Historic Downtown

I an often asked about walking around the Financial District.  This is what I recommend.
Begin at City Hall. Subway Stop:City Hall #4 or #5 train






1) The David Dinkins Municipal Building.:
A few years ago, I was standing in the Brooklyn Bridge Park listening to a tourist guide speaking to a  group in Spanish. He directed their attention to the "Palace" across the river and explained it was the Municipal Building. Construction on the forty story office building began in 1907 and it opened in 1914.  If you follow the signs in the subway to City Hall, you should come up right underneath the building. the arcade with Guastavino Vaulted ceiling roofs.

Manhattan Borough President's Office.- on the 19th Floor of the Municipal Building, the Manhattan Borough President's Office almost always has an art exhibit on display in the hallways.  I've seen some pretty interesting exhibits there, my favorite, a display of handmade quilts.  But the views available for free, no charge to visit the gallery, are magnificent.  Make sure to use the restrooms both men's and ladies' rooms have views overlooking the Brooklyn Bridge.  In the ladies' room you need to enter the last stall to be ensured of this view. (I have no idea about the men's room).

2) City Hall Park- across the street  a small oasis of green amid the canyons of stone and steel.
Information for History Buffs from http://www.nyfreedom.com/

The park, was the scene of the first bloodshed of the movement for American liberty, it was where Washington first had the Declaration of Independence read to his troops and it was also the site of one of the most notorious British prisons that claimed the lives of thousands of American soldiers.

Much more history on the website

3) City Hall- You can try to reserve a morning tour if that's the kind of thing you find interesting.

4)Tweed Court House
52 Chamber's Street

Just across from City Hall is the Tweed Courthouse.  Today it is the home of the Department of Education.  I have been inside the building for job-related meetings and interviews and it drips opulence. I am not sure if there are public tours but it has an interesting history.

"Boss" Tweed—was an American politician most notable for being the "boss" of Tammany Hall, the Democratic Party political machine that played a major role in the politics of 19th century New York City and State.  

Here's how an opinion piece describes the construction of the Tweed Court House

From the New York Times:  Originally budgeted at about $300,000, it ended up costing taxpayers more than $13 million -- almost twice what it cost the United States to purchase Alaska at about the same time. Construction took 13 years and served as a master class in political graft. Favored contractors were hired, in exchange for kickbacks, to do incompetent work and then hired again to make ''repairs.'' The result was bills that were, in the words of Robert Roosevelt, a reformist member of the famous New York family, ''not merely monstrous, . . . [but] manifestly fabulous.'' Andrew Garvey, who became known as ''the prince of plasterers,'' charged nearly $2.9 million for a plastering job that should have cost $20,000. Each window cost about $8,000. More than $41,000 was spent on brooms. Some $350,000 was spent on carpeting. 

Exit City Hall Park on the  South End. 5)  Walk past the Woolworth Building, for 17 years it was the tallest building in the world.  Today you can only enter the building with a paid tour.   Continue South on Broadway to St. Paul's Chapel.

6)St. Paul's Chapel

There are two church buildings with steeples on Broadway.  Both buildings are part of the Parish of Trinity Church , Wall Street.  Although the St. Paul's website states that George Washington worshiped there after his inauguration, today the St. Paul's building is only used as a museum.
From www.nyfreedom.com

Washington came here for a special service after his inauguration on April 30, 1789. He continued to attend services at the chapel during the two years that New York served as the capital of the United States.
During the Revolutionary War, British Generals Cornwallis and Howe attended services here.
An oil painting of the Great Seal of the United States, the first rendition of the seal, hangs over Washington's pew.
The ornamental design over the alter was the work of Pierre L'Enfant, a French veteran of the revolution who designed Washington, D.C.
Royal Arms of George III are on display on the gallery of the church.
In front, there is a monument to General Richard Montgomery, a revolutionary hero who died in the Battle of Quebec. He is buried beneath the East Porch.

Walk east past the churchyard and cross Church Street and you are in the World Trade Center Complex.

