Journals 1-4
1. Impressions of NYC
Living on Long Island for my entire life, the city was always just a short train or car ride away. Being close to one of the best cities in the world is truly eye opening. I go into the city dozens of times each year and every time you see something new and different. Whether it be different foods, different people, different fashion, or different cultures, you are exposed to all kinds of diversity of the world when you visit New York City.
When I think of the city, I think of Broadway. Ever since I was a little girl my family and I would go see a broadway play one, sometimes two times a year and then go out to dinner. Despite how often i may go to the city, still to this day my favorite time to go to is to go to the theatre. Seeing the playbill awnings up and down on Broadway was always so exciting to see when I was younger. Each theater is different in itself and their architecture all varied and had their unique characteristics. Broadway is such a icon for New York City and with good reason. Also, there are so many delicious restaurants surrounding Broadway that you could walk into any of them and enjoy a great meal. However, my experiences with the city have been limited to museums, Broadway, and nightlife. I would like to learn what more it has to offer and to be able to experience as much as possible. I usually have only taken cabs within the city so I would also like to learn how to navigate getting around the city whether it be walking or taking the subway.
I believe the city to be one of best experiences a person can live. There are so many different things to do and see that you could visit the city every day and never see the same thing twice. I love to visit the city but i could never see myself living there because i believe it to be too busy and too noisy. Everyone is always in a rush in the city and it can be a little overwhelming at times. That's why I am thankful to live close enough that it's easy to visit, yet far enough away where it can't affect you.
Living on Long Island for my entire life, the city was always just a short train or car ride away. Being close to one of the best cities in the world is truly eye opening. I go into the city dozens of times each year and every time you see something new and different. Whether it be different foods, different people, different fashion, or different cultures, you are exposed to all kinds of diversity of the world when you visit New York City.
When I think of the city, I think of Broadway. Ever since I was a little girl my family and I would go see a broadway play one, sometimes two times a year and then go out to dinner. Despite how often i may go to the city, still to this day my favorite time to go to is to go to the theatre. Seeing the playbill awnings up and down on Broadway was always so exciting to see when I was younger. Each theater is different in itself and their architecture all varied and had their unique characteristics. Broadway is such a icon for New York City and with good reason. Also, there are so many delicious restaurants surrounding Broadway that you could walk into any of them and enjoy a great meal. However, my experiences with the city have been limited to museums, Broadway, and nightlife. I would like to learn what more it has to offer and to be able to experience as much as possible. I usually have only taken cabs within the city so I would also like to learn how to navigate getting around the city whether it be walking or taking the subway.
I believe the city to be one of best experiences a person can live. There are so many different things to do and see that you could visit the city every day and never see the same thing twice. I love to visit the city but i could never see myself living there because i believe it to be too busy and too noisy. Everyone is always in a rush in the city and it can be a little overwhelming at times. That's why I am thankful to live close enough that it's easy to visit, yet far enough away where it can't affect you.
2. Queens
On September 6th, our first class for Gotham commenced. We were told that we would be covering and seeing all the great sites that Queens has to offer. If you live on Long Island or in the city, your first reaction is that there are no great sites in Queens because it is not a very nice place. Both my parents grew up in Queens, my father in Bellerose and my mother in Queens Village. I also spent my freshman year of college attending Queens College before I transferred to Molloy so naturally I thought that I knew everything there needed to know about Queens, I was sadly mistaken. After spending the day in Queens, there proves to be a lot of history in that I had previously not known about.
After taking a 10:03 train from Rockville Centre I arrived at Penn Station where the class meets at exactly 11:00 am. It was an extremely hot day with humidity percentages around 90. Our class initially tried to take the E-train from 34th Ave to Roosevelt Ave however, this was not running because it was a Saturday and also because the last weekend of the US Open was going on which proved to be a problem throughout the day. Instead, we took the E-train to west 4th and then the F-train to 42nd, which is Bryant Park. Afterwards we took the “International Express” also known as the elevated 7-train to Willets Point, which is the stop for Citi Field and the US Open stadiums. After getting off at Willets Point we crossed over the bridge to Flushing Meadow Park and stopped at some nearby bleachers to sit and talk for a little and learn about the history of Queens.
The first thing we learned about was why Queens was named. Brooklyn was originally called Kings County and therefore when Queens needed to be named they found it fitting to call them King and Queens County. It was named after Queen Katherine. Queens initially used to be a very rural area until recently and it has been said that if it was its own independent city aside from the city of New York it would be the fourth largest city in the country. In 1898 Queens Brooklyn and Manhattan consolidated to form the City of New York and the 3 boroughs were connected by the Queens Borough Bridge.
