If you know New York, you can probably reel off its boroughs and most famous neighborhoods no problem: Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, the Bronx, Staten Island, Soho, Harlem, the Upper East and West Sides, Park Slope, Astoria, the South Bronx, Riverdale, even Flushing and Flatbush. But what about City Island and Roosevelt Island? Eh, not so much. That's because they belong to the other New York, the parts of the city you rarely see on TV or in the movies. These little chunks of land are part of this town but they really aren't integrated into it and they don't belong to any borough. They're like little enclaves, small towns within the big city. However, today, here at Mr NYC, we will give them their due:
City Island: This is what one might call a "nautical community." It's like the Nantucket of NYC, a little island floating off the coast - in this case, the coast of the Bronx. But this isn't the tough Bronx of the popular imagination. No, this small island, about a mile long, consists of charming little houses and seafood restaurants. It also has several docks for boats and you have to constantly remind yourself that you're in New York City and not in a New England fishing town. I was there last year and we had a pleasant walk along City Island Avenue, the main street that cuts across the length of the island. We looked at the charming little stores and had a lobster lunch at a restaurant with a beautiful view of the water. Getting there is a bit of a hassle (you gotta drive), but if it's a nice day and you're inclined to see a very different part of this town, it's worth checking out.
Roosevelt Island: okay, I'll be blunt, it's nowhere near as charming as City Island but it's a lot easier to get to. You can just get off on the F train or take the Roosevelt Island tram on East 59th street (it's running again after a most unfortunate snafu last year). The island - used to be called Welfare Island - consists mostly of small apartment buildings that look like socialist worker housing. There's also a hospital here. While there's not much of interest on Roosevelt Island, there are two very cool things to see: 1) the stunning view of Manhattan 2) the Ruin! Yes, like Rome or Athens, this city has a ruin - in this case, the Pauper Lunatic Asylum. It's at the very southern most tip of the island and while it's not the world's most attractive ruin, it's makes you think of Old New York, the city that was.
For more info of these parts of "that other New York", go to:
Perhaps the best thing you can say about Coney Island is that Lou Reed wrote not one but two songs about it: "Coney Island Baby" and "Coney Island Steeplechase." This is all the more impressive since Coney Island is not exactly a place that would steal the heart of many songwriters, let alone one as great as Mr. Reed. Coney Island it an expansive part of far east Brooklyn, consisting mostly of housing projects and old stores, and it is, to put it mildly, a bit run down.
But people still flock there during the summer, to visit Astroland Park, to walk along the boardwalk, to play and sun on the beach. Every July 4th, Nathan's has its world-famous hot-dogging eating contest where this year a new champion, Joey Chestnut, was crowned after he ate a record 66 dogs in 12 minutes. He bested Kobayashi, the man who had held the record since 2001. This was such a huge news story that even the BBC World News covered it. Wow.
Perhaps one of the most beloved Coney Island institutions is the Cyclone, one of the oldest roller coasters in the country. My beloved and I recently took a ride and, lemme tell ya, it was SCARY. You go way, way up and then, suddenly, drop like a rock in the ocean. Before you can catch your breath, up you go again and then ... well, you get the idea. Once you're done, you'll be shaking and sweating but also feeling grand.
Just some FYI: you wait on a roughly 10-minute line to get in and it costs about $6 a person. There is a place to check your bags and, I would strongly advise, your eyeglasses. You then stand in a small crowd of people and get on when able to. The farther back you sit, the rougher the ride, so try to sit in the front. Oh, and you will scream, even if you don't plan on it.
These are, however, the last days of the old Coney Island. While the cyclone will remain, Astroland park is being torn down and so are many new buildings. According to the Gotham Gazette:
"The city has a strategic plan for the Brooklyn neighborhood and plans to announce rezoning of the area within the next several months. With Thor Equities, the new owner of the Astroland property, envisioning luxury condos, indoor water rides and other year round amusements."
