Walking Off the Big Apple

The long-awaited Second Avenue Subway is finally open, and its new art-filled stops make the subway a destination all on its own. With installations by artists Sarah Sze (96th St.), Chuck Close (86th St.), Vik Muniz (72nd St.), and Jean Shin (Lexington Ave/ 63rd St.), a ride on the Uptown Q becomes an underground art museum with the stops serving as galleries. It's tempting to keep riding to all the stops and never go above ground. Entrance to 96th Street Subway station, 96th Street and Second Avenue Don't be tempted. After seeing the art installations, get some fresh air and enjoy life in the streets. From “Elevated” by Jean Shin, Lexington Ave/ 63rd St. It's true that metro stops in many European cities have long incorporated contemporary design and art as part of their transportation networks - in Stockholm, Vienna, Milan, and Paris, for example, so New York may seem like a late bloomer. One of our first and most most beautiful subway stops, the fancy Romane

On Saturday, January 21, 2017, about 400,000 people participated in the Women's March in New York City , the estimate of the Mayor's Office. The main march took place in Washington, D.C., but participants around the world took to their own streets to protest the incoming administration and to safeguard human rights. Women's March NYC. E. 48th St. near Second Ave. Many arrived in groups and many by themselves. They found their way to the east side and to Dag Hammarskjold Plaza on E. 47th Street and 2nd Avenue to participate in the event. The plaza is named for the Swedish diplomat who served as Secretary-General of the United Nations from 1953 until his death in a plane crash en route to the Congo on September 18, 1961. On April 15, 1967, one of the largest antiwar marches in New York history convened on the plaza. The march from Central Park to the United Nations in 1967 included a broad coalition of civil rights activists, among them Martin Luther King, Jr. Wome

A snowy landscape in New York can be a thing of beauty. A good snowfall casts the city in a spell, coating the city with a soft and quiet frosting. In Central Park, The Mall is one of the city's great thoroughfares. When snow is forecast for New York City, many city residents eagerly look forward to getting out and enjoying the snow in city parks, especially Central Park, but also on the picturesque streets in older parts of the city. Many do not. At the Central Park Zoo, experience winter like an intrepid explorer. Bears and leopards will be there. Take time to think of unusual places to enjoy the snow, like the city shoreline. Battery Park in snow, for example, is the stuff of uncommonly beautiful icy scenes. At the Battery, the winter scene is still and meditative. City scenes in winter, such as on Broadway in SoHo, seem to freeze the city in time. On Broadway during snow, only a few visual clues separate the city past from the city present. The enj

After visiting the American Museum of Natural History, explore attractions on the Upper West Side or in Central Park. Visitors to New York often run around from one major tourist site to the next, sometimes from one side of the city to the other, and in the process, exhaust themselves thoroughly. Ambitious itineraries often include something like coffee in the Village in the morning, lunch near MoMA, a couple of hours in the museum, a ride on the Staten Island Ferry in the afternoon, cocktails at the midtown hotel, a quick dinner, and then a Broadway show. It's a wonder people don't pass out at the theater. While sitting on the steps of the American Museum of History, consider exploring the Upper West Side and nearby sites of interest in Central Park. There's a better way to plan a New York trip. Consider grouping attractions together geographically. Several posts on this site address this recommended approach. The Wild West of the Tecumseh Playground Groupin