As our class is sitting in Flushing Meadow Park we learned that is used to be a garbage dump. I found that hard to believe considering the park was very beautiful in landscape and size. Mike also told us that in the book and movie The Great Gatsby the Flushing Meadow Park were the ash fields that were depicted as they drove from Long Island to Manhattan. I thought this was a very cool reference because it gave me a visual picture of what the park used to be as opposed as to what it is today. Another topic we touched on was Robert Moses and how he is considered to be a villain and a hero. Robert Moses has been considered a hero in 1939 when he cleared away all the garbage in Flushing Meadow Park to create room for the World’s Fair that was to be hosted. Moses is also known to be the “master builder” of some of the highways and parkways that we still use to this day such as the Southern State, Jones Beach, and the Verrazano Bridge. He controlled all the highway funds and wanted to put up highways everywhere all over the city. This makes him both a hero and a villain because he provided roads and bridges for people to travel back and forth easier. However, this makes him a villain because no matter how many highways you put up people will still use them and because of putting in so many highways he over crowded and created the problem or traffic and congestion. If you look throughout Europe, highways are not as common as trains and subways because trains and subways are a more efficient and environmentally safer way to travel. Had Robert Moses mimicked the transportation systems of Europe instead of putting up multiple highways there wouldn’t be as much traffic and congestion that there is today.
After moving on from the bleachers we walked over to the Unisphere before heading into the Queens Museum. The Unisphere is a 24-story tall globe figure that was built for the World’s Fair to represent global interconnecting. It provides the fountains for the US Open and is a beautiful structure. A lot of thought had to go into the creation of it because it is not a solid structure and the weight is not evenly dispersed among the continents therefore, they had to tilt it in order to guarantee that it would not fall over. Next, we moved on to the Queens Museum. Having lived on Long Island my entire life I never knew that a Queens Museum even existed, until that day. The most fascinating part of the museum for me was the panorama of New York City. It is a huge replica of what the city looks like and was created for the World’s Fair to show everyone what the city looked like. Every inch represented a 100 feet in real life. It was amazing to see how the whole city connected together and looked like from an aireal point of view. We got to see all the different bridges that connect one borough from another and I never realized how many bridges our city had. The room that holds the panorama was specifically built to house the structure. My favorite part was the little tiny plane on a wire that would go around every minute and land at LaGuardia airport. I thought that was a unique feature that made the panorama even that more life like. They used to update the structure every couple of years to keep it up to date with current buildings however it got to be too much so they stopped altogether in 1992. You can tell this because the twin towers are still in Manhattan because they did not yet fall after the terrorist attack of 9/11. The panorama also shows you how although Manhattan has more skyscrapers and business, that Brooklyn is actually the most populated borough to live in. This is why there are so many bridges from Brooklyn to Manhattan because the amount of people that commute to work is so many, they needed to accommodate for the mass flux of people.
Next we took the “international express” to Jackson Heights to go to lunch. Jackson Heights is also referred to as little India so for lunch we went to the Jackson Diner which was an all you can eat Indian buffet. I had never tried Indian food before and to be honest I was a little skeptical about whether or not I would like it. I gave it a try and turned out that it wasn’t so bad after all. I personally thought that it tasted like a spicier Chinese food. Afterwards, because of the heat we went around the block to a Baskin Robbins and got some ice cream. Once everyone was done and ready we took the R-train to Steinway St in Astoria. Steinway St. is named after the Steinway family who were famous and known for their magnificent piano building skills. Astoria is named after the Aster family who made their fortune off of the fur trade. Astoria along with Long Island City and Jackson Height were gentrified. Gentrification means that the lower class is taken over by the upper class who come in and buy up all the housing and business’s to make it a more desirable place to live. This is good for the towns because the property value increases yet bad at the same time because the cost of living also goes up and the people who used to live there can no longer afford to do so, so they are forced to move out into western Nassau and Brooklyn. Astoria used to house tons of different movie studios that were used for war propaganda movies. Most of these studios no longer exist today, however, a few still stand. The movie Men ad Black was filmed in Astoria and Queens and it’s cool because if you live in New York you can recognize some of the sights that are in the movie.
Our next and final stop for the day was going to the Museum of Moving Images. The Museum of Moving Images houses the history of film and television. I loved this museum because there were a lot of interactive things that you could pick up and listen to and touch and fool around with. It was not a normal museum where everything was off limits and all you could do was look. I learned that Bugs Bunny became a star during WW2 when his character became a symbol of American heroism. There was also a lot of Robin Williams memorabilia which I found interesting considering Williams passed only a few weeks ago and also because he is one of my favorite actors. The museum showed you how live television works to this day and how there can be 10 different cameras going on and a director sits in front of all the screens and uses a headset to instruct when to cut to different camera angles. Probably one of the most underrated things I learned about was music and how it adds to movies and television. I got to play with a interactive piece that let you watch a scene without any music and then let you add different types of music to see which one fit the scene best. I thought this was interesting because when I hear music in movies I normally don’t think anything of it, yet music adds a big sense of emotion and can completely alter a scene.
Before we ended the day we were suppose to go to Long Island City but did not get a chance because the Subway lines were still messed up and on weekend schedules. We parted ways in Astoria a little earlier than expected. I was a little disappointed that we did not get to see the city skyline from Long Island City but was grateful to end a little early because the heat and humidity definitely took a toll on me for the day. Since I was headed back to Rockville Centre I got on the subway that took me to Jamaica station where I then waited for the Long Island Railroad to take me back home.
I had a tremendous experience walking around Queens learning about the borough I thought I already knew. It was an eye opening experience that you think you know a place until you really visit all the unique and special things it has to offer. I enjoyed myself but I think I would have enjoyed myself more had the weather been not so miserable.
