Downtown
Statue of Liberty crown tickets sold out until Labor Day
While the Statue of Liberty is on track to reopen her crown to the public on the Fourth of July, tickets to climb up her steps are already all-but sold out through the Labor Day weekend.
Tickets first went on sale June 13 and demand was so high that the website and telephone lines were difficult to access. (The website has been slow again this morning.)
 Only 30 people per hour will be allowed to take the stairs to the crown under escort from a National Park Service ranger.
It’s important to note that currently the plan is to keep the crown open for two years only. After that, it will close again for a project to make the interior safer to visitors and hopefully allow more people to visit each day.
The crown has been closed since Sept. 11, 2001, mainly for fire safety reasons, the National Park Service has long said. The torch has been closed to the public since 1916, when Liberty’s arm was damaged by a massive rail yard explosion in nearby New Jersey. There are no plans to ever reopen the torch to the public.
You can also follow the the Statue of Liberty on Twitter (it’s an official NPS account;) or flickr; or take an eTour.
What you need to know to get tickets to the Statue of Liberty’s crown:
Crown tickets can be reserved up to a year in advance through Statue Cruises, the only company licensed to ferry the public to Liberty and Ellis islands. The $3 crown fee will be on top of the regular ferry ticket, currently priced at $12 for adults, $10 for seniors and $5 for children. Tickets can be purchased online or by calling 877- LADY-TIX (877-523-9849) between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m., Eastern time.
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July 2, 2009 9:49 AM Comments (0)
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In demand: free bike program at max on weekends
The wheels are hitting the road through Downtown Alliance’s free summer bikes program, which has found success this season, especially on weekends.
 Since Bike Around Downtown started May 13, the program has been at capacity for every weekend. A total of 2,454 reservations had been made through June 30, according to numbers provided to NewYorkology by Downtown Alliance.
The 30 free bikes are available seven days a week during three time slots: 9:30 a.m. to noon; 12:30 to 3 p.m.; and 3:30 to 6 p.m. The bicycles are provided through Bike and Roll, which also rents bikes and offers bike tours of New York.
Once you reserve online, free bikes can be picked up at the Bike and Roll’s kiosk at the South Street Seaport and returned at the same location, or at the Bike and Roll kiosks at Pier A in Battery Park, or 12th Avenue and 43rd Street, or on Governors Island when it’s open on Fridays, Saturdays or Sundays.
The bike share program runs through Sept. 30.
Governors Island also offers free one-hour rentals every Friday through Oct. 9
Picture credits: Amy Langfield/NewYorkology.
Earlier: Free bike rental opens downtown, May 13 to Sept. 30
July 1, 2009 7:16 AM Comments (0)
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Rockaway Beach summer ferry service starts Saturday
 Weekend ferry service to Rockaway Beach starts this Saturday from Manhattan’s Pier 11 with one-way tickets priced at $6.
The trip takes 1 hour 15 minutes, with three departure daily from Pier 11 (near Wall Street on the East River.) The NY Water Taxi departs at 9:15 a.m., 11:45 a.m. and 3:45 p.m.
Return departures are scheduled for 2:30 and 5 p.m. Most trips also include a stop at Brooklyn Army Terminal.
The Water Taxi docks at the former U.S. Coast Guard Station just north of Marine Park Bridge at 169 Street, and offers nearby access to Fort Tilden and Jacob Riis Park, (which was the scene-of-the-crime beach in this week’s Law & Order Criminal Intent with Raul Esparza.)
The subsidized summer service is offered in partnership with Gateway National Recreation Area and the NYC Economic Development Corporation.
Picture credit: Amy Langfield/NewYorkology
June 30, 2009 1:09 PM Comments (0)
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Car-free Summer Streets to return Aug. 8, 15 and 22
Almost 7 miles of Manhattan roads will be closed to traffic again this summer as Summer Streets will return August 8, 15 and 22 from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m.
The 6.9-mile route will give way to bikers, skaters, walkers and others from the Brooklyn Bridge, up Lafayette/Centre Streets, along 4th Avenue and Park Avenue up to 72nd streets, map.
However, main cross-town streets will remain open to vehicles crossing the car-free zone.
“This is only its second year, but Summer Streets is already a New York tradition,” Department of Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan said at the news conference announcing the dates.
In addition the city has creating 13 extra car-free street events in other neighborhoods in all five boroughs, ranging from one to seven blocks long. Here are the dates of the remaining dates for those events:
Image source: NYC Summer Streets website
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June 30, 2009 12:17 PM Comments (0)
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Summer restaurant week reservations open for July
 Le Cirque, Nobu, Del Posto, Telepan, 21 Club, The Modern, The Oak Room at The Plaza, Perry Street, Esca, Red Cat, Tabla, Gallagher’s, Shun Lee, Central Park Boathouse, Fives at The Peninsula, Le Colonial, Lure, Morimoto, Petrossian, David Burke Townhouse, Water Club and The River Café have all signed on for Summer Restaurant Week and reservations are now open.
The summer deal will run from July 12-31, excluding weekends although some restaurants will participate on Sundays.
Restaurants will offer three-course lunches for $24.07 and/or dinners for $35. Tax, tip and drinks cost extra.
