I worked this semester at Bergen Community College in Paramus, New Jersey, so after Halloween, I had to put the walk on hold for work purposes and the holiday season. One of the things I enjoy about being a college professor and teaching in the Business/Hotel Management School at Bergen Community College is watching the creativity of my students unfold. This is my third semester at the college and this particular class just stood out.
They went from what I saw as a somewhat shy group of students to a founding start-up group of ‘Techies”, when we presented our group project for our simulated start-up company, “Buscomonzefi.com” (Acronym for Business Communications 105). I was just trying to get the students to communicate with one another and boy did they! It was the first class I ever taught where everyone got an ‘A’ and truly deserved it!
I have to admit that I am not the easiest grader and after twelve years of college myself (Michigan State University, The Fashion Institute of Technology, The Culinary Institute of America and Cornell University), I have seen my share of group projects but nothing like this. All I have to say is that if we as students had the technology at our finger tips that the kids do today, there is no telling what we could have accomplished.
I came up with the idea for a group project for the second half of our class and have to admit group projects at any grade is like gym class, you hate the idea of finding partners and then depending on them to do the work. The biggest problem with group projects is that there are some people that do all the work and others who just goof off and then get a grade. I wanted to prevent that this time.
I came up with the idea for Buscomonzefi.com when I was reading the trade journals on new companies and was annoyed that there were no CEO’s of new tech companies that were my age. I hate to tell all you young ‘techies’ this but Cisco, KLA Tencor, Microsoft, Oracle and the mother of them all, Google, were founded by people my age and older.
So I created a product that everyone would need, the Widget. Okay, you’re thinking “How to Succeed in Business without even Trying”, but I thought if Robert Morse could do it so could I. I also knew I wanted to something that would have the whole class engaged so I created my first tech company (hopefully not the last).
The famous scene from “How to Succeed in Business without trying Trying”
I made myself the CEO/Founder of Buscomonzefi.com and picked my executive team. I have to admit I did ‘pull some names out of a hat’ but I also wanted to challenge all of the students who I knew by their resumes and their class performance had a lot of talent but kept so quiet in class. I wanted to create open dialogue for the students plus I wanted to get students working with other students who they might not have chosen. I never saw a group of people blossom together so well. I was amazed that what I created was not a group project but a group of up and coming executives, who took control of a project and challenged themselves to their highest level.
We had only four weeks until the project was going to be presented and I knew the class was up for the challenge. All I gave them was the product itself and the fact that we had to present to the backers on the second to last day of class before the final exam.
I created an executive team, picked my President, Senior Vice-President and Vice-Presidents, Team Leaders and Team Members. I also picked my teams where I knew some of the people needed a boost because I saw in them what I didn’t think they saw in themselves. Some I just mixed the personalities. They as a class exceeded my expectations!
I also added that they would be grading one another, keeping journals, be graded on dress code and work performance. The final word was that if as their CEO I heard from the Executive Team that someone was not performing, I would get the team together for a discussion and the person could be ‘fired’ (meaning that they would fail the second part of the class). They all seemed to understand the grading system.
For the next four weeks, the class met on their own and created their divisions from the information that I gave them. I also told them if they took a one dimensional project and made it three dimensional, I would give them extra credit. As a class, they far exceeded it.
They renamed the product “Bwidge”, very creative and then developed how the product would look and then worked in their divisions to fulfill their departments structure. Each of the teams took their departments and created them form scratch. They were broken down into Sales & Marketing, Tech Talent & Customer Service/Legal, Product Development and Corporate Security. Each division had its Vice-President with a Manager/Team Leader with them with the team under them. I set the hierarchy up and made sure that the President and Senior Vice-President took control over their ‘teams’.
In class, we would have ’round table’ discussions that I had seen online with smaller tech firms and we asked the questions of each other of where we were out, who was doing what and how the teams were working with one another. I made the President and Senior Vice-President also find our new Corporate Headquarters with the stipulation that it must be near ‘Silicon Alley’ in lower Manhattan.
On December 18th, they made the presentation on Google Slides and the class ‘blew my mind’ with their excellence. I brought in the Corporate Benefits Head of Bayer Aspirin America, who I work with on the Hasbrouck Heights Men’s Association to be my question and answer person. Even he was ‘blown away’ with the thoroughness that the students researched.
The Tech Talent Division even established a Website, (Google “Buscomonzefi.com” to see their work), and Instagram site and a Facebook page. which by the time of the presentation already had four followers (how did they find this?). They had complete handbooks created, policies made and even had the Employee Bill of Rights established.
The Product Development team created, priced out and even had the prototype made of the product “Bwidge”, a computer product that organized all your online files on your computer, both on a MAC and a PC, a product that did not even exist (only for either one or the other but not for both). They used the above logo and produced the final product for presentation, plus all the cost and patent information.
The Sales & Marketing team really dazzled me with their ideas for a launch party on New Year’s Eve, ad campaign in Times Square and Silicon Valley and Wall Street, their commercial (which they actually filmed for YouTube!) and their cost structure (totally unrealistic but I only had a million dollars of capital to work with). They even sent an invitation to the Mayor of NYC!
The Company Logo
The presentation night everyone was dressed for a formal ‘tech’ presentation to ‘WASP’ bankers. I have to admit I have to work with the gentlemen on the concept of ties but overall everyone was dressed so professionally.
Let me put it this way, I have never been prouder of a group of students than this semester and it is my pleasure to put this online for all their hard work. Like I said, this is the first time I ever created a ‘tech’ company from scratch and it will not be my last.
To all my students who might be reading this, you all deserved those ‘A’s and good luck in the future. So much for people who say that Millenniums don’t know how to communicate. This group took Business Communications to new heights. All you have to do is get them away from the cell phones.
Disclaimer: Please Google “Buscomonzefi.com” for the class presentation and work. It is very detailed orientated and showcases these students’ talent as future Executives.
Sincerely,
Professor Justin Watrel, Founder & CEO Buscomonzefi.com: Home of the ‘Bwidge’
Please check our blog and websites out online on Google:
Halloween again?! I can’t believe how fast this year has gone. Ever since July 4th, it has just accelerated again. I have never seen time fly so fast. Every year the same thing, once the July 4th weekend is over, you blink your eye and there is Christmas again.
I have never been a great fan of Halloween when growing up. I must have been the only kid who hated trick or treating (like begging) and dressing up for elementary school parades (I thought that they were stupid and a waste of time).
It was not until I became an adult and got to celebrate in non-conventional terms that it became fun for me. I always liked the occult side of it and look at it from the way the early Celts did with a ceremonial celebration. This is why I participated in more unusual events.
In researching many of our historical sites and museums in Bergen County, New Jersey where I live, I came across many events that the museums were sponsoring leading up to Halloween. I was impressed by the uniqueness of the events and the response to them. I was lucky to get in because everything sold out so quickly. All of these events lead to the big one, the Halloween parade Halloween night.
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Woodland Park in Hasbrouck Heights, NJ at night
Halloween starts for me in Hasbrouck Heights with the town’s Annual Halloween in the Park, an event that takes place each fall in Woodland Park in Hasbrouck Heights. First thing to note that since developers have built new condos on the parks edges, it has taken some of the allure from the park. You can see the lights and people moving around.
We ‘stand by’ with the fire department for lights for the event and emergency calls when we have to leave. Still it is a lot of fun watching everyone get on the hayrides and start screaming in the distance. We watch from the equipment while eating a pizza dinner which we share with our Ambulance Squad who is on hand incase someone gets hurt. The last ride of the night, we get to go on when everyone else has left.
Patrons waiting at the Pavillion
The fireplace roaring at the event
Ghouls waiting for you
The park decorated for Halloween
The DPW takes families around the park in hayride fashion with bales of hay in the trailers and everyone on the trailer is chased and harassed by various ghosts, ghouls and witches. You spend most of the evening being chased with someone with a knife or chainsaw.
The start of the haunted hayride
Video of Halloween in the park
Ghouls and creatures of the night chasing everyone
This popular event is always sold out and residents get such a kick out of it. I of course was working that night and got there in time for the last two rides and people were still screaming at 9:30pm.
Halloween in the Park in Hasbrouck Heights, NJ in Woodland Park
I started the next part of the Halloween celebration at The Schoolhouse Museum (see VisitingaMuseum@wordpress.com for more details and review on TripAdvisor) 650 East Glen Avenue in Ridgewood, New Jersey for the Annual Cemetery Walk on October 20th. Usually I am not keen on walking around cemeteries at night but this was a unique fundraiser for the museum.
In fact, for a small museum there was a sold out attendance with more people wanting to go on the tour. The museum ran the walk around the cemetery for only one night and all the walks were packed with families with a surprising number of small children who seemed to love the idea of walking around tombstones.
My tour was the last one of the evening and it was already getting dark by 6:00pm and I was on the 7:00pm tour. The staff at The Schoolhouse Museum could not have been nicer and the volunteers both there and at the cemetery could have been more engaging with the crowds. We started our tour with a ghostly talk in front of the museum by Ridgewood Historian, Joseph Suplicki, who gave a quick tour on the well-known residents of Ridgewood who were buried in the cemetery.
We proceeded as a group (which had ballooned from 20 people to 36 people as more people showed up then there were places so they came on our tour) walked in the dark across the street to the Valleau Cemetery, which is between East Glen Avenue and Franklin Turnpike, one of the original Colonial roads in Ridgewood. We all thought we would be walking in the Dutch Reformed Church cemetery next to the museum but they later told us that there were insurance problems with doing that.
Off our troop trekked across the street to a lantern flank paths through the cemetery to well-known residents of Ridgewood’s burial sites. It was interesting as many of the local residents who were business people that schools and buildings were named after were pointed out. What the interesting twist was to it was they had students and members portray the person buried there and did a bio on the person and their contribution to the town.
The Cemetery Tour of Valleau Cemetery in Ridgewood, NJ
The cemetery is less scary when it is light out
I have to say that I give many of the actors credit for playing the roles they did because that meant staying by the grave site until the event ended and that meant being along for about twenty to thirty minutes by a tombstone. I would have thought it was creepy. Our group followed the lanterns on the paths deeper into the cemetery to hear all sorts of stories.
We visited the graves of various movers and shakers in the town of Ridgewood over the last hundred or so years including many who had streets and schools named after them. The most interesting actor was the lady who portrayed Mary Elizabeth Rosencrantz, who was the last owner of The Hermitage (The Hermitage Museum that is located up Franklin Turnpike from the cemetery), who was left penniless in the end while the house crumbled around her in the 1970’s.
The actor told the story of her prominent family and the demise of the family fortune. Having visited The Hermitage in the past, it made it more interesting to see where she was buried.
The tour of the cemetery ended in front of The Schoolhouse Museum where we joined the staff for ghost stories and fresh apple cider and apple cider doughnuts that had been donated by Demarest Farms in Hillsdale (See TripAdvisor review). That was the best and people so happy for snack after the tour.
This interesting and engaging tour is offered by The Schoolhouse Museum in the middle of October and should not be missed. For the $10.00 donation for the tour, it is well worth the visit. On the weekends, check out their current exhibitors. The museum mounts wonderful shows. The museum is open on Thursdays and Saturdays from 1:00pm to 3:00pm and Sundays from 2:00pm-4:00pm.
Another interesting Halloween event I attended was The Hermitage House Museum’s Annual Midnight Tour and Séance on October 30th. The Hermitage House Museum at 335 North Franklin Turnpike in Ho-Ho-Kus, NJ is featured on my blog, ‘VisitingaMuseum@wordpress.com’ and I have visited the museum several times during the year (See review on TripAdvisor). The house was the home of Theodosia Prevost and her second husband, Aaron Burr, when they married in 1782.
The Hermitage Mansion at Halloween (preparing for Christmas)
The evening featured a 10:00am ‘ghost tour’ of the house and a séance at midnight to start Halloween day. Frankly, I thought the thing was over-hyped. I have toured the house twice and have never seen or felt anything but hospitality in the house.
I arrived at The Hermitage House Museum at 10:00pm on the dot after I gave my Midterm to my class (I am currently teaching business students at Bergen Community College), so I was already tired. Listening to someone including the tour guide, who was a medium, talk about a house being haunted made me a little skeptical since the price for the event was $50.00.
Taking a night tour in a creepy old house was interesting and the Hermitage is steeped in so much history that I seriously suggest taking the tour in daylight and enjoy the grounds. The families that have lived here bring so much to the story of the house. The original owner of the house had invited General George Washington to stay at the house in response to the fact that her husband was fighting on the side of the British and she did not want to loose her home. Marrying Aaron Burr helped as well.
The next family that owned the house expanded it and lived in it for almost a 100 years. It became the modern New Jersey version of ‘Grey Gardens’, when the last owner ran out of money to run the house and the whole place overgrew. She ended up sick and when she died she left the house to the State of New Jersey.
With a history like that, you would think that you really might see something. All I saw was an over-weight bullshit artist who worked everyone up. I admit I would not like to spend a night alone in an old house like this but he got everyone so worked up that I believe that people thought they were seeing things. It got to the point where he kept asking everyone if they felt a cold spot or did they see a shadow. The house was old and drafty, that’s it. I got a kick out of one women saying she saw a rocking chair moving by itself and then another women walk by it and the loose floor board moving it. She looked embarrassed.
The worst was when we entered the parlor where Mary Rosencrantz, the last owner of the house, along with her sister and aunt used to serve tea during the 20’s to raise money to keep the house up. We all sat around the room in a semi-circle trying to communicate with the dead. All he did was rattle off a bunch of names and types of people he felt might be in the room. He was called out when he said someone named “Rose” was trying to reach him and then asked us did anyone know a ‘Rose’. When one guy said he did and it was the name of his 93 year old grandmother, the medium practically swooned and asked when she died. He answered that she was alive and living down the street from him. That almost crushed the medium.
For the price of the event and the time of night it is at my suggestion to anyone wanting to visit The Hermitage Museum is to visit it during the day and take a formal tour with a docent for $7.00 and enjoy the house for its history and beauty.
