Out of Manhattan
Here you'll find information about New York City's four outer boroughs (Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx and Staten Island,) as well as spots that make good daytrips from Manhattan.
New York Transit Museum Annex closes for renovations
The New York Transit Museum Gallery Annex and Store at Grand Central Terminal today closed its doors to begin a renovation that will preserve the exhibition space and allow for bettter display of its unique subway, bus and train-memorablia.
When it reopens sometime in March, admission to the gallery will remain free, Roxanne Robertson, director of Special Projects for the New York Transit Museum, told NewYorkology.
Renovations will include new fixtures and lighting. The Transit Museum has been unable to provide a cost estimate for the project, as requested by NewYorkology.
When the annex reopens, it will debut a new exhibition: “Where New York Began: Archeology And The South Ferry Terminal.”
The main New York Transit Museum is located in Brooklyn Heights, where regular adult admisison is $5.
The online Transit Museum Store will also remain open during the annex’s renovations.
Picture credit: Holiday Train Show at the Transit Museum Annex. Amy Langfield/NewYorkology.
W's rock star deal: Moby, Norah Jones, Cheap Trick
W Hotels’ new Rock Star Package may lack a busted TV and I’m-with-the-band cachet, but it will get you tickets to see the likes of Moby, Cheap Trick, Norah Jones or Ben Harper and Relentless7.
The live performances will all be part of tapings for the TV show “Soundstage” at St. Ann’s Warehouse in Brooklyn. Tickets for the tapings are not available for sale; you need to get a room at W New York for access. Rock Star rates start at $269, which includes the “Spectacular Room” upgrade and a pair of tickets to any one of the tapings:
Cheap Trick – Jan. 26
Norah Jones – Jan. 27
Ben Harper and Relentless7 – Feb. 3
Moby – Feb. 5
Since “Soundstage” is sponsored b MasterCard, the hotel package must be booked using one of their cards. Also, the deadline to book is soon: Jan. 15.
Restaurant Week participants inlcude 21 Club, Cafe Boulud, Central Park Boathouose, Cipriani Wall Street, Craftbar, Del Posto, DB Bistro Moderne, Ed’s Chowder House, Esca, Gotham Bar & Grill, Kittichai, Le Cirque, Lupa, Lure, Mercer Kichen, Mesa Grill, The Modern, Morimoto, Nobu, Nougatine at Jean Georges, The Oak Room at The Plaza, Perry St, Petrossian, Red Cat, Riingo, River Cafe, Rock Center Cafe, Russian Tea Room, Sea Grill, Shun Lee, Spice Market, Tabla, Telepan, Tocqueville Restaurant , Tribeca Grill, Water Club, Terrace in the Sky and Water’s Edge.
During Winter Restaurant Week, Jan. 25 through Feb. 7, three-course meals will be sold for $24.07 for lunch and $35 at dinner. The prix-fixe price does not include beverages, tax or tip. It’s suspended on Saturdays and only some restaurants partake on Sundays.
Statue of Liberty crown six-month visitor total: 32,609
In the first six months since the Statue of Liberty’s crown was reopened to the public with new strict security, 32,609 people bought tickets to climb the 354 steps to the top in 2009, according to Statue Cruises, the only ferry company authorized to take visitors to the island.
Closed since Sept. 11, 2001, the crown reopend July 4, 2009 with new procedures that allow only 30 people per hour to climb up the narrow double-helix staircase, which was criticized as a firetrap even before the 2001 terror attacks.
For the full 12 months of 2009, Liberty and Ellis islands racked up a total visitation number of 3,829,710, Statue Cruises spokesperson Tegan Firth told NewYorkology by e-mail today.
Severe weather interruped service on three days. It was snow on March 2 and Dec. 20; extreme heat closed the crown Aug. 17.
Of all the tickets sold, a mere 10 percent were online, Firth said. The bulk, 78 percent were walk-ups while 12 percent were sold through the call center.
Time-specific crown tickets must be purchased in advance. In the summer, they sold out months in advance but currently January tickets are still there for the taking.
The $12 Statue Cruises ticket covers the ferry ride to both Ellis and Liberty islands. Both are operated by the National Park Service and have no admission fee per se, except there is a $3 charge for crown access (which can only be purchased as part of the ferry ticket package.)
The Statue Cruises boats made 6,267 New York departures in 2009, and 3,835 trips from New Jersey.
Here’s how it looked July 5, 2009:
Picture and video credit: Amy Langfield/NewYorkology.
