Published May 2, 2004 12:00AM
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The World’s Great Towns, June 1997
New York By the Editors Yes, you read correctly. No, we’re not going to apologize. And yes, we realize that the city that never sleeps has its share of loathsome things: divisive politics; a tacit presumption that every place else is basically Eau Claire, Wisconsin; Kathie Lee Gifford. Still, in what Tom Wolfe called “the irresistible destination of all those who insist on being where things are happening,” people can and do lead lives centered around outdoor grace. New Yorkers approach sport with the same in-your-face moxie they bring to every other pursuit, however. Name one other citizenry that would pack a “funk aerobics” class taught by a drag queen or take lessons in Filipino stick-fighting. Feel like running in Central Park — but for exactly 4.7 miles and near water only half the time? The N.Y. Road Runners Club has mapped out various loops right down to the meter. Plus: The crime rate has plummeted, panhandlers are increasingly civil, the economy is roaring, and the real estate market has loosened up for the first time in a decade. Basically, it’s the unexpected that makes New York a great city to live in. The fact that you can cop an elephant ride, spy on migrating herons for hours, scale a boulder, or watch a cricket match all without leaving town. There’s also the joy of sampling most of the world’s cuisines without leaving the sidewalk, or dining at a restaurant whose wait staff consists entirely of identical twins. And when you want to get away for the weekend — and you will — a surprising number of natural options await nearby: peaks, surf, wetlands, and all that they entail. The defense rests. What’s Out There Watch NYPD Blue and you’d never guess NY is so green. Sure, Central Park is world famous. But it’s only one option. There are botanic gardens in Brooklyn; tidal wetlands in Queens’s Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge; and the Bronx Zoo, the nation’s biggest urban zoo, which virtually created the vogue for faithfully recreated habitats. For less contemplative pursuits, set sail off City Island or belay at Chelsea Piers, home of the East Coast’s largest indoor climbing wall. Within an easy drive of Fifth Avenue, you can sunbathe at Jones Beach, surf-cast at Montauk Point, beach-camp at Hither Hills State Park, tackle a four-mile gorge hike at Bear Mountain, or wet your bead-head nymph in more than 500 miles of prime Catskills trout streams. Twice a day on weekends, Metro North can take you from Grand Central straight to the Appalachian Trail. Oh yeah, there’s also Maine, Martha’s Vineyard, the Adirondacks, the White Mountains, and the entire Atlantic shore. Around Town New York is filled with people who work all the time and rarely talk about anything else, unless it’s real estate. It’s also filled with poets and performance artists trying to make a living disparaging just these types. Culture, in fact, serves as social warfare. Going to the opera is good; going on a comp ticket is better. And theater tickets are barely worth having if the run isn’t sold out. On the other hand, “getting away with things” is also good: Park your blanket just outside Central Park Summerstage, for example, to hear gratis what the suckers inside paid for. And while New Yorkers earn their reputation for being, uh, direct, you’ll nowadays encounter unexpected courtesies: A man on the subway warns you about the $10 bill sticking out of your pocket or a boy approaches a blind man at an intersection and says, “It’s on ‘walk,’ sir.” There’s even been talk of actual eye contact among sidewalk-goers. Violent crime, after all, is down 44 percent since 1990. None of which will be any consolation when it’s pouring out and somebody snatches your cab. Living Quarters No residence visas for Americans — just that final-circle-of-hell ordeal known as finding an apartment. Those who wish to avoid an agent’s fees resort to guerrilla tactics, papering neighborhoods with flyers offering a reward for help finding a vacancy. In general, New York apartments are still smaller and pricier than any rentable space this side of Hong Kong, ranging from about $600 for, say, a studio in Queens to $6,000 for a two-bedroom on Park Avenue. A sampling of neighborhoods (self-contained villages, really): TriBeCa, once cheap, now scarifyingly hip; the Lower East Side, rehabbed tenements that immigrants once scratched all their lives to flee; the Upper West Side, family-friendly and fairly affordable; and Hell’s Kitchen (or its sanitized name, Clinton), where you’ll find some steals if you’re willing to compromise. In Brooklyn’s Park Slope you can share a fetching brownstone (about $2,000 for two bedrooms) near tree-lined avenues, if you don’t mind lots of coffeehouses with Open Mike Nights. Nine to Five Nowhere in the world is there a larger congregation of people doing exactly what they want professionally — which means that they either have their dream job or have no definable job at all. A quick inventory of the city’s daily schedule should clue you in: Freelancers and artisans own the midmornings; butchers, union folk, and foreign-market bond traders own the late afternoons. Everyone owns the nights. Basically, if you want work you’ll be able to find it, and usually at the hours you like. All the standard employment tricks work here: want ads, agencies, word-of-mouth. And once you find that swank position, you can begin engaging in a time-honored New York tradition — looking to trade up to an even swankier spot. Memorize This You talkin’ to me? You talkin’ to me? (“Oh, you’re in a hurry? Certainly you may cut in front of me.”) |