A Wall Street Stare-Down

The plaza just above Bowling Green downtown has drawn huge crowds since 1989, when the infamous Charging Bull statue took residence there. This week, it gained a new neighbor... a 50-inch statue of a defiant little girl, cast in bronze. It was commissioned by a firm called State Street Global Advisors ahead of International Womens Day to bring attention to the gender pay disparity in many other financial firms. The piece was created by, of course, a female artist named Kristen Visbal. It has been a magnet for tourists and local photographers all week.

The piece, in theory, is only temporary. But so, once, was Charging Bull itself.

That sculpture began as a piece of guerilla art (as discussed in my previous blog on street art), by artist Arturo Di Modica, dumped under a Christmas tree in front of the NY Stock Exchange in '89. Unlike this current installation, Di Modica did not get city consent for his actions. It was originally considered an act of vandalism by city officials! The Bull was moved away from Wall Street to its current home in late 1989 by the city, and was only ever meant to be temporary (Di Modica himself still owns the piece; it is on indefinite loan to the city). But time, and global love, have ensured that Charging Bull remains as a permanent part of the NYC landscape.

Will this new statue have the same fortune? “We’re actively pursuing that it stays for a month,” a spokesperson for State Street told Reuters news service. “If the city decides that it should stay in perpetuity, we’re absolutely on board with that.”

In the meantime, the stare-down of the century is taking place down on Broadway. Our money's on the girl.

Brooklyn Roads

I was contacted by someone today about the possibility of doing a Neil Diamond-themed tour in Brooklyn. This was a fun request, as I currently live in the same Brooklyn neighborhood where Diamond grew up. I often walk by his old apartment, as well as the historic high school from which he graduated. Planning this tour will be a treat.

On some initial research, I came across this video from 2010 in which Diamond came back to tour his old neighborhood, and ended up chatting with some local teenagers on his old corner. It's actually kind of sweet to watch a) him reminisce, and b) the local kids have no idea who this old man is. Enjoy!

My Tour Philosophy

In the FAQ section of this website, the first question I ask and answer is "Why should I choose you?". After all, there are many options for tours in New York-- walking guides, double-decker buses, water taxis, & more-- and all provide an amazing service. So, again, why me? The answer, I believe, is that I am providing something more personal. As my home page says, I aim to create memories.

I've seen guides leading big groups that will spend 2 hours covering only a few blocks in a circle. Stopping every few minutes to stand ahead of the group and give them a 10-15 minute static history lecture on a corner. I admire the amount of time & scholarship that goes into such a tour. But, I also see the participants staring at their phones, shuffling their feet, whispering among themselves, and I wonder... is this tour a lasting memory for them?

I travel a lot myself, and love taking tours in the cities I visit. But one thing that I found, and my fiancé concurred, was that in the days after the tour, I had only fleeting memories of the facts, dates, and other information thrown at me during the tour. But in a good tour, we had a clear memory of specific things that we saw, the basic historical context for what we had seen, and some of the little secrets the guide imparted onto the group. Plus, great photo opportunities. That is what lasted. So I decided to give tours that aim to maximize that experience.

An example: When I started doing High Line tours, as I pointed out the Hudson River at the start, almost every tour group has asked me to show them where on the river Sully landed the plane (answer: parallel to the USS Intrepid and the Manhattan Cruise Terminal). I realized almost of them would remember that. And the art pieces & design flourishes that I showed them. And the general experience of the park. But probably not the fact that the original High Line rail viaduct opened in 1934, or that the Friends of the High Line's annual operating budget is $11.5 million dollars.

In short, I focus more on show versus tell.

(Or, think of my tours like an Aaron Sorkin show: Walk and talk.)

I limit most of my tours to 10-12 people max to make sure everyone has a personal experience, and is able to talk to me and ask questions (or have me take pictures of them!). I provide customers with the basic history they need, show them some historical photos for reference, and encourage follow-up questions as we go. The tour is a conversation, not a lecture. 

