On the Waterfront

Manhattan is brilliant at using every bit of space available and making the best of its natural assets. No beach? No sweat. Just turn the whole Hudson River waterfront into an outdoor paradise for urban dwellers.

The West Side Highway runs almost the entire length of the western side of Manhattan, hugging the shore of the mighty Hudson River. On the whole, it's godawful ugly, with 6-8 lanes of traffic and lights and confusing turns. For decades, the piers and waterfront were left to rot. But in 1998, the then Mayor Giuliani, with the help of the New York Governor, decided to create the Hudson River Park, the biggest green undertaking since the creation of Central Park. It consists of 550 acres of waterfront running from 59th street in midtown, down to Battery Park, and incorporates basketball courts, tennis courts, a dedicated bike track, jogging track, green spaces, urban art, cafes, playgrounds and even a real sand volleyball area! All the piers are being renovated, the river is being opened to kayaking and sailing, the views to Jersey are phenomenal and Manhattan-ites are flocking to it.

I went for a lovely walk along the West Village/ Tribeca section last weekend. Here's a snapshot of a summer weekend beside the Hudson.

sunbathing

sailing

kayaking

tennis

volleyball

public art

public art

greenspace

Snakes and Ladders without the snakes

Ok. I have been living in this city for nearly five years now - when do I become considered a New Yorker? - and I think half of that time has been spent underground, lost in the subway system.  If you use the subway in New York - and you would be crazy not to  at $2.25 a ride - one of the most monotonous, stultifying parts of every day is repeatedly climbing in and out of it. Like a mole, blindly digging. Up, down, up, down and down even further, before coming up, up and up even more. And don't be fooled into thinking those escalators beside the stairs work!

I calculated that I ascend/ descend 132 stairs a day just to get to and from work. That's 660 stairs a week, before taking into account going out at night, shopping on weekends and everything in between. And then maybe subtract a few for when you slip on the icy snow in winter at the top of the stairs and land with a thud at the bottom without having touched any steps in between.

I should be happy about all this. I like to think it's adding strength and shape to my legs and butt and giving me the workout I can't be bothered to do. It certainly beats using Stairmaster at the gym. But I think all it's really doing is adding varicose veins, breaking heels and inducing sore calf muscles. And pushing me further into the mire of close city living. The fetid smells of human lives swirl underground with no circulation of the putrid air.  And I'm sure it's not hygienic to have your face pushed into the rear end of a fellow stair climber ahead of you while someone behind you has their face pushed into yours. And as for summer, fuggedaboutit. Temperatures soar down there. It's hotter than a bikram yoga session and with far more sweaty bodies crushed against you. As temperatures hover around 35 degrees Celsius up top, down in the subway make that closer to 40 degrees. I have seen plenty of people faint, start reeling with dehydration and end up sitting on the disgustingly filthy steps some 200 metres underground.

And yet, we all continue to use it. In fact, on average, more than 5.2 million people use it on a week day according to the MTA figures. Out of necessity? Boredom? For a jolly? Because it is still the easiest, fastest and most economical way to get around Manhattan and the four other boroughs of New York. And it works in its oddly disjointed, humid, crowded way. But I still miss my car.......

Tips from Tourists

You may remember I wrote HERE about New Yorkers' pet peeves with tourists. Well, now the tourists hit back.

Jen Carlson of Gothamist graciously went out on the street and interviewed some Manhattan visitors to see what they had to say about this rare city species. Selection below:

• Don't walk so fast!
• Don't roll your eyes when I pronounce Houston Street like Houston Texas
• At least make eye contact while clinking glasses
• Stop talking about how you live in the greatest city in the world. We get it
• Don't say I'm stupid for calling the subways by colors
• Don't cycle so fast in the bike lane on Brooklyn Bridge while I am trying to look at the skyline
• Tell me where to buy counterfeit purses!

image: phonked

In Remembrance of 9/11/2001

Image: love documentaries

Any Old Saturday in New York

My friends often ask me, "What is a typical Saturday for you in New York?" The great thing about this city is that there isn't a typical day any weekend. In fact, I have to consciously calm my hyper-activeness after reading Time Out on line, because there are always 1000 things to do! It's just a matter of choice.

So today, while my grey-haired wonder was away in Puerto Rico with his troubled sixteen year old, I decided to explore the multi cultural riches of this city and share them with you.

