2013-12-23

The winter holidays are a magical time of the year in NYC.  Unfortunately, we’re also having a very cold winter and some of these things are outside.  Even so, I recommend the following, if you can deal with the weather:

1. Take the 6 to Brooklyn Bridge and walk across it (or at least to the center).  When the bridge was built it was the tallest thing in NYC, and it allowed people to be higher than church steeples for the first time.  This was considered deeply controversial and was the subject of moralizing editorials at the time.  The pedestrian walkway has plaques outlining the history of the bridge’s building, and the controversies of it, and it’s a super cool thing to do.

2. On a Saturday, go to the Union Square Green and Holiday Markets — they’re right next to each other.  They will be brutally, brutally crowded, but the farmers market is integral to the life of the city and both markets serve as strong reminders, I think, of the degree to which NYC things of itself as a 19th-century city.  If you wish to continue to see the 19th-century city from there, walk north to Gramercy Park, which is one of only two private parks in the U.S.  You can’t get in, but you can see the gorgeous 19th century and pre-war 20th century buildings that surround it. Google before you go, the area is rich with ghost stories.

3. New York is not one city, but many cities.  In fact, Brooklyn was the third or fourth largest city in America until it was incorporated in NYC a little over 100 years ago.  I would strongly recommend researching the cities within the city that exist in NYC — Harlem, Chinatown, Jackson Heights, Brooklyn (which is massive and offers you many choices), Little Italy (which is shrunken and touristy now, but the Old St. Patrick’s Cathedral (as opposed to current St. Patrick’s) is historically important), and choose as many to visit and walk the streets of as you can find time for, because we are a walking city.

4. We are also a food city.  We love food.  Write back if you want restaurant recs with details re: price ranges and what you like/hate.  That said, a trip to the Chelsea or Essex markets may be a valuable use of your time.

5. I hate recommending stuff I think is super touristy, and I think the following is, but it was also one of the great joys of my childhood: Go into town, by which people of this city of a certain age mean 57th and 5th, and walk down 5th Avenue.  Look at the windows at Bergdorf’s and Bendell’s, See the Tiffany and Cartier shops wrapped in lights to look like giant presents.  Stop  in St. Patrick’s Cathedral.  See the tree at Rockefeller Center.  Before all these things were for the world, they were also for us.  I will love the giant snowflake hung over 57th & 5th forever.

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