Like many parts of this city, it is changing, gentrifying. Coney Island will be refashioned. And while the neighborhood certainly could use a boost, the Gotham Gazette reports that, "some Coney Island aficionados wonder whether the area’s unique spirit can survive. Isolated attractions – the Cyclone, the Wonder Wheel, the Parachute Jump – will stay on but what will surround them?"
Currently the most hotly debated development plan in NYC has nothing to do with new highrise buildings or stadiums or convention centers -- it has to do with that 1-mile long island off the coast of the Bronx called Hart Island.
Small and remote as it is, Hart Island has a storied history -- it was a training ground for black Union troops during the Civil War and, more recently, actual missilles were stored there during the Cold War. However, the island is best known as a potter's field where poor dead New Yorkers found their final rest. In addition, the island and its 19 buildings have been used for drug rehab, tuberculosis and psyche patients, prisoners, the homeless, and juvenile deliquents.
Basically, the history of Hart Island is a history of a place that's out-of-sight and out-of-mind, just the kind of place where society likes to put people it wants to keep out-of-sight and out-of-mind.
It's those 19 buildings that are the subject of this controversy -- they are old, very historic, imbued with lots of architectural and actual history. But they're also decrepit, unused, and unsafe. Now the city wants to tear them all down and turn the island into a wildlife and graveyard preservation refuge, part of something called the Hart Island Project. Others want to retain the buildings and turn it into an historic attraction.
Both ideas would be noble uses of this oft-forgotten part of the city and, of course, only one vision can prevail. The controversy is currently bogged down in protracted arguments over process, public hearings, transparency rules, and lots of other boring legal stuff.
But the result will be fascinating -- either Hart Island will become a gorgeous natural habitat or an amazing site for previously unknown NYC history.
The thing about New York City is that it isn't a city -- it's several.
The City of New York is basically a holding company, an archipelago of cities, a stuffed box of a municipalities, a necklace wrapped around the throat of New York Harbor -- a true urban empire.
Brooklyn was and, in many ways, remains its own city. Manhattan and the Bronx used to be the entirety of New York City before annexing Brooklyn and the county of Queens in 1898 -- a county that, by the way, had its own cities (Long Island City and Flushing) plus a bunch of towns and villages. The fifth wheel, the "Odd-Man In", was the county of Richmond, a lightly populated island of villages, that today is known as Staten Island.
And in any family, there are tensions.
While most of NYC is urban and racially diverse, Staten Island mostly suburban -- and white. While most of NYC is liberal and tolerant, Staten Island is conservative and angry. And while four of the five boroughs has a population of 1.5 to 2.5 million, Staten Island has around half-a-million. It's the black sheep of NYC.
Because it ill-fits the rest of the city, Staten Island has, over the last hundred years, made occasional noises about seceding from NYC and becoming the independent City of Staten Island. In 1993 there was a non-binding referendum about secession that passed -- and then went nowhere in the state legislature.
But now the seceders are making noise again -- they want to establish a commission to examine the legal, political, and economic feasibility of becoming its own city. This article gets into the dirty details of what this would entail.
Make no mistake -- at the heart of this secession "movement" is racism. It's about a bunch of white people who don't want to be governed by a majority-minority government. And it isn't really a movement -- no one's holding rallies or taking to the streets in support of secession -- it's mostly social media posts and the pontifications of politicians who know it'll go nowhere and don't want it to.
Like Brexit or Roe v. Wade or the Iraq War, people talk a lot of hot air about how great it would be if we just broke away/overturned/invaded this Big Bad Thing and then come to rue. Staten Island secession is just another such fever dream -- they would lose all city monies, their property taxes would explode, all the schools and police stations and firehouses and public services would vanish and have to be replaced overnight, they'd have to pay tolls to take the ferry into Manhattan -- it would be a mess.
I've blogged about this before -- and it remains as true now as then.
When you look at a map of the five boroughs that create the archipelligo of NYC, it makes sense that four of them go together: the lower part of the Bronx and western coastlines of Brooklyn and Queens are hugged together around the island of Manhattan -- the borough that ties them all together.
But what about Staten Island?