I aim to cover as much ground as possible in every tour, to maximize how much a visitors sees in their limited time in NY. For instance, the Financial District and the World Trade Center? That's one tour for me, not two tours... after all, they're right next to each other, and part of the same (continuing) story of downtown. So you will walk a lot on my tour. But you will see so much more than on many other tours, and (I hope) have a real lasting memory of the experience.

For some visitors, that's not what they want. And that is fair, and I am happy to point such visitors toward other great companies I know who can give them the experience they need. But if you are a traveler (or a local) who prefers the type of tour that I've described, then... that's why me.

I love doing these tours. And I hope that passion will be contagious.

Come On Down To The World's Fair!

I'm excited to be soon offering even more dates for my World's Fair history of Flushing-Meadows, in Queens. I've written about this tour before-- such as my recent post on the Fair's connections to the Disney theme park empire-- as it is a favorite of mine to lead. And it's a perfect time to visit... due to the warm winter, I already saw cherry blossoms in early bloom there yesterday!

Flushing Meadows-Corona Park is actually larger in size than Central Park (fact: the latter is actually only the city's fifth-largest park). It sits on a former dumping ground, which was derided as "a valley of ashes" in F. Scott Fitzgerald's 'The Great Gatsby'. The land was cleared and turned into park-land by famous city planner Robert Moses to become the site of the 1939 World's Fair (which was a hit with crowds, but a financial failure). There is only one building remaining from that Fair... which later became the first headquarters for the United Nations, was re-purposed for the 1964 Fair, and currently houses the Queens Museum. That museum still houses an exhibit from 1964 (since updated)... the popular Panorama of the City of New York, which depicts all of the buildings in the entire city in 1:1200 scale. It must be seen to be believed. We see all of this on my tour.

(It is this park that, of course, hosts the annual US Open tennis tournament.)

On this tour, we also pass the following World's Fair artifacts & landmarks: the iconic Unisphere, the New York State Pavilion, a time capsule, numerous statues, Rocket Park, old streets and water fountains,  a Jordanian marble column which dates back to 120 AD, and much more.

Learn how these two Fairs reflected the times they were in, while looking to the future, and how they re-shaped New York City as a whole for years to come.

I will provide images & stories from the past....

....While we tour its present and learn of its future:

I believe this is a fun & easy tour for visitors of all ages... whether you visited the World's Fair, and want to re-live those memories, or you are young and want to discover what Queens has to offer.

Interested? Contact me!

Art & Architecture on the Second Avenue Subway

Curbed has a good article that some of my readers may be interested in:

"In the Second Avenue Subway, art and architecture are at odds"

Saying Goodbye To The Waldorf-Astoria

The Waldorf-Astoria is one of New York's most beautiful and historic hotels. It had been one of the popular stops on my Landmarks of Midtown tour. But this week I, and many New Yorkers, were visiting it for the purpose of saying goodbye.

This icon of midtown east is closing at the end of this month, for a multi-year reconstruction that will see most of its space converted into luxury condominiums. The Plaza Hotel went through a similar conversion several years ago. So while it will technically still exist, it won't be the same, and its gorgeous interiors no longer open to the public as they are now.

The Waldorf-Astoria has a storied past. It has hosted every single US President since Herbert Hoover (no other hotel can claim that), as well as celebrities and dignities from all over the world. Countless banquets and events have been held there. It has been featured in countless movies and TV shows.

The famous duel name comes from two separate hotels housed a little further downtown, dating back to the late 1800s, where the Empire State Building stands today. William Waldorf Astor & John Jacob Astor IV (who were cousins!) owned two competing hotels right next to each other. The two eventually reconciled and connected their hotels via a walkway (dubbed "Peacock Alley"). The building was sold, and then demolished, to make way for the Empire State. The 'Waldorf-Astoria' name was sold to developer Lucius Boomer, who constructed a new hotel on Park Avenue 15 blocks north. When it opened, it was the largest & tallest hotel in the world. Its very name quickly evoked luxury and grandeur.