The highlight of Halloween for me is volunteering for the Halloween Parade in NYC. That is a lot of fun and its a comradery builder working with all the other volunteers. This was fourth year working on the parade and I am assigned working the gate where all the volunteers and performers walk through to check in. I have never seen so many people try to bullshit their way into the parade. They just want to see the parade from our route. I have to turn angry people away every year and do they get nasty. Is it my fault there is a major parade going on and you can’t get to a party three blocks away?
People walking up Sixth Avenue the night of the parade
The Halloween Parade took even a weirder twist when we had a terrorist attack just a few blocks from the parade route. Some guy took a truck and ran down joggers and bikers on the park path a few blocks from the World Trade Center site. I was shocked when one of the guys from the FDNY pulled me aside at 5:30pm to tell me. Even though it had happened a few blocks from the parade nothing beats down a New Yorker. They show resilience and the parade continued as if nothing happened. Like myself, if no one had said anything I would not have known.
The Halloween Parade marching up Sixth Avenue
The parade route was mobbed with people and I have to say that the costumes are getting more creative every year especially this year. There were a lot of ‘Dump Trump’ signs all over the parade route including many people dressed like the President doing all sorts of strange things. (I have to admit I may not agree with all the things he says but he is still our President and should be respected.)
There were all sorts of political undertones to the parade as there always are such as the Gun Lobbying Zombie’s, The ‘Dump Trump’ characters, all the LGBT groups fighting over the problems they are having in the military and comments over the immigration policies. I have not seen this much political rhetoric since the ‘I am peach Bush’ costumes that I saw about nine years ago. People were saying their piece this year.
Looking up Sixth Avenue the night of the Parade
I have also seen a bump in foreign tourists as they kept asking where things were located and did not know where Canal Street was located. Some said they came to New York City just to see the parade. I was floored by how many families brought their children all the way to the U.S. to see the parade. It was an exciting site to see all the bands, unusual costumes and towering puppets. There were skeletons and serpents on the parade route. The puppet makers go above and beyond when it comes time for the parade. The dancing Pumpkin people were new to the parade added that air of creativity to the event.
I usually end up watching the full parade on YouTube but I get to see the parade from the ground up. By working the gate, I get to see all the people in costume coming into the route. Ever since the 20th Anniversary of the ‘Thriller’ album, the ‘Thriller’ dance routine has gotten bigger and I swear they get so into it. We have dancing zombies all over the place. I see so many bands going through the gate and everyone comes in at once. I swear the three of us saw so much that night.
The Thriller Dance:
So here is my Halloween experience this year. Full of ghosts and ghouls and things that go bump in the night. BOO!
Happy Halloween!
(For those of you who are reading this and want to be in the parade next year, please go to Canal Street to line up. Don’t come to the gate and drive us crazy. We are busy enough.) Use the Number 6 subway to get to the parade route.
The Halloween Parade 2017
The Halloween Events:
Halloween in the Park
Every second week of October in Hasbrouck Heights NJ
Check out the Hasbrouck Heights Recreation Department Website
The Halloween Parade is every October 31st in New York City lining Sixth Avenue
(The picture is of the three of us working the gate. Mark Schuyler and I are twelve cousins once removed by the marriage of Mark’s GGG Grandfather to my GGG Grandmother, who was a member of the Beekman family by my Step-Grandmother. We like to kid around a lot about it.)
I took a walking tour of Roosevelt Island with the American Museum of Natural History today. The island is located right off the Upper East Side and is one of the many islands in the New York County area. Roosevelt Island has had its share of problems living there in the past.
Many articles had been written about the island in the 80’s with lack of good housing, lack of stores, the tram not working and not much to do on the island. This has changed like the rest of the city in the last 40 years. There has been so much development and new housing plus on top of the tram, you do have a subway stop in a renovated station. The nice part about the tram is that you can use your subway card to ride it and what a view!
I took the F Train over that morning to meet the rest of the group. I toured with the same tour guide who led us through Inwood two years ago. Unfortunately, his get up and go is not there much these days and he looked like he packed on about 25 pounds since the last tour. Still, we took a geological tour of the island, so I got to see the island in its developed stages as well as the modern stage.
Roosevelt Island Tram from the Manhattan side
In 2022, it had been five years since I visited Roosevelt Island and there had been changes in construction, businesses being opened and closed since the pandemic and there was now a sense of optimism on the island since visitors were able to return. I did see a lot of tourists on the island which I would have ever thought they would be interested in coming here.
Tramway Park where you pick up the tram to Roosevelt Island at East 59th Street and Second Avenue.
I took the tram over to the island in 2022, which was an experience as it began to rain. The clouds opened up a couple of times while I was touring the island but luckily there are a lot of indoor things to do on the island. I have to say it is quite the view at any time of the year. Looking over the Upper East Side and Sutton Place from the air is very interesting and gives you a different perspective of the Manhattan.
Arriving at Roosevelt Island offers great views.
Video of the Ride over to Roosevelt Island form the Upper East Side:
Walking around Roosevelt Island only takes about an hour (or two if you want to just relax and take your time). We started our tour outside the Roosevelt Island Historical Society Center Kiosk on West Road. Here we met the head of the Historical Society and were invited to visit later on after the tour.
On my tour of the island in 2022, I stopped back at the kiosk to talk to the guides and bought a map of the island ($1.00) which I recommend as it is a good guide and a great souvenir. It shows you the location of everything on the island and things you might miss.
The Roosevelt Island Visitor Center
The history of Roosevelt Island is interesting. Franklin Delano Roosevelt Island was originally called Minnahannock by the Native Americans and Varkins Island by the Dutch settlers. The island was acquired by the Blackwell family in the late 1600’s, who renamed the land Blackwell Island. The Blackwell’s lived on and farmed it before selling it to the City of New York in 1828 for $30,000 (Wiki/Roosevelt Island Historical Society).
Roosevelt Island in the beginning
In the 19th century, the island was used by the City for institutional facilities, including the Workhouse Penitentiary, Lunatic Asylum, City Hospital and City Home and given the name Welfare Island in 1921. The island was for residents that were out of site out of mind. These institutions gradually being relocated to areas more easily accessible to public transportation.
In 1969, this two-mile island was lease to the State of New York for 99 years. Under New York State’s Urban Development Corporation, Welfare Island became a beacon for the affordable housing movement within the city. Construction of the island community was completed in 1975 with four housing developments. In 1973, the island was renamed Franklin Delano Roosevelt Island (Wiki).
Today, Roosevelt Island has a small town feel with approximately 20 buildings and 14,000 residents. The island is home to six landmarked structures and proudly houses Four Freedoms Park, one of the original visions for the island (Judith Berdy, President Roosevelt Island Visitor Center).
The Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd at 543 Main Street
Designed by the prominent architect Frederick Clarke Withers, the chapel was begun in June, 1888 and completed the following year. It was the gift of New York banker George N. Bliss to the New York Protestant Episcopal Mission Society and was intended for use by the inmates of the Almshouse (Roosevelt Island Historical Society). It now serves as a community center and housing.
Our first part of the tour was visiting the new Cornell Tech campus on the southern part of the island. This new complex of four buildings is the wave of our university’s urban campus to soon be joined by a new hotel and another tech building (both opened and operating in 2022). The area has been replanted and a new lawn and gardens has been built on a waste deposit site. It’s hard to believe that it is built on a trash mound.
The entrance to the Cornell Tech campus on Roosevelt Island.
The tour guide explained that this is all reclaimed land. The campus is beautifully set on the island and is located right near the tram and subway station. I got to tour the Bloomberg Building and walk through their new restaurant.
In 2022, I stopped at the Café at Cornell Tech for a snack. It had been so hot outside that I went in for a cool drink. I ended up buying some of the college’s homemade ice cream from the Agriculture School that is made fresh on campus. The Mango Sorbet ($3.00 for a half pint) really cooled me down and I was ready to go again (See review on TripAdvisor).
Just outside the Cornell campus, I noticed another interesting statue entitled “The Blue Dragon”, a whimsical statue that was designed in an interesting form. It was created by artists Ulla and Gustav Kraitz. The work was meant to be engaged by children to climb on.
Ulla and Gustav Kraitz are Swedish born artists. Gustav Kraitz graduated from the State Academy of Fine Arts in Budapest. Ulla Kraitz was educated at the College of Arts in Sweden. The two met when Mr. Kraitz moved to Stockholm in 1960. They are known for their stylized sculptures of animals and fruits in lustrous and vivid colors (Artist bio).
Past the Cornell campus is South Point Park and the Smallpox Hospital, which is currently laying in ruins. The city is now refurbishing the building, but it will never be reopened as a fire did damage to all of the building. It was behind scaffolding and was not much to look at except for the architecture itself.
The Smallpox Hospital is a Gothic Revival structure designed by American architect James Renwich Jr. and opened to the public on December 18, 1856. It was the first hospital in the country dedicated to treating smallpox, a highly contagious and deadly viral disease.
The original footprint of the Smallpox Hospital was the rectangle central bay, which measured roughly 100 feet by 40 feet and was three stories in height. The building was constructed of granite quarried on the island and was built by prison labor. In 1875, the hospital was renamed Riverside Hospital and in 1886, the building was converted to a nursing school called the Home for the Nurses of the Maternity and Charity Hospital Training School. The northern and southern wings were completed in the early 1900’s in order to provide additional space for classrooms, laboratories and dormitories.
In the 1950’s, the nursing school closed, and the building was abandoned. It was stripped of floors, windows and stairwells. The Gothic ruin has been emptied ever since. What exists today is largely its shell (Roosevelt Island Historical Society at http://www.TheRuin.org).
After the picture taking at the hospital, it was on to the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Four Freedoms Park. It is amazing park located at the southern tip of Roosevelt Island with the most fantastic views of the City. On this clear sunny day, I could see all the way downtown. It was nice to just sit on the steps and just look out on this sunny day.
This is where the tour ended with our guide. I swear the guy looked exhausted and we had only walked the southern part of the island. Our group went on their way while I decided to see the rest of the park and walk the entire island. I started with walking the park.
The Hope Memorial sign
I admired the FDR Hope Memorial in which the statue of the President reaches to a young girl with a disability herself. The statue offers encouragement to those with a disability and the power to persevere.
The statue was designed by artist and sculptor Meredith Bergmann, who herself was inspired by the photos and stories of the President (FDR Hope Memorial).
Artist Meredith Bergmann (Cooper Union Alumni Picture)
Ms. Bergmann is an American born artist with BFA from The Cooper Union School of Art and attended Parsons School of Design and Wesleyan University. Her public works explore history, social justice, human rights and disabilities (Author’s bio).
Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Points Freedom Park is the first memorial dedicated to the president in his home state of New York. Located at the southern tip of Roosevelt Island in New York City. It is the last work of Louis I. Kahn, an iconic architect of the 20th century.
FDR Four Freedoms Park
The memorial, which opened to the public in October 2012, celebrates the four freedoms, as pronounced in President Roosevelt’s famous January 6, 1941, State of the Union address: freedom of speech and expression, freedom of worship, freedom from want and freedom from fear.
(Park’s Mission: As a steward of this civic space, Four Freedoms Park Conservancy advances President Roosevelt’s legacy and inspires, educates and engages the public in the ideals of the four freedoms.
The bust of Franklin Delano Roosevelt
The Conservancy does this by:
*Safeguarding the memorial as a space for inspired use.
*Fostering community and understanding.
*Igniting conversation about human rights and freedoms today.
The park is built on land filling from on-island demolition and this extended the island on the southern part.
(New York State Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation Society).
The sign right in the middle of the park.
From the park, I walked the path around the exterior of the entire island taking in the view of the coast of Queens. The shoreline of Queens is slowly changing too. New apartment buildings are going up in Astoria and Long Island City not to mention the coastline of Brooklyn as well. Much of this is built around parks that line the East River. This is not our parent’s outer borough.
The Long Island City shoreline
The pathway around the island had its twists and turns around the many parks and housing complexes. Some of these you could tell were built back in the 80’s and were the housing developments that were bitched about in New York Magazine so many years ago. Now these apartments have become desirable and have been spruced up. They are surrounded with newer, modern buildings that are attracting new younger residents.
The pathway with its breezy views attracts the island joggers and fisherman. It turned out to be an 81-degree day and everyone was out enjoying the unseasonable warm weather. The leaves were just starting to change colors so there was a new view in the parks on the island and in the parks across the river.
The east part of the pathway on the island took me to Lighthouse Park on the northern tip of the island. This was the park I had seen a few weeks earlier when visiting Carl Schulz Park by Gracie Mansion. The lighthouse was built in 1872 by inmates from the penitentiary with stones from the island and it was designed by the architect who designed the Smallpox Hospital.
Lighthouse Park Roosevelt Island at 910 Main Street
The lighthouse was built to guide ships through the treacherous waters of the East River and Hellgate. Now decommissioned, the park is a perfect place for picture taking and for picnicking. It has the nicest views of the Upper East Side and Randall’s-Wards Island to the north. It really is a nice place to take pictures or just relax, sit and enjoy the breezes. It was funny to now see the people from across the river. They seemed so much smaller.
Next to the lighthouse is a monument of faces dedicated to Nellie Bly and to women who have faced hardship entitled “The Girl Puzzle”. The sculpture was dedicated to journalist Elizabeth Cochrane Seaman, pen name Nellie Bly, who wrote about the abuses in the mental asylum on what was known as Mental Island at the time. She wrote the full report “Ten Days in the Mad House” on the abuses of patients.
“Girl Puzzle” by artist Amanda Matthews (Artist Bio)
The piece was created by American born artist Amanda Matthews. Ms. Matthews graduated with a BA in Studio Art from the University of Louisville and had studied abroad in Europe. She is known for her work that honors women and celebrates diversity and inclusion (Wiki).
The history sign on Nellie Bly
Each sculpture is a interpretation on Nellie Bly. It really is an interesting sculpture.