After taking a 10:03 train from Rockville Centre I arrived at Penn Station where the class meets at exactly 11:00 am. It was an extremely hot day with humidity percentages around 90. Our class initially tried to take the E-train from 34th Ave to Roosevelt Ave however, this was not running because it was a Saturday and also because the last weekend of the US Open was going on which proved to be a problem throughout the day. Instead, we took the E-train to west 4th and then the F-train to 42nd, which is Bryant Park. Afterwards we took the “International Express” also known as the elevated 7-train to Willets Point, which is the stop for Citi Field and the US Open stadiums. After getting off at Willets Point we crossed over the bridge to Flushing Meadow Park and stopped at some nearby bleachers to sit and talk for a little and learn about the history of Queens.
The first thing we learned about was why Queens was named. Brooklyn was originally called Kings County and therefore when Queens needed to be named they found it fitting to call them King and Queens County. It was named after Queen Katherine. Queens initially used to be a very rural area until recently and it has been said that if it was its own independent city aside from the city of New York it would be the fourth largest city in the country. In 1898 Queens Brooklyn and Manhattan consolidated to form the City of New York and the 3 boroughs were connected by the Queens Borough Bridge.
As our class is sitting in Flushing Meadow Park we learned that is used to be a garbage dump. I found that hard to believe considering the park was very beautiful in landscape and size. Mike also told us that in the book and movie The Great Gatsby the Flushing Meadow Park were the ash fields that were depicted as they drove from Long Island to Manhattan. I thought this was a very cool reference because it gave me a visual picture of what the park used to be as opposed as to what it is today. Another topic we touched on was Robert Moses and how he is considered to be a villain and a hero. Robert Moses has been considered a hero in 1939 when he cleared away all the garbage in Flushing Meadow Park to create room for the World’s Fair that was to be hosted. Moses is also known to be the “master builder” of some of the highways and parkways that we still use to this day such as the Southern State, Jones Beach, and the Verrazano Bridge. He controlled all the highway funds and wanted to put up highways everywhere all over the city. This makes him both a hero and a villain because he provided roads and bridges for people to travel back and forth easier. However, this makes him a villain because no matter how many highways you put up people will still use them and because of putting in so many highways he over crowded and created the problem or traffic and congestion. If you look throughout Europe, highways are not as common as trains and subways because trains and subways are a more efficient and environmentally safer way to travel. Had Robert Moses mimicked the transportation systems of Europe instead of putting up multiple highways there wouldn’t be as much traffic and congestion that there is today.
After moving on from the bleachers we walked over to the Unisphere before heading into the Queens Museum. The Unisphere is a 24-story tall globe figure that was built for the World’s Fair to represent global interconnecting. It provides the fountains for the US Open and is a beautiful structure. A lot of thought had to go into the creation of it because it is not a solid structure and the weight is not evenly dispersed among the continents therefore, they had to tilt it in order to guarantee that it would not fall over. Next, we moved on to the Queens Museum. Having lived on Long Island my entire life I never knew that a Queens Museum even existed, until that day. The most fascinating part of the museum for me was the panorama of New York City. It is a huge replica of what the city looks like and was created for the World’s Fair to show everyone what the city looked like. Every inch represented a 100 feet in real life. It was amazing to see how the whole city connected together and looked like from an aireal point of view. We got to see all the different bridges that connect one borough from another and I never realized how many bridges our city had. The room that holds the panorama was specifically built to house the structure. My favorite part was the little tiny plane on a wire that would go around every minute and land at LaGuardia airport. I thought that was a unique feature that made the panorama even that more life like. They used to update the structure every couple of years to keep it up to date with current buildings however it got to be too much so they stopped altogether in 1992. You can tell this because the twin towers are still in Manhattan because they did not yet fall after the terrorist attack of 9/11. The panorama also shows you how although Manhattan has more skyscrapers and business, that Brooklyn is actually the most populated borough to live in. This is why there are so many bridges from Brooklyn to Manhattan because the amount of people that commute to work is so many, they needed to accommodate for the mass flux of people.
Next we took the “international express” to Jackson Heights to go to lunch. Jackson Heights is also referred to as little India so for lunch we went to the Jackson Diner which was an all you can eat Indian buffet. I had never tried Indian food before and to be honest I was a little skeptical about whether or not I would like it. I gave it a try and turned out that it wasn’t so bad after all. I personally thought that it tasted like a spicier Chinese food. Afterwards, because of the heat we went around the block to a Baskin Robbins and got some ice cream. Once everyone was done and ready we took the R-train to Steinway St in Astoria. Steinway St. is named after the Steinway family who were famous and known for their magnificent piano building skills. Astoria is named after the Aster family who made their fortune off of the fur trade. Astoria along with Long Island City and Jackson Height were gentrified. Gentrification means that the lower class is taken over by the upper class who come in and buy up all the housing and business’s to make it a more desirable place to live. This is good for the towns because the property value increases yet bad at the same time because the cost of living also goes up and the people who used to live there can no longer afford to do so, so they are forced to move out into western Nassau and Brooklyn. Astoria used to house tons of different movie studios that were used for war propaganda movies. Most of these studios no longer exist today, however, a few still stand. The movie Men ad Black was filmed in Astoria and Queens and it’s cool because if you live in New York you can recognize some of the sights that are in the movie.
