The City That Never Sleeps
A friend of mine that I used to work with in the early days of EA and at Black Box is now working for 2K games in Soho. Since I happened to be in her hometown, we arranged to meet for lunch.
DOWNTOWN
To get to the 2K offices at Houston and Broadway we walk through some distinct neighborhoods of Manhattan; Gramercy, Greenwich Village and finally Soho. Madison Square park is cute, a small green space in the midst of concrete. A dozen tree houses are perched high in its trees, courtesy of Japanese artist Tadashi Kawamata known for his site-specific sculptural installations.... art?
The funniest scene is the dogwalkers as they head into the grassy areas of the city with a wide assortment of dogs, big ones, little ones... all tethered together in groups.
One of the most impressive and probably most recognizable buildings in New York is the Flatiron building wedged into the intersection of Fifth Avenue and Broadway. It was built in 1902 and is considered one of the first skyscrapers. The offices on the 6.5 foot wide end are most popular.
Working our way south to Greenwich Village we end up in a Public Market in Union Square Park. It is packed with locals buying up every variation of fruits and vegetables as well as local crafts. As some locals are getting ready for Thanksgiving, other locals are giving thanks at a small church.
On the other side of Greenwich Village is Houston Street (pronounced How-stun not Hugh-stun). The North side of Houston is called Noho and South side of Houston is called Soho.
Soho and Noho have a unique collection of stores and restaurants, from the Yellow Rat Bastard store to The Noho Star where we had lunch with Xenia... and no, that picture is not reversed, that's how the sign is. The Noho Star is a traditional Noho restaurant with great food and service. It was great to catch up with Xenia, and get some tips on our remaining time in the city.
After a very good lunch we walk off some calories and continued working our way down Manhattan through Little Italy and Chinatown to an area very familiar to those of us that watch Law & Order.
"In the criminal justice system, the people are represented by two separate yet equally important groups: the police, who investigate crime, and the district attorneys, who prosecute the offenders. These are their stories."... dunh-dunh
City Hall/Courthouse
Tucked in behind the city hall is the famous steps of the Law Courts, seen pretty much in every episode of Law & Order as the Criminal Prosecutors discuss their cases after leaving the courtroom. The next day we would see the TV trucks setting up to film another scene for the show.
Nearby the Law Courts is the impressive Woolworth's Building, it was the Gothic headquarters for Frank W. Woolworth's department store chain. The building has touches of gargoyles, a pyramid roof and a high glass-tile mosaic ceiling. It's a mix of twentieth-century structure and fifteenth-century Gothic detail. At 792 feet, the Woolworth was the tallest building in the world when it opened in 1913. Equally, if not more impressive is the Manhattan Municipal Building. Built in 1915, the Municipal Building is one of the largest governmental buildings in the world. It houses thirteen municipal agencies of New York City, and 28,000 people are married in it each year. There are 25 floors of work space (served by 33 elevators), with an additional 15 stories in the tower.
The statue on top of the Municipal Building is a gilded figure called Civic Fame. At 25 feet (8 m) tall, it is the second largest statue in all of Manhattan. Standing barefoot, on a sphere, she wears a flowing dress, in her left hand is a five-pointed crown, to represent the five boroughs of New York City (Manhattan, Brooklyn, The Bronx, Queens, and Staten Island).
Ferocious guard squirrels keep watch over the government buildings
BROOKLYN BRIDGE
A short stroll takes us onto the Brooklyn Bridge, where you can walk down the middle of the bridge on an elevated walkway. The Brooklyn Bridge completed in 1883, is one of the oldest suspension bridges in the United States, it connects Manhattan to Brooklyn over the East River.
It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1964. The views from the bridge are amazing.
In one direction you can see the Empire State Building and the Chrysler Building, the other direction you can see the highrises of Wall Street. Across the water is the impressive Manhattan Bridge leading to Brooklyn, and off in the distance... the Statue of Liberty.
Wall Street
The lowest end of Manhattan is known as Downtown, or the Financial District... everyone calls it Wall Street, even if that is just one street of the area. It is home to most of the major financial institutions based in New York, including Nasdaq, the NYSE, and the famous Charging Bull statue.