The Girl Puzzle One:
The Girl Puzzle Two:
The Girl Puzzle Three:
The Girl Puzzle Four:
The Girl Puzzle Five:
The northern part of the island is dominated by the Coler Rehabilitation Center and many of the patients were out and about on the pathways with their families enjoying the warm weather. Be careful when walking the western part of the island as you could be nipped by a passing wheelchair.
Passing the hospital is the Octagon Apartments. The front of the building is the original Octagon building that was part of the Lunatic Asylum was built in 1834 and designed by architect Alexander Jackson Davis.
This is where Nellie Bly wrote “Ten Days in a Nuthouse”, a famous piece describing the conditions in the building. Now it is a luxury eco-friendly apartment building. The parks next door to it have the nicest playground and a fantastic view of the Upper East Side.
Other newer apartment buildings line this part of the island of which have views anyone would envy. If you are going to live in New York City and want a view, this is the place to go. I passed by the Roosevelt Island Garden Club garden but it was closed that afternoon.
The Roosevelt Island Garden Club at the end of Main Street
As I was leaving the area, I came across a tiny statue of a woman entitled “Sabrina” right behind the Octagon apartment building. This is a bronze recasting of artist William Calder Marshall’s 1845 statue that has been part of the Amherst College tradition of pranking over the last hundred years.
Mr. Marshall was educated at the University of Edinburgh and was known for as a prolific sculpture of poetic subjects and many public commemorative works (National Galleries.org).
The nicest part of the walk was the water sculptures by American and Kansas born artist Tom Otterness entitled “The Management of Money & Real Estate”, which are two cute looking sculptures that depict the combination of money and real estate and how they affect one another. You could see this when each one of the sculptures were dunked in the water. You have to take time out and really look at these. It is really reflective of an island where mixed income seems to work. You also notice the irony when you look to Manhattan with its gleaming towers and then you look towards Queens with the public housing projects next to newer apartment buildings.
Mr. Otterness came to New York City in 1970 to study in the Arts Student League and the Whitney Museum. He is considered one of the best public sculptors in the Art world (Artist Bio and Google.com).
Tom Otterness “The Management of Money & Real Estate”
The happy couple
Money lost to Real Estate
Real Estate lost to Money
As I rounded the Promenade in 2017, I had to stop for some lunch. There are not too many restaurants on the island but the ones who are there look pretty good. I ate at Piccolo Trattoria at 455 Main Street (See review on TripAdvisor) for a slice of pizza. This is the only place to get a slice of pizza on the island.
The best part is the restaurant is really good. I had a slice of their Sicilian pizza ($2.50), which had just come out of the oven. It was really good. Their sauce is excellent, and one slice is enough to fill you up. There service is friendly as well. I needed it as I was ready to walk the interior of the island. The second time I came here in 2023, the pizza did not taste the same. I think they have new owners.
The Sicilian pizza here can be hit or miss
In 2022, I was in the mood for something different and had wanted to try the Chinese restaurant on the island, but it only accepted cash. So, I tried the new Zhongzhong Noodles at 568 Main Street. I had the most amazing meal there. The noodles and the Soup Dumpling that I ordered were made fresh on premise for me and you could taste the quality in every bite (See my review on TripAdvisor).
The Za Jiang Noodles were made with a minced pork and fresh vegetables in a sauce that when mixed together had the most complex and delicious taste. The Soup Dumplings were juicy and tasted wonderful in the soy dipping sauce.
The beautiful gardens by the Blackwell House in Downtown Roosevelt Island.
After lunch, I walked in interior of the island and walked both side of the main street. There are some interesting restaurants, historical sites, a brand-new school and the original Blackwell family house that was built in 1796 and sold in 1823.
It was closed in 2017 when I visited the island for much needed renovations but had finally reopened in 2022. The only problem was there was not much to tour once you were inside the house. It had been given a renovation but not a historical restoration, so the interior looked like a modern-day McMansion.
The very modern looking Living Room in the Blackwell Home
The tour guide explained to me that the house had been gutted and renovated and the only thing left of the original home was the stone foundation which he opened the basement door to show me. These had been quarried locally and had historic significance. That and there were some historical pictures around the house including one of Captain Blackwell of Revolutionary War fame who built the house but not much else that looked historic. I think they need a curator to come in and add some historic touches to the home. It looks really nice, but it loses its historic distinction.
The historical pictures of Roosevelt Island
General Blackwell’s portrait is the only historical item in the house
By the Motorgate building, there was a Farmer’s Market going on that afternoon. In 2017, I was able to walk around and see all the different vendors.
It seems to be a great place to raise children. The public-school PS/IS 217 looks like the type of school where the parents really support it. There are some interesting programs going on at the school and an active PTA. There is also an active theater down the road and a new library. There is a lot to do for a small neighborhood.
The Roosevelt Island Main Street
The gardens in the middle of the downtown area.
The tour of the island has a lot to do and see. There is a nice mix of historical buildings and brand-new architecture that blends together. Everything mixes well and has created a very livable and vibrant neighborhood. There is a lot to do and I am not sure if the rest of Manhattan knows what they are missing.
I left the island on the Tram and the nice part is I did not need to use a special ticket. It was part of my subway card and all I needed to do is swipe the card and I was on my way.
What a view! I do not care how touristy anything is the view from the Tram on a clear sunny day is the best. You can see all the way up the island and you really see the beauty of the island of Manhattan. To see all the buildings and parks and the river I think of the people who see this view in pictures and never get to experience this and I am right here seeing it. If anything, you have to take the Tram once. Being crowded in is well worth it.
The views from Roosevelt Island are amazing!
The Roosevelt Island Tram from the ground
Dinner in 2017 was at Dorrian’s Red Hand Restaurant on 1616 Second Avenue at 84th Street (See review on TripAdvisor), which I had mentioned before when walking through Yorkville. It is old-fashioned bar founded in 1960 and is a true Upper East Side ‘preppie’ bar. Everyone was pretty dressed up and the games were on.
Dorrian’s current menu in the Summer of 2024 (the UES Burger is no longer on the menu)
I ended up staying to watch the Michigan State versus Indiana game. I swear I had to calm down because it was a nail biter and I had to deal with rugby players constantly blocking the TV. That last minute touchdown really helped (that and the fact that Cornell beat Brown at Homecoming was nice). Michigan State won our Homecoming Game!
The food here is excellent. You have to try their UES Burger, which was a version of a ‘breakfast’ burger with bacon, artisan cheddar and a fried egg. The combination really worked, and it had a salty savory flavor to it. The French Fries were perfectly cooked with lots of salt. Everything just worked. The place was packed with Syracuse fans watching their game, so I was the only green and white in a sea of orange and blue. These games got close. I ended the win with a piece of warmed apple pie which hit the spot.
The hamburgers here are excellent
Back on the Q subway at 96th Street again to go home but on a warm night it was nice to walk around Second Avenue and look at everyone else eating outside and enjoying the warm evening. It was a great day in New York and my first trip to Roosevelt Island.
Go Green & Go Red!
Transportation to Roosevelt Island:
Take the tram (Cost of a subway ride with pass) between 59th and 60th Streets on Second Avenue in Manhattan or the F subway line.
I had another beautiful day in the city. I can’t believe this is fall with the 82-degree days. It is so funny to see so many people in outdoor cafes this late into the season. It reminded me of when I was walking Morningside Heights in February and it was 82 degrees then. The weather has been very wacky this year and everyone says there is no Global Warming. That’s hard to believe.
I finally managed to sneak into the city to walk the Avenues of the Upper Upper West Side. I had spent the morning in the Holy Apostles Soup Kitchen again and they put me back to work in the kitchen. By the time I left chopping loads of chicken breasts up for the next day’s lunch, I was exhausted. With Thanksgiving around the corner, it is going to be busy in the prep kitchen. I had been in the prep kitchen during the holidays, and it is a lot of work.
I started my walk this afternoon by relaxing with lunch at Zhong Hua Chinese Restaurant at 23 West 100th Street (See review on TripAdvisor), a tiny hole in the wall Chinese restaurant I passed when walking Manhattanville. This is right on the border at the official end of the Upper West Side meets the Douglas Housing Projects. I could tell most of the customers came from the housing projects by the customer base walking in. They must be very loyal because the staff knew who everyone was and said hello.
There are a couple of tables to sit at in the restaurant and it is not the fanciest place, but the food is not bad. I had a Sweet & Sour Chicken lunch special. It was okay. Typical Chinese American cooking. It tasted like fresh Chicken McNuggets with a standard red sweet sauce and served with white rice. The combination lunch special was $6.00 with a Coke and was not bad. Not the greatest but not bad. It filled me up for my long walk around the neighborhood.
The Sweet & Sour Pork was okay
Columbus Avenue was my first part of the walk. Columbus Avenue was the new trendy avenue when the city started to gentrify in the early 80’s through the crash of ’87 and now has settled into a more upper middle-class street with a combination of upscale stores and chains. There are so many banks on the avenue that I do not understand how they survive.
This was at one shining moment the center of the island with all the new innovative restaurants and shops opening up here starting with Museum Café opening right across the street from the American Museum of Natural History (it now houses a Shake Shack ten restaurants later). As someone noted in New York Magazine, it looks like a suburban mall with the parking (which is true for most of the island now).
In the upper 90’s, Columbus Avenue has turned into a series of large apartment buildings that must have been started in the late 90’s. It has changed the complexity of the neighborhood which was once all low-lining buildings. The border shared with Manhattanville gets even weirder with a Whole Foods and new luxury shopping one block from the Douglas Houses. It is a strange move, but it seems that everyone is using the Whole Foods from all over the neighborhood, so some marketing person was thinking.
The transition of the Upper West by the Whole Foods and the Douglass Houses
Once you cross over to the 80’s blocks, the architecture turns back into the more traditional low-rise buildings of the turn of the last century which is what gives the neighborhood its charm. Like the rest of the city, there have been a rash of small business closings around the block as the twenty-year leases that were signed in the 90’s when the neighborhood was still transitioning have come up and the complaints that the rents have tripled and quadrupled. The mix is now around the museum bunch of extremely expensive restaurants and realtors. This is not the West Side I remember.
One store that does stand out as being different is the Wild Bird Feed at 565 Columbus Avenue that seems more a hospital than a retail store. It saves pigeons and doves and brings them back to health. The rest is a combination of chain stores and expensive decorating places.
Amsterdam Avenue is pretty much the same as the parts in the areas above 90th Street is new apartment buildings and stores. Most of the chains have moved up to this area with the new buildings. As you move to the lower 90’s, Amsterdam Avenue becomes a series of neighborhood stores and restaurants that are strictly local. There are many great ethnic restaurants as well as all the services from laundry places to shoe repairs and drycleaners. They have really kept Amsterdam Avenue for the neighborhood.
At the corner of 84th and Amsterdam Avenue again is the Urban Assembly Garden that now is producing fall vegetables. It is amazing how everything changes in just two weeks. The kids were out cleaning up the beds when I visited again, and the teachers are eager for you to see what the kids are doing. Try to stop by the stand and at least say ‘hello’ to the kids.
Urban Assembly Garden on West 84th Street and Amsterdam Avenue
Across the street from the garden is West Side Kids at 498 Amsterdam Avenue which was mobbed with families who were shopping after school. There are some small restaurants a few doors down that were loaded with families. I could tell the parents here like their East Side counterparts really look after their kids’ education and welfare.
West Side Kids is now located at 201 West 84th Street
Broadway from 96th Street to 84th Street is a series of chain stores and independents. This part of the avenue is quite nice because it has the island in the middle of the road with trees and flowers still holding on from the summer months. It is being lined with brand new apartment buildings that are sprouting up all along the avenue. I have never seen a block so in transition. This is Broadway from 110th Street straight down to Columbus Circle.
When you turn the corner onto West End Avenue, it is a whole other world. This is the land of prewar apartment buildings, old brownstones and single-family homes. The side streets are unique brownstones where it looks like no two houses are the same. It is straight out of an exterior shot of ‘Sex and the City’.
If you are in the city for Halloween, there is a great holiday display outside the brownstone at West End Avenue and 90th Street. All sorts of movable ghouls and ghost are on display with a pumpkin demon flying up the side of the house. Someone is in the theater business here.
Halloween on the Upper West Side, the owner is very creative
There is a beautiful, tutored mansion that is being renovated on the corner at 274 West End Avenue and 95th Street that you have to see. It looks like a traditional German home attached to a prewar apartment building. This is the side of The Pomander Walk complex.
There are pillared twin mansions on the opposite corners of West End Avenue between 91st and 90th Streets with matching brownstones in the middle of the two homes. Both are being fixed up and the owners are very lucky to own such a beautiful, graceful homes. They look well-maintained and a little out of place with all the apartment buildings on the block.
West End Avenue has many architectural treasures
The Swan House at 95th and West End Avenue is a elegant old building with interesting landscaping around it. People do love their potted plants. The fortress like apartment building at 645 West End Avenue has the most interesting light features on the outside. They look like a giant is holding lanterns. It is straight out of the late 1890’s. I have never seen a light feature like this one. The building was designed by architect Gaetan Ajello and was built in 1912 (City Realty).
The very unique light fixtures outside the building
These are so beautiful
At West End Avenue and 84th Street, there is a plaque to the famous composer Sergei Rachmaninoff, who lived in the building from 1926 to 1943. He did some of his most famous work when living in this building. Word of advice don’t linger too long reading the plaque. The doorman will give you funny looks.
There is another gorgeous mansion on the corner at 272 West End Avenue and 91st Street that has been fixed up and again harks back to the time this was an exclusive neighborhood (more so than then now) and lined with private homes. This beautiful, designed home was built in 1920 (City Realty).
This whole area between West End Avenue and Riverside Drive from 66th Street straight up the west side of the island is lined with interesting apartment buildings. Each one is more unique than the other. It is a real change in these two blocks both in the architecture of the buildings and the feel of the neighborhood. It seems quieter and more reserved and the people walking along the streets seem more serious than their neighbors one block away. I just got that impression on the people living there by walking around at all hours of the day.