This borough, the so-called "forgotten borough, lies well south of its NYC brethren. It doesn't "hug" any part of NYC -- instead, it hugs the Jersey Shore. So why isn't it part of New Jersey? Why does it belong to NYC?
Long story short: politics. In the early 19th century, both New Jersey and New York claimed ownership to Staten Island that, at the time, was known as Richmond County (it wasn't part of NYC since NYC at that time only consisted of Manhattan the Bronx). Basically, NY wanted the island and NJ wanted access to NY harbor so, under the guidance of President Martin van Buren, they worked out a deal. Then, when NYC consolidated in 1898, Staten Island became part of NYC because, well, it was already part of New York State and had nowhere else to go.
Apparently there are some urban legends about how Staten Island wound up in NYC including how it was part of a bet on a boat race -- but it's untrue. It's a more dreary story -- like so much else in life. And, some might joke, like Staten Island itself.
If you've never been to the Museum of the City of New York, it's definitely worth checking out. It's not a huge overwhelming place like the Met but a small quiet museum dedicated to the history of our fair town. It's located at 103rd street and Fifth Avenue, on the north end of Museum Mile.
They have a few permanent exhibits including some beautifully decorated period rooms. Also, there's a short film you can watch that explains the evolution of NYC from a forest in the New World to the world's greatest metropolis.
Speaking of which, you must see the special exhibit on now called Mannahatta/Manhattan. This is a multimedia exhibit that explores the ecology and topography of Manhattan island and how it evolved and changed after Henry Hudson discovered it 400 years ago this month.
It's amazing to see how Manhattan island went from being an isolated, wooded refuge for the Lenape Indians to the headquarters of the world. You see some of the original maps that the Dutch and later the English made of the island, and you see how they built in and around the island and changed it into what we know as Manhattan today. There were lots of huge forests and fields where the Lenapes grew their corn. There were also streams and rivers and little islets within and around the main island. You also can understand where neighborhoods like Kips Bay and Turtle Bay got their names.
Also, down around what is now Foley Square, there was a huge lake called the Collect Pond where the Lenapes got their fresh drinking water. This pond/lake actually existed until around 1809 when it became too polluted and was filled in with concrete. (One of the prices of progress I guess.)
This exhibit has a huge model of the original, unspoiled island where various graphics pop up on it and you see where all the forests were, where the Lenapes had camps, what kinds of soils and animals existed here back then, and on and on. They have also some computer monitors where you can sit down, type in your address (not just those in Manhattan but anywhere in New York City) and see what your place of residence looked like in 1609 (both of the places I've lived in NYC were in the middle of thick forests. Cool.).
This exhibit runs through early October so I urge you to go now. You'll literally see the world's greatest city in a whole new way.
P.S. As some of you may know, "Manhattan" means "Island of Manhattan Hills" in the language of the Lenapes. And boy, did Manhattan have lots of hills back then! Also, it sheds some light on the myth that the Dutch bought this island for $24 or 600 Guilders. Some money was exchanged but also some goods were exchanged too. While this still remains a hell of a good real estate deal, it wasn't quite as cheap as history has made it out to be.
One of the things I've noticed about the Republican Party is that, whenever they lose elections, they want to re-write the rules or re-shape the contours of the electorate. It's not enough for them just to accept defeat and try to win next time -- oh no, they shout "VOTER FRAUD!", try to rig the game, unlevel the playing field (cheat, basically) to gain a seemingly permanent advantage.
Hence the GOP has given us things like voter suppression laws and outrageous campaign finance regulations and extreme gerrymandering of political districts. I remember back in the early 1990s when the Democrats controlled Congress and most state legislatures, Republicans yelled and screamed about the virtue of term limits until they got control of Congress and most state legislatures and suddenly shut up about term limits.
What a coincidence!
Being a Republican means being a full-time hypocrite and liar as well as conveniently forgetting things when they stop being useful (i.e. a Democratic President having an affair is bad but a Republican President paying hush money to an adult film star to cover up an affair is good).
