OT: New York City

[vtcwbuff]

"Grand Central, yes -- a beautiful interior.
Penn Station, no -- not an inch of it is worth looking at."

Ayup!

 

[MilfordHusky]

Thanks to the OP for asking. I'm taking notes.

As noted, 3 days are not enough, but the crowding and expense may get to you by then.

Some more thoughts, many listed by others.

Yankee Stadium, where you'll be, and Madison Square Garden.

Ground Zero/WTC/Freedom Tower/1 World Trade. Include the little church nearby that survived.

Any theatre near Broadway. The Apollo.

30 Rock on the Today Show.

If it's at all warm, the Circle Line boat ride around Manhattan.

The double-decker bus tours of upper or lower Manhattan give you a great overview.

Park Avenue, Madison Avenue, Fifth Avenue, Central Park South, Central Park West.

Pick a few cuisines and sample them. Regarding pizza, remember that it's NYC and not Chicago--thin crust.

There's a rice pudding place in Lower Manhattan.

If you go to Little Italy, 2 cardinal rules: sit facing the door, and frisk anyone who goes to the rest room in the middle of dinner.

The post office across from MSG. Soon to be the Moynihan train station. The informal USPS motto is engraved in granite on the facade.

If you like architecture: Flatiron, Seagrams, Citi, IBM, etc.

Note the new, narrow 1000' tall condos in Midtown priced at up to $100M.

Grand Central and Times Square.

Central Park, Bryant Park, Battery Park.

St. John the Divine, Riverside Cathedral.

The U.N.

The quad and library at Columbia. NYU and Washington Square.

Macy's, Bloomingdales, Saks, Lord and Taylor.

Tiffany, Gucci, Fendi, LV, et al.

Museums: several great art galleries; radio and television; the City of NY; tenement; and sex (blush).

The Plaza, Essex House, Four Seasons, Waldorf-Astoria, Pierre.

Have FUN!

 

[rvwsleep]

Sigh. To think that people arrived in New York at this, fifty years ago:




As an architectural critic said, "One entered the city like a god; one scuttles in now like a rat."

Unfortunate but true. What a disgrace.

 

[cockhrnleghrn]

Unfortunate but true. What a disgrace.

So true; how could they allow old Penn Station to be destroyed?

Back to NYC. If I were staying on the UES, I'd definitely have to take in the Guggenheim and have to spend some time in Central Park. I usually stay in Chelsea when I'm in the city, though.

 

[JRRRJ]

I'll, enthusiastically, go along with all your recommendations except one. Penn Station ? Before they tore down the original (demolition was started in 1963) you're right. It was a beautiful structure. But they replaced it with Madison Square Garden and an office building, moving Penn Station completely underground.
In doing so they turned one of the most beautiful public spaces into one of the worst. It's demolition was also instrumental in the creation of the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission which then prevented a similar proposal for Grand Central Station.

Yeah, either I have more brain farts than I used to have or I notice/am called on them more. Hoping the latter.

Got seduced by the Google map when I went to locate Macy's. Somehow got conflated the proximity of Penn with a mental image of the last time I approached GCS, which was uncharacteristically from the West instead of the South so it didn't look like my previous mental image of the building.

I retract my statement re: Penn Station.

 

[Waquoit]

I like to visit the Strand Book Store. I think the Circle Line is a waste of time you could be spending in one of the museums.

New York magazine is a good what-to-do resourse.