Dinner that night was at Cheesy Pizza at 2640 Broadway on the corner of 100th Street (See the review on TripAdvisor & my blog DiningonaShoeStringinNYC@Wordpress.com). The pizza is excellent made wonderful by their delicious tomato sauce. I get so disappointed by many of these pizzerias in these neighborhoods that I pass. They look so good and end up having tasteless food that makes it a disappointing meal.
Not at Cheesy Pizza. The pizza is full of flavor and loaded with their delicious sauce and loads of cheese. They have some excellent deals with eight specials available all day long for $5.00, which is a steal in this economy. I had the personal pizza with a Coke, and you got four nice slices of pizza that is freshly made for you. I was not only impressed with the quality but with the friendly service as the guys behind the counter seemed happy to see me. I guess it’s the cop thing again. This place warrants a few more visits.
The Cheese Pizza here is wonderful.
Before I headed downtown, I made a special trip to Silver Moon Bakery at 2740 Broadway and 105th Street for dessert (See review on TripAdvisor & my blog DiningonaShoeStringinNYC@Wordpress.com). The pastries here are excellent and rival their counterparts in other parts of the island. The nice part is they are very reasonable. Nothing is over $5.00. The quality is excellent, and the staff is not snotty like some of the bakeries on the East Side where they want to charge you $20.00 for a cake that costs about $3.00 in materials. I know rents are high but come on.
Silver Moon Bakery at 2740 Broadway (Closed March 2025)
Silver Moon Bakery is the home of the Crumuffin, which I have talked about before. I got a little boring and got a Linzer Tart. It was excellent. The cookie itself was so buttery and tasted like it had just come out of the oven. The raspberry jelly was tart and sweet and the cookie broken apart in my mouth when I ate it. Like a piece of heaven.
The selection at Silver Moon Bakery is wonderful.
That is the one thing about Silver Moon Bakery unlike their uptown competition. The product has not been sitting out all day long. The items are obviously bake in small batches throughout the day. Make the trip on the Number One Subway to 103rd Street to visit the bakery. It’s worth the travel time.
The Crumuffin at Silver Moon Bakery is the most amazing pastry!
Overall, I covered a lot of the Upper West Side, revisited a few haunts that I wanted to see again and got to relax and explore Riverside Park. The Upper West Side has so much to offer, and I will see more when I walk the streets in the neighborhood.
Read my other Blogs on the Bloomingdale neighborhood:
Day Ninety-Three: Walking the Borders of the Upper Upper West Side:
I always try to spend part of my birthday doing some form of community service. So I spent the morning of my birthday cutting vegetables for the next few days meals at Holy Apostles Soup Kitchen.
I spent the morning cutting three big bags of potatoes, a crate of sweet potatoes and several heads of lettuce for salads plus cleaning up the kitchen after everyone. We need to prepare prep for several dishes in advance and several cases of fresh vegetables were coming in so the old ones had to be used first. Needless to say, I was exhausted as usual when I left for the afternoon.
My afternoon was spent walking the ring of the neighborhood, the Upper part of the Upper West Side. Since this area runs from 96th Street to 59th Street, I will be breaking it up into two parts. Years ago, one did not dare venture over 86th Street on the West Side. Then it became 96th Street in the 90’s. Today though, the whole Upper West Side from 59th is really nice all the way to the tip of Inwood. There are some patches above 145th Street as I have mentioned in the blog that are still a little on the rough side but every month seem to get better.
Now that I have finished walking around Yorkville/Carnegie Hill and Manhattanville/Bloomingdale neighborhoods, it now time to tackle the Upper West and East Sides. This stretches from 96th to 59th Streets on both sides of Central Park and line both the East and Hudson Rivers. It will be a lot of walking.
My day starting by taking the subway back up to Morningside Heights for lunch. I had passed several restaurants along the way on Broadway on my days walking this neighborhood and there were still a few I had wanted to try. My choice was Bettolona at 3143 Broadway between LaSalle & Tiemann Streets (See review on TripAdvisor). The food is wonderful and very reasonably priced.
The beauty of Bettolona is the exposed walls and the open air windows that face a quiet side of Broadway to cars but noisy once the Number One subway passes. It was one of the warm, sunny October afternoons at 82 degrees so it was nice to sit by the windows and enjoy lunch. What impresses me about the restaurant is the unusual art up on the walls by the local artists, the calm jazz music and the laid back service. Everyone was so nice without knowing it was my birthday.
Bettolona Restaurant at 3143 Broadway (Closed June 2022)
I had the Linguine Bolognese, which was excellent. Fresh pasta with a generous portion of a veal ragu on top. The sauce, the owner explained, was made with fresh tomatoes and spices. It had such a nice rich flavor to it. You could taste the red wine in the sauce.
The food was wonderful that afternoon
For dessert, I had the Crepelle with Nutella and banana, which I highly recommend. The dessert was two freshly made crepes filled with Nutella hazelnut spread and freshly sliced bananas. A sweet light treat and the perfect way to end the lunch. I enjoyed it while watching students and members of the Columbia community walk by. I highly recommend the restaurant if you are in the area.
St. Clair Rose Garden when it is in bloom
After lunch, I wanted to walk off my fullness and turned the corner onto the extension of 125th Street to the St. Clair turn into Riverside Park to the West Harlem Piers Park to look over the Hudson River and enjoy the beautiful sunny day. The West Harlem Piers is a small park inside Riverside Park that faces New Jersey and offers the most spectacular views of the Hudson River and the Cliffs of Englewood Cliffs and Alpine on the New Jersey side. It is a nice place to just sit, relax and think. I do some of my best writing here.
After I rested and digested, it was off to walk the fringe of the Upper Upper West Side. This encompassed 5th Avenue along Central Park to Riverside Drive facing Riverside Park from 96th Street to 84th Street. It was a large area but packed with interesting pre-war apartments, two large popular parks, loads of small local businesses and a few pocket parks along the way.
The Brownstone neighborhood of West 95th Street
This area unlike Manhattanville to the north of 96th, is starting to get a little more upscale as people with money are beginning to move above 86th Street, the traditional border of the Upper West Side. The area like the rest of Manhattan just keeps morphing quickly. You will never know when you turn the corner when another business will close and one replace it.
West 96th Street and Riverside Park in the Fall
On the way down Broadway, I passed on the Columbia Campus a memorial plaque dedicated to General Garret Hopper Sticker, who led the New York City defense during the War of 1812. This was the location of the McGowan Pass in Manhattanville, which was a major travel artery on the Post Road to the Northern parts of New York and New England.
The McGowan Pass before the park
Fearing invasion by the British, the city rebuilt old Revolutionary forts and this area was home to the Barrier Wall to protect the travel route. It saw no action during the War of 1812, but this important piece of history is noted on the Columbia campus as the McGowan Pass still sits at the northern end of Central Park.
The one thing that I can note about both Central Park and Riverside Park that day is that all the leaves were still green. The vestiges of the fall had not turned color yet and with the unseasonable warm weather still felt like summer. Central Park was crowded that day with people playing Frisbee and walking their dogs. Many tourists were still in the city wondering around the park. It leads me to ask, are any of us still working full time? I wonder.
I had already walked all of 96th Street already, passing the artist Joy Brown statues on Broadway at the subway stop (which run from West 117th Street to West 72nd Street until February 17, 2018) and the now familiar McDonald’s that has been my haunt for snacks and drinks when walking up here. I proceeded to walk down Riverside Drive through Riverside Park to enjoy the foliage and walk through a park still locked in the summer. It was so nice to pass couples walking their dogs or biking through the park. There is so much life going on here and people just enjoying nature.
The homes and apartment buildings that line Riverside Park are from sign from the turn of the last century. There are still some mansions that line the park in the lower 90’s that are currently being refurbished. These you really have to look over for the 1880’s architecture. The loop around 84th Street will either take you to 83rd or 85th Street so opt for the lower one. Take your time and really walk-through Riverside Park and see the foliage and the view of the Hudson River.
Between 90th and 89th Streets, take time to explore the Soldier’s & Sailors Monument on Riverside Drive and look over the monument. It was built to honor the Union Army & Navy during the Civil War. The monument was designed by the firm of Stoughton & Stoughton for the City in 1900. It was dedicated on Memorial Day of 1902 with President Theodore Roosevelt overseeing the event. The monument has seen better days and like Grant’s Tomb, could use a refurbishing. Check out the detail work and the statues. It was well-designed and detailed.
Rounding 84th Street leads you into the former edge of the Upper West Side. Back in the 90’s, one did not venture higher than 86th Street and then it became 96th Street. Now it is all the way up the west side of the island to the very tip. This whole area is being polished up and new chain stores are being opened along the Broadway corridor.
Broadway between West 105th and West 106th Streets
On the corner of 84th and Amsterdam Avenue this is a patch of green in the way of the Urban Green Space Garden run by The Urban Assembly School for Green Careers. The students run this urban garden where tomatoes, cucumbers and root vegetables are grown next to one of the busiest thoroughfares in the city. The kids take a lot of pride in this stand so try to stop in and look over their produce. They are a welcoming bunch and the teachers are very encouraging as well.
I walked the remaining parts of the border of the neighborhood along Fifth Avenue and then crossed over the park to the East Side where I ended up at the 96th Street exit. I ended my walk at the El Museo del Barrio a, a Latino themed museum at the edge of the Museum Mile at 1220 Fifth Avenue to see visit the museum for the first time (See reviews on TripAdvisor & VisitingaMuseum.com).
What an interesting museum. I visited all the exhibitions as the museum is rather small and the displays are very intimate. The ‘Nkame’ exhibition was very interesting dealing with a local religion on the island that it pays great respect. It is interesting in the use of black and white used in the art. Another exhibition that really hit the economic attitude of the island was the ‘Debtfair” exhibition that explained how the island got into its financial straits and how it can be worked out. They also have a nice restaurant and gift shop that you should visit.
I took a quick tour around the Central Park Conservatory at 1230 Fifth Avenue (See reviews on TripAdvisor and VisitingaMuseum.com). The garden was still in bloom with early fall flowers and green trees. Even at this time of night the conservatory was still busy. I really like the formal gardens to the south of the garden and the fountain.
My evening ended with a lecture on ‘Rising Waters around NYC’, a discussion of how the rising sea levels affected the city during Hurricane Sandy and in the future. This discussion was at the Museum of the City of New York at Fifth Avenue at 103rd Street across the street from the Central Park Conservatory at 1220 Fifth Avenue & 103rd Street (See review on TripAdvisor and VisitingaMuseum.com).
Don’t miss their ongoing exhibition on ‘Core New York’ on the history of the city through the ages. It is really interesting and needs several trips to really see the exhibition in full.
The Museum of the City of New York at 1220 Fifth Avenue
I took time from my walk to be a supportive Alumni and go up to New Haven, Connecticut for the Cornell versus Yale game on September 30, 2017. I also watched us get our butts kicked with the score 49-24. I swear, every time I thought we would catch up, we fell behind. We kept going through quarterbacks throughout the game.
It was even worse for the September 2019 game. We were tie with Yale, who does not look that good either, at 3-3 at half (I thought that was bad enough) but in the third quarter were lead 10-3 with an 85 yard run touchdown and looked really good. Then our quarterback threw an interception that lead to a Yale touchdown and at 10-10 he was so rattled by that, the game was never the same. He threw three more interceptions and we botched an onside kick (Cornell is not good at these, trust me!) and resulted in three more touchdowns for Yale.
We ended up losing 27-16 and it was not fun leaving that stadium. It was no big deal though because the students at Yale DO NOT support their football team and there was more people from Cornell at the stadium than Yalies and the Yale Bowl (their stadium), which is a relic of the 1920’s with uncomfortable wooden seats, was 80% empty.
The Yale Bowl (which only fills up for the Harvard Game)
In September 0f 2021, it was another spectacular day in the Yale Bowl but the renovations are not working so well and the seats are peeling again and the place looks worn down. The game was pathetic from both sides. Yale looked lackluster and we kept making so many mistakes. We lost again 17-23. Not exactly the blood bath we took in our previous games here but it was not much of a game.
For a home game, Yalies don’t support their team. The stadium was over half empty.
What I find most insulting is that the food vendors at the game charge an arm and leg for food. Come on, a regular hot dog is $4.00 and a soda is $3.00? That is really gouging people especially ones using their credit cards. I just made my way down Chapel Street after the game and revisited some of the delis I had been to before. It was more than half price than at the game.
Still I got another amazing tan at the game and it was nice to just take the train up and then walk to the stadium to see if there were any changes along Chapel Street. There were a few more stores open in the downtown near the Yale campus and some homes had been renovated but not as many as I would have thought.
A lot has changed in New Haven since I lived there in the late Eighties. I lived in New Haven from 1988-1990 at a time the city was being revitalized during the boom of the early 80’s. I also saw what the Crash of 1987 would do to the city when the effects of the financial meltdown started to do to the economy. I lived on College Street at the time working at R.H. Macy on Church Street (where a college stands now).
The old Macy’s New Haven before it closed in 1994
The mall was knocked down and is now a college
Our little area was really nice around the Shubert Theater with lots of shops and restaurants but even those were affected by the economy as well as the store was in the end and it closed after I got promoted in 1990. The store closed with almost thirty years in service in 1994. Even though I moved from the city twenty-seven years ago, I still consider it in my own way ‘home’. There is always a piece of me in all the places I have lived in the past. There still is a part of me in the city. Going up for the Cornell-Yale game has given me an excuse to visit New Haven in the last six years.
I was lucky to make the 9:02am train out of Grand Central and arrived in New Haven at 11:20am. Walking through the train station brought back a lot of memories for me as I used to head home every Sunday for dinner with my family the first year I lived there. I watched the station get renovated in 1989 and morph to what it is now with the vaulted ceilings and the specialty shops. It is the weirdest thing about the city. They have the most beautiful train station and then the city builds public housing right across the street from it.
