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Walking Off the Big Apple
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New York walking journal, neighborhood guides, maps, lists of affordable hotels, and art reviews with entertaining commentary on the cultural life of the city.
Recent Posts Tagged With 'parks'
A Guide to Gramercy Park: A Checklist, But Not a Key, & Dining Suggestions
From Summer 2009"At noonday the landscape is just as fine, just as mysterious and just as significant as it is at twilight." - Robert Henri, The Art Spirit (1923)The scene is cool, summery and inviting, but this attractive corner of Gramercy Park is ...
Walking the Rails Above Death Avenue: High Noon for the High Line
In the genre of the western, the advent of the railroad marked the transition of a community from a wild natural order to a state of organized civilization. When steam engines replaced horses and the stagecoach, other things followed - lawyers and sh...
Opening Day at Washington Square Park: Thoughts and Images While Strolling
Around 8 a.m. on May 19, 2009, park workers started pulling down the chain fences surrounding the newly renovated sections of Washington Square Park, including its signature fountain, and early risers in the Village streamed in. Several were out on m...
Weekend Trifecta: A Park, A Bike, and A Dance
For those of us who frequent Washington Square Park, the first phase of the park's redesign, a subject of heated argument, looks like it's drawing to a close. The newly-designed northwest quadrant, along with the massive moving and reconfiguration of...
After Walking, A Place to Sit: Greenacre Park, E. 51st
Strolling may be the best way to see New York, but after shopping, walking, or other forms of exertion, it feels great to sit down. Sometimes, while out and about the city, it's absolutely necessary to find a quiet spot to take a time out, make a pho...
Friday Night Lights, New York-Style, From the Village to the Hudson
In the opening chapter of Moby Dick, Herman Melville describes a common wanderlust among Manhattoes for the sea. Sometimes, however, for those of us raised among flatland and spread-out landscapes beyond New York, a walk to the river's edge comes not...
Gustave Caillebotte: Impressions of Water
People often lose umbrellas, but I've held onto a special one for many years - a large parapluie (literally, for the rain, in French) with a wooden base and curved handle that upon opening reveals the painting Paris Street, Rainy Day by painter Gusta...
WOTBA New York Events Calendar: All Parks Edition Monday, April 27 - Monday, May 4, 2009
Enjoy the blooming season, this special time to visit the parks. Head to the northern parts of Central Park to wander in the woods, or get lost in the Ramble. This calendar takes us into May. Fancy that! I have a secret to share - the summer in New Y...
New York Trees in Spring Bloom: Images and Links
• Citywide Blooming Calendar from New York City Department of Parks & Recreation• Heritage Crabapple Trees. New York City Department of Parks & Recreation• Sakura Matsuri May 2-3, 2009. 10 a.m. - 6 p.m. Rain or Shine. Celebration of Jap...
Winston Churchill in New York: Sir Winston Churchill Square, New York's Downing Street, With a Note on the Opening of Topshop
For children growing up in postwar America, the real-life British action figure known as Winston Churchill looms large. We knew him on this side of the pond as a portly and clever world leader who smoked cigars and saved his country (that we got to k...
The Strolling Year in Review 2008: Favorite Places
While reviewing my walks in 2008, I decided to identify those places in New York I most enjoyed exploring or where I looked forward to returning many times. Now that I've compiled such as list, I now see that the natural world and the built environme...
A Meandering Walk Uptown to Bryant Park
On Monday I didn't have any particular walk in mind, but on a whim I decided to start walking north. From my usual starting point in Washington Square Park, I meandered around a bit until I found myself in Bryant Park and then the steps of the New Yo...
