will take you to the hike of your choice. Hikes range in duration from a half hour to five hours. While you hike in to the camp, enjoying the views, we transport your gear to the campground and place it at your site for your convenience.
They didn’t mention the stop at the trailhead at the general store where you can buy your beer, which they’ll also transport to the campsite; that’s also important.
More:
Upon arrival, the first thing you’ll notice is the privacy of each site. You will find a stack of firewood and your fire pit for cooking. You will see your covered platform which is especially nice because you’re not stuck in your tent if it rains. There is also a cover over your fire pit. You can bring your tent or rent one of ours. Then, there is our chow box — it has everything you will need for your stay, from pots and pans to a pad of paper and a deck of cards.
They also have a bathhouse with showers and toilets, big sinks for cleaning and dryers, too. Basically you need your sleeping bag and that’s it. This season they added a shuttle service to and from the train station at Beacon. It’s fantastic and we’ve been there three times now in the past couple of years. It’s about $60 a night for a site for two people. Highly recommended.
The idea is to do a long hike, and end up at the campsite. Here’s the portion of the map of the trail we took:
(You can buy the map here.)
Along the way we took more pictures of and from the old Casino site up on the ridge:
Then we checked in on the Rusted Red Car along the Casino Trail. It’s still there:
And the animals on the trail, what I think was a “Red Eft Newt” and a “Black Rat Snake”:
On the way back to town the next day we had time to poke around the Beacon Farmers Market, held Sundays on the ferry dock next to the train station:
Then one of us dropped by the 7th Annual Big Apple Barbecue Block Party at Madison Square:
The other one of us was way too tired . . .
Two New York City parks opened recently — the much-heralded High Line on Manhattan’s West Side and the much less-heralded (and clunkily named — at least the label for it I discerned on a map at the park) North Recreation and Interpretive Area portion of Gantry Plaza State Park in the Hunters Point corner of Long Island City, Queens.
We visited the High Line both during the day and at dusk. First things first, it’s cool — a nice way to “repurpose” an industrial relic. Nicolai Ouroussoff was elated. The project has received nation wide and world wide attention. It will surely raise property values in a once-blighted part of the city (though it hasn’t really been that blighted for twenty or thirty years now as property values there steadily rose anyway). The plantings are very artful, though as a friend remarked, she’ll also be excited to visit the High Line in the winter, when it will likely resemble its former state.
The High Line is also really, really expensive. The entire project, once it is built up to 30th Street, will cost $152 million, $108 million of which coming from the city, according to the papers (and with private donors chipping in $44 million, you can bet that they’ll feel a great sense of ownership over it). And it’s like 30 feet wide. So yes, it’s cool and all, but $108 million could build a lot of playgrounds, and that $44 million is $44 million that won’t be available for other philanthropic endeavors (even other non-profit park endeavors). (And remember that West Side redevelopment remains one of Bloomberg’s legacy projects.)
But for now, it’s cool to see New Yorkers and visitors so jazzed at the novelty of the High Line. I just hope Ouroussoff’s “shifting narrative” is worth it in the long run.
Maybe you like billboard advertisements in your parks. If so, you’ll love the High Line:
Then there’s the Standard Hotel, which is (I think) the only new building that the High Line runs through:
Reports are that it has become a hotspot for exhibitionists and voyeurs alike, which is what it is; it’s got a bunch of glass, after all. But then the Standard people apparently started actually soliciting “hot” “erotic” photos, which is when it gets into the realm of media whorism, verging on fucking disgusting. So why not tax those assholes all you can? Yay, gross people humping in a window! Enjoy it — that’s your Meatpacking District. Hoodely doo.
While Mayor Bloomberg and whoever else were cutting ribbons at the High Line, another park opened in Queens, with more modest press. At the risk of sounding all Armond White about it, yeah, the High Line is cool, but have you actually seen the new North Recreation and Interpretive Area portion of Gantry Plaza State Park? Now that’s a park. There is room to sit, stroll, play, relax or whatever it is people do when they patronize public parks:
And they’ve got hammocks:
Where the views from the High Line are intriguing (an old warehouse from the vantage point of the second floor — I get it), the views of the city from the new part of Gantry Plaza State Park are stunning:
And then there are the Adirondack chairs:
And I don’t think this park cost $150 million, either.
The other salient point is that Gantry Plaza State Park is, as its name indicates, a State park — not a City park (as the High Line is — sort of, now that it’s maintained by a non-profit conservancy, which is another issue altogether). At some point these past couple of months I began wondering if the State is actually building or putting together all the greatest parks in the city now. This new spot in Long Island City is one, but there’s also the crazy popularity of Governors Island and then even stuff like the reconstituted Pool Parties at East River State Park in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Where the Bloomberg administration seems preoccupied with development — not only around the High Line but also at Coney Island, the people in charge of the city’s state parks seem more interested in people actually using open space. That’s something to think about.
Shut out of the 1 p.m. ferry to Governors Island because of the 2009 Jazz Age Lawn Party, we wandered around Lower Manhattan, wondering what to do. First went over towards The Battery and Pier A, which they seem no closer to renovating, except for some fancy signage:
So we decided to take the IKEA Express Water Taxi to Red Hook:
There’s the new Erie Basin Park there:
Truthfully, Red Hook was a little hot that day (83 degrees, 77 percent humidity), so we returned home via the B61.
In Greenpoint, a word of warning, and some good advice in general:
Not that we’re in the market for a new mattress or anything, but good to know . . .
