NYC6: The Beautiful City

Welcome back for the last (I think) post on my brief sojourn in New York. I wanted to end with my favorite part of being there…which was mostly simply the fact of being there. We walked along the rivers, through the parks, up one side of Manhattan and down the other and all over in between, not to mention some good chunks of Brooklyn and Queens. Every day I got to see something new and beautiful and fascinating. And being there long enough, I had the chance to go back to some of my favorite places repeatedly. So, in reality, this last post is just an excuse to share some of my favorite photos of the parks and the landscape of the city that I enjoyed so much…

Let’s start with Central Park, an obvious one. I already extolled the virtues of Central Park in my first post on NYC, but I thought it was worth returning to. Well, at least in reality, I returned there…a lot. Walking across the park was the easiest way for Jess and I to access anything on the Upper East Side, so heading to the various museums and such over that way provided a nice excuse to wander through this great hilly, rocky, wooded, and yet utterly urban landscape. One of the places we passed a bunch was the reservoir, the walkway around which provides excellent views all around the park.

In other parts of the park, I enjoyed the various environments that attracted crowds. Sometimes this was a particular hill, one of the little ponds, or some of the sculpture-lined avenues. The Alice in Wonderland statue is also a favorite spot–mostly because everytime I see it I’m shocked. I know it’s here, but somehow I have a memory from when I was 5-years-old where I swear this was in Boston. Turns out that I was not infallible as a child.

But, the thing that really makes this park so special is that it’s right smack dab in the middle of Manhattan. You can get lost in the woods for a bit, but you always come out to a view of the city surrounding you. The ability to simultaneously feel like you’re in nature and in one of the greatest urban environments on Earth is pretty awesome. Not to mention that the varied views you get as the sun rises and sets make it a unique trip each time…(Just check out the various views of the supertalls here on different days or from different spots.)

So, yeah, I love Central Park. For sure. But, on one of my first days wandering the city on my own I found a brand new spot that I quickly dubbed my favorite place in New York. It’s not on the scale of Central Park, but it’s a super-cool little spot: Little Island. (Also, in reality, it’s definitely second to Central Park, but still pretty sweet.)

Little Island is a wonderfully landscaped park set on a small pier-like structure sticking out into the Hudson River. But the pier isn’t just a normal set of wooden beams or concrete pillars or anything, it’s made of 100+ tulip-shaped pillars–narrow stems that come up and expand to join, looking almost a bit like a hexagonal game board. Each “tulip” varies in height, so over the very tiny space of the park there are a number of different environments: a central entry area with tables, chairs, and some food available, three different hills with winding walkways, an amphitheater, and more. Each of these areas is beautifully planted with a variety of trees, grasses, and flowers. Really, it was just a magical little spot.

The structure of Little Island…

Some of the different parts of the island…

Did I mention there were public musical instruments scattered about?

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And great views from there…

And when Jessica and I visited with Sarah and Christine, many laughs were shared (largely because she’s a foot shorter than they are…)

The funniest, though, was when I visited with just Jessica. As we approached, she asked, “isn’t this around where Pier 57 was?” If you don’t know, Pier 57 was the place Jessica and I were first detained after being arrested at the Republican National Convention in 2004. This is the “bus repair facility” I referred to when I first told the story. Well, it turns out, she was right. Pier 57 is right next to Little Island, except now it has been completely renovated into an office, retail, and entertainment space. I actually even considered going to a show there, but decided not to due to COVID more than the weirdness of seeing a singer-songwriter where I once sat in plastic handcuffs. Anyhow, here’s Jess and I overlooking our former temporary jail…

The more exciting thing that’s right by Little Island is the High Line. I already mentioned a bunch of the cool architecture we saw along there, but the High Line itself is a great space. It’s a former elevated train line whose structure was never dismantled, and recently was redeveloped into an above-ground pedestrian walkway and park. There’s art and gardens along the way, and into the early fall there were some spots you could buy drinks and food when it crossed by the Chelsea Market.

So, on a much smaller scale, Little Island and the High Line capture some of the beauty of Central Park–a botanical landscape immersed in the city. But, beyond those spots, there were a million other parks, public spaces, and views that made New York a special place to live for an oh-so-short time. One of the oddest was a little POPS (privately owned public space) that was between the High Line and Penn Station. It had some crazy display of giant plastic lemon plants and was titled “Citrovia.” I couldn’t figure out if it was some sort of giant ad for something or what (turns out it’s just weird public art–I looked it up). But, weird is good, right?