Technically, reservations don’t open until Tuesday, but sponsoring group NYC & Co, released the list early on its @nycgo Twitter account.
Earlier: Restaurant Week to offer early reservations via Twitter
June 29, 2009 11:43 AM Comments (0)
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Twain-inspired drama finds life on the Hudson River
 A retired U.S. Coast Guard lighthouse tender will serve as the stage next month for a staging of a Mark Twain-inspired play “The Report of My Death.”
The one-man docudrama by Adam Klasfeld draws out a “darker and more political” Twain, as portrayed on stage by actor Michael Graves.
The venue will be the Lilac Steamship, docked at Pier 40 in the Hudson River where Houston Street meets the West Side Highway. The Lilac, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, served as a lighthouse tender for the U.S. Lighthouse Service from 1933 until 1939 and then as a buoy tender until 1972. She is the last unaltered steam propelled and steam hoisting lighthouse tender.
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June 26, 2009 7:13 AM Comments (0)
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Museum of Chinese in America to (soft) reopen Friday
 The Museum of Chinese in America will reopen Friday in its new location, debuting the design by Maya Lin.
A free Open House Family Day is scheduled for Sunday (from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.) with a lion dance, kung fu demonstration and dance performance. Admission will also be free this Friday (from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.) and Saturday (from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.)
The actual Celebration Ceremony will take place September 22, which is also when the museum will unveil the full MOCA core exhibit, “With a Single Step: Stories in the Making of America” along with MOCA’s first group show, “Here & Now: Chinese Artists in New York.”
Until then, the museum will only be open select days this summer and for events such as the The First Asian American ComiCon and The 32nd Asian Ameican International Film Festival.
And starting next week, admission to the museum will be free every Thursday from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., thanks to sponsorship from Target.
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June 25, 2009 4:50 PM Comments (0)
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Wright's 1909 Statue of Liberty flights celebrated
Officials from the Wright Family Foundation and the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum were in New York on Wednesday to mark an upcoming centennial of flying history that started on Governors Island.
 On September 29, 1909 Wilbur Wright made the first long over-water flight in America as he took off from Governors Island and twice circled the Statue of Liberty, said Tom Crouch, the senior curator for aeronautics at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum.
Just in case, a red canoe was strapped to the bottom of the plane.
The headline of The Globe newspaper pegged the elevation of the flight at 150 feet, dipping to a mere 25 feet above Castle Williams on Governors Island.
A few days later, Wright made a longer flight up the Hudson as part of the Hudson-Fulton Celebration, marking the 300th anniversary of Henry Hudson’s initial navigation of the waterway (and the first steam navigation of the river by Robert Fulton in 1807.)
Wright’s second flight, on Oct. 4, 1909, started at Governors Island, moved on to the Statue of Liberty and then extended all the way up to Grant’s Tomb. The 20-mile round-trip flight took 33 minutes, and was witnessed by a million people lining the shores, according to newspaper accounts. The river was packed with 1,600 ships that had come for the Hudson-Fulton Celebration, Crouch said.
As New York City is once again celebrating Hudson’s 1609 “discovery,” a September 12 air show is in the works for Governors Island, said Amanda Wright Lane, a great grand niece of Orville and Wilbur Wright. That air show may include a re-creation of a 1909 Wright flight.
Wilbur already has his name on a monument on Governors Island, celebrating the “early birds” of military aviation.
The plaque on the front states: “This bronze propeller was cast directly from one of the Wright brothers’ wooden propellers. Two were used to propel the first United States military aeroplane, a 1909 Wright. The original was loaned to the Early Birds, by the Smithsonian Institution, National Air Museum - Paul E. Garber, head curator.”
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June 25, 2009 9:31 AM Comments (2)
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High Line gets first proposal, and 99,998 more visitors
Nearly 100,000 people have already visited the High Line, and at least two of them are now apparently engaged to wed.
The High Line blog has pictures of what appears to be the first proposal on the High Line.
Since the High Line opened June 8, crowds have been a problem only twice, officials said. “So far, the only times we’ve had to ask people to wait to enter was on Saturday and Sunday, between 1:00 PM and 4:00 PM. The wait was not more that 30 minutes,” Joshua David and Robert Hammond, co-founders of Friends of the High Line said Thursday in their newsletter.
For the first few weekends only, park-goes must enter the High Line at Gansevoort and Washington streets, map.
There are a number of upcoming events at the High Line, including Sunday walking tours with architectural historian and High Line horticulture staff members.
June 19, 2009 11:08 AM Comments (0)
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Hoboken goes 'zero tolerance' for Hudson fireworks
 While Brooklyn and Roosevelt Island are still fuming over the Fourth of July fireworks move to the Hudson this year, Hoboken is doing its best to make the least of the situation by announcing “Zero Tolerance” holiday policies.
“This includes absolutely no rooftop parties or gatherings for viewing of the fireworks celebration, unless the said property has met the code standards for such usage. And it is especially important that no overcrowding occur on these properties. Furthermore, the use of balconies, fire escapes, porches or any other structures for viewing are strictly prohibited within the confines of the codes for such structures,” states the letter from Mayor David Roberts on the city of Hoboken website.
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June 18, 2009 2:33 PM Comments (0)
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