AM: Got out of bed and walked around the corner to buy a warm, just-out-of-the-oven pain au chocolate from Patisserie Claude. This true french patisserie has been a part of the Village for over 20 years. The croissants are famous all over town. Unfortunately, the gruff Monsieur Claude of said patisserie, departed at the end of 2008 with his signed photo of Stephan Grapelli under his arm, but thankfully his sous chef has handled the croissant transition seamlessly.

Late morning: After contemplating yoga for as long as it would take for the time to become too late to allow me to make the class, I wound my way through the far too frequent madness of the roving street fair to drop off my dry cleaning at the local Korean cleaners. After being asked by the over friendly owners for the umpteenth time if I had a boyfriend yet (I clearly never got around to sharing the news about the grey-haired Dr), I made a beeline for the mexican corncob stand at the street fair. Covered with lashings of butter and vigorous shakes of the cayenne pepper, this yummy mid morning snack made me question my frustration with the street fairs.

Lunch: Met a friend, her baby and a dog that looks like a rodent for lunch at my new favorite eatery, Edie and the Wolf. Located in the East Village, it is a wonderfully rustic Austrian restaurant with wooden communal tables, banquettes covered in natural colored linen and lots of metal and rope elements - and a few too many dried flower arrangements, but that's by the by. We feasted on schnitzel burgers with a side of "spatzle" (brussel sprouts and wild mushrooms) and a chilled glass of Gruner Vetliner.

Mid afternoon: I was beginning to feel lost in a sea of ethnic diversity,  so I popped into the Edward Hopper exhibition at the Whitney to ground myself again in the Great American Loneliness.

Late afternoon: 2 hour spanish conversation class at the wonderful Queen Sofia Spanish Institute on Park Avenue. 'Daniel' was from Peru and encouraged conversation about the merits of Almodovar's films.  He lost me after 'Javier Bardem' and 'Penelope Cruz'.

A chilly walk back across Central Park. This was a "no language" zone. I listened to the music of Estonian Arvo Part instead.

Evening: Headed down to Tribeca for a night of Persian arts and culture at 92Y Tribeca. This is an incredible cultural centre whose mission is to "serve the community and the world in a remarkable way by providing exceptional programs across the spectrum—in the arts and culture, Jewish life and education, health and fitness and personal growth and travel." Tonight there were readings of the great Persian poet Ferdowsi, followed by an uplifting set of traditional sufi and folk music from Iran. 'Amir Vahab' is apparently considered a most distinguished and celebrated composer/vocalist of this type of music. Judging by the reaction of the mostly Iranian crowd, he seemed to be the Persian equivalent of Elton John. Below is a link to his music.

Late evening:  To top off a thoroughly multicultural day, I grabbed a yummy Belgian waffle from the 'Waffles and Dinge's' food cart. A perfect end to a trip around the world in a day!

Images: (2) flickr, (3) new york times, (4) yun photo, (5) nymag, (6) jinhwafication, (7) whitney museum, (8) wikipedia, (9-11) mine

Practical Reasons to Love New York

Have I banged on alot about why I love living here? Cant' remember, but a couple of incidents this morning prompted me to write a list of 10 practical reasons why I adore living here. Some of these reasons apply to the US in general, but here goes:

• When you call the New York Times, instead of being put on hold if there is wait, you can leave your phone number and they will call you back when your place in the queue comes up. My call came in less than 5 minutes
• The department stores and most other stores give full refunds even on sale items. That means there is absolutely no excuse for wardrobe mistakes. The salesperson at Lanvin (ok, the only reason I was able to shop there was because there were price reductions of up to 75%) told me how a good customer brought back a dress 4 seasons old. You have to admit that is taking serious liberties.
• If you log onto delivery.com, you can have anything you dream of delivered to your front door in an hour. Try tampons, tulips or Timberwolf dog food!
• opentable.com allows you to reserve even the most prestigious table in Manhattan without having to ring around to all the individual restaurants to find a table.
• All online purchases arrive at your door with complimentary return shipping. Ralph Lauren arrives in a heavenly dark navy gift box with gold foil lettering and grosgrain ribbon!
• With the ease of a magnetic card, Zipcar lets you rent a car where you want, when you want. So if I suddenly decide I want to drive to the country at 11pm at night, all I need to do is make an online reservation and then pick up my car from the location around the corner with a swipe of the card.
• The subway runs 24 hours a day.
• Duane Reade is also open 24 hours a day and is found on every corner, so you are never out of flu medicine, midnight snacks or toilet paper.
• Netflix means no ugly DVR on your TV console. Instead, you can stream all your favorite films straight to your computer or TV for as little as $9 a month
• Doormen. The rest is self explanatory. Wish I'd met mine earlier in life.