If you have time over the next day or two, I think it is worth it to head over and say goodbye to this Art Deco-era landmark. The staff have been incredibly open and accommodating to the many visitors who have come to take one final look. Or, if you can't, enjoy a sample below of some of the photos I took on today's exploration.

The Changing NYC Skyline: A Guide

New York City's skyline may be infamous, but it is never static. It has always changed (and risen!), and that is more true now than at any time since the 1930s. So I have decided to create this comprehensive guide to the most high-profile additions to Manhattan's skyline (not even factoring in all the development along the Brooklyn & Queens waterfront!).

Let's start with the most famous change... the new World Trade Center. Everyone knows One World Trade Center, the tallest building in North America (thankfully the rumored "Freedom Tower" name was abandoned). But the site consists of numerous other skyscrapers. The original WTC site had seven buildings. The new WTC was to have seven as well, but it was cut back to five. 1, 3, 4, & 7 are built (3 is just topping out this year), with 2 yet to come, in addition to a performing arts center.  In between all of these, of course, sits the memorial park and museum.

This is a rendering, not a photo. From left to right: One, Seven, 2, 3, and 4.

Next is the biggest addition to the skyline... literally. 432 Park Avenue, completed just over a year ago, topped out at 1,396 ft (425.5 m). You may have seen it while near Central Park; it is the very tall and thin behemoth towering over its puny neighbors. It is the second-tallest building in NYC (only One WTC is taller), and is currently the tallest residential in the world. Apartments here started at around $18M. Due to both its massive height, and thin frame, the window grid & interior space of 2 floors between every 12 occupied floors are left open to allow wind to pass through (to prevent swaying). It has become a controversial symbol of New York becoming, as former mayor Michael Bloomberg said, "a luxury product".

The next biggest change is still at foundation level. One block north of Grand Central Terminal, One Vanderbilt is just beginning to be built. When completed in a few years, it will be NYC's third-tallest building, at a height of 1,401 feet (427 m). As part of the project, developers are promising to add new access and connections to Grand Central.

Next up is another behemoth in early stages of construction... the so-called Central Park Tower (aka, the Nordstrom Tower), on W. 57th Street. At a proposed height of 1,550 feet (472m), it will be taller than 432 Park... though the latter will remain the tallest residential building, as this one will be mixed-use. It will be the tallest building by roof height in the US, surpassing Chicago's Willis Tower.

Rendering.

Moving over to the west side, we get to Hudson Yards, the most ambitious real estate development plan in NY since the original World Trade Center. Being built atop the Hudson rail yards, the city has billed this project as New York's "hottest new neighborhood". And it is indeed an entire neighborhood being built from scratch... over a dozen planned skyscrapers containing more than 12,700,000 square feet (1,180,000 m2) of office, residential, and retail space. The neighborhood will also feature new schools, parks, hotels, and restaurants. The project has already completed an extension of the 7 subway line to 34th St.

One architectural centerpiece will be a large public plaza featuring 'Vessel', which is being marketed as the Eiffel Tower of NYC. It will be a beehive-styled network of stairs, 16 stories in height.

Today, only a fraction of the project is completed.

Rendering

Further down the adjacent High Line, there is more west side development, mostly high-end residential.

On the left, 520 West 28th St by the late Zaha Hadid (which will feature a $50M penthouse). On the right, the completed 10 Hudson Yards, now home to the offices of Coach and L'Oreal. The latter has a direct entrance from the High Line.

Walk a little south down the High Line, and you will soon see a new development at 76 Eleventh Avenue, by Bjarke Ingels. There will be two twisty condo towers, rising to 35 and 25 stories, respectively.

Rendering.

Further uptown, the Bjarke Ingels Group has already completed a major project, known as VIA 57 West. It sits right next to the West Side Highway. The building's design is referred to as a pyramid or a tetrahedron. It is a residential building rising 467 ft (142 m) and 35 stories tall. It has already won lots of architectural praise.

A little further east, near Columbus Circle, at W. 57th St & 8th Ave, is the Hearst Tower. Sitting atop the original Hearst HQ (completed in 1928), this decade-old skyscraper was designed by Norman Foster, best known for London's "Gherkin" tower.