When I visited in 2021, all the public housing that was across the street from the train station has since been knocked down. It will be interesting to see what gets built as this side of town by the Nine Block has gotten more desirable and more built up. In 2025, the lots still sit empty.
For me, stepping out of the station brings back a flood of memories for me. As I walked from the station to downtown a few blocks away it reminded me of the first time I truly became independent as an adult with my first real job and my first apartment alone.
Arriving in New Haven in 2025
Arriving at the New Haven Train Station after the two hour ride
I still had the feeling when I exited the train station in 2021. The memories just keep flooding back.
In 2019, driving up I-95 was the worst experience. I teach college now on Saturdays and we finished class a little earlier today so I got on the road in plenty of time for the game but a few trucks not doing the speed limit backed traffic up for almost a half hour. I took the Merritt Parkway back and it was a much more pleasant experience. It is a much nicer highway to drive down with less traffic. Plus it is tree lined.
The beauty of the Merritt Parkway in Connecticut
I walked to Church, Chapel and College Streets now and it is so much different. New Haven has become a restaurant and shopping destination. So many independent restaurants have opened to much acclaim and many small creative shops have opened up along the Chapel Street corridor. I was able to pop in here and there before the game.
An interesting mural in the Nine Block neighborhood
I was able to walk around the ‘Nine Block’ of downtown New Haven, which is where the city was founded around the famous ‘Green’. When I lived there, this was an area of cut rate stores and empty historical buildings. To have the hindsight thirty years later but being the home to Yale University, I figured eventually in time this area would gentrify strong.
The Nine Block in 2025
It is now home to many top-rated restaurants, shops and the most beautiful lofts. The buildings have been sandblasted back to their original beauty and its just fun to walk around and look at the architecture from the 1800’s. The city and the buildings owners have done a wonderful job bringing this area back to life. It is worth the afternoon to just look around the lower downtown.
The lofts of the Nine Block
I walked all around the ‘Green’ and not too much has changed over the years as way of the park. It has been fixed up and reseeded but still picturesque. The office buildings still add to the backdrop of the park. What has changed is the quality of the stores and restaurants over the years that line Chapel Street next to the Yale campus. They have gotten a lot more fancy and expensive, much more than when I was there.
Chapel Street seems to have become the new ‘Columbus Avenue’ of New Haven (terminology is based on Columbus Avenue in Manhattan when it went upscale in the 1980’s and 1990’s). From Church Street downtown to the edge of the Yale campus on Dwight Avenue is lined with new restaurants, shops, art galleries and upscale boutique hotels.
Downtown New Haven in the Fall of 2025
Even the area between campus and the stadium, which has seen better days has changed. The extension of the hospital has turned everything from Orchard Street to Yale Avenue by the Yale Bowl into “Upper Chapel Street”.
Chapel Street by the Yale Campus
You can see this is an up and coming neighborhood, lined with Victorian homes that are now being snatched up and renovated. It must have been some neighborhood back between the 1880’s to the 1920’s. It is still pretty run down but here and there especially around the new hospital extension things are changing. Homes along Edgewood Park on and off Chapel Street are starting to get spruced up and landscaped. You can tell this is the time to buy in that neighborhood.
College Street in 2025. The Taft Apartments are still there
I passed old haunts of mine from back in the 80’s that are still in business. Willoughby’s Coffee and Tea was still there at 258 College Street, where I went for late night snacks. I thought it was in another location but still here. The Owl Shop at 268 College Street was still there as well but is now a dining place as well as a smoke shop.
College Street in the Fall of 2025
Claire’s Corner Copia at 1000 Chapel Street still stood on the corner of College Street and Chapel Street, where I used to go for my morning sugar fix. Claire herself still mans the counter after all these years. Willoughby’s Coffee and Tea finally closed is now part of Clair’s.
The Union League Cafe at 1032 Chapel Street still has the lofty prices
Further up Chapel Street is Union League Café at 1032 Chapel Street, where I took many special employees from Macy’s for a meal when they did something special.
In 2021, I took the 9:02am train again so I had didn’t have much time for breakfast that morning trying to catch the bus into the City and then walk to Grand Central to catch the train. Still it was a spectacular sunny day and watching all those towns at stops I knew so well pass by. I could not believe how Stanford and Bridgeport have changed. They are so built up now.
The delicious cakes and pastries at Clair’s
When I arrived in New Haven, I made my way up Chapel Street on my way to the stadium and stopped at a cute bakery called Four Flours at 1203 Chapel Street for breakfast. I had the most amazing Bacon, Egg and Cheese sandwich on a freshly baked roll. They put a spicy Jalapeno Cheese on it that really made the sandwich. The baked goods looked good too (Restaurant closed August of 2022).
The place is really cute inside and out.
Four Flours at 1203 Chapel Street (Closed August 2022)
When stopped for lunch before the game in 2019 it was one of the most famous restaurants in New Haven and was right around the corner from me, Louis Lunch at 261 Crown Street (See review on TripAdvisor). It was a block from where I lived at the Taft Apartments and in the two years I lived there, I never ate there. The food was excellent.
Their hamburgers are legendary in the food world and Louis Lunch has been written up in countless reviews, blogs and articles on the best hamburgers in the country. I got their at opening at 12:00pm and there was already fifteen people in line. It does go quick though and my suggestion is to order the burger medium well and then it comes out perfect.
They are right about one thing, the burgers do not need ketchup. One slice of fresh tomato adds to the complexity of the flavor. It has a crisp, caramelized salty flavor to the outside and a juicy meaty center. This is not your typical burger and is worth the $8.00 and change I paid for it and the Pepsi. The restaurant is an institution in New Haven and should be tried at least once when visiting the city.
Louis Lunch for Hamburgers!
I then continued up Chapel Street to the stadium. The upper parts of Chapel Street start to give way from the college campus to residential homes, more like Victorian mansions and you can see the wealth that once dominated the northern part of the Yale campus.
Yale Bowl Stadium is unusual for such a wealthy endowed school. It looks more like a prep-school, high school field. For a team with such an hollowed reputation and the team doing so well the last few years, I think the stadium, even after the renovation, is falling apart. It has the most uncomfortable wooden seating and I am still afraid of getting splinters from the place.
That did not stop the team from running all over Cornell. I have to admit for every play we had up our sleeves, they had two to counter act it. They really are a good team.
The start of the game in 2025
Cornell entering the field
Even though we tried to put up a good fight, we made too many mistakes and the second half of the game, we were done. We lost the game 49-24 n 2017. We really need to work on our offensive. At least the Yalies were good sports about it.
The Game Highlights
In 2019, they ran over us again only because we kept THROWING THEM THE BALL! I know that the quarterback was rattled by the first interception but recover from it! It is just a play! The fourth quarter in 2019 was painful. At least the $4.00 hot dog and $2.00 bag of chips for lunch tasted good. Because of the ride up there was no time to eat anywhere else and make the game. Their concession stand (and parking $10.00 for a spot by the Field Hockey stadium) was pricey but no different from other stadiums.
In 2025, I arrived by MetroNorth Train. That was like taking a ride through a haunted house with all the times in a two year period I took this train. I wanted to get there early before the game so I could take pictures around New Haven and update my blog.
The first half of the game was not that exciting. We scored first and by the end of the second half we were tied at 14-14. Yale blocked our field goal before the end of the first half.
When we scored first in 2025 I had some faith. We were tied at half time
The second half was a disaster. Our quarterback threw it to Yale so much that we had three interceptions. I did not have too many expectations for the game since we had lost to 0-3 University of Albany the week before. We lost 41-24.
How depressing in 2025!
The one thing about Yale that I have found with most of the Ivy league games I go to is that none of the students seem to want to go to the game. We always sit in empty stadiums. When I visit the Penn Stadium, Cornell dominates the stadium both with the band and the Alumni. Columbia the same way.
Outside the Yale Bowl at half time
Cornell seems to be getting a more loyal following (in hopes of a winning season). The Yale game was no different. I think there were more of us then there were of them and they were home. Most of the people in the stadium looked like the parents of the players than the student.
The Cornell Marching band was the highlight at the end of the game. At least they were in good spirits when they left the stadium.
The Cornell Marching band leaving the Yale Bowl after the game
After the very disappointing result (all three times), I walked back into the downtown, taking peeks at the side streets to look at the graceful homes. For all of you home flippers reading this, buy in this area NOW! It will be hot, hot, hot in the next two years as it is already starting. I really do believe that people are moving back into New Haven. In 2025, I have seen none of this and the streets of upper Chapel Street have gotten worse.
I turned around ‘the Green’ and looked at the downtown one more time. For the most part, it had not really changed in twenty years. By walking the city streets, I could tell it was a lot more vibrant than it was when I lived there and for the better. I am proud of the city I once called home for working so hard to improve it.
Walking back toward the Green to Wooster Street
My last stop of the day in 2017, 2019 and 2025 was at Frank Pepe Pizzeria at 157 Wooster Street (See reviews on TripAdvisor both in 2017 , 2019 and 2025) in the heart of the city’s ‘Little Italy’. I had not eaten here in twenty seven years. My first and last time dining there until today was my last night living there. My buddy manager at Macy’s, Rose, had taken me here for dinner with her fiancé, Kenny. The Pepe’s vs Sally’s conversation is one that I have had with many a Yale Alumni.
The restaurant has morphed into a small chain over the years of about eight restaurants but the original is still iconic. I had the 12 inch Clam Pizza with a Coke and it is the best $20.00 (with tip) that I had spent in a long time. The clams are so sweet and fresh tasting on that pizza that it was worth the wait in line for it. People were so happy to be eating there and wait staff is extremely friendly. It is worth the trip to Wooster Street.
Frank Pepe’s Clam pizza is the best!
My dinner to drown my sorrows
The best!
I had dessert at Libby’s next door at 139 Wooster Street (see review on TripAdvisor) and is worth bypassing. The $4.00 soggy cannoli was just not worth it and you can not even buy individual cookies. The place needs a renovation as well.
Libby’s at 139 Wooster Street
The cannoli at Libby’s
Wooster Street and the area that surrounds it has improved over the years like the rest of the city. Many of the homes and businesses have been fixed up and the factory when you cross the bridge to this area of the city has been turned into lofts. You know where this neighborhood is heading. You could see it in the cars in the parking lot.
I left Wooster Street to head back to downtown and to the train station to my way back to New York City. The streets were quiet except for a few diners leaving restaurants and the walk back to railroad station didn’t seem as dangerous as everyone says. No one was walking around at 8:00pm at night.
Wooster Street is now all condos and luxury rentals surrounding the famous restaurants
In 2019, I took a drive up Chapel Street and parked by the Green. I walked all over downtown watching it come to life. A lot more people from the suburbs are coming into New Haven to dine and shop than ever before. With all the housing going up in the downtown area, more people will be milling around.
In 2021, I had been walking all over Downtown New Haven surprised at what a restaurant city New Have had become. I could not believe that Chapel Street and the surrounding streets around the Yale campus had changed so much. It was all trendy restaurants and shops.
In 2025, the downtown had gotten really nice around the ‘Nine Block’ and all around Yale. Once you left the borders around the campus and north of the hospital, then it gets seedy until you reach the Yale Bowl. All the area around Wooster Street is all luxury housing with all sorts of new bars and coffee shops.
Chapel Street during the early Fall
I walked around the Yale University Art Gallery at 1111 Chapel Street. It was funny to finally go there. After all the years of living in town and then visiting I never had a chance to see it. Since the game was over by 3:00pm, I was able to sneak in for the last hour and a half. What an interesting museum.
The bottom level was all ancient art from the University’s digs at the turn of the last century. This and the Middle Ages art was on the rest of the first floor. On the Upper Floors was art from Africa, Asia and then the modern art on the upper floors. There was an exhibition on “Women Artists of Yale over 150 Years” on the top floor featuring artist from the Art School. I was able to race through all the floors before it closed at 6:00pm.
The Ancient Art Galleries at the Yale University Art Gallery
After the museum, I was getting starved and walked around to find someplace interesting to eat. Deep down I wanted to go back to Pepe’s for that Clam Pizza but I wanted to see what else was around. By the time I convinced myself to go to Pepe’s it was too late. Both Pepe’s and Sally’s both had over an hour wait. Not only that but all over Wooster Street everything was a mob scene. So it was back to downtown.
What I thought was funny about the area is that all the old factories that were in the area were all knocked down and now is becoming expensive condos. Who knew that Little Italy was going to become so fashionable. It reminded me of what was going on up in Poughkeepsie.
I had passed a noodle house in the Nine Block and decided to try that instead. I ate that night at Ten Sounds Yunnan Noodle at 756 Chapel Street. The restaurant was located in the heart of the old Nine Block section of the City. The food was excellent.
I had the Steamed Gyoza with ground pork, the steamed Shrimp Shaomai, which were small open faced dumplings with little shrimps on top and then the Roast Pork buns.
The Roast Pork buns were amazing
I was in the mood for Dim Sum. Everything was wonderful. So nicely cooked and spiced. The Roast Pork buns were a real treat accompanied by a hot sauce.
Ten Second Yunnan Noodles at 756 Chapel Street (Closed August 2023)
It was a wonderful dinner, and the restaurant was nicely designed and it had a real college crowd that evening. The students really dominated the restaurant, and it was nice to see everyone having such a good time. The music was wonderful as well.
It was dark when I walked back to the train station, but the streets were really quiet, and it was nice to see the changes in this part of the City. New Haven really is surprising. Just when you hear of all the problems you see another side of the City that is really impressive. The whole Nine Block is now all trendy restaurants and condos mixed in with all the older architecture.
It was a real treat to take a step back in time and see part of my past. I really loved living in New Haven, CT over twenty years ago and it still holds a special place in my heart being the beginning of my professional career. Okay things were not always perfect, but it was first real sense of adulthood in the ‘real world’.
Who knew a Yale/Cornell Game could bring this flood of memories back to me?
As for the next football game, GO BIG RED!
The disaster of the 2019 game/we just handed them of the game.
