More New York Art Deco Architecture

This art deco building, which looks like it's from the same era as the AIG and Chrysler buildings as well as the Empire State Building, is so unassuming that I never noticed until the other day.

At 29 Broadway, less than a block from the Bronze Bull. Now apparently owned by the Bangkok Bank.
Detail, 29 Broadway:

Lamp, entryway of 20 Broadway:

Detail, 29 Broadway entryway:

The New York Stock Exchange

If you're touring around lower Manhattan, you have to stop by the New York Stock Exchange, obviously. But a visit to the Exchange is nowhere near as fun as it used to be.

Back before 9/11, you used to be able to go inside the Exchange building to a glass-enclosed viewing balcony up above the trading floor. Not any longer. Now, you need an invitation from a firm with a seat on the Exchange, or you have to be invited in by companies with official business there. And even then they X-ray all of your bags and send you through a metal detector first.

And there are armed guards all around the building, at all hours. At least now the neighborhood is totally safe.

In any case, tourists unfortunately can only view the Exchange from the outside now. It's still an imposing and beautiful buildling and it's worth the trip down there.

Try standing on the steps of Federal Hall, across Wall Street, for a good angle for a photograph of the NYSE facade:

About This Blog

The purpose of this blog is to document one entire year of living in lower Manhattan.

I've always dreamed of living in New York City. I've spent more years than I can count commuting into Mahattan for work, and prior to that I spent two years commuting in for graduate school. All along I've felt that I just lived on the fringes of this city and never really got to experience it fully.

So when the opportunity came to rent a small apartment right near my office, my wife and I jumped at the chance. She cut down her work schedule to four days a week, and we started spending Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays--and even occasional weekends--in the city, enjoying dinners out, socializing much more with our city friends and experiencing all of what New York has to offer. Our apartment is tiny, but it's big enough for the two of us (and an occasional couchsurfer too) for a few nights a week.

Yes, it was a fiscally irresponsible decision, but it's been one of the best decisions we've ever made.

So, I've been posting weekly updates to this blog, covering all the changes in the neighborhood in lower Manhattan, various restaurants we've visited, things to see and do, my thoughts and observations on what life here is like, and other frivolous trivia about New York City.

Actually most of this blog is totally frivolous. But it's been fun to write, and it's been a pleasure to keep a permanent record of what we've seen and done here. Sure, it's kind of sad that the "year" is drawing to a close, but all good things must eventually come to an end.

I hope you enjoy reading!

The Canyon of Heroes: Parades on Broadway in Lower Manhattan

At the bottom of Manhattan, where Broadway starts, is the "Canyon of Heroes" where they throw the tickertape parades. The New York Giants just had the most recent parade thrown for them after winning the Super Bowl, and hundreds of thousands of New York faithful were out there, either taking the day off from work to drive into the city, or just wandering down during their lunch hour to see the goings-on.

The parade route generally runs from the north side of Bowling Green Park and goes up Broadway to just south of City Hall Park.

There haven't been a lot of reasons to throw tickertape parades recently. And mostly the parades seem to be only for New York sports teams these days (and of course we know what's happened to the Yankees the last few years!).

But New Yorkers received an unexpected treat when the the Giants won the 2008 Super Bowl.

However, in the early and mid-20th century, tickertape parades were thrown for generals, political figures and non-sports heroes. There wasn't always so much of a focus on athletes and sports teams. If you walk up and down Broadway, you'll see, in the sidewalks along the path of the parade route, the names of tickertape parade "recipients" like Harry Truman, Charles Lindberg, the Apollo astronauts, John Glenn, Amelia Earhart, Dwight Eisenhower and so on.

Not that any native New Yorkers will take the time to notice them while they're hurrying off to work.

The Original Delmonico's Steakhouse in Lower Manhattan

There is no shortage of good steakhouses in New York City. But if you want be treated well and have a really good steak, Delmonico's (at 56 Beaver Street in lower Manhattan) is the place to go.

