NY, NY - 4. Sawaya and the Living Pavement

The best part of travelling is discovering small, unplanned joys during walks that you would never discover if you always had a schedule.

One of the things I love to do best in large cities is just walk.

Walk down streets, by shops, sit and watch people, meander through parks – letting the tactile experience of the world wash over me.

Today, we started out from the Guggenheim, where an Italian Futurism exhibit was on, but found ourselves poking into a Lego exhibit in a back-alley museum off 44^th called, ‘Discovery’ instead. This was a rich find. Nathan Sawaya, an ex-Manhattan lawyer, would come home each night from the office and unwind by building Lego structures of one kind or another. Soon, he found that he was spending more time making Lego creations than law articles, and chucked his law career to build Lego full-time! Law’s loss, was the art world’s gain because Sawaya’s medium for art, through Lego, is astounding. There are sculptures in his collection with over 80,000 pieces, and they range from fun interpretations of Whistler

to 3-dimensional portraits and abstracts.

Sawaya’s art is inspiring. It demonstrates what can be created with the fearless courage to follow and commit to work you truly love. As Sawaya says, "art nurtures the brain, whether made from clay, paint, wood, or a modern-day toy."
Happening upon Sawaya’s exhibition left a spark of joy in our NYC walk-about.

Making our way South, or downtown, from the Discovery exhibit and Times Square, we had time to enjoy a rare day of sunshine in the parks along the way. Union Square, for example, is host to a huge market, and any city worth its weight in gold makes room for green spaces and ‘market days’. If you live in an apartment the size of a walnut, you are going to want to get outside once and awhile. Diners and unexpected ‘bridges’

between buildings and streets south lined our walk. There were even birds out bathing in the freshly melted puddles, and drying in the sun. It was the first nice day to be outside.

This sunny, tranquil roam led us right down to the 9/11 Memorial. 13 years after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, crowds of visitors still flock to pay their respects. We were stunned by the lineup, on a weekday, in the Winter, but entry is free (by donation), and what has been created out of the tragedy at ground zero is stunning. A marble cavern the shape and size of the each of the original twin towers has been dug down into the ground, and water now flows in a continuous cycle where fire and ash once were. The names of those who died in the site are listed around the edges of the tower pool, and the depth of the waterfall gives an immediate sense to the enormity of death at the Center.

There is also one, lone tree that survived the calamity, a pear tree, and it still stands, still growing, the middle of celebrity and fame now as hundreds of people take its photo.

Our walk back uptown was silent and retrospective, ending with a meal at the famous ‘Brooklyn Diner’, home to hundreds of celebrities and films,

and a “farewell NYC” with a ‘You Bred Raptors’ post-rock concert in the subway home.

NY, NY - 3. The View from the Top

The Empire State Building (ESB) was on the list of ‘things to see’ in NYC, and it didn’t disappoint. We were there in March, pre-tourist season, so there were virtually no lines at all, but I can imagine if one were to visit in the Summer months, the wait (even in the pricier ‘fast-track’ lanes) would be lengthy. I can see now why ‘King Kong’ just lost it, and climbed up the outside!

There were cattle grids lining all of the halls into the building: First to get up the escalator to the ticket lines; then to wait in the ticket lines; then to wind around an exhibit on ‘greening the building’ (which no one was interested in at all, but it took about ten minutes just to walk straight through); then to wait in line to the elevators to the 80^th floor.

There was a couple in front of us who had purchased tickets from a vendor out front, and lost their money on bogus tickets as it turns out. The lesson: Buy tickets online or from the ESB themselves.

There are two observation levels: the 86^th floor which, like the Eiffel Tower in Paris, you can walk outside and view the city; and the 102^nd floor, from which the city view must be observed inside.

The 86^th floor has several elevators going up, but you have to stop at the 80^th floor first to read the history of the building of ESB. I think they should display the history of the ESB along the cattle grid so that the lines of patrons have something to read as they wait. It is wonderful to see that the ESB still retains all of the original art deco features – copper and marble designs both in the lobby and in the hallways. Gorgeous.

The preservation of the historic buildings makes New York a fabulous city to walk. Everywhere in Manhattan, the small details on the corners and windows of buildings hark back to a glorious age of women in fashionable dresses in horse-drawn carriages, and men in suits and hats.

At the observation levels, you realize the sheer volume of people crammed onto such a tiny island. How do they squeeze an 80-floor tower into the puzzle of high-rises that is Manhattan? Looking down on NYC, there is not an inch to spare.