In 2021, it was another disappointed ending to a long day:
Highlights from our loss in 2021
Highlights from our loss in 2025 (this is ridiculous!)
I finally finished the Avenues of the neighborhood and started walking the streets. It can be a tiring process since it is a nine-block walk in the lower parts of the neighborhood. My first day in the Yorkville/Carnegie Hill section I covered everything from 96th Street to 90th Street. It also rained part of the afternoon which is no fun.
As much as it was a gloomy day, watching the kids let out of school that day boosted my energy. I forgot what it is like when a long day of school is over. These kids come out of the building with so much pent-up energy. All the laughing and yelling brought back a lot of good memories.
I took the Q back up to 96th Street and made a roundabout down FDR Drive to 92nd Street to start the walk. I knew I would not have time to do the whole neighborhood and wanted to break it up into two parts doing the neighborhood above 90th Street first.
As I turned the corner, I could feel the energy from the students who were leaving MS114 on 92nd Street for the afternoon. There was so much noise and excitement after a long day at school. It seems that this neighborhood is loaded with excellent schools both for high school and the lower grades as well.
Yorkville is home to many public and private schools. While walking around between 90th and 92nd Streets, the neighborhood is home to some of the best schools in the city. Hunter High School, The Dalton School, Nightingale-Bramford, Spence School and Chapin School are all located closer to Central Park. All of these schools have had excellent reputations since I was in high school in the eighties. Even the public schools in the neighborhood such as MS-114 have some of the best reputations in the New York City.
No matter the kids, they are still excited and noisy when they leave school and all have their cliques. They fill the smaller neighborhood restaurants and bodegas after school and yell at each other when crossing the street. It is a very lively neighborhood after 2:00pm in the afternoon between the students and the parents picking some of them up. It is nice to see parents who still give that independence to their kids to walk alone in the neighborhood with their friends. They travel in packs anyway. Ten to one these kids know how to handle themselves.
There is a nice pocket park at 92nd Street and Second Avenue to sit and relax. Located between the buildings on 92nd Street, it still has traces of the summer left with flowers blooming and the trees are still green. It’s a nice place to take a breather and watch the neighborhood go by.
This is a neighborhood with a real family feel to it. Something I did not experience in the neighborhood before school started, when the streets were quiet as people were still on vacation but now that school is back in session, it has really changed.
I can see by the number of parents, both men and women, talking time out to pick up their children from school and talk with them on the way home that they are very involved in their children’s lives. Some of the conversations I overheard were a little mature for kids that age, but I have always found the city kids to be a little more ‘hip’ to things than their suburban counterparts.
There are some great children’s stores in the area and loads of family friendly restaurants in the neighborhood. One store that I stopped at was La Librairie des Enfants at 163 East 92nd Street. This quirky little bookstore sells the most unique French language children’s picture books with a small selection of American books. It reminded me of ‘Shop Around the Corner’ in the movie, “You got Mail”.
La Librairie des Enfants at 163 East 92nd Street (closed in April of 2024)
Beautifully decorated with pretty displays and set up for the avid reader. The French salesman was very talkative to me and knows his merchandise. This is the perfect spot for local children and tourists looking for that unusual gift.
La Librairie des Enfants inside play area
Watch this interesting video on this store
Another store that is a neighborhood staple is Children’s General Store at 168 East 91st Street near Second Avenue (Closed as of 2019). This whimsical store is a hark back to when kids actually had an imagination and did not look at a cell phone all day. This is for the creative child who likes board games and arts & crafts, make believe castles and all the great little items that we as adults would call ‘stocking stuffers’. If I was a kid again, this is the first place I would visit. It has a great selection of toys for the young at heart.
As you walk the side streets of the neighborhood, you can see that on the Avenues of the neighborhood, brownstones are giving way to large newer apartment buildings but on the streets in between them are still elegant, graceful brownstones lining the streets of the upper 90’s some of the most beautiful between Lexington and Park Avenues.
There are some beautiful wooden homes lining the streets between Lexington and Park Avenue on 92nd and 91st Streets from a day long ago. To see these buildings still standing and in perfect shape is a testament of the care they receive and how well they were built in the early 1800’s. All four of these homes have special plaques on them and you should take the time to admire the work on them. Their owners have kept them in excellent shape.
As I walked around the high 90’s by 1st, 2nd and FDR Drive around the Isaacs Housing, the area is being knocked down and rebuilt with more luxurious apartment buildings and stores to match. Here and there, there is still a sprinkling of stores and restaurants that cater to people in the housing projects but this area around the housing projects just keeps changing and getting more expensive. Like the rest of uptown that I walked, many people don’t seem to have a problem living across the street from the projects.
The new plan for the Isaacs Houses with luxury buildings
What the neighborhood has that caters to everyone is the number of parks in the neighborhood. You have Central Park to the west, Carl Schurz Park to the East, Asphalt Green playground by York Avenue past 92nd Street as well as the Isaacs and the Seaburg playgrounds on 96th Street as well as a few pocket parks in the 90’s.
Walking on York Avenue in the summer of 2025
There is plenty of places for kids to play sports or just hang out and enjoy the playgrounds. The public bathrooms do still need to be worked on in these parks.
Stanley Myer Isaacs was one of New York City’s great lawyer’s and civic leaders and was Borough President of Manhattan. He helped Robert Moses; the great Parks Director build East River Drive (now FDR Drive). Judge Seabury was descended from one of the original settlers of New York and the first Bishop of New York, Dr. Samuel Seabury III. As a public servant to the City, he helped fight corruption within Tammany Hall and lead many reforms in New York City (NYCParks.org).
In the 90’s, there are also a few important museums that you should check out. On the corner of Fifth Avenue at East 92nd Street is the Jewish Museum at 1109 Fifth Avenue.
The museum was originally started in 1904 as a gift from Judge Mayer Sulzberger to the Jewish Theological Society and has since moved to the Warburg Mansion in 1944 and the museum was opened in 1947 as The Jewish Museum. I went back into the neighborhood for a visit later in the year to visit the Leonard Cohen exhibition (See reviews on TripAdvisor and VisitingaMuseum.com).
The Leonard Cohen exhibition at The Jewish Museum
On the corner of Fifth Avenue and East 91st Street is the Cooper-Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum at 2 East 91st Street. This is housed in the old Andrew Carnegie Mansion, one of the few surviving Fifth Avenue mansions from the Gilded Age. The museum was founded in 1896 by granddaughters of Peter Cooper for the college and it fell under the Smithsonian in 1968.
The Cooper-Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum at 2 East 91st Street
I went in recent to see the ‘Nature-Cooper-Hewitt Triennial’ exhibition and to walk around the grounds. The exhibition was excellent but the house itself is fun to walk around in. Take your time to visit all the floors (See review on TripAdvisor and VisitingaMuseum.com).
The Triennial was nice, but the house is amazing!
Walking down York Avenue in the summer
The evening of the first night walking the streets of Yorkville, I ate at Timmy’s Restaurant on 91st and York (See review on TripAdvisor-Closed in 2018). It is a wonderful little neighborhood restaurant with outdoor seating and an extensive American menu across the street from Asphalt Green playground. I could hear the kids across the street playing soccer and screaming as they played.
Timmy’s Restaurant in Yorkville (Closed in 2018-Now Cafe Nick)
The weather had finally cleared and it was a nice warm night out, perfect for sitting outside and enjoying the breeze. What had caught my eye on the menu was the fresh soft-shell sandwich that the restaurant was running as a special. It was excellent. A lightly breaded and fried soft-shell crab on a soft brioche roll with lettuce and tomato and fresh French fries and onion rings on the side made the perfect meal.
The crab was sweet with the crunchiness of the perfect sauté. The service is friendly and very welcoming, and I highly recommend the restaurant while it is still warm out. It is nice to just sit outside and watch the world go by.
I started my second day in the neighborhood by walking the streets between 90th and 84th Streets. The weather during these two weeks really changed. One day it was boiling hot at 90 degrees and the last day in the neighborhood, it went down into the 60’s as September moved into October. I have never seen such a drastic change in a week and a half.
After another day of working the Bread station at the Soup Kitchen, it was off to the lower section of Yorkville/Carnegie Hill. I walked the top part of 84th Street between Fifth Avenue and East End Avenue, admiring the brownstones and small parks along the way. It got to be that time of the day and school let out. I have never seen such a swarm of children before.
Walking this part of the neighborhood, I noticed more that there is a large concentration not just of private, public and religious schools but all of the seem to be the best of their categories. These are not just the best in their categories in the city but in the state and country as well. The neighborhood that stretches from 96th to 84th Streets has such a great variety of schools that would make the rest of the country envious.
As I have said on previous walks, the conversations between parents and kids are always interesting to hear. These school kids sound so much more mature than their age. These kids talk politics, sports and current events just as good as any adult.
Between East 89th and 88th Streets is the Guggenheim Museum at 1071 Fifth Avenue. This Frank Lloyd Wright designed building is a treasure trove of contemporary art. The museum has been closed for renovations.
The Solomon Guggenheim Museum at 1071 Fifth Avenue
The lower parts of the streets from about 85th to 87th Streets really show old New York at its best with rows and rows of majestic brownstones and old apartment houses. Some of these are starting to get decorated for the Fall holidays noting the change in weather and October approaching. Pumpkins and haystacks are starting to replace the summer wreaths and pots of flowers.
Brownstoners really decorate their homes nicely at the holidays
Who says decorating is just for the suburbs
I started my tour of the neighborhood with a nice lunch at Arturo’s Pizza on the corner of York Avenue and 85th Street, 1610 York Avenue (See Review on TripAdvisor) for their lunch special. They have three really reasonable lunch specials until 3:30pm, one a meatball sub, another a sausage sub and the last being two slices with a Coke for $5.00. It was quite a deal.
Arturo’s Pizza at 1619 York Street is good for great lunch specials
The food is good but could be better. Yet they give you a nice size sub for $5.00. The meatball sub was loaded with fresh cut meatballs which were a nice size with tomato sauce on excellent fresh chewy bread. As big as it was it just did not have enough flavor. The sauce needed more spice and the meatballs more salt and cheese. It just did not taste like anything. It was the same two days later when finishing the walk of the neighborhood after a disastrous Chinese meal.
The meatball sub at Arturo’s was okay.
I had the two-slice special and found the pizza to have no flavor because there was no zing to the sauce. It was also oily and should have been heated up more. The food here should be better since they seem to take pride in it. It warrants a third trip as the portion is worth the money when you are hungry. They do need to concentrate on their tomato sauce though and add some spice to it.
The Cheese pizza did not have that much flavor in the sauce.
There are more great stores for kids in the lower part of the neighborhood as well. I passed Baby Bubble at 240 88th Street, which specializes in cleaning anything kid from strollers to clothes. I was impressed by the one stop shopping. Another great little store for young women is Let’s Dress Up at 345 East 85th Street #1. This is a place where you can princess for day and be treated like royalty at your own catered birthday party. Another clear idea for the creative child within.
Walking down East 84th Street in the summer of 2025
When walking through the side streets between 84th to 87th Streets between York and Third Avenue, you really see ‘old New York’. Rows and rows of beautiful, graceful brownstones line the street with their small outside gardens and potted plants. It is a step back in time to another era until you hit the Avenues and see the large modern apartment building.
East 84th Street in the Summer of 2024
Their are some apartments on East 84th Street have unique details to them. You really have to look behind the trees and around the tops of the buildings to notice the curves, spirals and faces that look out at you. This set of brick apartments stretches from 312-318 East 84th Street and were built in 1910 (StreetEasy.com).
I passed several fire stations along the way in the neighborhood. Engine 22; Ladder 13, Battalion 10 is located on 159 East 85th Street. The plaque on their fire station said that they had lost nine members on 9/11. These brave men sacrificed so much for us and still do every day making their neighborhood safe. Another old-fashioned non-functioning firehouse is Hook & Ladder 13 at 159 East 87th Street.
Founded in 1865 as a ‘suburban’ firehouse, this is no longer the firehouse for the company which has been moved. The company’s fame comes from being involved in the deadly explosion on Park Place in 1891. Kudos to these brave members of the FDNY.
Hook & Ladder 13 in Yorkville at 159 East 87th Street
As you continue down 87th Street, there is a creepy set of brownstones between 337-339 East 87th Street. The motifs on the outside of the building look like devils or ghouls and do give you the chills. It looks like a place where ‘Rosemary’s Baby’ lived when it grew up. I would love to pass these building on Friday the 13th or Halloween night.
337-339 East 87th Street-The “Rosemary’s Baby House”
This creepy looking brownstone was built between 1886-1887 by architect Henry Janeway Hardenbergh for the Rhinelander estate and what is interesting about the story is that the 329-335 were knocked down for the apartment building next store and the motif of this devil looking motif is carved out of 337 East 87th Street (Starts and Fits). Very interesting.
337-339 East 87th Street-The Rosemary’s Baby House
Don’t miss the ghoul like carving at 439 East 87th Street. I don’t think that one is as old. This menacing face adorns that archway of the brownstone of this two-unit home that was built in 1901.
The street art on the wall of East 87th Street and First Avenue
The street art of East 87th Street
I had to stop at Milano Market at 1582 Third Avenue on the corner of 87th Street and 3rd Avenue to cool down. The place is so beautifully set up and the prepared food section is picturesque. It is a nice place to just stand and take a breath. The place is heavily air conditioned and on a humid day, it is a great place to just walk around. The online reviews are not too pleasant for as good as their food is most of the reviews talk about rude service. I will have to go back and try it out to be fair on them.
Another place to chill out and relax on a hot day is the Church of the Holy Trinity Garden at 316 East 88th Street near Second Avenue. This beautifully landscaped garden surrounded by shade trees is the perfect place to relax on a long day. It really does offer solitude from the city and is an escape from the rest of the landscape. It was still warm, so the flowers were out and the trees offered a lot of shade.
Ruppert Park is the same located at Second Avenue between 90th and 91st Street. Named after the famous German Brewer Jacob Ruppert, the park is part of the tower complex that surrounds it. Mr. Ruppert was one of the first co-owners of the Yankees and co-owned Yankee Stadium.
