 The most beguiling city in the world,
New York is an adrenaline-charged,
history-laden place that holds immense
romantic appeal for visitors. Wandering
the streets here, you'll cut between
buildings that are icons to the modern
age - and whether gazing at the
flickering lights of the midtown
skyscrapers as you speed across the
Queensboro bridge, experiencing the 4am
half-life downtown, or just wasting the
morning on the Staten Island ferry, you
really would have to be made of stone
not to be moved by it all. There's no
place quite like it.
While the events of September 11,
2001, which demolished the World Trade
Center, shook New York to its core, the
populace responded resiliently under the
composed aegis of then-Mayor Rudy
Giuliani. Until the attacks, many New
Yorkers loved to hate Giuliani, partly
because they saw him as committed to
making their city too much like everyone
else's. To some extent he succeeded, and
during the late Nineties New York seemed
cleaner, safer, and more liveable, as
the city took on a truly international
allure and shook off the more notorious
aspects to its reputation. However, the
maverick quality of New York and its
people still shines as brightly as it
ever did. Even in the aftermath of the
World Trade Center's collapse, New York
remains a unique and fascinating city -
and one you'll want to return to again
and again.
You could spend weeks in New York and
still barely scratch the surface, but
there are some key attractions - and
some pleasures - that you won't want to
miss. There are the different ethnic
neighborhoods , like lower
Manhattan's Chinatown and the
traditionally Jewish Lower East Side (not
so much anymore); and the more artsy
concentrations of SoHo, TriBeCa, and the
East and West Villages. Of course, there
is the celebrated architecture of
corporate Manhattan, with the
skyscrapers in downtown and midtown
forming the most indelible images. There
are the museums , not just the
Metropolitan and MoMA, but countless
other smaller collections that afford
weeks of happy wandering. In between
sights, you can eat just about
anything, at any time, cooked in any
style; you can drink in any kind
of company; and sit through any number
of obscure movies . The more
established arts - dance, theater,
music - are superbly catered for;
and New York's clubs are as
varied and exciting as you might expect.
And for the avid consumer, the choice of
shops is vast, almost numbingly
exhaustive in this heartland of the
great capitalist dream.
Orientation and highlightsNew
York City comprises the central island
of Manhattan along with four
outer boroughs - Brooklyn, Queens,
the Bronx , and Staten Island
. Manhattan, to many, is New York
- whatever your interests, it's here
that you'll spend the most time and are
likely to stay. New York is very much a
city of neighborhoods and is best
explored on foot.
Offshore, the Statue of Liberty
and Ellis Island comprise the
first section of New York (and America)
that most nineteenth-century immigrants
would have seen. The Financial
District takes in the skyscrapers
and historic buildings of Manhattan's
southern reaches and was hardest hit by
the destruction of perhaps its most
famous landmarks, the Twin Towers of the
World Trade Center. Just northeast is
the area around City Hall , New
York's well-appointed municipal center,
which adjoins TriBeCa , known for
its swanky restaurants, galleries, and
nightlife. Moving east, Chinatown
is Manhattan's most populous ethnic
neighborhood, a vibrant locale that's
great for food and shopping. Nearby,
Little Italy bears few traces of the
once-strong immigrant presence, while
the Lower East Side , the city's
traditional gateway neighborhood for new
immigrants, is nowadays scattered with
trendy bars and clubs. To the west,
SoHo is one of the premier districts
for galleries and the commercial art
scene, not to mention designer shopping.
Continuing north, the West and
East Villages form a focus of bars,
restaurants, and shops catering to
students and would-be bohemians - and of
course tourists. Chelsea is a
largely residential neighborhood that is
now mostly known for its gay scene and
art galleries that borders on
Manhattan's old Garment District
. Murray Hill contains the city's
largest skyscraper and most enduring
symbol, the Empire State Building
.
Beyond 42nd Street , the main
east-west artery of midtown, the
character of the city changes quite
radically, and the skyline becomes more
high-rise and home to some of New York's
most awe-inspiring, neck-cricking
architecture. There are also some superb
museums and the city's best shopping as
you work your way north up Fifth
Avenue as far as 59th Street. Here,
the classic Manhattan vistas are broken
by the broad expanse of Central Park
, a supreme piece of nineteenth-century
landscaping, without which life in
Manhattan would be unthinkable. Flanking
the park, the mostly residential and
fairly affluent Upper West Side
boasts Lincoln Center, Manhattan's
temple to the performing arts, the
American Museum of Natural History, and
Riverside Park along the Hudson River.
On the other side of the park, the
Upper East Side is wealthier and
more grandiose, with its
nineteenth-century millionaires'
mansions now transformed into a string
of magnificent museums known as the
"Museum Mile," the most prominent being
the vast Metropolitan Museum of Art
. Alongside is a patrician residential
neighborhood that boasts some of the
swankiest addresses in Manhattan, and a
nest of designer shopping along Madison
Avenue in the seventies. Immediately
above Central Park, Harlem , the
historic black city-within-a-city, has a
healthy sense of an improving go-ahead
community; a jaunt further north is most
likely required only to see the unusual
Cloisters, a nineteenth-century mock-up
of a medieval monastery, packed with
great European Romanesque and Gothic art
and (transplanted) architecture.
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