All the more remarkable when you see Central Park from the top. There is one fifth of NYC covered in green! It is a good thing the Park is there too – at least all of that concrete has some relief.

There must have been 20 different languages heard at the top of the ESB as everyone tried to get their ‘Affair to Remember’ or ‘Percy Jackson’ shot of the NYC skyline. Our little amateur phones hardly did the view justice, but one thing we certainly could illustrate were the tired legs at the end of six sets of stairs, and an hour worth of standing time in lines.

A drink, a café, in a small quiet square (I’ll never say where) at the end of our day allowed us to contemplate the size and history of this diverse city. 

NY, NY - 2. A Village Concert in the Subway

In large cities, the subway/metro/tube is always the fastest way to get to the major attractions. It is also the fastest way to get lost. New York’s subway is dark and dank,  yet the people that are riding those trains are one united, warm, welcoming village, a concert of human life. The NYC subways are not what the media leads us to believe about NYC subways: not once did we witness any crime or violence; quite the opposite.

Waiting for our train, there were musicians playing jazz and a father and son dancing away, enjoying the underground community atmosphere. The saxophone had such a clear, vibrant personality that, anywhere else, it could be in a club or concert hall. 

We hopped on the first train that came along. It just so happened that the first train we hopped on was also the wrong train. Always remember to look at the front or side of the subway train as it is coming into the station to make sure it’s going in the same general direction (towards the same end point) as you are.

Despite neglecting this vital detail, when I asked the woman seated beside me, “Is this train going to Queen’s?”

She said, “No, it’s going uptown. Where did you want to go?”

Then the man across from her piped in with a, “You need the E train downtown to 7.”

And another woman added, “Across the track is where you want to go, across the track.”

And in a jam session of concert-style voices, each member on the train car gave us their advice, showed us the map, helped us onto the next train and in the right direction. It started with one voice, but soon the entire car we were on was involved in the community music of the night.

When my son dropped his iPod, a gentleman went out of his way to run after him and make sure he got it back. "You dropped this," he said.
You see? New Yorkers are amazing people!

Times’ Square was the same way. It is impossible to capture in a two-dimensional photo the lights and sheer volume of people within the square, and yet, people would kindly step aside for you, ask to take your photo, or pause to answer questions. We had always heard that NYC was a tough, stuck-up kind of town, but all we saw was a diverse group of united NYC family enjoying the city as ‘all for one’.

Paying for activities, with children, was another matter entirely. We brought ice skates with us on this trip to skate in Rockefeller Plaza. There is a small change room off of the side of the outdoor rink, and when we went in to put our skates on, the woman behind the counter asked, “How many?”

“Four,” I said.

“Any children?”

“Yes, two.”

She rang in the price, and the till read, “$97.00”.

“We don’t need skates,” I stuttered, thinking there must be some mistake. Surely she must mean, “$9.70”.

“I know,” she said, “that’s $27.00 each.”

“We don’t need a season’s pass,” I stared blankly, “we’re just here for one night.”

“That’s for one hour,” she stated curtly.

I looked at my husband and he stared back on me. “Come on, let’s go, that’s crazy,” he said.

We were stunned. “Who pays “$97.00 to skate for one hour?! At home we could rent the whole rink for that price!” he said.

Needless to say, not many do pay. There were only four patrons on the ice that Saturday night, and although we watched, we wouldn’t be using our skates for the Fifth Avenue price this trip.

NY, NY – 1. What do you see if you only have four days?

 If you are going to a huge, world-famous city for just a few days, what can you possibly see and do in such a short time? That was my question when I knew I would be in New York city (NYC): I am only there for four days; what should I see?

NYC has everything, but what do I really want to see when I go there?

The Empire State Building (because it was in the films, ‘An Affair to Remember’, and more recently, ‘Percy Jackson’); 

Ground Zero (where the 2001 tragedy occurred a few months before my son was born);

Columbia University, NYU, CUNY, the intellectual center of the U.S.;

Some popular sports’ venues (in Winter, Madison Square Garden); and

Walking the streets to see the food, the vendors, the ‘villages’, Times Square, and the people.

I want to see all of those landmarks and sights that are common media images of New York, and test their ‘brand’ against the visited reality of the city. Is NYC exactly what we all expect it to be? Will I be mugged by walking around the streets? Are the deli’s really that good?

The next four days will be a Winter view of a city I have always wondered about.

NYC: Here I come; show me.