This is a wonderful park to watch the dog walkers pass by and converse with one another. This is a true neighborhood park where neighbors talk and swap stories and debate politic, seniors come to relax and watch the neighbors go by and the dogs engage with one another. It is a great park for the dog walking set. I have never seen so many small, pampered dogs walking around one neighborhood.
Another great place to visit is Henderson Place at East End Avenue across from Carl Schurz Park and between 86th and 87th Streets. This is part of the Henderson Place Historical District located facing the park is what is left of the original 32 houses (24 survive today) that were built between 1881-82. They were built for people of ‘moderate means’ meanwhile now these rare little townhouses with their arched hallways and small gardens and rare parking lots are now worth about $4.6 million when one went on sale recently. They were built in the Queen Ann style of architecture and look so elegant at night when walking on the park side of the street.
Henderson Place Historic District at 535 East 86th Street
I stopped at Glaser’s Bakery at 1670 First Avenue (see review on TripAdvisor and DiningonaShoeStringinNYC-Closed in 2018) and all I have to say is YUM! I love discovering new bakeries around the city especially one that has been around since 1902. Everything here is delicious and very reasonable. In this hyper-gentrifying City, it is nice to see a piece of ‘old New York’ alive and well. Both afternoons I came here the place was mobbed.
Glaser’s Bake Shop at 1670 First Avenue (Closed in 2018)
The pastries are mind blowingly good! The first time I went I had to get one of their black and white cookies ($2.25) are the rage of the internet. Everyone was not kidding. They are excellent. Not the usual fondant icing but more of a butter cream frosting they literally melt in your mouth. They have this Danish called a Crumb Cookie ($3.25) that is loaded on top with sweet cinnamon crumbs and lots of icing on top. It is so big I had to bring the rest home.
Their doughnuts ($1.50) are worth the trip alone. The jelly doughnuts are filled with a sweet currant type jelly and their sugar doughnuts are loaded with a layer of cinnamon sugar. Do not miss this bakery when visiting New York City.
On the opposite note, I ate dinner that day at Five Luck Chinese restaurant on 1834 Second Avenue (see review on TripAdvisor-Now Closed) right near the new Q subway line (Closed in January 2020). It was the worst Chinese meal I had ever eaten! I had no idea that food cooked by Chinese could be this bad. First the place is old and depressing to eat in and I have eaten at loads of these little hole in the wall restaurants all over the city. If anyone from China ate here, they would laugh and then cry it is that bad.
I ordered a Shredded Pork with Garlic Sauce with fried rice with a pork Egg Roll. Now when I think of Shredded Pork with Garlic Sauce, I think of sliced pork loin sautéed with brown Hunan Sauce with garlic and ginger. I got this gloppy roast pork with a pile of uncooked vegetables with a side of yellow rice with a ton of bean sprouts in them. I had no clue what I was eating. I ate the egg roll, and it was barely passable as a frozen egg roll.
The dish was worse than any middle school cafeteria version of Chinese food. I ate three bites on it and handed it back to them and said to the owner that it was inedible. Rather than fight over a dish that cost $4.85 or ask for anything else, I walked out and never looked back. Avoid this place like the plague. I went back to Arturo’s for their pizza.
Rounding the corner at Fifth Avenue and East 86th Street is the Neue Museum at 1048 Fifth Avenue. Neue Galerie New York is a museum devoted to early twentieth-century German and Austrian art and design. Located in a landmark mansion built in 1914 by the architectural firm of Carrere & Hastings, the museum offers a diverse program of exhibitions, lectures, films, concerts and other events.
It was that afternoon I finally got to see the famous painting, “The Woman in Gold” made famous by the movie. The museum specializes in German and Austrian art (See reviews on TripAdvisor and VisitingaMuseum.com).
The famous “Woman in Gold” by Gustav Klimt
As I walked down East 84th Street, I noticed the beauty of each block while getting closer to the river. The streets were so beautiful while in bloom.
Sitting quietly in the middle of East 84th Street is the tiny NYU Institute of Study of Ancient Art at 15 East 84th Street. This branch of the New York University Art Department specializes in Ancient Art and offers a scholarly approach to the ancient arts of European and Middle Eastern Art.
Don’t miss the NYU Institute of Study of Ancient Art at 15 East 84th Street near the Met
When I last visited, they were showing the “A Wonder to Behold: Craftsmanship and Creation of Babylon’s Ishtar Gate” exhibition on Ancient Mesopotamian art.
They were showing Ancient Middle Eastern art when I visited
I finished my last day of my three-day trip relaxing in Carl Schurz Park. Carl Schurz was a very interesting man who did a lot for his country. Born in Prussia, he fought during the Revolution and escaped the country to immigrate to Paris when he was on the losing side.
He and his wife immigrated to the United States in 1852. Here he served as a Brigadier General in the Civil War, after the War he served as a U.S. Senator, Secretary of the Interior under President Hayes working to fight corruption in the Office of Indian Affairs and after his stint in the government, went back to his newspaper work (Wiki).
Mayor de Blasio must have been having a party because everyone in the park could hear the band. On this warm night every dog walker and child with a parent must have been in the park. Even at twilight, the place was mobbed as well as the river walk with people admiring the river views. It is still summer and I got a nice taste of it today. The park is beautiful anytime of the year (See review on TripAdvisor and VisitingaMuseum.com).
What a beautiful neighborhood to live in. The park is particularly colorful in the Spring when the Cherry Blossoms are in bloom. This is a family’s dream. Access to the neighborhood: The 6 & Q subways. Stop at 96th Street.
The park in the Summer of 2024
The park’s gardens in the Summer of 2024
The park in the middle of the Summer of 2025
The park in the summer months
I had the opportunity before my tour of Gracie Mansion to walk along the esplanade and see the views of the Hudson River. It was such a beautiful day to walk along the river side.
The riverfront and Hellgate in the summer
The gardens in Carl Schulz Park
The beautiful walkway
The view of the Queens skyline
The view of the river walkway in the middle of the summer
Check out my blogs on walking the Yorkville/Upper East Side neighborhood:
Day Eighty-Nine: Walking the Avenues of Yorkville/Carnegie Hill/Upper East Side:
Open: Sunday 11:00am-5:00pm/Monday 11:00am-6:00pm/ Tuesday and Wednesday Closed/Thursday-Saturday 11:00am-6:00pm
Café and Shops have various hours. Please check the website for these.
Fee: General $22.00/Seniors (65 and Older) $16.00/Students and Educators $12.00/Children under 12 are not admitted and Children under 16 years old must be accompanied by an adult. The museum is open on First Fridays from 6:00pm-9:00pm. Please visit the website for more information.
I finally got out of Harlem and into the Upper East Side. This area is the border neighborhood between East Harlem and the Upper East Side (or as people used to say before gentrification of the Island of Manhattan, the Upper Upper East Side). Most people consider anything below 98th Street on the East Side of Manhattan and East of Central Park as the Upper East Side. However, you call it, you are now out of Harlem.
Walking along York Avenue
The mood of the area is even different. It was like when I was crossing 155th Street from Washington Heights to Harlem months before. The mood of the area and its residents starts to change. It becomes the Woody Allen Upper East Side. Again just like Manhattan Valley on the West Side, there is still a very 70’s and 80’s feel to the neighborhood. It’s got a more a middle-class vibe to it and watching the kids at play you can still see that independent streak in them.
The Isaacs and Haynes Houses on the border of the Upper East Side
There are none of the expensive restaurants and boutiques that you see below 80th Street. The feel of the businesses is more local. Even the Isaacs Housing complex looks more upscale then the projects a few blocks up and their residents have their own security watch (the guy asked me what I was doing there and no one ever asked me anything when I walked through the projects before).
The walk along FDR Drive esplanade has some view. The shore line of Queens is really changing. There is a lot of development around the East River and what a beautiful view of the river and the rising skyline in the background. The esplanade stops around 90th Street for renovation and then continues once you pass Gracie Mansion.
The Queens shore line in the summer of 2025
The new luxury housing that dwarfs the public housing
Carl Schurz Park (See review on TripAdvisor and VisitingaMuseum.com), where Gracie Mansion is located is a nice place to just relax and watch the boats pass by. You get the nicest views of Ward-Randall Island and of Lighthouse Park on Roosevelt Island (I never knew there was a lighthouse over here). The developers are creating a new ‘Gold Coast’ along the Queens-Brooklyn riverfront.
It was nice to just relax and watch the water. The kids are in full force at this park like many parks around the city and it looks like they are trying to enjoy their last days of freedom before the school years starts in two weeks. Kids were playing basketball, Frisbee, roller skating and just chasing one another. It was nice to see kids not using cellphones.
Carl Schulz Park near the border of East 84th Street
Even the entrance to the park is fancy
The views from the river esplanade
The view of the gardens on the esplanade
The homes along this part of Manhattan were a combination of brownstones and prewar apartments but all along the Avenues, you are seeing more and more new construction. All sorts of new apartment and office buildings are being built along First, Second and Third Avenues. The businesses are more local than chains, giving you a peak at time before the late 90’s exploded with the chain stores all over Manhattan. It is funny that I remember a time everyone in the city complained that the chains would not even come to the city now in 2017 they complain that they are taking over the city.
The border of Yorkville, 84th Street, is lined with many brownstone type buildings and private homes along with a series of small restaurants and shops worth exploring. Many are businesses that have been open for years such as Dorrian’s Red Hand Restaurant at 1616 Second Avenue since 1960. It harks back to when the Upper East Side was the land of preppies.
Dorrian’s Red Hand Restaurant at 1616 Second Avenue
When you reach Fifth Avenue, the area between 84th Street and 96th Street is lined with museums giving name to ‘Museum Row’ starting with the Metropolitan Museum of Art at the corner of 84th Street passing the Jewish Museum, Guggenheim Museum, The Ukraine Institute of America and the Neue Museum, which will be fun to explore. Many of the smaller museums of the city line this area as well so I passed names I had never heard of before considering my many trips to the Metropolitan Museum of Art (I discuss all these museums in later blogs and in VisitingaMuseum.com).
The ‘Museum Mile’ Museums in Yorkville/Upper East Side
The Cooper-Hewitt Museum at 2 East 91st Street
The Jewish Museum at 1109 Fifth Avenue
The Guggenheim Museum at 1071 Fifth Avenue
The Neue Gallery of Art at 1048 Fifth Avenue
The Ukraine Institute of America at 2 East 79th Street
At 91st and 5th Avenue along the wall of Central Park is a memorial to W.T. Stead, a journalist who died in the Titanic. He was a English journalist best known for being an investigative journalist, better known as a gossip columnist. The funny part of his going down in the Titanic is that he had written that he might die in a drowning and wrote two fictional articles before the tragedy about ships colliding at sea and another about a ship that sinks without enough life boats to save everyone. Maybe he just saw his fate. He was into spiritualism, which was fashionable at the time and maybe someone hinted to him.
Mr. Stead’s memorial is one of many that line Central Park that most people don’t even notice. The park is loaded with statues and memorials that most New Yorkers just pass by without a moment’s notice. It makes one wonder why they would put this here. The memorial was designed by artist George William Frampton with the marble sculpture designed by architects Carrere & Hastings, a firm known for their Beaux Arts style.
George William Frampton is a British artist who came from a family of stone carvings who studied at the Lambeth School of Art and the Royal Academy of School. He believed in dynamism and physical realism in sculpture. His most famous work was “Peter Pan” in Picadilly Square in London (Royal Academy of Art/Wiki).
There are glorious views of the reservoir at 90th Street and 5th Avenue that you should not miss. Just walking in the park to see the gardens is worth the trip inside Central Park. Most of the gardens are still in bloom and the park is loaded with tourists milling around the waterfront.
The entrance to the Central Park Reservoir
The Memorial Dedicated to Mayor John Purroy Mitchel in the front of the entrance to the reservoir
The Mitchel Memorial Committee retained architects Thomas Hastings and Don Barber to design the expansive granite stele and commissioned German-born sculptor Adolph Alexander Weinman to design the gilded bronze portrait bust of Mitchel (NYCParks.org).
Artist Adolph Alexander Weinman was a German born American artist who studied at Copper Union and the Arts Student League of New York. He was known for his famous sculptures around the United States (Wiki)
Mayor John Purroy Mitchel, the 95th Mayor of New York City (1914-1917)
Walking up 5th Avenue along the park at 96th and 5th Avenue, there is a statue of Albert Bertel Thorvaldsen in a small enclosure on the edge of the park before you enter it. This bronze, life-sized sculpture is a self-portrait of the esteemed Danish sculptor and was dedicated in Central Park in 1894. It is the only statue of an artist displayed in the parks of New York City and honors a titan in his field who had broad influence in sustaining the classical tradition in art. This statute is a bronze version of the original that’s located in Copenhagen (NYC Parks Department-Central Park/Wiki).
As I was walking across 96th Street to finish the upper part of the neighborhood, I had a sudden craving for a sandwich and walked up to Moe’s Grocery Inc. at 1968 Third Avenue, which I had eaten in before (See review on TripAdvisor & my blog, ‘DiningonaShoeStringinNYC@Wordpress.com’). They have the best special, a chopped cheese on a hoagie roll and a Coke for $3.00. Ever on the budget, their chopped cheese rivals Haiji’s (Blue Sky Deli) up on 110th Street.
Moe’s Grocery (now called Third Avenue Deli/Grocery) at 1968 Third Avenue in East Harlem, the best lunch specials
I thought I had asked for lettuce and tomato on the sandwich so add another $1.50 to it but when I sat down to eat it at the park at 96th Street, they were not on it. I was a little pissed at paying for something I did not get but the sandwich was so good, I did not mind. It is worth the walk up a few extra blocks to 108th Street for the sandwich. You will also see the distinction of the neighborhoods just by crossing 98th Street (See the previous walk in East Harlem). The sandwich is so loaded with beef and gooey cheese that it makes the nicest meal during this long walk and nothing is better than a Coke on a hot day.