Our next and final stop for the day was going to the Museum of Moving Images. The Museum of Moving Images houses the history of film and television. I loved this museum because there were a lot of interactive things that you could pick up and listen to and touch and fool around with. It was not a normal museum where everything was off limits and all you could do was look. I learned that Bugs Bunny became a star during WW2 when his character became a symbol of American heroism. There was also a lot of Robin Williams memorabilia which I found interesting considering Williams passed only a few weeks ago and also because he is one of my favorite actors. The museum showed you how live television works to this day and how there can be 10 different cameras going on and a director sits in front of all the screens and uses a headset to instruct when to cut to different camera angles. Probably one of the most underrated things I learned about was music and how it adds to movies and television. I got to play with a interactive piece that let you watch a scene without any music and then let you add different types of music to see which one fit the scene best. I thought this was interesting because when I hear music in movies I normally don’t think anything of it, yet music adds a big sense of emotion and can completely alter a scene.
Before we ended the day we were suppose to go to Long Island City but did not get a chance because the Subway lines were still messed up and on weekend schedules. We parted ways in Astoria a little earlier than expected. I was a little disappointed that we did not get to see the city skyline from Long Island City but was grateful to end a little early because the heat and humidity definitely took a toll on me for the day. Since I was headed back to Rockville Centre I got on the subway that took me to Jamaica station where I then waited for the Long Island Railroad to take me back home.
I had a tremendous experience walking around Queens learning about the borough I thought I already knew. It was an eye opening experience that you think you know a place until you really visit all the unique and special things it has to offer. I enjoyed myself but I think I would have enjoyed myself more had the weather been not so miserable.
3. Brooklyn
On September 13 I took the 10:03 train from Rockville Centre to Penn Station. It was a cool day out because it was suppose to rain in the afternoon. When we first met at Penn Station Mike informed us that we would not be going to Coney Island that day because if it did rain it would take us very far out of the way just to come right back. I was disappointed about this because my dad is an avid handball player and would bring us there all the time. I love Coney Island because there are so many diverse types of people and attractions to see that it usually provides for a good time. Instead he told us we would be going to the Brooklyn Heights sections.
We started off in Manhattan and walked over the Brooklyn Bridge into Brooklyn. The Brooklyn Bridge was completed in 1883 and to this day is the oldest suspension bridge in the country. It is a tremendous bridge that is 1.1 miles in length that has a walkway suspended over the car lanes underneath. When construction originally started it was under the direction of John Roebling, a German immigrant. However, when John got injured and died he left the plans to his son Washington. A lot of the bridge workers would end up sick or dying due to the decompression of working under sea and coming up too quick, in total 27 men died. Therefore the construction had to be passed off for a third time onto Washington’s wife Emily. Back then it was very uncommon for a woman to be in charge of workingmen especially construction workers so this was a very historic moment. After 14 years the bridge was completed, it took 600 workers and cost 15 million dollars, which in today’s economy would cost 320 million dollars. I loved walking over the Brooklyn Bridge. It was a great experience because you got the feeling of walking over water and cars at the same time. It was perfect walking weather because it was nice and cool. There were a lot of people walking and running and biking over the bridge so you could tell it is a very common thing for people to use on a daily basis. One of my favorite parts about the bridge was all the locks that people had locked onto the fences of the bridge. They had initials and names engraved on them along with people writing their names on the beams. Meghan, Taylor and I all wrote our names in sharpie on one of the beams. I had seen this same thing when I was in Europe this summer so I thought it was cool that it is a universal thing to do. The Brooklyn Bridge was a positive aspect to commuting because before the bridge if you wanted to get from Brooklyn to Manhattan, you had to take a ferry or boat and if the weather was bad or it was over crowded it forced a lot of people to miss out on work. Right before we walked over the bridge, Mike talked about the different types of architecture that we would see throughout the day. These different types were neogothic, neoclassical, Greek revival, and Bozart. Neogothic resembled the middle ages with its arches; neoclassical resembled ancient Rome with their columns, Greek revival resembled ancient Greece with their simple columns and lavish curls at the top.
Once we got off the Brooklyn Bridge we walked into the Dumbo area of Brooklyn. Dumbo is right under the Manhattan Bridge and holds lots of large studio apartments. Because of these apartments it started to attract artists and gays to move in. once the gays and artists moved in a lot more coffee shops and wine bars started to appear. We stopped and got ice cream at a local ice cream shop and I got a scoop of vanilla ice cream in between two chocolate chip cookies. The ice cream was really good but the cookies were a little too cold for me to enjoy. Next we walked down to the water and we got to see all 3 bridges that connect Brooklyn to Manhattan. These included the Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Williamsburg bridges. I thought this was an incredible view because we also got to see the New York City skyline. While we were right by the water we got to witness the famous carousel. The carousel is considered to be Mayor Bloomberg crown jewel that he would never think of getting rid of. It was a beautiful carousel and I got to see a lot of younger children ride it.
