New York City (Fodor's, 2012) - Fodor's [2]
GETTING AROUND
Without a doubt, the best way to explore New York is on foot. No matter what neighborhood you’re headed to, you’ll get a better sense of it by wandering around; you can check out the architecture, pop into cool-looking shops and cafés, and observe the walk-and-talk of the locals. And if you get lost, you’ll find that New Yorkers are surprisingly helpful with directions.
Long gone are the days when New York’s subways were dangerous. It’s by far the city’s most efficient and cost effective way to get around, and it runs 24 hours a day. But the subway is by no means flawless: good luck understanding loudspeaker announcements on all but the newest trains. The floors are sticky, stations are sweltering in summer, and platforms are grimy year-round. In other words, it’s quite obvious that the subway is more than 100 years old. As you’d expect, it gets crowded during rush hours, when you’ll likely find that all the subway car seats are taken—and have to join your fellow riders in the particular New York sport of “strap-hanging.”
If you’ve got a long way to go and would rather be comfortable than thrifty, hail one of the ubiquitous yellow cabs that troll New York’s streets around the clock. You’ll be out $3 just for getting in, but you’ll get to look at the scenery as you go and talk to the driver (who might be from as far away as Bangladesh or Ukraine). Avoid trying to hail a cab between 4 and 4:30 pm, unless you want to do a lot of futile street-side arm waving; it’s when the drivers change shifts.
A GUIDE TO THE GRID
The map of Manhattan is, for the most part, easy to follow: north of 14th Street, streets are laid out in a numbered grid pattern.
Numbered streets run east and west (crosstown), and broad avenues, most of them also numbered, run north (uptown) and south (downtown).
The main exception is Broadway, which runs the entire length of Manhattan on a diagonal. Below 14th Street, street patterns get chaotic.
In the West Village, West 4th Street intersects West 11th Street, Greenwich Street runs roughly parallel to Greenwich Avenue, and Leroy Street turns into St. Luke’s Place for one block and then becomes Leroy again.
There’s an East Broadway and a West Broadway, both of which run north–south, and neither of which is an extension of Broadway, leaving even locals scratching their heads.
STREET SMARTS
Avoid deserted blocks in unfamiliar neighborhoods. A brisk, purposeful pace helps deter trouble wherever you go. New York City is a safe city, but it’s still a city, so keep jewelry out of sight on the street; better yet, leave valuables at home. Don’t wear gold chains or large jewelry, even if it’s fake.
When in bars or restaurants, never hang your purse or bag on the back of a chair or put it underneath the table.
Never leave any bags unattended, and expect to have yourself and your possessions inspected thoroughly in such places as airports, sports stadiums, museums, and city buildings. Police officers stationed by subway-token booths also reserve the right to check your bags before you pass through the turnstile to enter the platform.
Politely ignore panhandlers on the streets and subways, people who offer to hail you a cab (they often appear at Penn Station, the Port Authority, or the airport), and limousine and gypsy-cab drivers who (illegally) offer rides priced according to how desperate you look.
Knockoff wristwatches will keep excellent time until you’re about an hour away from the vendor, so don’t bother with them; ditto for pirated DVDs.
OPENING HOURS
Subways and buses run around the clock, and so do plenty of businesses—including restaurants, pharmacies, copy shops, and even fitness clubs (there’s no wait for a treadmill at 4 am). Other shops and services have more extensive hours than you’ll find elsewhere in the United States. For example, there are quite a few places where you can get groceries—or get your hair and nails done—at 11 pm. In general, though, you can safely assume that most shops are open seven days a week, from about 10