Locally this GOP-inspired silliness has led the only Republican dominated borough in NYC, Staten Island, to consider actually seceding from the city. They don't like living in a city dominated by Democrats, they're sick of losing and being out of power, so they want to set up shop on their own. I remember (also back in the early 1990s) the secession movement was such a big thing in Staten Island that there was actually a referendum vote to make it happen -- until it ran in to the teeth of the law. Then Rudy became mayor and the Staten Island secession movement died.
Now it's back!
Republican members of the state legislature and city council are initiating "studies" and drafting laws that would make it possible for Staten Island to seceded and, in some cases, join into a bizarre, illogical, never-tried-before political alliance with upstate New York. These proposals will obviously go nowhere soon in Democratically-controlled New York but the fact that Republicans here are even toying with dumb ideas like this shows how they can't help themselves -- when they can't win the game they try to mess with the referrees, damage the equipment, litter the field.
In a couple of days, over in the UK, there will be an election that will be about Brexit, the country's attempt to leave the European Union. This Brexit thing has been going on for three years, ever since the UK bumbled into this mess via a referendum with no plan, no vision, no idea of what Brexit would actually entail. It has convulsed the country and thrown the country into a complete nightmare -- worse, in many ways, than the nightmare of Trump in this country. Many people in the UK think this election will "Get Brexit Done", that it will resolve the crises they didn't realize would even be a crises to begin with -- but Brexit is such a massive legal and political divorce that it will never, ever end. It's yet another lie, another fantasy being sold by liars.
And whether it's Trump or Brexit or the silliness of Staten Island secessionists, all of this reminds me of the scene you see in so many movies and TV shows where a married couple gets into a bad fight, one of the spouses quickly packs up a bag and storms out of the house --- only to discover he or she has nowhere to go. It's like the people who quit jobs out of frustration -- only to realize the financial and career abyss they've flung themselves into. It's all a lot of fashionable nihilism, a neat and totally false promise of "If we just leave, if we just quit, if we just overthrow the overlord happiness will ensue."
It doesn't. It won't. It's all a lot of silliness, a totally false bill of goods.
In the cell-phone/e-mail/digital age, people don't send letters much anymore. But people still have to live someplace and therefore still have physical addresses. If you live in New York City then, you know that our addresses make absolutely no sense. The typical address is "number, street name, apartment or unit (if any), city, state, zip code." In NYC, however, it's the "city" part that gets a little confusing. Too whit: there are five boroughs that are all part of the City of New York. Therefore, logically, every address here should be "New York, NY" or "City of New York" or "New York City." But no! Only if you live in Manhattan do you get a "New York, NY" address. And that's not because you live in New York City -- it's because Manhattan is co-extensive with New York County. So the "New York" part actually has nothing to do with the city. And there are no correct addresses that are "Manhattan, NY" or "New York City" or "City of New York." Why? I don't know! And it gets odder. In the Bronx, Brooklyn and Staten Island, almost all city addresses are "Bronx, Brooklyn, and Staten Island." I say almost because, in the Bronx, if you live Riverdale, then the city name is "Riverdale." But the rest of the Bronx is "Bronx, NY" or "The Bronx, NY" and Staten Island and Brooklyn are always "Staten Island" and "Brooklyn." And this has nothing to do with these boroughs' county names (like with Manhattan/New York County) because only The Bronx is Bronx County -- Staten Island is Richmond County and Brooklyn is Kings County. But where it gets REALLY confusing is in Queens (i.e. Queens county). There are no Queens' addresses that are "Queens, NY." Instead, the city part of any address in Queens is by neighborhood i.e. "Flushing, NY", "Forest Hills, NY", "Long Island City, NY", "Astoria, NY", "Woodside, NY", Fresh Meadows, NY" and on and on. So if you live in Queens, you better know what your specific neighborhood name is or else you'll have problems.
I know that NYC is a huge city and, since it extends over five boroughs, it's impossible to have a uniform city address. But why can't it be easy? You know "Manhattan, NY", "Bronx, NY", "Queens, NY", and "Staten Island, NY"? Why does it have to be so inconsistent and confusing?