After we got to take some pictures and look around we walked to the Brooklyn Heights area. It is called Brooklyn Heights because it is higher than the level of Manhattan and Brooklyn. We stopped at a brownstone and got to learn about how the brownstones were specially made from materials that were brought in from Connecticut. The brownstones were mimicked after Dutch homes because they had raised stoops to enter the house. This was because the set up of the house usually consisted of the kitchen being downstairs, the first floor was the parlor and sitting area, and the second floor were for the bedrooms, and the top floors were for the servants. Today these brownstones are worth millions upon millions of dollars. We walked around a few streets and got to see the different architecture of the apartment buildings and churches before we made our way to the Brooklyn Promenade. One of the churches we stopped to look at was the Plymouth Church of the Pilgrims. We stopped at this specific church because it was known to be an old abolitionist church where people helped black people escape from slavery back in the 1800’s. I thought the Promenade was so fascinating! They had so many different sports complexes that the public could use such as basketball courts, soccer fields, and bike riding spaces. A lot was still under construction so it wasn’t the prettiest place to be but nothing could beat the view. You got a perfect view of the skyline of the city right on the water, you also got to see the Statue of Liberty and boats that were coming and going. It was truly a beautiful sight to walk.
At this time, it was around 2 o’clock so we were allowed to stop for one hour and get lunch on Court Street. There were so many places to choose from but ultimately few people from class and myself ended up choosing Chipotle. I get Chipotle all the time so it was nothing new to me but what was different was the difference in prices. Brooklyn and city real estate is a lot more expensive than Long Island therefore they need to make their prices higher in order to compensate for the rent. So a lunch that normally would only cost me around $12 ended up costing me closer to $17.
After lunch we went to the Brooklyn Historical Society Museum. It was a very large building that you could tell had not been altered since the 1800’s. On the outside the faces of Columbus, Gutenberg, Beethoven, and Ben Franklin were on top. These men did not have much to do with Brooklyn however, the founders wanted to show off how cultured they were to the outside world by putting famous men on top of their building. It had started to rain at this time so it was good timing to be inside touring. We had a tour guide that took us around the museum and told us about all the important things that Brooklyn had to offer. My favorite part was the library. I love reading, it is one of my favorite past times and to see the size and beauty of this library was awe-inspiring. The guide informed us that you didn’t need to be a member in order to use the library and that you could come in any time you wanted and use the facilities. Which made me think that I might go back there one day if I’m in the neighborhood again to visit and see what books they have to offer. There were some nice architectural aspects to the museum however, our guide was extremely monotone and it was hard to stay interested in what she was saying at all.
After the historical society museum the majority of the class was very tired and depleted so Mike decided to let us go a little early. From Brooklyn we got on the subway and took it back to Penn Station where at that time I got on the Long Island Railroad, which brought me back to Rockville Centre.
All in all I enjoyed touring Brooklyn. Many of my friends who talk about moving into the city wish to live in Brooklyn. Me personally, I do not think I would like to live in the city area because it is just too crowded and fast for my liking. It was a nice snapshot of what life would be like if I did live there though. Brooklyn had a lot of great things to offer and I know I will definitely be visiting more often.
We started off in Manhattan and walked over the Brooklyn Bridge into Brooklyn. The Brooklyn Bridge was completed in 1883 and to this day is the oldest suspension bridge in the country. It is a tremendous bridge that is 1.1 miles in length that has a walkway suspended over the car lanes underneath. When construction originally started it was under the direction of John Roebling, a German immigrant. However, when John got injured and died he left the plans to his son Washington. A lot of the bridge workers would end up sick or dying due to the decompression of working under sea and coming up too quick, in total 27 men died. Therefore the construction had to be passed off for a third time onto Washington’s wife Emily. Back then it was very uncommon for a woman to be in charge of workingmen especially construction workers so this was a very historic moment. After 14 years the bridge was completed, it took 600 workers and cost 15 million dollars, which in today’s economy would cost 320 million dollars. I loved walking over the Brooklyn Bridge. It was a great experience because you got the feeling of walking over water and cars at the same time. It was perfect walking weather because it was nice and cool. There were a lot of people walking and running and biking over the bridge so you could tell it is a very common thing for people to use on a daily basis. One of my favorite parts about the bridge was all the locks that people had locked onto the fences of the bridge. They had initials and names engraved on them along with people writing their names on the beams. Meghan, Taylor and I all wrote our names in sharpie on one of the beams. I had seen this same thing when I was in Europe this summer so I thought it was cool that it is a universal thing to do. The Brooklyn Bridge was a positive aspect to commuting because before the bridge if you wanted to get from Brooklyn to Manhattan, you had to take a ferry or boat and if the weather was bad or it was over crowded it forced a lot of people to miss out on work. Right before we walked over the bridge, Mike talked about the different types of architecture that we would see throughout the day. These different types were neogothic, neoclassical, Greek revival, and Bozart. Neogothic resembled the middle ages with its arches; neoclassical resembled ancient Rome with their columns, Greek revival resembled ancient Greece with their simple columns and lavish curls at the top.