What does all this add up to? Making life easier. And goodness knows, we all need that!

Charles Addams's New York

We all grew up on the Addams family TV series. Who can forget "Thing", Uncle Fester and Cousin Itt, to name a few of my favorite characters. I think it was the beautiful Morticia who first made me dream of long, figure-hugging gowns and immaculate makeup. Even though she was always portrayed in black and white, I just know she had a perfect porcelain complexion and wore the deepest, dark, blood red lipstick. They made every real family look so dull in comparison. Why didn't my parents duel with swords before dinner or my grandmother make biscuits with dead lizards as decoration?  The only member of my family who faintly resembled one of the Adamms family was my brother, who was an expert in killing spiders and leaving them in the least expected places.

But did you know this "creepy and kooky" family was born out of years of cartoons for the New Yorker? The characters were in fact created by a Mr Charles Addams who hailed from New Jersey and whose work is now is the subject of an exhibition at the Museum of the City of New York.  Mr Addams was an apparently mild-mannered man with a wickedly macabre sense of humor.  His cartoons - all set in New York - appeared in the New Yorker for over 50 years. His first cartoon ran in 1936 and he continued to contribute more than 1500 works until he died in the eighties.

Addams loved to draw in detail the brownstones and skyscrapers of New York. It was against this perfect rendering of a city that the unexpected happened. You have to scan the seemingly normal scene to find the joke, and it was this city of realism that made the joke all the more jarring. Whether it is a milk truck parked in Brooklyn that has an udder, or a bitter housewife in a department store asking for "blunt instruments", or an Indian on a shrink's couch being told his neurosis stems from resentment for his ancestors selling Manhattan for $24, we enter a subversive and comical view of the city where one cringes whilst laughing out loud.

The ghoulish Addams family clan started appearing as anonymous characters moving through the New York cityscape in 1938. Readers clamored for more of the weird family and the editor of the New Yorker encouraged Addams to explore the "tasty little household" further. Addams used his family to turn the ideal of the nuclear family of the 40's and 50's on its head.

"It's the children darling, back from camp"

By 1964 the Addams family was so popular they were immortalized in that wonderful 1964 TV series that never dates. Unfortunately for New Yorker readers, the editor thought this was far too commercial, so the family ended their residence in print until two decades later. Luckily for us, the Museum of the City of New York has been collecting these cartoons for years, so we can enjoy Addams' perverse world again for a short time. And for those who like to click their fingers....

Images: mcny.org, new york times

New Year, New Decade, New York

After two incredibly hot and regenerating weeks under the aussie sun,  I am back and excited about this year and this city. Tumbling headlong back into this dense and noisy concrete jungle after the open space and quiet of Oz is always an assault on the senses, but the energy of this place quickly reminds you why it is such an inspiring place to live.

2010 is going to be a special year - I can feel it. As we continue to argue about how to refer to the last decade - the double-o's, the naughties, the post-9/11 era - I prefer to look forward to this new decade and what it may bring. Unfortunately, the events in Haiti have kicked off this year with a disaster like so many other years - the bushfires in Victoria last year, the Asian tsunami of 2004 -  but somehow they also unite the world with a humanitarian cause. My hope is we all take the opportunity this decade to look at things differently and make a difference for the better.

My resolutions this year? To continue to explore this city and its five boroughs. In two years I have only scratched the surface. I will put on my sporting cap and go to a Mets game, watch ice hockey at Madison Square Gardens, visit all those local museums that often get overlooked, hear jazz in Harlem, eat greek in Astoria and watch the russian mafia stroll along the Brighton Beach boardwalk. And all this with my now fave song "Empire State of Mind" as my theme song: "New York....these streets will make you feel brand new, these lights will inspire you".

Let's get out amongst it! Happy New Year.

Image: Penn Uni