More NYC Questions

[donblood]

NYC people:  the Roosevelt Island tram shuts down on March 1 and will not reopen until August 31.  Which is kind of a bummer.

[milesofsparks]

oh fuck--I keep forgetting about that!  thanks for the reminder.  I've somehow never managed to ride it.  putting it in the calendar now...

[alexandra]

I need to do that too!

[Ignatius]

My uncle loved that thing. Some architect enthusiasm.

[elpollodiablo]

Hey kids! Just popping in to say that if you're even in the vicinity of NYC, you need to come to this tonight:

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=304413564659&index=1

Sixpoint 5th Anniversary Bash at Barcade, with 16 draughts, some of which I've never seen/heard of before. Three of them are "one of a kind kegs." It'll be pretty crazy; I'm gonna try to get there right around 6, if I can.

[milesofsparks]

I think I'm gonna stop by, as early as I can (probably closer to 7 by the time I get out of work and get there).  I hope it's not too nutty.

mostly I want to try this:
Gorilla Warfare, dry hopped with fresh coffee, on cask

[elpollodiablo]

Man that was some good beer. I feel lucky to have that place in the neighborhood just about every time I go.

[Mike24]

hey guys and gals.  so i've been in nyc the last few days, planned on leaving this past evening but i'm flying on standby and it doesn't look like i'll get out 'til tomorrow evening.  i've spent most of my time in brooklyn with the lady i'm staying with so i haven't had time to check out much of the city.  she's got school all day tomorrow so i'm thinking that ill spend the day exploring manhattan before heading to the airport.  i'm wondering if you guys have any tips or cool places that i should check out.  my trip back to brooklyn from lga gave me a crash course in the nyc subway craziness so i should be alright on that front.  but what are some fun/cool/interesting/cheap things to see and do in manhattan?  i hear the met is free, is it worthwhile?  my sister was raving about some "garment district", is this hipster nonsense?  my plan so far is to get into the city and just wander around but i'm thinking a little direction would be handy.

[elpollodiablo]

The Garment District is basically just midtown Manhattan; I don't know of much worthwhile over there.  You could do the Met for free (though they'll give you the stink eye if you don't pay), or MoMA for $20, which is worthwhile. The Whitney Biennial is also happening right now. If it's not raining all day long, I'd suggest you go to the Highline on the west side.

[jm]

heh! I actually work in the garment district, and pollo is on the right track&emdash;there's really not much of anything here, unless you're like, dying to see Macy's.  Even the touristy stuff is north of here (Times Square, Rockefeller Center, etc.) or south of here (Empire State Building).

[elpollodiablo]

Two things you can do for free that are both pretty awesome ways to get a skyline view of Manhattan: take the Staten Island Ferry from the southern tip of Manhattan to SI and back a few times, or go to East River State Park in North Brooklyn, where North 8th st meets the water.

[milesofsparks]

the Met isn't free exactly--there's a minimum charge.  I think it was 25 cents last time I checked.  I usually pay a dollar and they don't give me the stink eye, just a student ticket.

walking around the west village is one of my favorite things, thought it's rainy today.  as everyone said, don't go to the garment district--only of interest if you're a fashion student or something.  and it's a pretty ugly neighborhood.

the financial district is also good for walking--Trinity Church has an awesome old graveyard, you can rail at the bankers in Goldman Sachs, hop on the Staten Island Ferry, hit up the swank Hudson River parks, etc, and nearly every subway stops there. 

there are some good parts of Chinatown, the Lower East Side (tenement museum, Economy Candy, the Donut Plant, etc.) has some good things, too.  mostly I guess I'm a downtown girl unless I'm going to the museums.

I would just pick one or two things to do, and wander around from there.

[Good Intentions]

Give money to the museum, guys. It's a good thing they do, and it's fucking expensive to run.

[milesofsparks]

I go to the Met often enough that my dollars add up to a normal entry.  plus I, like, pay taxes.

[Good Intentions]

Taxes never cover the full costs of running a museum. Not close.

To give you an idea of the scales normally involved: at the museum I worked at, our target for money made by donation wasn't enough to cover even our electricity bill.

[jm]

the Met isn't free exactly--there's a minimum charge.  I think it was 25 cents last time I checked.

Huh!  I thought there was no mandatory payment, but a "suggested donation" of whatever.  I generally give a couple of dollars, at least.  I'd love to be able to afford to pay the $15 or $20 that they suggest every time I go there, but I can't (which is honestly the reason I haven't hit up more of the museums in the city).

[milesofsparks]

most museums do have a pay-what-you-wish night for exactly that reason.  though they can be kind of a madhouse.

[elpollodiablo]

I would be at MoMA every week if the admission were maybe 1/2 what it is now. As it is I should be going for Free Fridays, but it's always a moshpit.

[auto-da-fey]

so when I was walking around the city last week, I was kind of sold on Hell's Kitchen--seems like a convenient location, given that I'll be commuting into New Jersey a few times per week, and I liked the general vibe. thoughts on the neighborhood?

[donblood]

I'm sold on it as a place to hang out.  Close to lots of trains, great restaurants, somehow wonderful despite being in midtown.  I don't think I'd want to live there, but only just barely.  The major downside for me is its proximity to Times Square and the theater district.  If I were commuting to Jersey I'd probably find it ideal.  (plus it's also home to last-of-their-kind porn stores in Manhattan, whit, for your interests, though you've probably already photographed them all)

[Greg Nog]

I imagine living there would drive me fucking batty, but coldie and fenster seem to like it; I think if your tolerance for urbanity is higher than mine (and I believe it is), you should be happy there.

[elpollodiablo]

We would love to live in coldie's neighborhood. The bar scene kind of sucks, but there's awesome food and you're definitely in the thick of it there.

[coldforge]

I live here. It is awesome here. I am such a Samantha.

[milesofsparks]

I would not live there, since I work in a tourist-filled neighborhood and living in another would be just too much (not Hell's Kitchen so much as the edge of Times Square bleeding over), and I value the sense of decompression upon arriving across the East River.  But I can see it being a good place for you and, as Greg said, C and F (and eula) do like it a lot.

you should live wherever strikes you as a good place to be, especially if you've been there at different times (during rush hour, late night weekend, early morning, etc.) so you have a pretty good sense of the character.  it's not like you can't leave after a year if you're tired of it.

and I'd say for me if I were choosing a new neighborhood the most important thing would be the absolute immediate neighborhood--what subway stop will I use?  where will I do laundry?  where will I buy groceries?  where will I get my caffeine fix?  I very much enjoy my interactions with many of the small shop people in my neighborhood.

[coldforge]

I need to say in my neighborhood's defense that the influence from Times Square where I live is exactly 0. We get the theater district runoff much more than that, and frankly that's not really an issue either. It's a neighborhood in Manhattan, which means there are going to be lots of foreigners around, at all times—but it's so squarely residential that those foreigners aren't really identifiably touristy in any way. In Times Square you deal with throngs, and you deal with people of all creeds and sizes walking like idiots, or gawking, or standing in the middle of the sidewalk. In Hell's Kitchen there's really none of that at all. 9th Avenue anywhere north of, say, 45th St. is very isolated from Times Square. There's a ton of restaurants all up and down 9th, so you will definitely see foot traffic at nearly all times, but I do really love living right next to one of the greatest concentrations of restaurant availability on the planet. And if you miss the remoteness and grim monochromacity of Brooklyn you can always go one block further west, to 10th, which is an 'authentic' New York City avenue, in that nobody goes there who doesn't live there, because it's not very nice. But unlike Brooklyn, there's no hipsters at all!