Once we got off the Brooklyn Bridge we walked into the Dumbo area of Brooklyn. Dumbo is right under the Manhattan Bridge and holds lots of large studio apartments. Because of these apartments it started to attract artists and gays to move in. once the gays and artists moved in a lot more coffee shops and wine bars started to appear. We stopped and got ice cream at a local ice cream shop and I got a scoop of vanilla ice cream in between two chocolate chip cookies. The ice cream was really good but the cookies were a little too cold for me to enjoy. Next we walked down to the water and we got to see all 3 bridges that connect Brooklyn to Manhattan. These included the Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Williamsburg bridges. I thought this was an incredible view because we also got to see the New York City skyline. While we were right by the water we got to witness the famous carousel. The carousel is considered to be Mayor Bloomberg crown jewel that he would never think of getting rid of. It was a beautiful carousel and I got to see a lot of younger children ride it.
After we got to take some pictures and look around we walked to the Brooklyn Heights area. It is called Brooklyn Heights because it is higher than the level of Manhattan and Brooklyn. We stopped at a brownstone and got to learn about how the brownstones were specially made from materials that were brought in from Connecticut. The brownstones were mimicked after Dutch homes because they had raised stoops to enter the house. This was because the set up of the house usually consisted of the kitchen being downstairs, the first floor was the parlor and sitting area, and the second floor were for the bedrooms, and the top floors were for the servants. Today these brownstones are worth millions upon millions of dollars. We walked around a few streets and got to see the different architecture of the apartment buildings and churches before we made our way to the Brooklyn Promenade. One of the churches we stopped to look at was the Plymouth Church of the Pilgrims. We stopped at this specific church because it was known to be an old abolitionist church where people helped black people escape from slavery back in the 1800’s. I thought the Promenade was so fascinating! They had so many different sports complexes that the public could use such as basketball courts, soccer fields, and bike riding spaces. A lot was still under construction so it wasn’t the prettiest place to be but nothing could beat the view. You got a perfect view of the skyline of the city right on the water, you also got to see the Statue of Liberty and boats that were coming and going. It was truly a beautiful sight to walk.
At this time, it was around 2 o’clock so we were allowed to stop for one hour and get lunch on Court Street. There were so many places to choose from but ultimately few people from class and myself ended up choosing Chipotle. I get Chipotle all the time so it was nothing new to me but what was different was the difference in prices. Brooklyn and city real estate is a lot more expensive than Long Island therefore they need to make their prices higher in order to compensate for the rent. So a lunch that normally would only cost me around $12 ended up costing me closer to $17.
After lunch we went to the Brooklyn Historical Society Museum. It was a very large building that you could tell had not been altered since the 1800’s. On the outside the faces of Columbus, Gutenberg, Beethoven, and Ben Franklin were on top. These men did not have much to do with Brooklyn however, the founders wanted to show off how cultured they were to the outside world by putting famous men on top of their building. It had started to rain at this time so it was good timing to be inside touring. We had a tour guide that took us around the museum and told us about all the important things that Brooklyn had to offer. My favorite part was the library. I love reading, it is one of my favorite past times and to see the size and beauty of this library was awe-inspiring. The guide informed us that you didn’t need to be a member in order to use the library and that you could come in any time you wanted and use the facilities. Which made me think that I might go back there one day if I’m in the neighborhood again to visit and see what books they have to offer. There were some nice architectural aspects to the museum however, our guide was extremely monotone and it was hard to stay interested in what she was saying at all.
After the historical society museum the majority of the class was very tired and depleted so Mike decided to let us go a little early. From Brooklyn we got on the subway and took it back to Penn Station where at that time I got on the Long Island Railroad, which brought me back to Rockville Centre.
All in all I enjoyed touring Brooklyn. Many of my friends who talk about moving into the city wish to live in Brooklyn. Me personally, I do not think I would like to live in the city area because it is just too crowded and fast for my liking. It was a nice snapshot of what life would be like if I did live there though. Brooklyn had a lot of great things to offer and I know I will definitely be visiting more often.
4. The Village
The morning of September 20th was just like the previous two in that I took the 10:03 train from Rockville Centre to Penn Station. Once the class met at our usual spot we were told that we were going to Chelsea and the villages today. He had informed us that today was going to be the longest walking day because there was no subways that we were going to take and that we were going to be walking everywhere we went. We had perfect weather for walking because it was 70 degrees out and sunny. Once we left Penn Station we went outside and looked across the street at the United States Post Office. The post office had big neoclassical columns that was massive in structure. Mike referred to Penn Station as “a piece of shit” because it is so modern and urban and ugly as opposed to the beautiful structure of the post office.
We walked down a few blocks before we stopped to talk a little bit. We were given the game plan of where we were going for the day and learned about Chelsea before exploring it. Like the Dumbo Brooklyn area a lot of artists and gay people moved to Chelsea and spruced up the town and now it is a very desirable place to live. Before we got to Chelsea though we walked over the High Line. The High Line used to be an old subway line that they converted into a walking path full of gardens. Due to the nice weather and weekend aspect, it was extremely crowded so we only walked a few blocks before we got off. Chelsea is very exclusive and trendy due to the artistic feature and that was visible walking up and down the streets and peeking into the galleries. The Chelsea art district has very large modern galleries and we got the opportunity to walk into some of them and observe the art. The art I guess is considered contemporary because it was unique and different than just paintings and drawings. A lot of them had more sculptures and abstract figures. The galleries we learned are all privately owned and some of the pieces on sale only start around $100,000. To be honest I wasn’t impressed with any of the art I saw. One of the galleries we went into had drawings that looked like a kindergartener could have drawn. Even the artist had wrote that the drawings were inspired by drawing on his iPad, which just goes to show you that anybody who owns an iPad could have drawn those drawings. Another gallery we went into had these large pieces based on furniture with costume jewelry and birds and windmill fans and anything else you could have found and thrown onto a wall. To me this isn’t art because it is just strange and almost garbage like therefore it is safe to say that I would never pay $100 for this pieces of art let alone $100,000. The only gallery I happened to like was the one that contained the swings. I got to swing on the swings, which I thought was fun and interactive but I didn’t see the special art aspect of it considering every playground in America contains swings.