Maybe you can get an arguably better steak at Peter Luger's in Brooklyn, but be prepared, at best, to be treated with indifference by the staff there. And of course Luger's doesn't take credit cards.

But at Delmonico's the staff is actually nice to the customers, and it's not even that hard to get reservations.

But keep in mind that this is corporate T&E kind of restaurant--as you'll see by the prices on the menu. Most of the patrons here are Wall Streeters and their clients. Be prepared to get separated from your money.

Dirty Ryan's: RIP

One of the cruelest jokes ever played on lower Manhattan's beer drinkers is the closure of Ryan's Sports Bar, affectionately known Dirty Ryan's.

This place had a really friendly bartender and the patrons were an eclectic and ethnic mix of construction workers, office workers, young and old.

The sign on the door says that Ryan's has "moved" to Cliff Street, where Ryan Maguires is located. That would be believable if Ryan Maguires hadn't already been there all along as a totally different bar with a totally different crowd.

We'll miss you Ryan's!

Pearl Street -- Revitalization in the Seaport District

The new Rockrose building going up on Pearl Street (I understand that it's going to be a hotel) is really moving along. They have been completing at least two floors per week on this building. An astonishing construction schedule. I wouldn't be surprised if this building opens for business by the end of the summer.

Taken at the end of November 2007, when they had just poured the foundation:


Taken on January 2008, when they started pouring the reinforced concrete supports on the ground floor:

The first few floors took much longer to build, but once they finished the third floor, they've been knocking off at least a floor every few days.

Here's a photo from 3/7/08--building out the sixth floor:

City Hall and City Hall Park

There's a enormous building with a big, gold figurine right next to City Hall Park.

Many people consider that to be City Hall. On the contrary: that's the Municipal Building. The real City Hall is a much smaller and older building in its shadow. And don't forget the New York expression: you can't fight City Hall. Either one of 'em.

While you're here, take a walk through City Hall Park in downtown Manhattan. It's just a short walk from the World Trade Center site, and it's right next to the Brooklyn Bridge and the thrilling pedestrian walkway across to Brooklyn.

This is How You Do Laundry in New York City

This is what a typical laundry room looks like in a typical New York City high-rise apartment building.

The only thing that's not typical in these pictures is the number of people in the laundry room. This picture was taken midday when most people are at work. In the evenings, this room is jammed.

Proselytizing in New York City

For a city that seems so amoral to many inland Americans, there is actually a surprisingly large number of Christian proselytizers in New York City. Perhaps New York attracts them because there are supposedly so many sinners here?

Commuters taking the 7 train from Times Square, or who walk down the tunnel between Port Authority and Time Square, will be intimately familiar with this particularly well stocked group of Christian promoters:

It's only happened to me once or twice, but every so often you'll get somebody who preaches to a captive audience in a subway car. The nerve.

Roadblocks in Lower Manhattan

One of the reasons NYC is so much more pedestrian-friendly now, especially in the downtown/financial district area, is because of all the roadblocks everywhere.

These are a legacy of 9/11, and now almost every large office building has in front of it some form of roadblock or barrier. They range from big ugly cement blocks, to oversize planters, to rhombus-shaped metal blocks (see the corner of Wall Street and Broadway).

And then there are the suicide-bomber truck protection blockades:


These particular roadblocks are near the New York Stock Exchange. These things could stop a tank.

Free Wireless Internet in Lower Manhattan

For tourists or locals wandering around lower Manhattan, you should know that there is free wireless internet in the 60 Wall Street atrium:

60 Wall is open to the public and is just a couple of short blocks away from the New York Stock Exchange. But unless you know the neighborhood, it's unlikely you'd find your way here since you can't see this atrium from the Exchange itself. And it's something you won't find in a guidebook.

There are on occasion some rousing backgammon or speed-chess matches in here too. Heated nicely in the winter and mercifully air-conditioned in the summer, with security provided by Deutsche Bank security guards.