Abandoned subway stop, bus depot on transit tours list
The New York Transit Museum today publicly opened its list of tours for the winter of 2010, including visits to a bus depot and the city’s oldest subway station.
The unused Old City Hall Station — which can be glimpsed through the dark if you stay on the 6 train as it loops from the end of the downtown run to the start of the uptown route — is an architectural gem with arching Guastavino tiles, a skylight and chandeliers. The tour offers a view, and the history of the 1904 station, that you can’t get from the 6 train.
The full list of transit tours may disappoint as it’s already been picked over by museum members, who get first dibs by mail. Five tours already sold out, including the Westchester Yard maintenance shop tour, the Linden Shop subway tour and a Staten Island food tour.
Update: Tours filled up exceptionally fast. Only the East New York Bus Depot and Corona Maintenance Facility still have openings.
Membership — $40 at the friend level; $30 for seniors or students — is also required if you want to take the tour of the Old City Hall Station.
Transit tours with availability:
The Jewel in the Crown: Old City Hall Station - Jan. 16 at noon, 1, 2 and 3 p.m.
Buses in the Brooklyn Division: East New York Bus Depot - Feb. 13 at 11 a.m.
New York City is gearing up for Winter Restaurant Week, but it’s certainly not the only fork in the roadmap. Here’s a roundup of other restaurant weeks in the Northeast region with confirmed dates for 2010:
Hotel renovations: Trump stays open; Milford closes
Although New York City hotels finally saw a rise of occupancy rates in December, nearly 2,000 rooms were taken off the market near the end of the year for renovations.
The hotel had been tackling renovations in stages and its building had been under scaffolding for over a year. The December closure resulted in 354 layoffs at the hotel, Crain’s reported.
That intersection won’t go hotel-less for long, as construction is progressing on the new InterContinental New York Times Square, set to open with 607 rooms this summer. (The hotel recently started tweeting updates, including the news that reservations are available starting Aug. 1.)
NYC museums, restaurants, zoos open New Year's Day
Although Jan. 1 is a holiday, many museums, restaurants, ice rinks, zoos clubs and other venues remain open on New Year’s Day in New York City. Here’s the list:
Not quite a blizzard, but NYC gets pre-winter snow day
It wasn’t the hoped-for “snowpocalypse” in New York City, but six to 12 inches fell throughout the five boroughs overnight.
“What seemed to happen is the storm went pretty much to the east, so the further east you were in New York City — Staten Island, parts of Brooklyn, Queens, the Rockaways — that’s where you got the larger snowfall,” Mayor Michael Bloomberg said at a Sunday morning news conference.
Preliminary snow measurements were 10.9 inches in both Central Park and at JFK Airport; and 6.9 inches at LaGuardia, NY1 meteorologist John Davitt reported. Update: Although the snow has stopped, the totals are still being updated. As of noon: 14.2 inches at Kennedy Airport; 9.5 inches in the Bronx; 10.9 inches for Central Park; and 8.8 inches for Queens. Update as of 4 p.m.: 8.8 inches at LaGuardia; 10.9 inches at Central Park; and 14.2 at JFK.
There are 1,500 snow plows and 365 salt spreaders on the streets, Sanitation Commissioner John Doherty said during the news conference. All 6,000 miles of city steets should be plowed by the end of the day, the mayor said.
“Monday morning will be slushy and cold and slippery — be careful — but everything we think will be passable,” Bloomberg said.
It’s a snow day in some city parks — with free hot choclate and sleds from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. — at Riverside Park (near 103rd Street;) Prospect Park (near the Tennis House;) Crotona Park (near Fulton and 172nd Street;) Juniper Valley Park (near 78th and Juniper Valley North;) and Clove Lakes Park (near Martling.)
NYC hotel deals under $200 for December and January
While the worst of the recession may be in the past, rates for New York City hotel rooms aren’t yet on the rise. A wide range of properties are offering rooms under $200, even on peak holiday dates. A roundup:
To mark its 80th birthday — Jan. 2, 2010 — The New Yorker Hotel will offer rooms in January for $80 for the first night and a 20-percent discount on the second-night (with a two-night minimum.) To get the $80 rate, call the hotel at (800) 764-4680 and mention “80th birthday of the hotel.”
This week, the new Hotel Indigo in Chelsea has rooms from $199.
Tablet’s Last Minute Deals for NYC today include Gild Hall from $149, the Mansfield from $179, the Shoreham from $189 and even the semi-private Soho House from $245.
Quikbook’s NY sale offers rooms for this weekend including the Smyth for $176, Park South Hotel for $160, and the Hotel Reserve for $184.