After Chelsea we continued to walk. We stopped by some nearby apartment buildings and churches and talked about how in the 1920 the entire Chelsea and Village area used to be farmland. It’s hard to believe that only 100 years ago it was farmland due to the massive amount of buildings and shops and business’s that are all located there to this day. We also touched based on the meat packing district. Today the meat packing industry is known for the good clubs and nightlife they have however, not that long ago it was known for prostitution and transvestites. I found this alarming because I go into the meat packing district all the time to go out at night and its very hip and young and I couldn’t imagine it being full of prostitutes and transvestites.
Next we walked to the Jefferson community garden. It was a small little garden that had a market of handmade things that were being sold. Here we learned that the trial of the century took place between a young white woman named Evelyn Nezbieth was raped by an older man who had been accused of raping other woman. It was never disclosed if the sex was consensual or not. Continuing on with our walk we passed by a Greek Revival street called Waverly Place. We also passed Christopher street where we learned was known for gays and right near there was the Stonewall Inn Bar which is still known to this day for their gay attraction nights. This looked like a fun place to be when we passed a movie set or something that was going on. It was full of a lot of young people so I could see how it attracts people to live there.
At this point we broke for an hour for lunch. 10 of us went to a local bar and grill called 1849 to eat. It was a really cool place with old school red velvet couches and older décor. The food was good however, they got my order wrong so I was annoyed by that. Like I had said in my previous journal all the prices in the city are escalated so the cost of lunch was more than I expected to pay.
After lunch we reconvened and walked down a few blocks to Washington Square Park. Mike informed us that Washington Square Park is a safer park where a lot of NYU students go to do homework. Right before you walk into the park you see a 300 year old elm tree where back in revolutionary days they used to hang people from that exact tree. Walking through we got to see some street entertainers and even a wedding! I thought that was the coolest part of the whole day to witness a wedding in the middle of the day. The couple looked to be unique individuals and were completely unphased by the fact that tons of strangers were crowding around to take pictures of them. Unfortunately we didn’t get to spend to much time in the park we just got a sneak peek.
Our next stop was a tour of the Merchant House. The Merchant House was an older Federal style house that is an accurate depiction of what a typical upperclassman house looked like. It was built in 1832 and has yet to be changed since. It is both historic looking on the inside and the outside. There was 5 floors to the house. The basement consisted of the family room and the kitchen, the first floor was the parlor where they would entertain guests, the second floor was the bedrooms of the parents, the third floor held the bedrooms of the children, and the fourth floor was where the servants lived. When I learned that the parents slept in separate bedrooms it surprised me at first but when I thought about it, it made more sense because people were very old school and traditional back then. The tour guide had told us that most the houses built at this time were all built that same and it was said that if you woke up in the middle of the night in someone else’s house, you would be able to navigate your way around because they were all built the same way. My favorite part of the house was the different types of bells the family had. Bells signaled for the servants that the family was awake and ready for breakfast or any other need they desired. They had 3 different types of bells that made 3 different noises that each signaled a different room in the house so they knew who to attend to. I found this very intelligent for their times.
After the Merchant house we continued to walk around and see some more sights and community gardens and parks. I was uninterested in this part because on Long Island we have so many parks and gardens to look at. I can understand that in the city having parks and green life is not common, but I do not find it as interesting as some other things the city has to offer.
We ended off at an ice cream parlor where some of the class got ice cream however, I was still full from lunch so I refrained from getting any. My classmates said it was very delicious though. From there we were told to walk down to pick up the L-train that was not headed to Brooklyn and once on that subway take it to either the 1,2, or 3 trains which would take us back to Penn Station. Me and Taylor got on the L-train but once we were on we realized we didn’t know which stop to get off at to catch the 1,2, or 3 train so we got off at the next stop, ran up to the street and caught a cab to take us back to Penn Station. Taylor had to catch a 6:51 train and I had to catch a 6:57 so we were very pressed for time therefore I didn’t mind paying for a cab. Luckily we both made our trains and I made my way back to Rockville Centre on the Long Island Railroad.