Heading downtown now, we find a massive residential tower in trendy TriBeCa, which has already become an icon of the downtown skyline. 56 Leonard is a 821-ft (250 m) tall, 57-story condo building. Due to its unique shape, it has been dubbed by locals and the media as the "Jenga building".

Heading east from there, you will find New York by Gehry (aka, 8 Spruce Street), right near the East River. This 76-story skyscraper, Gehry's only other NYC work, was the world's tallest residential building upon completion, an honor that 432 Park uptown since took. As you enter the Brooklyn Bridge, turn around and you will see an amazing view of this building, along with the Woolworth Building and One World Trade Center.

In 10 years, the NYC skyline will likely change and grow even more exponentially.

Do you have any favorites among these new buildings? Or least favorites? Thoughts on the impacts these changes may have on the Big Apple? Share your opinions with me on social media... or contact me to plan custom walking tours of these sights!

The Legacy of Keith Haring

Keith Haring is one of the most famous street artists of all time. Even if you've never heard of him, odds are you've seen his work memorialized on clothing,  and other merchandise. He came from the same culture of "pop art" as Andy Warhol and others. Haring made a huge impact on the art world, despite dying at the far-too-young age of 31, in 1990.

Haring, in particular, left his mark on the street art in scene in NYC, and was one of the first to elevate the underground, illegal graffiti culture into something popular and mainstream. His most lasting NYC legacy is the Bowery Mural, a large wall on the corner of The Bowery & Houston Street. In 1982, he put a huge mural on the wall on that corner. He made the corner famous. Though that work is long-gone, that wall had become synonymous with art, and as the ownership of the building changed hands, and development grew around it, it was understood that the wall would need to remain a canvas for NYC's street artists. New murals now are painted on that wall seasonally.

However, one famous Haring piece in NYC remains. In 1986, Haring went to a random playground in east Harlem, and painted two murals, one on each side of a handball wall, to highlight the need to fight that era's crack epidemic. Not for the first time, Haring was arrested for vandalism. But the public and the press rallied around him, and he was let off with only a $100 fine. After the piece was itself vandalized, the Parks Dept asked Haring to come back and officially re-create his "Crack is Wack" mural. He did, and it remains today. It became so popular, that, after his death, the city officially renamed the entire playground the Crack Is Wack Playground.

And Haring's legacy remains on every other wall in NYC where street artists look to make their mark, and create a legitimacy to this form of art.

Taking The Subway

Occasionally, on my tours, I'll give a customer directions from a tour's end spot to their next plans, via the subway, and they are hesitant. Whether it's a mix of fear of the unfamiliar, safety concerns, or just a preference of the private comfort of a cab, I do sympathize.

But here's my professional opinion on why tourists should use the subway to get around:

1. It's reliable! Our system is unique in the world, in that it runs 24/7. Short of a natural disaster, the trains never stop running. Don't risk getting stuck in traffic, or with a cab driver who doesn't know where you're going. Google maps offer public transit directions now... find the best/closest route, and get there fast.
2. It's inexpensive! For $2.75, you get into the system, no matter how far you're going, transfer included. No fare zones. One ride, one fare. Plus discount fares for seniors, kids 44" or shorter are free.
3. It's safe! Subway crime has remained on a steady decline over the last 30 years.
4. Travel like a local! Everyone from construction workers to janitors to Wall St traders ride the subway. It's our city's great underground melting pot. You haven't experienced NYC until you've become a straphanger.
5. It's an art scene! The MTA has an official arts program, that helps design station walls with beautiful art pieces, murals, and musicians. Each station is unique.

So there's my pitch.

And now, some tips!