Arturo Di Modica created, and cast, the sculpture following the 1987 stock market crash as a symbol of the "strength and power of the American people." The sculpture was the artist's idea, not the city's. In an act of "guerrilla art", he trucked it to Lower Manhattan and on December 15, 1989, installed it in front of the New York Stock Exchange as a Christmas gift to the people of New York. The police seized the sculpture and placed it into an impound lot. The ensuing public outcry led New York City to install it two blocks south of the Exchange in the plaza at Bowling Green.
STATUE OF LIBERTY
You can't go to New York without seeing the Statue of Liberty. There is many ways to do this, you can take the boat tour that takes you right to the Statue and Ellis Island, but since 9-11, you can't go inside the statue anyways. You can take one of the many expensive boat tour companies that tour you around the harbour, or you can ride the FREE Staten Island Ferry, that takes you from Battery Park at the base of Manhattan, and right past Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty to Staten Island. Free seems like a really good tourist price to me.
It's dusk as we pull away from the Financial District, and we pass Lady Liberty just as it's getting dark. We'll have to come back again during the day, especially at these prices. On the water the wind was bone chilling as we made our way across the harbour, but you can't beat these views.
If my auto-focus worked, this would be a great picture
When we get to Staten Island, we just walked out of the terminal, and back into the lobby, and got back on the free ferry for the 22 minute ride back to Manhattan. Best deal of the trip!
Back in Manhattan we had plenty of time to take the subway back to 34th street station for our Canucks game against the Rangers. It's a bit of a spaghetti map to figure out where we go, but the people of New York are very helpful. We buy a couple tickets and head to the turnstiles... I get through fine, but Norine is stopped, I must have slid the card through twice. The ticket guy in the booth magically presses a button and signals to us that she can go through, whew!
New York Rangers
Grabbing our tickets we head across the street to the massive Madison Square Gardens.
It's a bit odd as you walk through an office building complex to get into the stadium, and then you are directed to separate towers to get into the arena. You go up floor after floor on ramps and escalators until you finally arrive at your section. Not having been to MSG before I show the usher our tickets, and he takes them, and shows us to our seats. It seemed a little odd that he stood there and watched us as we got into our seats and took off our jackets. Once he saw our Canuck jerseys he stormed off, I thought he was disgusted at us non-Ranger fans. When we saw him show someone else to their seat, and they slipped him a few dollars, I realized our faux-pas.
I've never had to tip someone to tell us where we were sitting
It's a huge arena, with a lot of interesting history, as I look around I see one banner that brings tears to my eyes, the %$#@& &%$#@ 1993-1994 Stanley Cup Banner.
"...there is going to be that seventh game; we'll hope they can patch Linden up and get him in that one. He will play—you KNOW he'll play; he'd play on crutches! He will play, and he'll play at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday night! The game is over!"
—Jim Robson, after Trevor Linden got hit by Mark Messier while crawling to the bench at the end of Game 6
We were only a Nathan Lafayette post away from tieing the game up with minutes left, and there should have been a penalty against Messier and Mactavish when they slashed Bure in the dieing seconds of the third period... sniff, but I'm not bitter, sniff.
The only retired jerseys in the rafters are Messier, Leetch and Richter... oh wait, there's 2 more there, who is that? They have retired the jerseys of Elton John (60) and Billy Joel (12)... WTF?
My saddest memories of coming so close to the Stanley Cup were wiped out as the Canucks trounced the Rangers. The final score of 6-3 made the Rangers look good, it was definitely a one sided affair. The Ranger fans are passionate, I will give them that, they started booing and giving the Bronx cheer to their team at every miscue, it was especially loud when they had trouble getting out of their own end. We stayed in our seats and politely clapped at every Canuck goal.
We wear our Canucks jerseys proudly (Mind you they were Naslund jerseys, and he plays for the Rangers now), but you don't disrespect the fans in their own barn. I hate it when people do it at GM Place, and I wouldn't do it at someone else's arena, especially not New York. The fans did get on some Canuck fans that would stand up with their signs, it got to the point if they stood up to go to the bathroom they were yelled at "SIT DOWN!!!". I especially thought it was cute that the littlest of kids in front of us would throw popcorn at the girl with the 'Go Burrows' sign.
After a great night of exciting and winning hockey, tomorrow would be a chance to hit some of the different areas we wanted to spend more time in, and not have to walk our @$$es off.