We walked down a few blocks before we stopped to talk a little bit. We were given the game plan of where we were going for the day and learned about Chelsea before exploring it. Like the Dumbo Brooklyn area a lot of artists and gay people moved to Chelsea and spruced up the town and now it is a very desirable place to live. Before we got to Chelsea though we walked over the High Line. The High Line used to be an old subway line that they converted into a walking path full of gardens. Due to the nice weather and weekend aspect, it was extremely crowded so we only walked a few blocks before we got off. Chelsea is very exclusive and trendy due to the artistic feature and that was visible walking up and down the streets and peeking into the galleries. The Chelsea art district has very large modern galleries and we got the opportunity to walk into some of them and observe the art. The art I guess is considered contemporary because it was unique and different than just paintings and drawings. A lot of them had more sculptures and abstract figures. The galleries we learned are all privately owned and some of the pieces on sale only start around $100,000. To be honest I wasn’t impressed with any of the art I saw. One of the galleries we went into had drawings that looked like a kindergartener could have drawn. Even the artist had wrote that the drawings were inspired by drawing on his iPad, which just goes to show you that anybody who owns an iPad could have drawn those drawings. Another gallery we went into had these large pieces based on furniture with costume jewelry and birds and windmill fans and anything else you could have found and thrown onto a wall. To me this isn’t art because it is just strange and almost garbage like therefore it is safe to say that I would never pay $100 for this pieces of art let alone $100,000. The only gallery I happened to like was the one that contained the swings. I got to swing on the swings, which I thought was fun and interactive but I didn’t see the special art aspect of it considering every playground in America contains swings.
After Chelsea we continued to walk. We stopped by some nearby apartment buildings and churches and talked about how in the 1920 the entire Chelsea and Village area used to be farmland. It’s hard to believe that only 100 years ago it was farmland due to the massive amount of buildings and shops and business’s that are all located there to this day. We also touched based on the meat packing district. Today the meat packing industry is known for the good clubs and nightlife they have however, not that long ago it was known for prostitution and transvestites. I found this alarming because I go into the meat packing district all the time to go out at night and its very hip and young and I couldn’t imagine it being full of prostitutes and transvestites.
Next we walked to the Jefferson community garden. It was a small little garden that had a market of handmade things that were being sold. Here we learned that the trial of the century took place between a young white woman named Evelyn Nezbieth was raped by an older man who had been accused of raping other woman. It was never disclosed if the sex was consensual or not. Continuing on with our walk we passed by a Greek Revival street called Waverly Place. We also passed Christopher street where we learned was known for gays and right near there was the Stonewall Inn Bar which is still known to this day for their gay attraction nights. This looked like a fun place to be when we passed a movie set or something that was going on. It was full of a lot of young people so I could see how it attracts people to live there.
At this point we broke for an hour for lunch. 10 of us went to a local bar and grill called 1849 to eat. It was a really cool place with old school red velvet couches and older décor. The food was good however, they got my order wrong so I was annoyed by that. Like I had said in my previous journal all the prices in the city are escalated so the cost of lunch was more than I expected to pay.
After lunch we reconvened and walked down a few blocks to Washington Square Park. Mike informed us that Washington Square Park is a safer park where a lot of NYU students go to do homework. Right before you walk into the park you see a 300 year old elm tree where back in revolutionary days they used to hang people from that exact tree. Walking through we got to see some street entertainers and even a wedding! I thought that was the coolest part of the whole day to witness a wedding in the middle of the day. The couple looked to be unique individuals and were completely unphased by the fact that tons of strangers were crowding around to take pictures of them. Unfortunately we didn’t get to spend to much time in the park we just got a sneak peek.
Our next stop was a tour of the Merchant House. The Merchant House was an older Federal style house that is an accurate depiction of what a typical upperclassman house looked like. It was built in 1832 and has yet to be changed since. It is both historic looking on the inside and the outside. There was 5 floors to the house. The basement consisted of the family room and the kitchen, the first floor was the parlor where they would entertain guests, the second floor was the bedrooms of the parents, the third floor held the bedrooms of the children, and the fourth floor was where the servants lived. When I learned that the parents slept in separate bedrooms it surprised me at first but when I thought about it, it made more sense because people were very old school and traditional back then. The tour guide had told us that most the houses built at this time were all built that same and it was said that if you woke up in the middle of the night in someone else’s house, you would be able to navigate your way around because they were all built the same way. My favorite part of the house was the different types of bells the family had. Bells signaled for the servants that the family was awake and ready for breakfast or any other need they desired. They had 3 different types of bells that made 3 different noises that each signaled a different room in the house so they knew who to attend to. I found this very intelligent for their times.
After the Merchant house we continued to walk around and see some more sights and community gardens and parks. I was uninterested in this part because on Long Island we have so many parks and gardens to look at. I can understand that in the city having parks and green life is not common, but I do not find it as interesting as some other things the city has to offer.
We ended off at an ice cream parlor where some of the class got ice cream however, I was still full from lunch so I refrained from getting any. My classmates said it was very delicious though. From there we were told to walk down to pick up the L-train that was not headed to Brooklyn and once on that subway take it to either the 1,2, or 3 trains which would take us back to Penn Station. Me and Taylor got on the L-train but once we were on we realized we didn’t know which stop to get off at to catch the 1,2, or 3 train so we got off at the next stop, ran up to the street and caught a cab to take us back to Penn Station. Taylor had to catch a 6:51 train and I had to catch a 6:57 so we were very pressed for time therefore I didn’t mind paying for a cab. Luckily we both made our trains and I made my way back to Rockville Centre on the Long Island Railroad.