1. Grab or download a subway map (my favorite app: Exit Strategy). Know your routes, and plan your travel in advance. And, as noted before, you can get updated directions via Google Maps now.
2. Check the MTA website before you go, particularly on nights & weekends... as off-peak repairs do cause trains to be re-routed or temporary service suspensions.
3. Your best mass transit route to JFK from midtown: Take the LIRR (Long Island RailRoad)-- buy a ticket in advance at Penn Station!-- to Jamaica and take the AirTrain. This is the quickest way. To save some money, just take a Queens-bound E train to Jamaica instead for your AirTrain transfer. The AirTrain is $5 and stops at every terminal. Going to LaGuardia... well, the city's still figuring that out.

The High Line's Final Spur

Many people know the story of the High Line (if not, learn it on my tour!)... a former freight rail line, abandoned for decades, reborn as NYC's "park in the sky". But the story continues.

Since the High Line park first opened in 2009, it has only continued to grow. A second phase opened in 2011, and a third phase (extending the park to Hudson Railyards section) opened in 2014. But the park is still not yet complete. There is a final spur, running off the railyards end, that runs along West 30th St toward 10th Avenue. Work on that section had to put on hold while the 10 Hudson Yards skyscraper went up next door. But with that completed, the High Line can finally complete this spur.

The park has begun putting up banners previewing their plans:

So what do you think? As a visitor or a local, will this expansion make you more likely to come back?

Staten Island: The Fifth Wheel of NYC?

On an average weekday, around 66,000 riders, many of them tourists, board the (free) Staten Island ferry, which connects lower Manhattan to NYC's most isolated borough. For the tourists, once the boat arrives at St George Terminal in Staten Island, they exit, and then immediately queue back up for the return boat to Manhattan.  This is a conundrum that has vexed Staten Island officials for years. People are arriving at their shore by the (literal) boatload, but never go farther than the terminal. How do they get them outside?

The city's northernmost borough, and the only one connected to the mainland, the Bronx, at least has Yankee Stadium, the New York Botanical Garden, and the Bronx Zoo to draw in tourists, plus some other treasures (more than most think!). What does its southernmost borough have to sell to tourists?

The Staten Island faithful would be happy to tell you: Snug Harbor Cultural Center & Botanical Garden, historic Fort Wadsworth, the Lighthouse Museum, and more. But, as of now, that is not enough to draw tourists. So politicians have two big projects in the works to up the borough's profile.

The first, and more high-profile, is the New York Wheel. Observation wheels have been a huge economic boon to cities-- most famously, the London Eye-- and Staten Island is building one that will dwarf its predecessors (630-ft/192.0-m tall to the 443-ft/135-m of its London counterpart). A single rotation will accommodate up to 1,440 riders.

It is part of a large project for the waterfront that will also include the Empire Outlets retail complex. It is scheduled to open in Spring of next year... though that date has been bumped back already due to construction delays.

Will you travel to Staten Island to ride this?

Further inland, a perhaps even more ambitious project is coming along.

Staten Island was once most famous for the Fresh Kills landfill, which for decades operated as the principal landfill for NYC's garbage. Covering over 2,200 acres (890 ha), it was once the largest landfill, as well as human-made structure, in the entire world. Urban legends even persisted, though false, that it was so large it was visible from space. And boy, did it smell lovely!

The landfill was closed in March 2001, but temporarily reopened later that year as a sorting ground for a large amount of the rubble from the World Trade Center. But it has not taken in garbage since.

Proposals to reclaim the site had floated around for years. But starting in 2008, work finally began on Freshkills Park project... a decades-long plan to convert the site into a massive park, 3x the size of Central Park. Although the entire park is not scheduled for completion until 2037 (!!), a lot of work has been done already, and it is now home to hundreds of species and plants and animals. The space opens up several times a year for open-house "discovery days" with other special tours (for kayaking, birding, etc) planning throughout each year.

I had the pleasure of visiting during a discover day this past summer, and found the park stunning. While I am skeptical that it will draw many tourists to the island, it already is an amazing resource for the city. A triumph of engineering.

(If you are curious about the process of converting a toxic landfill into a park and wildlife refuge, there's a great article on how they did it on the Smithsonian website.)

So, after decades of being in the shadows of the other four boroughs, Staten Island is preparing for its big coming out. What do you think? Do you think visitors will be adding the island to their NYC to-do lists?

