Notable nightlife openings.

Now and then, the Transit Museum sponsors a tour of old City Hall station. That hallowed, buried place. ForgottenNY visited a while back and I just went in December.

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If you want the full spectrum of contrasts, head for Long Island City. Here you have a borough with an industrial history and the buildings to prove it. This is the westernmost neighborhood in Queens, flanking the East River, so the area affords some of the best views of the Manhattan skyline along with the 59th Street Bridge, which connects it with Manhattan. There are historic districts with beautiful row houses/brownstones. The Citicorp Building stands at 658 feet - the tallest building in Queens and outside Manhattan. On the waterfront a former dock facility was converted to Gantry Crane State Park. Large scale residential conversions and developments have been undergone, such as building which formerly housed the Eagle Electric Manufacturing Company and in areas of LIC such as Hunter’s Point.
Long Island City was formerly its own city, created in 1870, and became part of the City of Greater New York in 1898. The area has gentrified - many of the factories have been converted to other uses - the former Silvercup Bakery, whose iconic sign can be seen from many vantage points, is now Silvercup Studios. This studio has been used to film many well known music videos, commercials, films and television series such as the Sopranos, Sex and the City, Gangs of New York, 30 Rock.
Artists have been resettling to LIC for many years. Art organizations as well as independent artists are located in the neighborhood. P.S. 1 Contemporary Art and Sculpture Center are located here. Isamu Noguchi converted a photo-engraving factory into a workshop, now a museum dedicated to his work. 5 Pointz: The Institute of Higher Burnin‘, is an artists residence in a converted warehouse. Graffiti is allowed there - the structure is a living collage of graffiti.
The largest fortune cookie factory in the United States, Wonton Foods, is in LIC. Donald Lau writes the fortunes. For a fascinating anecdote about this company and good fortune, see Fun with Numbers below.

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BoBo’s watch gentrification dreams vanish: From the LES to LA, those who hoped gastropubs and boutiques would replace “tattered old businesses” are left to wonder “What happens to bourgeois bohemia when the bourgeois part drops out?” [NYT]

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I appeared hungry for knowledge and some good conversation, which is why, many years ago, a business associate recommended I contact a man named Duffy. I was told this man, who owned a large manufacturing business in New Jersey, was a wealth of knowledge, had valuable insights and was always willing to share his ideas.
So with great enthusiasm I contacted him. He was everything I had been told and in fact, I made a short journey to visit him and his factory in New Jersey. I had a great tour of his facility and some inspiring conversation which went way beyond business mentoring. At the time, I was working 6 days a week taking no time off. In one phone conversation, I complained of this to Duffy. I mentioned how I was frequently squandering my time and that even though I was at my office in the evenings and weekends, I found myself becoming less productive and often using that time for personal phone calls and other non-business related activities.
Duffy compared me to an uncle of his who was a workaholic but was very inefficient. He made a comment I will never forget - that if you don’t take a vacation, your mind will. He told me of how he made it a priority to take regular time off to recharge his batteries. I recounted to him on how there was a summer where for a month I took 3 day weekends and by Monday morning I could barely remember my agenda but was fresh and ready to go. Duffy pointed out this was a clear sign of recharging. It all rang quite true and although I have not taken his advice to heart, when I really immerse myself in a different environment or physical activity, I do notice the mental health benefits. It is very easy to get caught in the work mechanism in New York City. Costs are high so it is easy to justify work. And physical activities or communing with nature require more effort and travel. There are a plethora of services in walking distance of most New Yorkers’ residences. All good reasons why is not uncommon to find people who rarely travel out of their neighborhoods.
These things passed through my mind on my recent (and first) trip to the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge. This 9155 acre tract of land is part of Gateway National Recreation Area and is the only wildlife refuge in the national park system. This is one of the most important bird sanctuaries in the USA and over 330 bird species that have been sighted here - nearly half the species in the Northeast. It is one of the best places in New York City to observe migrating birds. There is also an array of native reptiles, amphibians, small mammals, over 60 species of butterflies and one of the largest populations of horseshoe crabs in the northeast.
There are beautiful walking trails and vistas of the bay, Manhattan and Broad Channel. On my visit I saw a number of aquatic birds including what I believe to be an egret. The entire environment was pristine and quiet, yet remarkably, this refuge is accessible by subway.
So, if you want to recharge your batteries in New York City, this is the perfect place to do so. And I am sure Duffy would heartily approve

Since Wall Street crumbled and the yunnipocalypse began, it seems more and more journalists have come out of the woodwork to say:

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There have been two more casualties in the rapidly vanishing Antique Row part of town, which I wrote about here in December.

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On October 16, 2007 I wrote of a solution to one of my personal dislikes - the array of newsboxes that clutter the city streets. However at the time, I did not have a photo which well represented the ugly side.
Broadway can at times can become a virtual wind tunnel - recently, on a particularly windy day at Broadway and Houston Streets, huge gusts of wind created trash tornadoes, perfectly complementing the hideous newsboxes. Why hideous? Because the garish melange of these boxes looks like everything possible has been done to offend the eye - they are different shapes, heights, colors, designs and are covered with stickers and ads, poorly maintained and dirty. I have seen empty ones even used as trash receptacles. Many are chained to lampposts and various other structures.
Regular readers know that I am all for street life, however the issue here for me is aesthetic. In my article Very Practical, I wrote of how the practical tends to triumph in this city. I would reword that to say that practical and business interests tends to trump the aesthetic. I highly doubt you would see a motley crew of newsboxes in this condition in most European cities.
In researching this story, I saw articles going back 15 years in the New York Times concerning the problems and solutions with the boxes which were even referred to as eyesores. But in any bureaucracy, inefficiency is the rule of thumb and a snail’s pace is the rate of progress, so the boxes remain while improvements slowly inch their way towards adoption.
But many defend the edginess and grit of New York City as important, defining characteristics. I remember reading an article years ago speaking to this. The article was defending the edginess and made a suggestion for those who did not see the grit’s charm: “There’s a place for you. It’s called Toronto.” Read the rest of this entry »

May the road always rise to meet you. And on March 17, may that road be Fifth Avenue, site of a rollicking celebration honoring Ireland’s patron saint.

Anthony Bourdain blogs about the disappearing city and it’s good to see someone else singing the praises of “the spaghetts with red sauce and meatballs in the back dining area at Manganaro’s,” an under-appreciated treat. [AB]

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