Other sights in New York City
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Ikea Water Taxi
When in the area it's worth considering hopping on the Ikea water taxi operated by the Swedish furniture store from Pier 11 (six blocks south of South Street Seaport) to its store in Red Hook, Brooklyn. Besides offering the chance to get out on the water and take in breathtaking views of the city, it's free.
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TKTS
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Cage
This park began as a 'potter's field' - a burial ground for the penniless - and its status as a cemetery protected it from development. It is now an incredibly well-used park, especially on the weekend. Children use the playground, NYU students catch some rays and friends meet 'under the arch, ' the recently renovated landmark on the park's northern edge, designed in 1889 by society architect Stanford White. A controversial $16-million renovation plan that some residents feared would reduce the informality and character of the park has meant more symmetry, landscaping and higher fences. The undersized basketball court, the Cage, considered one of the more competitive…
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Agora Gallery
A socially progressive gallery open since the '80s, Agora's big white space features international artists with perspectives on global warming, education, feminism, human rights and other issues. It also hosts the annual Chelsea International Fine Arts competition and publishes ARTis Spectrum magazine. Recent exhibits include an homage to French painters and sculptors like Laurence Brisson and Elisabeth Guerrier, and a look at the vivid works of Ruth Gilmore Langs. Agora also won raves in 2010 for a long-term exhibit of the Lego art of Nathan Sawaya, who constructed life-sized Lego people for his wacky show.
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Statue of Liberty & Ellis Island
She's great, grand and somewhat of a challenge to visit. Lady Liberty, that beacon of freedom, ironically keeps her visitors under tight scrutiny (security checks at boarding points can be long). The good news is that visitors are now able to climb the 300+ stairs - narrow and twisty - into her green crown and stare out across the harbor. Those who want to make the climb have to buy tickets with crown access. Space is tight, and there's a cap on how many crown tickets are sold daily, so advance reservations are a must. Ferries load at Battery Park City in New York and also at Liberty State Park in New Jersey. Adjacent Ellis Island, the second ferry stop, is equally worth…
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White Columns
Geographically, White Columns is part of the Meatpacking District, but aesthetically speaking, it's in Chelsea. The sedate, four-room space has ample installations and exhibits, many of which are by fairly well-known names like Andrew Serrano, Alice Aycock, Lorna Simpson and a White Columns founder, Gordon Matta-Clark. One of its most successful recent installations came from South London's Studio Voltaire, which presented different works all somehow related to the public persona of singer Michael Jackson.
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Puck Building
The southeast corner of Lafayette and Houston Sts is dominated by Albert Wagner's round-arched bit of architectural genius. Wagner designed the building in 1885 as the printing facility for the German-language magazine Puck (now defunct, obviously). The building's dotted with little gold statues – Wagner's version of Puck the fairy – and he's a jolly, round-bellied, top-hatted fellow.
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Viewing Wall
Tourists snapping photos, local office workers on a lunch break, folks who miss loved ones - all mill about before this high viewing wall that wraps around the ever-changing construction site of the former Twin Towers. Photos with accompanying text along the fencelike wall present an eerie and specific timeline of the attacks.
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Christopher Street Piers/Hudson River Park
Like so many places in the Village, the extreme west side was once a derelict eyesore used mostly as a cruising ground for quick, anonymous sex. Now it's a pretty waterside hangout, bisected by the Hudson River Park's slender bike and jogging paths, with great sunset views. It's still a place to cruise; now it's just much less dangerous.
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6th and B Garden
Le Petit Versailles is a unique marriage of a verdant oasis and an electrifying arts organization, offering a range of quirky performances and screenings to the public. The 6 & B Garden is a well-organized space that hosts free music events, workshops and yoga sessions; check the website for details. Three dramatic weeping willows, an odd sight in the city, grace the twin plots of 9th Street Garden and La Plaza Cultural. Also check out the All People’s Garden and Brisas del Caribe, easily located thanks to its surrounding white-picket fence.
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South Street Seaport
This 11-block enclave of shops, piers and sights combines the best and worst in historic preservation. It’s not on the radar for most New Yorkers, but tourists are drawn to the sea air, the nautical feel, the frequent street performers and the mobbed restaurants. Pier 17, beyond the elevated FDR Dr, is a waterfront-development project that’s home to several floors of shops, restaurants and a rare public bathroom – plus the permanent creepy-fascinating ‘Bodies: The Exhibition.’ Clustered around the piers are some genuinely significant 18th- and 19th-century buildings dating from the heyday of this old East River ferry port, which fell into disuse with the building of the…
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Belmont
Belmont, bustling stretches of Arthur and Belmont Aves that burst with Italian gourmet markets and eateries; and a super-sized attitude that's been mythologized in Hollywood movies from The Godfather to Rumble in the Bronx.
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New York City & Company
The Times Square branch of New York City & Company sits smack in the middle of this famous crossroads, inside the beautifully restored landmark Embassy Theater. Broadway, the road, once ran all the way to the state capitol in Albany.
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Bowling Lawns
There are two 15,000-sq-ft bowling lawns – one for croquet and one for lawn bowling, where members of the 80-year-old New York Lawn Bowling Club still mix it up with tournaments from May to October.
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American Museum of the Moving Image
Moviemaking started in Astoria in the 1920s: the American Museum of the Moving Image exposes some of the mysteries of the craft with amazing exhibits and screenings.
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Water Taxi Beach
Bringing summer fun to the city is the Water Taxi Beach, a sandbox for adults, docked on a pier in the East River (another location is in Long Island City, Queens).
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Brooklyn Borough Hall
The 1848 beaux-arts Brooklyn Borough Hall straddles both Brooklyn Heights and downtown Brooklyn, characterized by its various courts.
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Bronx Wildlife Conservation Park
Bronx Wildlife Conservation Park, otherwise known as the Bronx Zoo, is one of the biggest, best and most progressive zoos anywhere.
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Artists Alliance
A nonprofit artists' collective with more than 40 members, Artists Alliance has a rotating list of exhibits and contributors on its website.
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Seneca Village
Marked by a simple plaque, Seneca Village was home to Manhattan's first prominent community of African American property owners (c 1840).
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Ground Zero
The site is as blighted as ever, but signs of progress are finally showing up around the perimeter of Ground Zero.
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Hell's Kitchen
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Madonna’s first New York home
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Chelsea Piers
This massive waterfront sports center caters to the athlete in everyone. You can set out to hit a bucket of golf balls at the four-level driving range, ice skate in the complex’s indoor rink or rent in-line skates to cruise along the new Hudson River Park waterfront bike path – all the way down to Battery Park. There’s a jazzy bowling alley, Hoop City for basketball, a sailing school for kids, batting cages, a huge gym facility with an indoor pool (day passes for nonmembers are $50), indoor rock-climbing walls – the works. There’s even waterfront dining and drinking at the Chelsea Brewing Company, which serves great pub fare and delicious home-brews for you to carb-load…
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Tavern on the Green
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