I've done my best to answer this question, asked everyone I know who might know the answer, even scoured the web but have found no clear explanation. If you know the reason, please let Mr NYC know.
There are no two worlds in NYC as different from each other as Fifth Avenue in Manhattan and Coney Island out in Brooklyn. And yet they reflect and compliment each other in great ways.
One is the epicenter of business, advertising, glamour, elegance, and wealth. The other is the epicenter of wildness and fun. People go to Fifth Avenue to work and revel in the elegance of NYC. People go to Coney Island to let loose in the craziness of NYC.
That's why I loved seeing these two articles about 5th Avenue and Coney Island past. One is an article about a new collection of pictures of 5th Avenue from the 1960s -- one where the men and women are dressed very formally in Mad Men-esque attire. The other is an article from the 1970s about a gang member in Coney Island who's trying to go straight, living in the shadow and danger of the Boardwalk, a world unto itself. Then, of course, there are the famous events that takes place in both locales each year -- the Easter Parade on 5th Avenue and its famous bonnets and Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest on the 4th of July. Two great, totally different, NYC experiences. Heck, 5th Avenue and Coney Island are so iconic that there are even great songs about them! Lou Reed's classic "Coney Island Steeplechase" and Irving Berlin's Easter Parade. NYC is forever complimenting itself, a ying and yang all its own.
My previous blog post about the repurposing of an old Staten Island Ferry boat turning into a party boat, reminded yours truly that NYC actually has LOTS of ferries darting around the city's waterways.
As a city of island, how could we not have a full fleet of ferries?
The Staten Island Ferry is just one of the oldest, and best known, ferry routes but there are others that serve each borough of the city: the East River Route, the Rockaway Route, the South Brooklyn Route, the Astoria Route, the Soundview Route, the St. George Route (i.e. the other Staten Island Ferry), the soon-to-be Coney Island Route, and the Governor's Island Route.
Here's all the info you need to find your closest ferry route and where it will take you. Also, there's a great map that shows you all these routes and their various ports of call, presented here:
The "coming-of-age" story is an old one. A young man or woman, usually raised in a conservative, closed-knit family or community, goes out into the world and learns important Life Lessons. These include personal and professional triumphs and failures, romantic thrills and disapointments, and a transition from the innocence of childhood to the wisdom of adulthood.
All of us come of age some way, somehow, and stories about it are great fodder for movies.
Once upon a time childhood ended for most young people when they graduated from high school -- even in college, after the age of eighteen, people were considered adults. That's when they came of age! But in 21st century America, childhood and "coming of age" seems to last until people are thirty. More and more Americans in their twenties are living at home, delaying marriage and childhood (the marriage and birth rates have plunged in recent years), and treating adulthood as a disease to be avoided at all costs.
That's a great way to say that this is exactly what the new movie The King of Staten Island is about -- a man of 24, living with his mother on Staten Island, unemployed and totally directionless, smoking tons of weed, hanging out with his posse of similar overgrown children, and hooking up with a girl who, despite her better judgement, loves this guy.
The guy in question is named Scott and he's played by Pete Davidson from Saturday Night Live. Based on Davidson's own life (whose from Staten Island and whose father died on 9/11), Scott is living through the trauma of his father's untimely death many years earlier, his sister who has now left home for college, and his widowed mother who is coming out of her shell and starting to date again. Scott is feeling left behind, miserable, but a series of events change the direction of his life and family -- giving this otherwise hopeless young man some hope for the future.
That's it. That's the whole plot of the movie.
And it is executed quite well. Davidson is a very good leading man, the supporting cast is just as interesting as him (especially Marissa Tomei who plays his mother), and there are lots of funny scenes. There are few movies about working class life, so it's great to see one when it comes along. The movie is directed by Judd Apatow quite well, and he gives it the humane, loving touch that he has in so many of his previous films. And yet, like his previous films, Apatow makes the movie too damn long. He tells an hour-and-a-half long story in almost two-and-a-half hours, there are lots of scenes that, while entertaining, are totally pointless, and, just when you think the move is over ... it goes on ... and on ... and on.