Top 8 Ways New Yorkers are Different from Everybody Else

1) They expect to find a good bagel, no matter where on earth they happen to be.

2) They think the whole country is politically liberal--just like they are.
a) Recall the embarrassing story from the 1970s about what film critic and liberal Pauline Kael said when she couldn't believe Nixon got voted into office: "I don't know a single person who voted for him!"
b) Another one: a New Yorker friend of ours was in a car with us in suburban New Jersey a few weeks after 9/11. His comment after looking out the window at all the homes: "Jeez. What's with all the flags?"

3) They have NO sense of geography.
White Plains might as well be a suburb of Buffalo, NY. They think it snows a lot there. Paris they might know, but Paris, Texas is some God-forsaken place nobody would ever go to.

4) They think going out for Ethiopian food is more normal than eating meat and potatoes.

5) They all seem to be thin.

6) A surprisingly high percentage of them smoke.

7) They think nothing of paying $400 a month to park a car in a garage and paying $2500 a month (or more) for a one-bedroom apartment.

8) They think everybody else speaks with an accent.

Inadvertantly Funny Signs in New York City

English is a second (or third, or fourth) language for so many people in New York City that you just can't help chuckling at some of the signs around town.

Seen on Liberty Street, across from the NY Federal Reserve Building, in Lower Manhattan:

Yes, but "Danger" is my middle name....!

The Cheapest Muffins in NYC

Breakfast is really the only truly affordable meal in NYC, and even it can seem expensive to outsiders. You can easily pay $1.75 for a muffin, or $1.50 for a bagel with a schmear. At a Starbucks or an Au Bon Pain, forget about it; scones or muffins can go for $3.00 or more.

But there's a tiny, nondescript diner called the Roxy Food Shop, at 20 John Street (between Broadway and Nassau Streets), that sells good muffins for $1.25 each. This place is so small that two people can't walk past each other without having to turn sideways.

But you'll get your muffins for next to nothing, and the friendly man behind the counter will ask you how you're doing and actually mean it.

A Great Meeting Place in Lower Manhattan: The Hideous Sculpture at Chase Manhattan Plaza

There's a preposterously ugly outdoor sculpture in front of the Chase Manhattan Plaza that, despite its lack of aesthetic appeal, makes for a perfect lower Manhattan meeting place.


It's just above the 2/3 line Wall Street Station stop, and only a couple of blocks away from the Trade Center Site. You can even stand under it and get protection from the rain too... although not the wind.

If you arrive via subway, take the 2/3 line to Wall Street, then follow the signs in the subway to exit via Cedar/William Street. Go through the doors, take a quick right and head up the stairs to the outdoor plaza level and you're right there.

If you're arriving on foot, this plaza is basically a one block long segment of Cedar Street between William and Nassau Streets.

Night view from the corner of Cedar and William Streets:

View from above:

Four Reasons Why Are There So Many Starbucks in NYC

Everybody's heard the joke about the latest Starbucks… opening in the bathroom of a Starbucks. Yet it does highlight one of the stranger things about Manhattan. You'd think NYC would be filled with tragically hip coffee shops, but instead it's been overrun by a Seattle-based corporate coffee chain.

For a town that prides itself on being cool, why in the world would there be a Starbucks literally on every other block? And why are all of these Starbucks busy all of the time?

1) Public Space
Starbucks serves somewhat of a broad and altruistic social function in New York by providing public space. The chain essentially offers up a heated (or air-conditioned depending on the season) indoor park every few hundred feet throughout the city. Admission is just an overpriced cup of coffee.

2) Cheap Wireless Internet
Even though New Yorkers try so hard to be cool, a high percentage of them are tools who can't seem to break away from their laptops. For just a few bucks you can get wireless internet at most Starbucks. Astute New York people-watchers will be able to name an entire taxonomy of laptop-wielding customers, ranging from the scruffy unemployed screenwriter, to the i-banking associate working on a PowerPoint pitch book, to the business school study group working on a group project, etc.

3) One of Two Key Food Groups
Coffee and nicotine are two critical food groups for a surprising amount of New Yorkers. Hence the expression that a New Yorker's breakfast is coffee and a cigarette.

4) Satisfying the Inner Snob
There's another joke about New Yorkers: How do you get a New Yorker to wait in line? Simple: put up a velvet rope and a bouncer. New Yorkers cannot resist the urge to wait in line for something that they'll eventually overpay for.

Oh, right, and maybe they actually like the coffee too.

Eight Pieces of Advice for Tourists Riding the New York City Subway

Here are eight suggestions for tourists looking to ride New York's famous subways:

1) Hold onto something at all times.

2) Bend your knees just a little bit while the train is in motion. It helps you keep your balance.

3) Resist the urge to look around too much, and of course it goes without saying that you shouldn’t stare. New Yorkers expect to exist in a state of high anonymity, even when crammed into a subway car like sardines.

4) If you feel compelled to wear sunglasses in the subway system, you are trying much too hard to be cool.

5) It’s okay to ask somebody for help or directions, as New Yorkers have become friendlier in the past several years. But New Yorkers love to give you a zillion different ways to get somewhere via subway, so if you ask an open-ended questions, like “how can I get to Times Square from here?” be prepared to be confused by too many options. Instead, it's better to ask yes or no type questions, like "Is this the train to Times Square?"

6) The subway is safe. It was actually quite safe even in the 80s and early 90s, despite the impression you got from the media. But now it’s incredibly safe.

7) The subway is the easiest and cheapest way to get around town for any distance too great to walk. The $2.00 fare will get you from one end of the subway system to the other--you can theoretically take the subway from Rockaway Beach in Brooklyn all the way to Wakefield in the North Bronx and it will still cost you only $2.00. Not that you’d necessarily want to make that trip, since it will take you two hours. But this is in stark contrast to most major cities (D.C., Paris, London, etc.) where they charge you extra for riding longer distances.

8) Don’t expect to be impressed with the beauty of the NYC subway system. It’s dirty, some of the trains screech painfully loudly, and at times the entire system can truly tax one’s patience (timetables? What timetables?). Instead, try your best to be impressed with the utter utilitarianism of it all.


Related Posts:
The Subway Knows When You Let Go of the Handrail
Five More Great Pubs in Lower Manhattan

Century21: Inexpensive Shopping In Lower Manhattan

They have good stuff here. And cheap too.
--Woman talking in the Century21 department store

One of the cheapest places to buy clothes in all of NYC is the Century21 department store on 22 Cortlandt Street in lower Manhattan.

You'll have to forgive the building’s almost Nazi-era looking external architecture, complete with art deco-style eagles. I’m sure these guys arrived at this location long after the building was built.

But once you get inside, you'll find a store filled with clothes of all sorts of brand names at prices so low you'll have trouble believing you're in New York City. Yves St. Laurent ties, $15.00. Pierre Cardin dress shirts, $29.99. About a year ago I picked up a sturdy black London Fog travel carry-on suitcase for the outrageously cheap price of $29.99.

And if you're an international tourist, you'll get even more mileage out of the weak dollar. You'll get some amazing deals here.

Century21 is right next to the World Trade Center site and just a couple of north from Trinity Church, both of which are major downtown tourist destinations. If you're down here anyway, why not catch a few bargains while you're at it?

Further Evidence of Enormous Opportunities in Lower Manhattan

As further evidence that there are opportunities all over the place in Lower Manhattan, you need go no further than Maiden Lane, just a couple blocks west of the Seaport.

1) A new Gristedes supermarket, which is about 2 months old:

This now means that this area--now that it has three separate grocery stores in a three block radius--is officially residentially friendly.

2) A new Chipotle, which has been packed every day at lunchtime from the day it opened about four months ago. Today was a slow day: the line only extended out the door by one or two people.

As far as I know it's now the second Chipotle down here; the other is over on Broadway near the Bull.