The Third Avenue Deli’s Chopped Cheese is excellent.
I ended this part of the walk by rounding East End Avenue and relaxing at Carl Schurz Park, which is a true delight. What a beautifully landscaped park with paths of picturesque gardens and statues and active playgrounds with screaming children.
The gardens in bloom in the park
The nice part is the bathrooms here are decent and you have a working water fountain, with lots of cold water. It was fun to explore the paths going up and down the landscaped paths.
Carl Schulz Park at East 86th Street and East End Avenue
Security is heavy at the northern part of the park where Gracie Mansion is located, the mayor’s residence. There are NYPD cars all over the place so try not to dwell too long in this area not to get the attention of the police officers. You can’t even see the mansion anymore because of the fencing around the house. This was the former summer residence of Archibald Gracie, a well-known Scottish born, American merchant, who was partners with Alexander Hamilton.
Gracie Mansion in Carl Schulz Park in the summer of 2025
He built the house in 1798 as a summer home and entertained the elite at that time in Manhattan, including John Quincy Adams. Gracie’s daughter Eliza Gracie-King was one of the great social leaders at the time until Mrs. Astor took the throne during the ‘Gilded Age’. The house was sold in 1823 to pay off debts owed by Mr. Gracie and it was bought by New York City in 1896 due to back taxes by the then owners.
The Gracie Mansion Gardens
It has been used as a concession stand for the park as well as the first home of the Museum of the City of New York. In 1942, the house was renovated and became the residence of Florio LaGuardia, the Mayor of New York and thus became the residence of future New York City mayors NYC Parks Department).
I had taken a tour of the mansion years earlier with the Cornell and Harvard Clubs when we had a historical tea at the house. Mayor Bloomberg did not live in the house at the time, so it was used primarily for entertaining. We had a wonderful afternoon tea at the at the house and then a formal tour of the public rooms and gardens. It has the most amazing views of ‘Hell Gate’, a bend in the river along the esplanade, that has some of the roughest waters in the East River. The house does get a nice breeze.
The inside of the Susan Wagner Ballroom
The Bayard Mantle in the Susan Wagner Ballroom
After a long rest on the benches outside the park, I walked over to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to spend the rest of the evening. The Met, as it’s called, is open until 9:00pm on Fridays and Saturdays, so you get to listen to the music in ‘The Balcony’ restaurant or just tour the galleries.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art at 1000 Fifth Avenue
It gave me a chance to see the Greek Galleries again and walk around the Central American exhibitions. It is so nice to walk in the galleries when it is not busy. It was a nice way to end the evening.
Open: Sunday 11:00am-5:00pm/Monday 11:00am-6:00pm/ Tuesday and Wednesday Closed/Thursday-Saturday 11:00am-6:00pm
Café and Shops have various hours. Please check the website for these.
Fee: General $22.00/Seniors (65 and Older) $16.00/Students and Educators $12.00/Children under 12 are not admitted and Children under 16 years old must be accompanied by an adult. The museum is open on First Fridays from 6:00pm-9:00pm. Please visit the website for more information.
I took some time before I start the next section of the walk to travel to Brooklyn to the Brooklyn Botanical Garden (See reviews on TripAdvisor and my blog ‘VisitingaMuseum’). I have been a member for over a decade and I am glad that my donation helps support the gardens. It is so much fun to walk around these beautiful individual gardens.
In 2017, I got to Brooklyn too late to visit the zoo or the Brooklyn Museum, so I took a walk to my favorite pizzeria in the area, Family Pizza at 720 Flatbush Avenue in Flatbush (See review on TripAdvisor). Their pizza is amazing and if you are in the area, walk down Flatbush Avenue for a slice. Even at the $2.75 price per slice, it is still great pizza. The sauce is so delicious and really makes their pizza.
Family Pizza on Flatbush Avenue at 720 Flatbush Avenue
I have never seen a neighborhood change so fast. It is going from a West Indian and Caribbean Black neighborhood to hipster central. I have never seen a place change so much in an eight month period. Every time I walk down this street, it looks like another ten businesses have left and the ‘for rent’ signs keep going up. All the local businesses are being replaced by all the frou-frou restaurants and shops that cater to the hipsters.
The Cheese Pizza at Family Pizza is excellent.
As all the new buildings keep going up all over the Flatbush Avenue and the surrounding streets, all the businesses that surround them change as well. Even some of the small local businesses have been smart and upgraded their stores. I passed a Jamaican bakery that had been opened for years is completely renovated. It still looks the same outside, but they have upgraded as the neighborhood has changed. On the five blocks to the pizzeria, I counted at the least ten businesses that have left and some have been replaced with new restaurants and shops.
I decided to look it up and the head of the Merchant’s Association said that there were 22 businesses that were closed now and they were not being filled so fast. The ones that are being filled are opening expensive restaurants with things like $12.00 hamburgers and $20.00 pizza when the restaurants in the are that are left are serving food that is just as good for half the price. This was the difference between Family Pizza, where I ate tonight and the fancy pizzeria that opened directly across the street with the same pizza for double the price. Pretty place in comparison but still at the end of the day it is pizza.
After my walk down Flatbush Avenue and dinner, I walked back up to the Gardens. The movie tonight was the ‘Fabulous Mr. Fox’, voiced by George Clooney and Merle Streep. It was not too fabulous. In fact, I found the movie boring and sending the wrong message to kids. That’s the reason why it was a big flop at the box office (I could not believe I stayed for the whole thing but I wanted to see how it ended).
With a former line up of the ‘Wizard of Oz’, ‘The Goonies’, ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’ and ‘E.T’., they could have picked another classic live-action film like ‘The Parent Trap’ or ‘Freaky Friday’. They even cut out the free popcorn that they have every year. I could tell someone new was running it.
The best was when they showed “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
Still the gardens were in bloom, and it was a beautiful warm, non-muggy night (79 degrees) to sit on the lawn and enjoy the film. The place is testament to families as it is like a step back into the 70’s with kids running around in their bare feet, parents talking to their neighbors and people from the same buildings socializing with one another.
The beautiful trellis in the gardens
It was nice to walk around the Crawford Rose Garden and some of the roses were coming back in bloom and the Japanese Garden was in full form. I had not been there since the Cherry Blossom Festival in April. I had missed a few of the events because of work but still the Gardens are going through a renovation and the new Water Garden is being expanded. If you live anywhere in the surrounding area, this is one membership you want to have in your collection of museums and parks.
Brooklyn Botanical Garden
It is one of those membership perks that I really enjoy and to come in all the way from New Jersey after work says something. It’s a great neighborhood to explore that is now constantly changing. It’s just nice to be outside under the stars watching a film on a warm summer night.
The Members Movie Night in 2022:
This was the first time we had a ‘Members Movie Night” since the pandemic started. They had to cancel the one in 2019 because of rain twice and not running it and in the summers of 2020 and 2021 due to COVID. It had been a real bummer but then I got the email that they were running it again in 2022.
The Cherry Blossom Lawn during the summer months
I got to the gardens in the latter afternoon after work and I wanted to order dinner to take in the gardens since we could picnic on the lawns before the film. I was starved so I went to Banh Mi Place at 824b Washington Avenue.
Banh Mi Place at 824b Washington Avenue in Brooklyn
I love the Banh Mi sandwiches here and I ordered the Pork Chop Banh Mi ($8.95). The sandwich was excellent. The marinated pork had so much flavor to it and the vegetables were so crisp and fresh that I love the quality of their sandwiches. I took my sandwich and my blanket and made my way to one of the back lawns of the gardens where other members were eating with their family and friends. It was a low 80-degree night and people were enjoying the sunshine and the cool breezes.
The Banh Mi Sandwich is excellent
Their sandwiches are excellent
After dinner, I walked more around the fountains and pools by the restaurant and the indoor exhibitions of the gardens and looked at the lotuses that were in bloom in the pools. There was a lot of plants that were in bloom this late in the summer and the whole garden had such a colorful appearance. In these post COVID times, it was nice to just walk around the park and enjoy the environment. After dinner and my walk around the gardens, I made my way to the Cherry Blossom lawn where the movie was being shown.
The Cranford Rose Garden
The movie this year was “Encanto”, which was an interesting live action movie, but it was hard to hear the film and it was more of a children’s film than one for adults. I ended up leaving early and as I left, I saw about fifty other people leaving the garden early as well. I guess like myself people did not want to be caught up in the crowd.
The Member’s Movie Night in 2024:
I had just been to the Dutchess County Fair the night before with my friend, Maricel and had to travel home after breakfast. Thank God that we went on a Tuesday night as it was all locals at the fair and it was not that crowded. I got home in time to go through my mail and emails and then turn around and run to Brooklyn. This whole week was about running around. With school starting in two weeks, I have a lot to accomplish.
I got into Brooklyn by 3:00pm and started my day at the Brooklyn Museum. Since the exhibition that I had wanted to see had just closed, I walked around the Egyptian Galleries and admired the art. After about an hour of touring around, I wanted to tour the gardens before it got too dark to take pictures. Talk about a spectacular evening with lots of sunlight.
I got a sandwich at 840 United Deli #1 at 840 Washington Street. I had stopped there once before for lunch and remembered their sandwiches being really good. I got their All American Hero which was Hot Turkey, Pastrami and Swiss Cheese tucked into a chewy fresh bun. Talk about the perfect choice on a cool night.
The All-American hero for dinner that evening was made with Hot Turkey and Pastrami with Swiss Cheese, Mustard and Mayo. What a great sandwich!
The hurricane had just passed by us a few night’s earlier and had cooled the weather down. Even the night at the fair had gone down into the 70’s. I had to wear a sweatshirt the night of the movie.
Entering the Brooklyn Botanic Garden on Movie Night
Entering the Gardens from the Main Entrance on Movie Night
The gardens were just spectacular the night of the movie. There was no one distinct flower blooming but many were and there were colorful blooms all over the gardens. I wondered through the gardens before it got dark (the movie would not start until 7:45pm at twilight) so I got a chance to walk through the entire set of gardens before the movie. I was able to snap pictures and just enjoy the late summer meeting. I joined the other members on the Cherry Tree Esplanade for picnicking. God that sandwich was good!
The Water Garden on Movie Night
The Water Garden on Movie Night
The Water Garden on Movie Night
The Water Garden on Movie Night
The Water Garden on Movie Night
The Water Garden on Movie Night
The Rock Garden on Movie Night
The Rock Garden on Movie Night
The Lotus Pools on Movie Night
The Lotus Pools on Movie Night
The Lotus Pools Gardens on Movie Night
The Lotus Garden Pools on Movie Night
It was quite a crowd that August evening. I don’t get it as I am always the one the little kids seem to run around as they chase each other all over the lawn.
People were starting to picnic at 6:00pm in the Cherry Blossom Esplanade
The trailer for “A Bugs Life” from 1998
Everyone picnicking and getting ready for the film to start
The crowds grew as everyone got ready for the film to start
All the members relaxing and watching “A Bugs Life” on the big screen. I ended up really enjoying the film
It got easier to watch the film as it got darker
It got really dark by the end of the film
It was just nice to be in the gardens again and to tour the different sections in bloom. This is what it was all about. Just relaxing! The Movie Night is a favorite evening event of the membership and the lawns are completely filled that evening as well as the gardens are busy all day.
We had the first Solar Eclipse travel across the United States since 1979 and at first, most people did not make a fuss over it but as the time approached, everyone started to ‘freak out’ that they must see it. I just wanted to avoid New York City that day and see it somewhere else.
I had a member’s invitation to see it at the American Museum of Natural History, but I wanted to avoid the city today and that museum as I knew it was going to be packed and we would all be shoved into Rose Hall where the planetarium was located. It was not that I thought it would be done wrong, but I did not want to deal with the crowds at the AMNH.
At the last minute, the Newark Museum in Newark, NJ (See review on TripAdvisor and my blog “VisitingaMuseum”) had a special function for the day where you could get the eclipse glasses and see the show. They did not know what they were in for as the crowd at the museum swelled into over 500 people. They did not have enough of anything for all the people that came. The line was still going on when I got to the front of the line. They ran out of glasses when I got there but they provided me with a ‘pin-hole’ paper so that I could see the eclipse though the hole. I was lucky people were willing to share their glasses.
In New Jersey, we were so far from the path of the moon that we only got to see about 75% covering of the sun, so it was still bright out by us. So, you really needed the glasses. It was so interesting to see the moon cover the sun and it moved ever so slowly. The display started at around 2:45pm EST and like I said you would never know it was happening because of the light of the sun. Some people said they noticed the difference, but I didn’t see or feel anything different.
Horizon Plaza and the Garden area were mobbed with people from 2:45pm to about 3:30pm and they had the path of the sun and moon on TV on live stream inside the museum at the auditorium. I swear, the dopey things people will say on camera just to be on TV.
What the Eclipse looked like down South where the eye of it was
The reporters didn’t even know what to ask once it was over. Some people really got into it and most seemed to care less. I thought it was interesting to see this cosmic display. When it happened in 1979, I was in high school and I don’t even remember anyone talking about and thinking back to it, I think it was a cloudy day that afternoon.
This is a documentary by NASA
I left around 4:00pm when the path crossed, and people got tired looking up. I could also feel the strain on my eyes. The nice part was I took the bus from home and did not have to tackle their parking lot. Lunch was at Central Restaurant, 30 Central Avenue, Downtown Newark, for an amazing meal (See review on TripAdvisor and my blog ‘DiningonaShoeStringinNYC’).
Central Restaurant at 30 Central Avenue in Newark, NJ
The next time this will happen will be in 2024 so we have some time and will travel from Texas to Maine. So maybe we will get a better view next time. Otherwise, I thought it was pretty awesome.
Places to Visit:
The Newark Museum
49 Washington Street
Newark, NJ 07102
(973) 596-6550
Open: Wednesday-Sunday 12:00pm-5:00pm/Closed Monday and Tuesday
mywalkinmanhattan 