Less weird, and more pleasant was one of my favorite parks in the city: Washington Square. Every time I came through there, there was something interesting happening. Usually there was a group of folks making music. One time there was a gaggle of cosplayers being filmed. On another occasion an ad was being shot. There was a giant rat-man once, and several times I saw a woman dance-making art on a giant canvas (even in like 40-degree weather). And there were always a ton of folks just hanging out. It’s a lively space.

But, some of the coolest spots were those that aren’t as well known. On one of our architecture walking tours we came across this great little “Teardrop Park” tucked among some apartment buildings not far from the World Trade Center.

Or this schoolyard with a view of the Empire State Building. There’s so many great little spots like this all over the city. You’re never far from something monumental, and never far from a small escape from the craziness of the city…

Madison Square was a new spot I don’t remember visiting before. Again, a great mix of beautiful space surrounded by a jungle of skyscrapers…

Of course, New York is a city of rivers. Manhattan is separated from New Jersey by the Hudson River, and from Brooklyn and Queens by the East River. So, some of the most beautiful spots (not unlike Little Island) feature views over the water. One of the first places Jess and I got a good view of downtown Manhattan was from Brooklyn Heights…

Of course, from there, we had to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge. Touristy and all that, but really quite lovely architecturally.

Closer to home, we walked up and down several different stretches of Riverside Park. In some places it provided gorgeous views of the Hudson and New Jersey. In others, it revealed its urban location more clearly. But, I loved that it could have both industrial-scale highways and lovely greenways at the same time. The transitions aren’t all super-smooth, but it’s pretty impressive what New York can do with a narrow strip along the water…

Further north, Riverside Park bleeds into Fort Tryon, home to the Cloisters part of the Metropolitan Museum. Our visit there in the fall provided a gorgeous look out towards the George Washington Bridge.

Back on the East River, one of those spots where urban necessity meets creative city planning and opportunistic human use was under FDR Drive in the “Two Bridges” area (one of those new urban designations for the area between the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges).

Further up the East River, one of our architectural walking tours was organized around taking the ferries from Manhattan to Queens, to Roosevelt Island. There were great views both directions from the ferry, and on the Queens side, the Long Island City area had some great parkscape along the river with sweet lounge chairs and a fabulous array of different spaces…

We had a great walk on Roosevelt Island, culminating in a lovely sunset view from the southern tip, Four Freedoms Park. I liked the sentiment FDR’s speech expressed, I loved the symbolism of being able to see the UN from there, and I was absolutely blown away by the cityscape and the colors. Afterwards, we took the Roosevelt Island Tramway across to Manhattan and got a great look at the city as dusk fell…

On another walk, in Williamsburg, we discovered a great view of Manhattan from Bushwick Inlet Park. One of the best things about this view was just how clearly we could see the vast separation between the “downtown” and “midtown” sections of Manhattan. Downtown has some massive skyscrapers, as does midtown, but in between, the skyline of Manhattan is relatively low-lying. It doesn’t always feel that way walking around there, but I guess five- or six-story buildings look pretty puny next to thousand-foot skyscrapers when viewed from this far away…

_{(The first photo shows downtown and then the low space between while the other two show midtown.)}

At Brighton Beach we got a view out over the water without a cityscape behind it. Beautiful. Different than the rest of the city, but still in it. New York has no end of new things to discover…

Closer to home we took some great walks right out the door. Due north of us was the High Bridge, formerly a part of the aqueduct system that provided water to the city and now a pedestrian crossing from Manhattan to the Bronx over the Harlem River. Not only was the bridge beautiful and the history interesting, but the walk through the woods to get there was great too.

Even closer to home, the steps leading from top to the bottom of Jackie Robinson Park at 155th Street provided a lovely spot to look out towards the Bronx. And — bonus! — one day I found two adorable cats wandering the park…

Finally, one of our best views of the city came on one of our last nights in town. We decided to splurge on fancy high elevation drinks at Bar 54. We picked it from a long list of rooftop bars for its location in midtown, the elevation — 54 floors up! –and the nice-looking cocktail list (I had a delicious something with bourbon and cherries). But, above all, it was one of only a few of these types of bars that opened before sunset. We arrived right at opening time, 4pm, and just barely caught the sunset. While the drinks were overpriced, the view was sooooo worth it. It was pretty great way to celebrate ending our time in the city…

So, yeah. That’s it. It’s a big, amazing, beautiful city. There are so many more spots I want to check out someday. And so many places I want to get back to. I’m sad to have had to leave. But (once I’m over the COVID), I’m very excited to move on to London.

More on that and visits with friends and family in a few weeks…