The New York City Traveler

Eating a crepe on the go isn’t always possible, especially if it’s stuffed with drippy fruit sauces and loaded with cheese. However, once you become more adept, crepes turn out to be good mobile snacks. In Paris, you’ll find many crepe stands doling them out in wax paper or on paper plates. The Creperie, one of New York’s few take-out places serving an extensive lineup of these savories, prepares them hot and crispy right before your eyes.  The crepe artist behind the counter of this Lower East Side 7×7 (tiny) cafe pours the exact amount of batter into three circular …read more

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A lot of times, pocket parks are overlooked in the mad rush to grander sylvan refuges…Central Park, Prospect Park, etc.. But ignore the smaller pockets of respite stuffed into New York’s urban fabric at your peril!  Not that doing so will unleash any bad omens but you’ll definitely miss out on some intriguing capsules of city heritage and portals from which to view everyday New Yorkers at ease…on their way to something else.
More information on PlanetEye: Bowling Green Park

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If you plan on staying the night in Manhattan, it’s nearly impossible to do it without spending less than $200 per night.  Bargains can be found but you’ll either have to cut back on the already closet -like living space, or stay in a far flung neighborhood.  With this reality in mind, The Pod Hotel is a perfect choice for hip rooms at reasonable rates.  Sure the rooms are tiny and the bathrooms are either shared or reminiscent of the airline variety but that’s where the detractions stop.  In the heart of Midtown East, you have your pick of pods …read more

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If you’re already checking out leafy green Tompkins Square Park in the East Village, there are two community gardens nearby that you can’t miss.  La Plaza Cultural, on the corner of 9th Street and Avenue C reflects the neighborhood’s diversity with loads of intricately twisted multi colored metal sculptures attached to the chain link fence surrounding the flower beds and ornamental trees. A home grown amphitheater forms the centerpiece amid paths winding through large weeping willows and wildflowers along with vegetable & herb beds punctuated with fruit trees. A sandbox filled with children and a large fading multicultural mural on …read more

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In May 2001, Red Hook’s only supermarket closed its doors, leaving a vacuum in the community and a serious need for fresh produce.  The Red Hook Farmers Market was quickly established.  Within two weeks the market served approximately 200 weekly customers.   Open all summer until the Saturday before Thanksgiving, The Red Hook Farmers Market now features a full selection of fruits and vegetables from upstate and Long Island orchards, farms and dairies along with pasture raised poultry and lamb, locally caught fish, and baked goods.  Beyond the typical fresh produce, much of it here is local to an extreme. More …read more

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It may look like an untouched and highly preserved archaeological site, but Castle Clinton is really a poster child for historic adaptive reuse in NYC.  Walk down to the southern tip of Battery Park next to the Staten Island Ferry terminal and you’ll see where it all began where the first Dutch settlers built a low stone wall battery with cannons to protect the harbor and New Amsterdam.  Eventually it was fortified to repel the British invasion in 1812.  Named after DeWitt Clinton, Mayor and later Governor of New York, it ceased being a military installation in 1821 and soon …read more

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You’re in your flip flops, sand is in your hair from that final body surf into shore, and your suit is still wet.  The last place you want to go for a bite to eat is into a heavily air conditioned tomb or dress-code enforced eatery.  You need good food where you can still hear the seagulls while kicking back outside on an unfussy patio. Take the A train all the way over Jamaica Bay to Rockaway Beach at 96th St..  If you’re a child of the seventies or any generation punk fan, you just can’t help humming a certain …read more

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The main attraction of NYC’s beaches isn’t that they’re remote pristine hideaways, but they offer a cool eclectic respite from summer’s blazing concrete and asphalt. If you can shrug aside drab changing rooms, and share outdoor showers with hordes of sandy folks crowded under more-often-than-not dribbling spigots, all 14 miles of NYC’s public beaches await free of charge without proving residency or joining a club.  It’s all a quick and cheap subway ride to sandy stretches like Orchard Beach aka the Bronx Riviera pulsing with a medley of salsa and merengue while push cart beach vendors serve up piraguas,  brightly colored cups …read more

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First off, this place is not a museum of small objects or a collection of galleries filled with old PCs.  A storefront community arts center amid a dense array of boutique shopping on Smith Street, the Micro Museum® has been renting out rehearsal space and booking an ever-changing roster of local installations and performance art since 1986. The museum also has an impressive archive of microfilm and video art and an eclectic collection of rare symphonic recordings on 78 rpm donated from the Met that can be spun on request.  The gallery/museum is basically one long room full of quirky …read more

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If you have ever ventured north of historic Battery Park on the esplanade, a wide pedestrian concourse interconnecting a series of small parks overlooking the Hudson River in lower Manhattan, I bet that you found it hard to stop walking.  Once a 92-acre landfill that covered decaying piers well into the 1980s, residential and commercial development along with public art installations sprouted up quickly setting the foundation for Battery Park City. If sweeping Statue of Liberty views, the curiously ever rising Jersey City skyline, along with intriguing South Cove, the Irish Hunger Memorial, and Teardrop Park weren’t enough, you should …read more

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