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Going to New York - Need Some Advice Please



 
 
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  #21  
Old February 4th, 2005, 06:22 AM
Pan
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On Thu, 3 Feb 2005 12:09:29 -0500, "Bob Fusillo"
wrote:


"
Do you really think masses of slow-moving tourists around Times Square
equate to excitement?


Midtown is much more than Times Square -- The area between 56th street and
42nd, and Lexington Avenue and Eigth Avenue, constitute a wide variety of
activity. The action is there.


The Novotel is on Broadway and 52 St., not on Lexington. There is a
difference.

And, even for the New Yorker, Times Square is an occasional necessary kick
of adrenalin and tacky.
Don't knock tourist sites.Tourists are attracted to the famous places worth
seeing. Crowded at times ( Times) but worth it. No one goes to Venice and
stays on the mainland because the center is packed with tourists.
rjf


You don't have to stay near Times Square to visit it once on a trip.

Michael

If you would like to send a private email to me, please take out the TRASH, so to speak. Please do not email me something which you also posted.
  #23  
Old February 4th, 2005, 11:15 AM
Icono Clast
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Brian Wickham wrote:
I much prefer upper Broadway with its masses of baby carriages,
people with walkers and dogs on ten foot leashes stretched across
the sidewalk. Now that's excitement!


For all of us furriners, wherezat?

I guess "downtown" is South of Fourteenth Street, "mid-town" from
Fourteenth to Fifty-ninth or so, and "uptown" as far as One hundred
Fifty-fifth or so. So where's "upper Broadway". From your description
of the street life, my guess is somewhere around Washington Heights.
__________________________________________________ ___________
A San Franciscan in 47.452 mile² San Francisco
http://geocities.com/dancefest/ http://geocities.com/iconoc/
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  #24  
Old February 4th, 2005, 11:28 AM
Icono Clast
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Brian Wickham wrote:
Rita wrote:
Please describe the "action" in the area you outlined above.


You can't see it, Rita, because it is all around you, and you are part
of it.


Well said!
__________________________________________________ __________
A San Franciscan in (where else?) San Francisco
http://geocities.com/dancefest/ http://geocities.com/iconoc/
ICQ: http://wwp.mirabilis.com/19098103 IClast at SFbay Net
  #25  
Old February 4th, 2005, 06:50 PM
TomCAt
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Stay in Secaucas, NJ

Good hotels, motels ... cheap prices ....... and a $2 bus ride to Times
Square.


"Claim Guy" wrote in message
...
I will be travelling to NYC, for the first time, in mid March.

I always do my own travel planning but I must admit I am bewildered by the
variety of options for finding accommodation in New York.

Most websites break down the locations into 10 or more sub-areas, with at
least 5 in Manhattan alone. I dunno; is the Upper East side a better place
to be than Midtown, Soho, etc..? If you could advise a first timer, where
would you suggest that they situate themselves?

We will get all over Manhattan in the 4 days, I'm sure, so being really
close to a couple of the major sites (museums, etc.) is not critical. But
we
would like the location of the hotel to afford some local ambience (and
I'm
not into "edgy" ambience) that we can enjoy every day. No car, obviously,
we
will cab it or use the subway.

3 or 4 star (4 if it is a good deal) accommodation, with some character is
our style.

Any specific hotel, or activity recommendations would also be appreciated.
4
days will leave so much undone, I think I'm already committed to a return
trip.

Thanks,





  #26  
Old February 4th, 2005, 10:14 PM
Bob Fusillo
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"Pan" wrote in message
...
Au contraire, _ONLY_ tourists go there. If your idea of visiting a

place is to stay in the area where you won't find out anything about
how New Yorkers live, go ahead and stay in that area; no skin off my
teeth.

Michael


One notes more than a hint of snobisme in Michael's posts. One should
not, we gather, have to riff with the raff. But one does not go to New York
to see how New Yorkers live - unless one is a sociologist on a research
grant. One goes there to see the things that make New York famous.