Things are looking even bleaker for Counterfeit Triangle:
Negronis at Forlini’s:
Had only been to Golden Unicorn for dim sum a while back, but dinner is good, too:
The ubiquitous Employees Must Wash Hands sign at Golden Unicorn had been existentially reduced to a single “employee” — the first time I’ve seen that:
Walked back north and passed by the new building at the Cooper Union, which had just been reviewed very favorably in the paper:
The powerful Tiecoon at Penn Station, Midtown Manhattan, May 9, 2009, 10:00 a.m.:
Phillies vs. Braves at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia, May 9, 2009, 5:24 p.m.:
Dirty Frank’s, Philadelphia, May 9, 2009, 11:42 p.m.:
The Shirt Corner, Old City, Philadelphia, May 10, 2009, 3:15 p.m.:
The exciting new Trenton Transit Center in Trenton, New Jersey, May 10, 2009, 4:47 p.m.:
The tulips on the Park Avenue Malls are done for the year:
Employees Washing Hands, Cacio E Pepe, 182 Second Avenue, East Village, Manhattan, May 1, 2009, 10:53 p.m.:
Employees Washing Hands, Jimmy’s No. 43, 43 East 7th Street, East Village, Manhattan, May 2, 2009, 1:00 a.m.:
Mariachi Entertainment, Tequila Sunrise, 40-01 Northern Boulevard, Astoria, Queens, May 2, 2009, 10:33 p.m.:
Dutch Kills Bar, 27-24 Jackson Avenue, Long Island City, Queens, May 3, 2009, 12:30 a.m.:
Taxis, Jackson Avenue and Queens Street, SE Corner, Long Island City, Queens, May 3, 2009, 2:51 a.m.:
44th Street and Broadway, Looking South, Times Square, Midtown Manhattan, May 3, 2009, 3:18 a.m.:
And given the current economic climate, there will likely never be another Bowery Savings Bank, which is now Capitale, the event space on the Lower East Side:
Two new menus added:
You can get the smoked “bacon” beer (”Rauchbier”) at WunderBar:
Both highly recommended . . .
Ah — I always wondered who this guy was — I saw vegetable peeler-purveyor John Ades/took pictures of him two different times. The pictures sat on the hard drive for a while — What was it? Who was he? How do you classify it? I tried googling it but what do you google, “peeler guy manhattan”? In retrospect, I should have googled the Daily News clip in the background with the headline “A Slice of the Street Action” . . . I would have come across this. Then one day I just finally labeled a page “The Pitch” under “Curiosities” and uploaded the pictures there.
Anyway, John Ades passed away last Sunday, February 1.
Here he is in Lower Manhattan probably about 3 years ago (I think — I can’t quite remember):
And here he is in Union Square in September 2008:
The new Year’s Eve ball on top of One Times Square is now a year-round feature (see for example):
And before the ground floor finally became a Walgreen’s . . .
. . . it was vacant for some time. The best use for the space was the DEA’s traveling Target America: Drug Traffickers, Terrorists and You Exhibit. The exhibit is now called, “Target America: Opening Eyes to the Damage Drugs Cause.” I guess they had problems answering the smart ass in the back who kept insisting that the link between personal drug use and international terrorism was as good a reason as any to simply grow your own . . .
I can’t tell if they’re done with the Bank of America Tower or if that’s what it’s supposed to look like at the top:
It’s been like five years. There is still a bunch of scaffolding around the sidewalk:
Maybe it has something to do with all the falling glass.
I know someone who works there. You can get a good view of Bryant Park from the upper floors:
It started when I read in the paper that you could basically walk up and see the US Airways Flight 1549 plane while it was moored against the seawall at Battery Park City:
Among the shocking images that this city can produce, it was certainly one of the strangest: the white left wing of an airplane jutting from the river like the dorsal fin of a shark.
It was clearly something to look at, and many did on Friday as, despite the bitter winds, a steady stream of the curious wandered by. They were as wide-eyed as they were various: dog-walkers, ironworkers, mothers pushing strollers, tourists bearing backpacks, professional camera crews and the inevitable joggers, most of whom seemed content to bounce a moment in their spandex before continuing on their way.
“We just wanted to come down and, you know, see it,” said Raney Kilgore, 41, a homemaker who arrived from Denver on Thursday night for a vacation. “You don’t usually get to be an eyewitness to something like this.”
“Something like this,” by Friday afternoon, had the look and feel of an enormous crime scene, with yellow police tape cordoning off River Terrace in Battery Park City and more than a dozen fire engines parked with lights flashing up and down the block.
That ubiquitous modern response to public events — the taking of cellphone pictures — was occurring nearly everywhere one looked. The police allowed people to approach the barricades briefly but then shooed them on their way.
So of course I wanted to see the plane that was part of one of the biggest “Whoa, Dude!” moments in history. On Saturday however, preparations were well underway to hoist the thing into the air and you couldn’t get near the edge of the water. A crowd was out — some people waiting there, they said, four hours already — so I figured I’d wait to see if it would come up. It didn’t come up in the almost two hours I waited there, but here are pictures of some very large cranes, in case anyone is a big crane enthusiast.
(A side note: This is why we started the Big Map Blog + RSS Feed — to apprise you of all the new content, and not just the “greatest hits” stuff that I link from the homepage. In this case, I wouldn’t want to get anyone’s hopes up by luring them in from the homepage with a provocative Flight 1549 link, but in case you’re a huge big crane enthusiast, well then who are we to decide how important the pictures are to you?)
So without further ado, some pictures of big cranes:
