Cheap Stuff
Although New York is an expensive city, there are plenty of things you can do for free or cheap. The city is best seen on foot. In addition to the most current cheap options listed below, check out The Skint and FreeNYC.
Among the free things to do are Central Park, Brooklyn Bridge, the Staten Island Ferry, most national park sites many of the museums, some guided tours, and all TV show tapings.
Williamsburg waterfront hooks Faith No More for July 5
 Free concerts will return to the Williamsburg waterfront this summer, but the kickoff concert — Faith No More on July 5 — and a handful of others will require an admission fee as a benefit for the nonprofit Open Space Alliance for North Brooklyn, organizers said Wednesday.
Prices haven’t yet been set, but the Faith No More tickets will go on sale through Ticketmaster on March 19 at noon. Tickets may also be purchased via phone (800) 745-3000 or at the Nokia Theatre Times Square Box Office, where there is no service fee. The presale will start March 16.
Dates and performers for other Williamsburg Waterfront concerts have not yet been announced. But the Brooklyn Vegan blog noted that a series of eight free shows are planned.
“The benefit shows will help fund the restoration and preservation of parks in North Brooklyn, and subsidize the cost of free concerts at the Williamsburg Waterfront,” Stephanie Thayer, OSA’s Executive Director said in a statement. “As nearby McCarren Park Pool is being renovated, OSA is pleased to continue its tradition of bringing outdoor music to North Brooklyn.”
The Williamsburg Waterfront is located at North 8th Street & Kent Avenue on the East River in Brooklyn.
Schedules have not yet been announced for Brooklyn’s other free summer concert series, including the Seaside Summer Concert Series and Martin Luther King Jr. Concert Series. The schedule for Celebrate Brooklyn in Prospect Park will be announced May 4, according to the website for BRIC Performing Arts. The Siren Festival has set its 2010 date for July 17.
Image source: “King For a Day” album cover from the Faith No More store.
Earlier: NYC’s (mostly free) summer concerts and film series
March 11, 2010 8:40 AM Comments (0)
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Push my button: new official NYC condom logo revealed
 It’s about to get easier to turn on a New Yorker.
The logo of the city’s official condom will soon take the shape of an electronic power button. The design, by Luis Acosta of Kew Gardens, Queens, was today revealed as the winner in a contest run by the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.
A panel of judges narrowed the 600 submission down to five finalists, which then went to an online vote in February. More than 15,000 votes were cast, with the power button drawing 23 percent for the win.
“The HIV/AIDS epidemic is far from over in the city, and sexually transmitted diseases continue to spread at high rates. We hope Luis Acosta’s package design will remind all New Yorkers of their power to take control of their health,” said Dr. Thomas Farley, New York City Health Commissioner, today said in a statement announcing the winner.
NYC Condoms, which are free, became the nation’s first municipally branded condom when they were introduced on Valentine’s Day 2007. The new design will be available in the fall.
Image source: NYC Dept. of Health and Mental Hygiene.
Earlier: NYC condom contest: vote to choose who gets lucky
March 9, 2010 7:32 AM Comments (0)
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Subway archaeology to go on display at Transit Annex
After a renovation, the New York Transit Museum Gallery Annex at Grand Central Terminal will reopen March 18 with a free exhibition of New Amsterdam artifacts discovered while building a subway extension in Lower Manhattan.
“Archeology at the South Ferry Terminal” will include more than 100 of the 65,000 artifacts — ceramic sherds, shells, coins, tobacco pipes, and architectural materials — found at the site before it reopened in February 2009 as the South Ferry subway station.
“Among the most important finds of the excavation were pieces of two 18th century landmarks — the Battery Wall and Whitehall Slip,” museum officials said in announcing the exhibition. “Stones from the Wall are on view, as are photographs of a section of the Wall that was reinstalled in the new South Ferry station. Whitehall Slip was built in stages from the 1730s to 1790s using landfilling and dredging. It allowed boats to dock and spurred the commercial and military use of lower Manhattan. Excavation of the Slip uncovered stone, construction material, 19th century English ceramics, household goods, refuse, and animal bones, furthering our knowledge of the city’s commerce and its residents’ lifestyles.”
The exhibition will be on display through July 5.
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March 8, 2010 11:10 AM Comments (0)
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Lego repairs come to NY Public Libray, Central Park
It looks like artist Jan Vormann has had a busy trip to New York City.
A few weekends ago, NewYorkology spotted his Lego fill-in work at the wall of Chelsea’s General Theological Seminary, but apparently he was also hard at work in the West Village, Central Park, Times Square, Dumbo and other locations around Manhattan and Brooklyn. Even the New York Public Library needed a little work done.
Vormann’s website has a new section, DispatchWork -New York, filled with pictures of the work.
“In cooperation with the Gallery Jarmuschek+Partner and the kind support of Henk Holzheimer (LEGO Graffity Styles Convention), I went to New York City, as part of the VOLTA artshow, to support Mayor Bloomberg in his everyday-struggle to make this city even more amazing,” Vormann says on the website.
Previously his DispatchWork Lego installations have popped up in Berlin, Amsterdam, Tel Aviv, Quito, Belgrade and other cities.
Update on March 9: “I am now back in Berlin, but I loved it in New York,” Vormann said in an e-mail to NewYorkology late Monday. Also, a story in today’s New York Post notes that almost all of the Lego installations have already been removed.
Picture credit: Amy Langfield/NewYorkology.
(Editor’s note: Credit goes to 14-year-old Christopher Langfield who first spotted the Chelsea Legos on Feb. 21 and said it looked like the work of a European artist he’d read about.)
Earlier: Guggenheim Museum for sale, by Lego
March 8, 2010 9:48 AM Comments (1)
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Limited morning cab share program starts in Manhattan
The New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission today launched a limited share-a-cab experiment along three designated routes in Manhattan that will operate weekday mornings from 6 to 10 a.m.
The first three routes are in Midtown, the Upper East Side and Upper West Side only.
The shared-ride fares are $3 or $4 per passenger (depending on the route) and can be paid in cash or by credit card. Passengers may only enter at one of three Group Ride taxi stand locations and then may be dropped off along the routes, which all end at Grand Central Terminal. The yellow cabs may not pick up additional passengers along the route and may not go to any other destination, according to the TLC’s taxi share passenger info card (in pdf).
The location and fares for the three Group Ride stands:
West 57th Street at 8th Avenue - Fare: $3
West 72nd Street at Columbus Avenue - Fare: $4
East 72nd Street at 3rd Avenue - Fare: $4
“It’s both a transportation and a social experiment,” TLC Commisioner Matthew Daus told NY1 this morning.”But it worked in the 2005 transit strike — people loved it. Mayor Bloomberg wanted us to try it as a pilot, or an experiment around the city so we’re starting with the three stands and we’ll see how it goes from there.”
Three more taxi stand locations have been approved for Manhattan plus one for US Air and Marine Air Terminals of LaGuardia Airport, the TLC announced in February (pdf).
Other stand locations planned for Manhattan:
Grand Central Terminal to 59th Street at 6th Avenue - $3
Penn Station to 59th Street at 6th Avenue - $4
Port Authority Bus Terminal to 59th Street at 6th Avenue - $3
Technically, tipping is optional and in addition to the flat-rate fare.
Image source: NYC Taxi and Limousine Commission.
Earlier: New 50-cent taxi tax jacks up JFK flat-rate to $45.50
MetroCard fare rises to $2.25 today for subway, bus
NY considers share-a-taxi experiment with lower fares
Taxis switch to zone fares during transit strike (2005)
March 3, 2010 8:09 AM Comments (2)
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Dine-in Brooklyn restaurant week offers $25 dinners
 Several high-profile outer borough restaurants — including the River Cafe, Applewood, Blue Ribbon, L & B Spumoni Gardens, Tatiana, Armondo’s, Bamonte’s and Alchemy — will offer three three-course dinners for $25 and lunches for $20.10 as part of this year’s Dine-In Brooklyn.
The price excludes tax, tip and beverages.
Brooklyn’s restaurant week, which will run from March 15 through 25 for 2010, will also include Rose Water, Stone Park Café, Queen, Waterfront Ale House, Alma, Chestnut, Marco Polo, Po, Petite Crevette, Provence en Boite, Bar Tabac, Quercy, Junior’s, Morton’s, Water Street Restaurant, Chez Oskar, iCi and Aunt Suzie’s. In all, about 200 restaurants have signed on thus far.
Not all restaurants are taking part during both lunch and dinner. The full details are in pdf format and can be reached via the Visit Brooklyn tourism website operated by the Borough President’s Office.
In addition to the $25 and $20.10 meals, some are offering two meals for that price. (See below for the full list of the two-for-one restaurants.)
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March 2, 2010 4:31 PM Comments (0)
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New mural, video, sound installation for Times Square
Times Square today is adding new outdoor public art — in paint, sound and video — to coincide with the Armory Show and other art fairs descending on the city this week.
The eight-story Nasdaq video screen will display “Black Sun,” the work of Alexandre Arrechea, every night at 11:50 p.m. until midnight. The video, which shows a wrecking ball repeatedly bouncing against the building, will screen through March 8.
Nasdaq has its own Times Square webcam so you can watch online.
Up in Duffy Square at 46th and Broadway, a sound sculpture by David Ellis and Roberto Lange will play percussive, rhythmic beats and tones generated by buckets, bottles, trash cans, paper shreds and cardboard boxes. The intention is to play on the public’s perception of trash.
Outside the Times Square Theater, Pratt graduate Sofia Maldonado has painted a 92-foot mural of NYC women from her Puerto Rican-Cuban heritage, (pictured, top.)
The art is all part of Public Art Program of the Times Square Alliance and made possible by the Cuban Artists Fund, Rockefeller Foundation, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, NASDAQ, Times Square Squared, The New 42nd Street, Magnan Metz Gallery, Scope Art Fair and Anonymous Gallery.
Image source: Times Square Alliance.
Earlier: Pedestrian areas get final OK for Times, Herald squares
Free wi-fi turned on in Times Square
March 2, 2010 11:43 AM Comments (1)
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African Burial Ground visitors center opens downtown
The National Park Service this weekened opened a proper visitors center for the African Burial Ground National Monument, illuminating one of the darker recesses of New York City history that many people would prefer remain forgotten
Located near the intersection of Broadway and Chambers streets, the 6.6-acre site contains the remains of an estimated 15,000 people, 40 percent of them children.
“It’s absolutely critical the history is not glossed over,” Tara Morrison, the National Park Service superintendent for the site, told NewYorkology during an interview before the site opened to the public on Saturday.
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February 28, 2010 3:16 PM Comments (1)
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Brooklyn restaurant week set for March 15-25
Update: See the full list and prices.
Dine In Brooklyn, the biggest borough’s own restaurant week, will be held March 15 through 25, with three-course prix-fixe menus at more than 175 locations.
The price for the meals — which was $23 last year — will be announced next week, a spokesman for Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz told NewYorkology.
Participating restaurants include Marco Polo Ristorante, Enoteca On Court, Dougies BBQ and Grill, ChipShop, Morton’s The Steakhouse, Moim, Picket Fence, Palo Santo, Waterfront Ale House, Petit Oven, Bussaco, Scopello, Bocca Lupo, Barrio, Graziella’s, Soule, First Oasis, Downtown Atlantic, The Woodburning Pit, Piramide and Brooklyn Brewery.
On Twitter this morning,Po on Smith Street also announced it would be taking part.
Earlier: Restaurant Week extends to Feb. 28 at most locations
February 26, 2010 1:13 PM Comments (0)
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The Jane hotel lowers room rate to $69 during March
 The Jane, which has been one of New York’s best hotel bargains since it opened in 2008 with $99 rooms, will further sweeten the pot in March.
The Jane has dropped its basic room rate to $69.
The catch is that there’s only a single bed — and the bathroom is down the hall. For $79, you get bunk beds. The “captain’s cabin” with private bathroom is $179 (down from the regular $250 to $300 rate.)
Although the cheapest rooms are only 50 square feet, they come outfitted with free wi-fi, a 23-inch LCD television, a DVD player, an iPod dock, telephone with voicemail, built-in drawers and a luggage rack. Plus, you’re right next to the Hudson River in the Far West Village.
The Jane is located at 113 Jane St., map.
Image source: The Jane.
February 25, 2010 1:01 PM Comments (2)
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