10 reasons to hire a local tour guide and take a tour on your travels

"10 reasons to hire a local tour guide and take a tour on your travels"

Photo Contest!

As you have seen, I love taking lots of photos when I travel, or even just here at home in New York. And I follow some amazing people on Instagram, so I know there's lots of people taking gorgeous photos of New York City.

So I've decided to organize a photo contest for the other travel photographers out there. If you have interesting, unique, fun NYC photos that you've taken, please share them with us. You can share 3 ways:

1.  Post directly to our Facebook page
2. Post on your Instagram and tag our account
3. Post on Twitter & mention/tag our account

I will then pick my favorites and then will put the finalists up to a public vote. The contest will run through the end of this month (February 28). The winner will be notified shortly thereafter. The winner will receive a NYC prize package which includes:

• Guest pass to Mu$eum of American Finance (free admission for 2)
• Family pass to The Skyscraper Museum (free admission for 5)
• 2 guest passes to The Brooklyn Strategist
• $25 gift card to Nitehawk Cinema
• Gift certificate to Custom NYC Tours (free tour of your choosing, up to 6 people)

Looking forward to seeing the entries! If there any questions, please contact me!

Welcome To My Blog!

For any new readers... welcome!

I started this blog to not only promote my tours, or upcoming events, but to share my stories of New York City. For those who are new visitors, here are some of my previous entries I like best:

• Is It Safe?: A look on discussions of NYC safety with my customers, and how '70s/'80s pop culture has cemented an outdated narrative of our city.
• The 1964 World's Fair... Presented by Walt Disney?: A history lesson, with classic photos & video, combining two of my favorite things... Disney theme parks, and the 1964 World's Fair that was held in Queens.
• The Second Avenue Subway: A history of the Upper East Side subway line delayed nearly a century, just now finally coming to fruition.
• A Tour Grows In Brooklyn: The process of creating a custom tour of Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, in December, for a former resident of the neighborhood who wanted to re-learn the history of his childhood home.
• I Love a Good Challenge: My love of contests that get me to travel around the city.
• Street Art: An explanation of what "street art" is, how it relates to (and differs from) graffiti, and why it's more central to NYC culture than you realized.

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I also want to use this blog to start a conversation. Are you a local? Or an upcoming traveler? Ask me questions, ask for advice, or share your stories! I want to hear from you.

Requiem For The Troll Museum

New York City is known around the world for its peerless museums... The Metropolitan Museum of Art, MoMA, the Guggenheim, and countless more. But it also houses many lesser-known, eclectic museums.

Venture into a Chinatown alley and see Mmuseumm, the city's smallest museum, housed entirely in a freight elevator. Or go to Williamsburg and visit the City Reliquary, housed in a former bodega and featuring unique artifacts from NYC history. In SoHo, you can view the New York Earth Room,  a single room filled with 280,000 pounds of dirt. And let's not forget the Museum of Sex, in midtown.

Alas, NYC is losing many of these treasures. Brooklyn recently lost its Morbid Anatomy Museum. And last year, we also lost my personal favorite... The Troll Museum, a labor of love by local performance artist Reverend Jen Miller. Housed in her Lower East Side tenement, the "museum" consisted of Miller's well-curated collection of troll dolls and related memorabilia. She had hundreds of pieces in the collection. But last summer, Miller was evicted from her apartment, and thus the museum was no more.

I had the pleasure of speaking with Miller a couple of years ago, and arranging a private visit to her home/museum. To see this in person was breathtaking.

Rev. Jen Miller was not just a hardcore collector (and a true NYC character!), she was also an amazing storyteller. She regaled me with the history of troll dolls, and went shelf-by-shelf to explain the significance of everything. She took one room full of dolls and turned it into a thorough, memorable one-hour tour. Her presence in the Lower East Side is missed every day.

So don't wait to experience the unique museums and experiences that New York City has to offer. They might not be here for long!

In the meantime, you can take this virtual tour of The Troll Museum, from 11 years ago: