The New York Fed

At Maiden Lane, Liberty Street and William Street in lower Manhattan. This is where they keep all the gold, and it's where many of the anti-Wall Street protests are happening.

From the ground it looks like a weirdly out-of-place castle. From up above--with its red tile roof--it looks like an even more weirdly out-of-place Mediterranean villa.

Note that this photograph was chosen for inclusion in the latest Schmap East Coast Guide!

Just off to the right of this next shot is a great pub, Jim Brady's.


For more of New York photos, feel free to take a look at my NYC photoset on Flickr.

The Special Tourist Hell that is the Port Authority Bus Terminal

If you're a tourist, and you're planning to take a bus in or out of New York City, be sure to give yourself extra time to navigate the Port Authority Bus Terminal.

Commuters who regularly take the bus in and out of Manhattan (this includes me--I did this for more than nine years) will of course know where they're going. Most of the time. But tourists be warned: you will find Port Authority to be an intimidating maze.


A typical example: to get to my bus stop in New Jersey, you can theoretically wait at three different gates--it depends on what time the bus departs. One of the gates has four separate doors and it's unclear which door is the correct one, because different buses stop at different gates, depending on what time of day it is and which day of the week it is.

Confused yet? Well, some of these buses might go to your bus stop, but then again, some might not. You're supposed to be clairvoyant and already know this, or you've been successful at deciphering the bus schedule pamplets that you can get from the information booth near the entrance of the terminal downstairs. When it's open. Of course when traffic is bad (which happens most every weekday rush hour and causes buses to arrive and depart late), you might as well throw the schedule totally out the window.

Nobody tells you anything. The bus driver might grunt at you when you ask him "is this the bus to ---- stop?" And god forbid if you miss your bus on a weekend; you get the privilege of waiting two hours for the next one.

My advice: embrace the fact that you have no idea where you're going. Ask a fellow commuter, or better yet, ask several fellow commuters. And good luck.

The U.S. Custom House and National Museum of the American Indian

At the very bottom of Broadway in Lower Manhattan stands an imposing building that's one of the most beautiful in all of New York City.

The U.S. Custom House (officially named the Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House) was originally intended to be the President's house back when it was thought that New York City would be the nation's capital. It was never used for that purpose. Now it functions as the National Museum of the American Indian.

View from Bowling Green park:


Detail of U.S. Custom House:


Side view, from (I believe) Stone Street:

It's Time to Leave Manhattan

Well, our Year in Manhattan is nearly over. We're going to be moving out of the city and back into the 'burbs in a matter of days, in preparation for leaving the entire region (for a time at least) beginning in January. Our "year" is over.

This post is to alert readers that while I'll update this blog from time to time, it will be on a less consistant schedule. I'm not quite finished saying what I have to say about NYC, but I won't be able to put up the regularly scheduled Sunday posts as I've done over the past year.

Funny how things seem to be accelerating now that we're approaching the end. Just a few months ago it seems like it would be a long time before we would be leaving. As it turns out, these last few weeks raced by right before our eyes.

I was looking across the East River at our weekly lunch on the roof today and I realized that before we move away, we probably won't have the chance to walk over to the Brooklyn side of the Brooklyn Bridge and take in the amazing view of lower Manhattan. Just a simple thing that I've wanted to do, but that I won't have time to do. Life is like that sometimes.

It's been a privilege to live in this city--but at times it has been a difficult privilege. The noise and the energy of New York can energize you, but it can also suck the life out of you.

However, it's been an unmitigated privilege to write about our lives here. Something about this place breeds creativity in me. How else would I have started up a photography habit (calling it an avocation or even a hobby inappropriately dignifies it), or had the courage to create Casual Kitchen, for example?

I know I will come back.

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:

Five More Great Pubs in Lower Manhattan

We've picked up a few new favorite lower Manhattan pubs since our last update, and I thought I'd share these with you as well:

The Mercantile Grill, on 126 Pearl Street:


The Killarney Rose, almost directly across the street from the Mercantile. A bit more humble, but still a great place to go and "bend an elbow."
Then on Stone Street, we have two favorites. Ulysses, which serves a solid burger and has friendly bartenders and staff:


And the Stone Street Tavern, which serves an even better burger and also has a friendly staff.

Also the Stone Street Tavern has a bit of a sense of humor: Here's the view of the other side of this pub, from Pearl Street:


Finally, The White Horse Tavern, on 25 Bridge Street, just off of Whitehall Street:

New York City at Night

No city in the world is quite like New York City at night. The city is lit up and humming, full of excitement. Yet it's also lonely, overwhelming and depressing at the same time. Here are a few of my favorite night shots of the city:

The Woolworth Building:
View north from Lower Manhattan. The city Municipal Building is the one with the gold figurine on top. To the left of that is the Empire State Building, about three or so miles further north.

Looking westward from the terrace on the roof of 2 Gold Street, lower Manhattan:

The Bull on Broadway

At least once a month a tourist will stop me and ask some variant of the question, "do you know where the bull is?"

Yep, I do.

It's on Broadway, almost at the bottom of the avenue, right smack in the middle of the road. You can take the subway to Bowling Green Station and walk a block or so north, or take it to Wall Street (which lets you off on the corner of Wall and Broadway), and walk south about two blocks or so from there.

You won't be alone. There's pretty much always several tourists taking pictures there. But be careful: Broadway can be a busy street. There are cars, cabs and buses zipping by on both sides of the bull. Don't be so much in "tourist mode" that you forget to look both ways before you cross:

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!