And, as the title suggests, it's a big Staten Island movie. The borough is shot and presented in a loving way, making it seem like a forgotten jewel beyond Manhattan and the rest of the city, the most loving portrait of the forgotten borough since Working Girl. At one point one of the characters observes that, one day, Staten Island will become a hot place to live like Brooklyn.
Let's take a little trip. Let's travel from one end of Manhattan to the other.
Let's traverse this narrow thirteen-mile island that fascinates and captures the imaginations of peoples around the world.
And let's do it via the #1 subway line, noting the most signficant stops along the way, subway stations that are more than just various gateways into Manhttan -- they are portals into American culture, history, and power.
Now there's something important to remember: Manhattan technically extends beyond Manhattan Island. There is a small neighborhood just north of the island called Marble Hill that is legally part of the Borough of Manhattan. So as we look north from the bottom of Marble Hill, we can look north towards the Bronx.
Then we turn around and see the northern tip of Manhattan island as well as the bridge with the crosswalk and subway tracks that will take us into it.
Now we'll go upstairs to the Marble Hill 225th Street station and take a look at the subway route on the #1 that we'll be following (as well as map of the geographic route we'll be crossing).
Now the train has rattled into the station, we get on and sit down, and we're off!
After a few stops we hit 181th street street. This is where we'll find the George Washington Bridge. Dubbed "the world's busiest bridge," this northern-most expanse connects the city to the rest of America, with cars flowing in and out of NYC and the rest of the continent. It's also, apparently, a popular place for some lost souls to end their lives -- sometimes to dark, comic effect.
Few more stops and we hit 137th street and City College.
This public college in the heart of Harlem is one of the great institutions for American learning. For over a century, poor kids from all over NYC could go to City College and pursue the American dream. The students and graduates of City are extraordinary: ten Nobel Prize winners, mayors, Supreme Court justices, US Senators and Secretaries of State, Oscar-winners, Emmy-winners, Pulitzer Prize-winners, astronauts and founders of big companies, and so many more! Heck, even fictional people have gone to City College: Gordon Gekko from Wall Street and Don Draper from Mad Men most notably.
Also, it's where both of my parents worked for almost 40 years, met, fell in love, and produced Mr NYC.
One more stop and we're in Harlem, above ground, at 125th Street.
What else can I say about Harlem, the capital of the black American experience, where great black artists and pioneers lived and worked. Also, it's also one of the hearts of American culture with Apollo Theater and the Cotton Club.
One of the seven Ivy League Universities, this institution of higher learning pre-dates the United States itself, originally chartered in 1754 by King George II (hence the original name King's College). Besides being a great and famous university, Columbia has been a site for brilliance and controversy, where great minds have flowered and fought over decades.
Now we chug down past several stops on the Upper West Side to 66th street and Lincoln Center.
Home to ballet, opera, symphonies, musicals and plays, Lincoln Center is the multi-theater complex that, along with Broadway, defines NYC as the cultural capital of America. While encompassing only a few small blocks, its impact across America is massive -- including the many performances that are broadcast from there. I have personal recollections of performing at Lincoln Center and have blogged about it a lot -- including my own experience in partaking in a live broadcast.
One more stop and we're all 59th Street and Columbus Circle.
The site of the big memorial to Christopher Columbus, it is one of the crossroads of Manhattan, with different avenues intersecting and hugging the lower southwest portion of Central Park. It is also, to my knowledge, the only traffic circle in all over NYC. And these days it is now home to the massive Time Warner building that looms over it.
Two more stops and we're in the most square in all the world -- Times Square.
Dubbed the "Crossroads of the World" it is the very center of American culture, bedecked with electronic billboards, Broadway theaters, massive chain restaurants -- for many it is New York City, the heart of the heart of it all. And, obviously, it's where the world celebrates New Year's every year.
A quick one-stop and we're at Penn Station on 34th street -- or Pennsylvania Station as it's officlally known.