Midtown is vital. New York is the theatre center of the Western
Hemisphere, if not the world ( Pace, Londoners) - the Theater District is in
Midtown. New York is one the great culinary cites in the world -- the bulk
of America's four star restaurants are in Midtown. New York's architecture
is justly famous, admired, and copied everywhere - and the major buildings
of the last 60 years are in Midtown. The diamond center of the hemisphere is
in midtown. Musicians from everywhere flock to the Forties for equipment.
Seventh Avenue has four or five of the best cheesecake and pastrami
restaurants anywhere. There are enough well-known museums and nightclubs in
Midtown to keep a visitor - and a New Yorker - busy for months.

True, Times Square is often crowded - with New Yorkers from
Uptown, Downtown, Brooklyn, Queens, Hoboken, et al. I grew up in Queens, but
Times Square was my magnet - my friends and I headed there at every
opportunity. We though it great fun, and many people still do. Even a
sociologist would find things of interest. And unlike heavily visited tiny
places like Venice, New York is a big town, and absorbs the tourists easily.
One rarely notices them.

This not to say that one should limit ones self - head up to the
Met ( talk about mobs! almost all New Yorkers) and the Whitney and the
Guggenheim and the Frick, head down to the village and Soho to look at the
kids who just moved to the city last week, go up to Zabars to buy a pot --
lots to do and see. But Midtown is where the action is. Only a snob avoids
it.


  #27  
Old February 5th, 2005, 02:53 AM
Larry
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TomCAt wrote:
Stay in Secaucas, NJ

Good hotels, motels ... cheap prices ....... and a $2 bus ride to

Times
Square.


Bad advice. While Secaucus is close, that bus ride can take an hour or
more during rush hour(6AM to 10AM, 4 PM to 8 PM), and it doesn't run
all that frequently. Unless you are on a really tight budget there's no
point in wasting your valuable holiday time spending a couple of hours
a day on a bus. Even if you are on a tight budget you can find
comparably priced hotels in Manhattan.

There ARE hotels in NJ that are convenient to NYC, but they generally
tend to be as expensive as comparable hotels in the city. And even
then, you are still losing up to an hour a day.

Yes, I live in NJ, not far from Secaucus, and I work in Manhattan. It
ain't fun.

Larry

  #28  
Old February 5th, 2005, 05:53 AM
Pan
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On Fri, 04 Feb 2005 02:15:17 -0800, Icono Clast
wrote:

Brian Wickham wrote:
I much prefer upper Broadway with its masses of baby carriages,
people with walkers and dogs on ten foot leashes stretched across
the sidewalk. Now that's excitement!


For all of us furriners, wherezat?


He probably meant the Upper West Side (somewhere between the low 60s
and the low 100s or so).

I guess "downtown" is South of Fourteenth Street, "mid-town" from
Fourteenth to Fifty-ninth or so, and "uptown" as far as One hundred
Fifty-fifth or so.


I think "Uptown" extends to the northern tip of Manhattan, and
possibly embraces the Bronx.

So where's "upper Broadway". From your description
of the street life, my guess is somewhere around Washington Heights.


I would agree that "upper Broadway" would have to start in the 130s or
so - so at least West Harlem if not Washington Heights.

Michael

If you would like to send a private email to me, please take out the TRASH, so to speak. Please do not email me something which you also posted.
  #29  
Old February 5th, 2005, 06:12 AM
Pan
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On Fri, 4 Feb 2005 16:14:15 -0500, "Bob Fusillo"
wrote:


"Pan" wrote in message
.. .
Au contraire, _ONLY_ tourists go there. If your idea of visiting a

place is to stay in the area where you won't find out anything about
how New Yorkers live, go ahead and stay in that area; no skin off my
teeth.


One notes more than a hint of snobisme in Michael's posts.


I'm a New Yorker doing my best to recommend the things I like about my
own city. How snobbish is that, buster?

One should
not, we gather, have to riff with the raff.


Do you imagine you detect a general animus toward tourists? If I had a
general animus toward tourists, wouldn't I be discouraging people from
visiting New York or engaging in passive aggression by "recommending"
things that I thought might be apt to blacken the name of New York
among travellers?

But one does not go to New York
to see how New Yorkers live - unless one is a sociologist on a research
grant.