7)The Oculus is Santiago Calatrava's 4 billion dollar transportation center.  There are those that think the birdlike structure on the precipice of flight is a more fitting memorial to the 9-11 victims with its uplifting momentum, then the falling down waters of the Memorial Pools.
More information about the Oculus here https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/the-best-part-of-calatravas-oculus

8) 9/11 Memorial-The Memorial Pools
On the footprint of the fallen towers, two pools surrounded by plaques with the victims names memorialize the tragedy.
More information here:  https://www.911memorial.org/about-memorial

Walk back east on Cedar Street.  When you cross Trinity Street you are in Zuccotti Park.  Now it is surrounded by food trucks but for several weeks in 2011 it was its own village as the Occupy Wall Street Movement appeared, thrived and was demolished in the span of a month.

Walk through 9) Zuccotti Park and turn south (right) on Broadway.  Look down as you walk on Broadway and you will see metal plaques embedded in the sidewalk. Once the Canyon of Heroes regularly hosted ticker tape parades for all sorts of heroes,  Once Wall Street offices generated actual ticker tape.  Today the rare parade is reserved for championship NY sport teams- though the last parade held was in 2015 when the US Ladies National Soccer team won the World Cup.
list of parades

10)Trinity Church:  The other steepled church on Broadway.  This building is an actual house of worship.  And of course there is Alexander Hamilton's Grave in the churchyard.


From the website: www,nyfreedom.com
The church was chartered by King William III in 1697 and received a large grant of real estate west of Broadway. Much early patriotic activity in New York occurred near the church, especially in the Coffee House on Wall Street. Parishioners were leaving church as an express rider from Boston arrived to tell that war had broken out with the battles of Lexington and Concord.

Trinity burned in the fire of 1776. The British seized the non-Anglican churches in the city and used them as prisons and barracks. That doesn't mean they paid particular respect to the ruins of Trinity. They fenced off the churchyard and hung lanterns in the trees, using it as something of a pleasure garden. The burning of Trinity left St. Paul's chapel further north as the center of religious life in the city during the remainder of the war, and as New York served as the capital of the new nation.

Hamilton was a brilliant aide to Washington during the war. He came to prominence in the new Republic as the youngest of the 55 framers of the U.S. Constitution. He was the first secretary of the Treasury and founded the country's first central bank. Hamilton was mortally wounded in a duel with Vice President Aaron Burr.

In the church yard, in addition to Hamilton's grave, there is a memorial to the unknown martyrs of the revolution buried on the grounds. There is another Society of the Cincinnati memorial for the 16 officers of the Continental Army and Navy buried in the cemeteries maintained by the church. There is also a memorial to the thousands of Americans who died in prison ships in New York harbor.

When the British evacuated the city on Nov. 25, 1783, the Americans marched into New York and stood at parade rest on Broadway near Trinity Church as a salute of 13 guns was fired marking the end of the war.

more, including illustrations, on the website above.

Turn east and head down Wall Street.
11) New York Stock Exchange
There is a gigantic American Flag in front of the Exchange, that and a lot of police is mostly what you get to see of the Stock Exchange.  Visitors are no longer allowed for security reasons and most of the financial trading is done digitally these days.

Fearless Girl statue was moved here

12) Federal Hall
This is the site where George Washington took his oath of presidency.  Thus, the large statue, where many feel need to pose for a picture. Lots of history on its official site, as well as links to other National Park Sites in the city.https://www.nps.gov/feha/index.htm
A short detour inside is worth the time.  For one thing this makes an easy bathroom stop and check out the mural of early New Amsterdam across from the bathrooms.

Turn around and retrace your steps to return to Broadway.
Continue South on Broadway.

13) Charging Bull 
At the foot of Broadway, right across from Bowling Green Park is the statue of the Charging Bulll.  Feel free to line up to take pictures or rub any part you want.

14) Bowling Green
When the Dutch first colonized Manhattan - it was originally named New Amsterdam, the lower tip was where they settled.  The Bowling Green was the community meeting place, it was where business was conducted (there was no town hall), and where the community had it recreation- hence the name Bowling Green.  You can look on the NYfreedom.com website's for its role in the English Colony the succeed the Dutch.