If the George Washington Bridge is the city's businest car-route into America, Penn is the easily the busiest railway route. Amtrak, New Jersey Transit and the Long Island Railroad all go through it, a central hub that connects the outer-edges of Long Island to the West Coast of the United States.
Penn Station also has a tortured history -- the once gorgeous station was torn down in the 1960s and replaced by a dingy undeground hovel. In the last twenty-years it has been dramatically rebuilt and re-imagined, a vast improvement of what it was but a sad reminder of what we could have had if we had only preserved the original. Hey, at least the new Penn Station now has a Dunkin' Donuts!
Now we go down several stops and hit Christopher Street -- Stonewall Station.
Christopher Street is actually a quiet, beautiful area of Greenwich Village but it is now of the iconic birth place of American gay rights movement. On June 28th, 1969, right after the death of gay icon Judy Garland, the Stonewall Inn was raided by cops -- and for the first time, gay people fought back. It took decades for gay rights to be enshrined into American culture and law but it has triumphed mightly. And it all started on this small block of Manhattan.
Our journey is almost over but we have one more stop until the end -- the World Trade Center.
Of course it used to be the World Trade Centers -- until September 11, 2001 when it became Ground Zero, then, after an extensive rebuilding, One World Trade Center.
The story of this patch of Lower Manhattan is one of great triumph and tragedy in American history, where George Washington celebrated his victory in the American Revolution and where American was also brutally attacked two centuries later. It's the symbol of American financial power and dominance. Its where Manhattan and NYC began and where it grew out from. It is the complicated heart and soul of the world's greatest nation and its greatest city.
And now we come of the end of our journey. We reach the South Ferry-Whitehall Station aka. the Battery, and we pop up out of our seat and go upstairs into the very southern edge of Manhattan.
We're right across the street from the entraces to the Governor's Island and Staten Island Ferrys, and we can see (and smell) the vastness of New York Harbor, the watery gateway to city and the force that unites the five boroughs.
And then we walk down a few blocks, turning to look uptown to see where we came from ...
... and then we look down to the southern tip of Manhattan with the rest of NYC and America beyond it.
I hope you've enjoyed this trip along the #1 subway line, seeing the amazing stops and spots of Americana along the way. You can do it yourself in just under and hour. And I hope, maybe, that you learned something!
I don't understand rich people sometimes which why I guess I'll never be one.
Today there's a big story about a guy who bought two small islands off the coast of the Bronx. One of them had a small former radio tower on it that he spent millions rehabbing into a beautiful house -- and he only spent one night in it. He also spent a fortune landscaping the island to make it beautiful (since the island is basically a rock being constantly pelted with saltwater). The other island is tiny and basically unusable. Now he's trying to sell the islands, apparently uninterested in living in his creation.
What the hell? He spent around $10 million on one island he'll never use and another he can't! Now he's trying to sell them for $13 and I can't imagine who'll want to buy them. Who the hell wants to live on a island that completely isolates you from the rest of the the city? It might be cool to visit but who'd want to live there? Insanity!
Meanwhile, in the more civilized world of Riverside Drive, there is a literal mansion for sale around $8 -- less than the cost of fixing up those islands. This Renaissance Revival mansion lies vacant, aching for a buyer. Now, it needs work, it'll cost a lot of money to rehab, but the pictures of it (check it out here) are stunning and mesmerizing -- this mansion even has its own ballroom! If I was one of those super-rich guys, I'd buy this mansion ASAP and fix it up to the "noines." It's the opportunity of a lifetime. And yet, for some reason, in a town of super-rich people, no one wants to buy it! This amazing piece of NYC real estate and history just lies empty! What the hell is wrong with rich people? Seriously, get your priorities straight: Rehabbing a mansion -- yes, yes, yes! Rehabbing islands -- no, no, no!
