Hello from New York City (6) - Checking out (somewhat desolate)
Coney Island
So I am sitting here back in my office and I want to bring our
last 2 days in New York City to paper. Considering that the
weather forecast for Saturday was pretty bad (rain and maximum
temperatures of 13 degrees C), the day turned out much nicer
than expected.
Surrounded mostly by Caribbean retail outlets, we got a
headstart by walking down Flatbush Avenue in the heart of
Brooklyn. At Avenue U we grabbed a bus to the west end of Coney
Island and started walking along the boardwalk.
When you come from Toronto you associate the term "Boardwalk"
with a nice upscale residential neighbourhood, mature trees,
manicured lawns, Victorian houses, well maintained playgrounds,
tennis clubs etc. Well, the boardwalk in Coney Island is just a
little different.
Essentially it is a very wide beach with a wooden boardwalk,
made up of 5 sections of wooden planks laid down in a different
orientation, probably 15 to 20 m wide, that is surrounded by a
large number of low rental apartment buildings. There are huge
parking lots for school buses, and all the buildings are closed
off with high fences so residents and visitors only have access
through the main streets to get to the boardwalk.
Then you reach the main drag around Key Span Park, home to the
Brooklyn Cyclones minor league baseball team. Just a bit further
east is the Astroland Amusement Park where the more than 75
years old "Cyclone" roller coaster is still giving kids a
thrill. Right in front of it are a few huts with food, including
the famous "Nathan's Hot Dogs" ("Since 1916", the taste wasn't
actually as famous as you might think..), and various fast food
and amusement booths ("Shoot The Freak - Live Human Targets"
paintball).
The area to the west of this park had a bit of a desolate feel,
but from the Amusement Park on eastwards towards Brighton Beach
we started to see more pedestrians strolling about, people
sitting down and reading on benches... By this time the weather
had warmed up nicely and the locals were enjoying the outdoors.
We headed up from the Brighton Beach boardwalk into the local
neighbourhood, also called Brighton Beach, or more informally
"Little Odessa", due to the large number of Russian Immigrants.
The stores, delis and hairdressing shops underneath the elevated
subway tracks were humming with shoppers, a very lively
neighbourhood.
Then we decided it was time to explore Harlem. Encouraged by our
Greeter's comments yesterday, we figured Harlem these days was
safe enough to go and explore on our own without any fear for
our safety.
Sure enough, just like moles we popped up at Broadway & 145th
Street and walked all the way south to 103rd Street and Harlem
sure felt pretty much like any other neighbourhood in NYC. The
historic apartment buildings looked like they were in pretty
good shape, the streets were quite clean, lots of local Black
and Latin residents were ambling around on the streets or
hanging out with friends in front of buildings, the whole area
seemed quite well kept and did not have a dangerous or dingy
feel to it. At 3333 Broadway we were awestruck by a public
housing project consisting of 5 huge apartment block towers, up
to 35 stories high, and we tried to figure out just how many
thousands of people would be living in just this one complex.
Along this stretch we actually saw lots of older apartment
towers, but viewed from the street, everything looked pretty
orderly.
Both my husband and I remember New York City very differently.
We had both been there more than 10, 15 years ago, and New York
City had a distinct edge, tons of graffiti, dirty streets with
lots of litter, people occasionally giving you some questionable
looks.
The contrast between then and now is amazing. We have literally
ridden subway trains, buses and ferries all over New York City,
and we were hard pressed to find candy wrappers in any public
vehicles, streets were clean, as a matter of fact we saw tons of
cleaning crews cleaning up street debris. And most importantly,
we always felt safe and comfortable, and we were out sometimes
in public transit until close to midnight.
Now that doesn't mean that crime doesn't exist, as evidenced by
the little incident on the Staten Island bus on Thursday, but
overall, in our opinion at least, New York City seems to have
lost a lot of its grime, dirt and threatening air, and we did
indeed explore huge areas of Queens, Brooklyn, Harlem, Staten
Island and Manhattan, so I figure we have gotten a pretty good
overview.
Further south we checked out the Campus of Columbia University
and had a nice little dinner in a Mexican restaurant on
Broadway, called Nachos. Broadway south of Columbia University
has a very upscale feel to it, with lots of designer store
windows, French-inspired bistros, whole or gourmet food outlets.
Some parts with outdoor patios almost have a Parisian feel to it.
Later that evening at dusk we took a bus down to Columbus Circle
where we were awed by Time Warners Corporate Headquarters, which
are flanked on the right by the glitzy Trump International Hotel
& Tower. Then, after a little walk through southern Central
Park, past the glitzy lit up Tavern on the Green (soups from $15
and up....), we were off to pick up a few souvenirs, and we
finally managed to find the Ed Sullivan Theatre, where David
Letterman entertains his global audience with his late-night
sarcasm and wit. Wading our way through a throng of people
(mostly tourists) we finally got on a subway near Times Square
that was crammed with late night party goers.
About 45 minutes later we plopped into bed, exhausted, from
another day with about 4 to 5 hours of urban trekking.