I think that a big part of the reason for travelling is to find out
how others live. The fact that you don't travel for that reason is
your own affair and does not mean that others all have the same
attitude as you.

One goes there to see the things that make New York famous.


Undoubtedly, but would you like to count the number of times I've
pointed out that you don't have to stay near Times Square to go there
once on a trip?

Also, you seem to ignore that it's possible to combine trips to points
of interest with interest in learning about how people live in a given
place.

Midtown is vital. New York is the theatre center of the Western
Hemisphere, if not the world ( Pace, Londoners) - the Theater District is in
Midtown.


Going to the theater is a reason to take a trip to the Theater
District, but not necessarily a reason to stay there.

New York is one the great culinary cites in the world -- the bulk
of America's four star restaurants are in Midtown.


Not in the Theater District.

New York's architecture
is justly famous, admired, and copied everywhere - and the major buildings
of the last 60 years are in Midtown.


Not in the Theater District.

The diamond center of the hemisphere is
in midtown.


Why are you interested in visiting the diamond center if you don't
care about things like how business works in New York? I thought you
weren't a "sociologist on a research grant". :-P

Musicians from everywhere flock to the Forties for equipment.


I seldom do, but that would be a reason to visit 48th St. - again, not
necesssarily to stay there.

Seventh Avenue has four or five of the best cheesecake and pastrami
restaurants anywhere.


I don't think that's true, but name them.

There are enough well-known museums and nightclubs in
Midtown to keep a visitor - and a New Yorker - busy for months.


Which important ones are in the Theater District?

True, Times Square is often crowded - with New Yorkers from
Uptown, Downtown, Brooklyn, Queens, Hoboken, et al.


Other than when they go to the theater or, at times, movie theaters on
42 St., what are those New Yorkers doing? Selling things to tourists,
right? (Incidentally, Hoboken is not in New York, as you know.)

I grew up in Queens, but
Times Square was my magnet - my friends and I headed there at every
opportunity.


How long ago was that?

The fact is, I went to school in that neighborhood for five years and
went there to a point before that, too, in the 70s. I enjoyed the
neighborhood when I was in high school, though the two blocks from 8th
to 6th on 42 St. were truly scary. It's much safer now but doesn't
feel like New York.

We though it great fun, and many people still do. Even a
sociologist would find things of interest. And unlike heavily visited tiny
places like Venice, New York is a big town, and absorbs the tourists easily.
One rarely notices them.


You notice them when you literally can't continue walking.

This not to say that one should limit ones self - head up to the
Met ( talk about mobs! almost all New Yorkers) and the Whitney and the
Guggenheim and the Frick, head down to the village and Soho to look at the
kids who just moved to the city last week, go up to Zabars to buy a pot --
lots to do and see. But Midtown is where the action is. Only a snob avoids
it.


My advice to people who want to experience such a crush of people is
to walk around 5th and 6th Avs. during lunchtime -- that's a real New
York crowd (workers on their lunch breaks - sure, some are commuters,
but from the area and working in New York). Or you could take the
Staten Island Ferry during rush hour (again, a New York crowd of
Staten Islander commuters).

Michael

If you would like to send a private email to me, please take out the TRASH, so to speak. Please do not email me something which you also posted.
  #30  
Old February 5th, 2005, 05:13 PM
Brian Wickham
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On Sat, 05 Feb 2005 04:53:32 GMT, Pan wrote:


I would agree that "upper Broadway" would have to start in the 130s or
so - so at least West Harlem if not Washington Heights.


In my lexicon Upper Broadway starts at Columbus Circle. There is a
marked change in the nature of the street from that point on and
dating back many years it has always been known as "Upper Broadway".
But, I suppose, some things get forgotten. Has no one heard of "Lower
Broadway" in the Financial District?

When you need to point out the commerce on Broadway but not
necessarily on Amsterdam Ave or Riverside Drive, et al, it doesn't
help to say "Upper West Side". It is better to say "Upper Broadway".
But if I said "Broadway" everyone would assume I meant the theater
district unless I qualified it further.

Brian
 




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