Well, if today isn't a "hinge day" in NYC, I don't know what is! Today is the last day of radio station WPLJ before it becomes a "Christian music" station. At 7 PM, this legendary NYC rock station will be no more, a relic of another time and another city. Today is also the first day of OMNY ("One Metro New York"), the new transit card the MTA is rolling out to replace the MetroCard by 2023. It'll start being used today on the 4, 5, 6 lines in Brooklyn and Manhattan, as well as all public buses in Staten Island. (This is what's called a "soft launch".) Unlike the current "swipe" of the MetroCard, all you'll have to do with the OMNY is "tap" (or scan it) it on an electronic reader, it will be a completely contact-less way to get onto public transportation. Soon the MetroCard will join the token as a relic -- instead, we'll OMNY our way around town. So today, in a just a matter of hours, one part of the city's past is vanishing and another part of its future is arriving. Then there are a couple of issues that, if realized, will transform this city both socially and physically. There's Hart Island -- the 150-year old pauper's cemetary off the coast of the Bronx that is closed to the public. The city council is now introducing a bill that will turn it into a public park (the council speaker and mayor support it so it looks to be a done deal). Think of it -- not just another park or public space will be created but New Yorkers will have access to a whole new island, making this archipeligo of a town all the more ... archipeligo-ish. I once called Hart Island a "secret of NYC" but, if this bill passes and this island opens to the public, it will be a secret no more. And talking about taking something out of the dark into the light, one day soon New York might very well legalize prostitution -- otherwise known as "decrim." This is, as you might imagine, a divisive topic and many people have different ideas of what "decrim" should be. But the fact that this has a realistic chance of happening, that it's even being discussed, it transformative. Up until just a few years ago, the idea that something like this might happen seemed unimaginable -- like gay marriage or legal weed. Yet here were are. So while today might just seem like another day in NYC, it's not. History is happening all around us!
Mr NYC tries to wrap its loving arms around the whole city -- and that includes Staten Island. I plugged in Staten Island on YouTube to see what might pop up and this rather bizarre video called "Staten Island Girl" topped the list.
This young "guidette" talks about her life, guys, her ambitions, guys, Staten Island, guys ... you get the idea. It's a hoot.
Once upon a time, roughly 340 years ago, a business and a government got together to do a deal. The English East India Company controlled an island off the coast of Indonesia called Banda or Run -- and the Dutch government wanted it.
Why?
Because it had nutmeg, lots and lots of nutmeg. Nutmeg, and other yummy spices, could only be found here, and they were tres valuable. So much so that the Dutch sent ships to the other side of the world to try to get control of this and other "spice islands", and the British returned the favor by sending ships to take away the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam in North America.
Deadlock. Stalemate. So they played let's make a deal.
In 1677, the British gave the Dutch control of Banda (Run) island and the Dutch gave the British control of New Amsterdam, an island otherwise known as Manhattan.
Yeah ... that happened.
These days, of course, Banda is no longer controlled by the Dutch and Manhattan is no longer controlled by the British. Still, it's amazing to think that what is now the financial and cultural capital of the world was considered less valuable than a small (albeit gorgeous) Polynesian island. Once upon a time, such a world existed. Who thought it would ever change?
It did, as it always does. But to think, if not for nutmeg -- nutmeg! of all the friggin' things! -- if not for that particular seasoning you can find on your spice rack, Manhattan would probably have remained under Dutch control and the course of American history would have been very different. It's crazy to think about. But of such trivial things are the pivots points of history made.
Oh, that reminds me, if you've ever heard the great song "Instanbul" but They Might Be Giants, you know the lyric: Even old New York was once New Amsterdam Why they changed it I can't say People just liked it better that way Well, now we know why they changed it: nutmeg.
mile long, consists of charming little houses and seafood restaurants. It also has several docks for boats and you have to constantly remind yourself that you're in New York City and not in a New England fishing town. I was there last year and we had a pleasant walk along City Island Avenue, the main street that cuts across the length of the island. We looked at the charming little stores and had a lobster lunch at a restaurant with a beautiful view of the water. Getting there is a bit of a hassle (you gotta drive), but if it's a nice day and you're inclined to see a very different part of this town, it's worth checking out.
