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.
Ellis Island preservation group desperate for donations
Save Ellis Island, the non-profit that’s been methodically stabilizing 30 abandoned buildings at the country’s most famous immigration center, is in dire need of $500,000 in donations by April 2 in order to keep its own doors open, Judith McAlpin, President of SAE, today told NewYorkology.
 The small group has already cut staff, delayed projects and put employees on furloughs. But if it’s unable to pay rent and salaries, unspent grants must be returned and no more buildings will open to the public.
Before Save Ellis Island started work a decade ago, two-thirds of the island was in serious disrepair, with crumbling staircases, broken windows and trees sprouting indoors. The deterioration has been on the public radar since 2005, when free hard-hart tours of the old hospital were first offered as part of the annual Open House New York event.
So far, 29 of the 30 abandoned buildings have been stabilized but only one has reopened as part of the museum. In 2007, SAE and the National Park Service opened the “new” ferry building, an art deco, WPA-era buidling used by immigrants who cleared customs and were waiting for the boat to Manhatttan. The renovation includes a functioning fan and bench both original to the room, as well as exhibits.
The one still-exposed building — the giant baggage and dormitory building that faces north to the Hudson River — last year received U.S. stimulus funds. The National Park Service, which runs Ellis and Liberty islands, is overseeing that project and the initial phase of stabilization has begun, NPS spokesman Darren Boch said .
While funds are available to prevent more damage to the baggage building, without Save Ellis Island, there would be no plans to reopen any more buildings.”It’s not going to happen in their absence,” Boch said in an interview this morning. “We have to work with a partner.”
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March 19, 2010 11:55 AM Comments (0)
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Yankees single-game tickets on sale Friday at noon
 Individual home-game tickets for the world champion New York Yankees will go on sale to the general public starting Friday at noon, according to the MLB.com story posted on the team’s official website.
Tickets are currently available only in multi-game or season-ticket packages.
Initially, the tickets will be available only through Yankees.com, YankeesBeisbol.com and Ticketmaster’s phone line: (877) 469-9849.
Prices will start at $5 for some games.
Opening day at Yankee Stadium will be April 13 vs. the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.
Image source: New York Yankees 2009 World Series Champions Official Club House T-Shirt.
Update on March 19: This story was updated to include the Yankees ticket sales link, which was unavailable earlier.
Earlier: Mets tickets on sale today at 10 a.m. for 2010 season
Yankee Stadium tours resume after World Series win
Yankees 2009 ticker-tape parade pictures and video
March 17, 2010 12:25 PM Comments (0)
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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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Manhattan Bridge time capsule date stamp: 2109
NewYorkology contributor Moses Gates is an urban planner, part-time tour guide, and full-time Gothamphile. He reports on the high up, the low down, and the out-of-the-way in New York City.
On the last day of the tenure of Mayor George B. McClellan the Manhattan Bridge opened for the very first time. One hundred years later (give or take a few months,) the bridge is in fantastic shape carrying bikes, pedestrians, four subway lines and almost 100,000 vehicles a day.
 This is due to the efforts of many people, not the least “Gridlock” Sam Schwartz, (pictured at left) former chief engineer/first deputy commissioner of the Department of Transportation. During his tenure in the 1980s, Schwartz and the DOT embarked on a major capital campaign to rehabilitate and stabilize the East River bridges, which were suffering after more than a decade of deferred maintenance. One of the bridges in the worst shape was the Manhattan.
“When I was chief engineer in 1986, I had to shut half the bridge. It was so dire we almost lost the entire bridge,” Schwartz told Streetfilms.
This past Friday, Schwartz joined DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Kahn, along with Ironworkers, Engineers, Painters, Electricians, and other bridge workers and aficionados at the bridge’s Manhattan Colonnade to place a time capsule — to be opened on the 200th anniversary of the bridge - inside a small nook in the grand archway that crowns the entrance.
The time capsule includes newspapers from Dec. 31, 2009; DOT Bridges safety vest, hard hat and ironworker gloves; the NYC Transit Authority Subway Map; the DOT’s annual Bridge Report; present-day electronic devices (flash drive, CD, DVR;) and a program from the Bridge Centennial Commission event Oct. 4, 2009. The contents were compiled by members of the Bridges Division of the NYC DOT.
“We’re here to deliver a message to the people 100 years from now,” Schwartz said.”And that message is that we’re all links - that if we don’t continue to maintain our bridges we’re going to lose them.”
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March 10, 2010 12:57 PM 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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Mets tickets on sale today at 10 a.m. for 2010 season
Single-game tickets go on sale today at 10 a.m. for the New York Mets 2010 season.
 Tickets, which start at $11, can be purchased only online or by phone today: Mets.com, LosMets.com, or (718) 507-TIXX. In-person sales start later this week.
The regular season calendar starts in New York on April 5 with an opening day game against Florida.
The promotion and giveaway schedule includes events such as Mr. Mets Dash for kids 12 and under; July 5 fireworks; and Jason Bay Bobblehead giveaway night.
Yankees tickets are currently only on sale only for full-season or partial- season ticket plans.
Image source: Mets’ official website.
March 7, 2010 9:28 AM Comments (0)
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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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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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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.
Earlier: NYC subway in film history at Transit Museum Annex
Killing time in Grand Central’s bad old days
January 19, 2010 7:04 AM Comments (0)
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