15) Museum of the American Indian
The only Smithsonian Museum in New York City, has a few interesting exhibits about Native Americans.  The building itself was once the Alexander Hamilton Custom House, and I find the rotunda with ceiling murals as interesting as the Native American exhibits.  It is free and also has bathrooms.
https://www.nyc-arts.org/organizations/289/national-museum-of-the-american-indian-smithsonian-institution

16) Castle Clinton- Battery Park-
Castle Clinton, the fort where you get tickets to the Statue of Liberty is located in the park.  There is a  Sea Glass Carousel which, I believe solely exists to vacuum cash out of tourist's pockets is also there as are lots of lovely views of NY Harbor.

Walk out of the park.  Go east on State Street which quickly becomes Water Street and make a left on Broad Street.


17) Fraunces Tavern and Stone Street
54 Pearl Street (Fraunces Tavern)
On this site George Washington said farewell to his troops in 1783.  What is pretty well accepted as fact is that Samuel Fraunces opened a tavern on the site in 1760 and it played a part in the Revolutionary War.  Today there is an operating restaurant and a museum which are not exactly the same building George Washington used for refreshments.  I haven't availed myself to either but you can always take a quick look inside.

Around the tavern on the north side of Pearl Street you can find artifacts of the old city embedded in the sidewalk if you feel like looking for them.

Walk one more block north on Broad Street and you arrive on  18)Stone Street.  Its a cute old fashion tourist street filled with expensive restaurants.

Walk west on Stone Street to Whitehall Street.  Then walk south on Whitehall Street to the Staten Island Ferry Terminal.

19) Whitehall Terminal Staten Island Ferry
Tired?  Stop walking. Go into the ferry terminal and get in line.  There may be many people.  That's okay, many people fit on the ferry.  When you get on rush over to the right side of the ferry and don't sit down.  Stand by the rail.  You will get the best views of the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.  If you sit someone will stand in front of you and block the views.  Then enjoy the ride.  They do make you get off on the Staten Island side.  Then you have a choice of running around and trying to make the next ferry to Manhattan or you can leave the terminal and walk around Staten Island for a bit.  I long ago resolved never to run for the next whatever, bus, train, or ferry so unless the weather is absolutely awful I would choose the latter. When you go back, don't worry about seeing the Statue of Liberty again, she didn't change,  Walk around the boat and enjoy all the different views.

Hungry?

The Financial District is filled with all sorts of restaurants-most aim to feed the  thousands of weekday workers in the area.  Many are fine dining for those with large expense accounts, many more are salad bars or coffee shops for those without.  I generally grab something in the one I am standing in front of when I get hungry.  Sometimes I take a wrap and eat it in Battery City Park or on the ferry.  There's always Chinatown at the end of the day- for a cheap sit down meal.

The Dead Rabbit- very popular with tourist crowd

30 Water Street, New York, NY 10004(646) 422-7906
Eataly 

101 Liberty St
Fl 3
New York, NY 10006

b/t Trinity Pl & Greenwich St 
Zeytuna-I have a friend with a long list of things he cannot eat, this is the place for him- so many choices definitely something for everyone.59 Maiden Ln

New York, NY 10038

Phone number(212) 742-2436

Restaurants I've never tried but really want to

Honestly- the point of this post is to keep a running record of places I’ve read about and want to try without having to remember the site I read originally.

I admit it.  There is no way I can try a small fraction of Queens Restaurants.  I like to think I’m adventurous and will just jump into a place, order away and remember where and what I ate. That’s not me. The following are places I want to try.  As I do I will move them to another post –with personal reflections. In this post any text is copied directly from the original website.

Cienega Las Tlayudas de Oaxaca

·        NYT Critic’s Pick

10432 Corona Avenue

(106th Street)

Corona

347-353-2366

La Esquina del Camarón Mexicano

·        NYT Critic’s Pick

80-02 Roosevelt Avenue

(80th Street)

Jackson Heights

347-885-2946

The following restaurants come from https://ny.eater.com/maps/best-cheap-eats-nyc

Alnour

39-04 64th St, Queens, NY 11377

Once known as Cedars Meat House, this Astoria Lebanese mainstay combines a butcher shop, grocery store, and kebabery with counter seating. Choose from among a shawarma or two; kebabs of chicken, beef kufta, or the ground-lamb Aleppo; and lamb chops or ribeye steaks, all flame grilled. The usual bread dips and fried veggies are also provided, in addition to stews and soups. Don’t miss the pungent garlic sauce called toum.

New York Pão De Queijo

Buzzy destination serving traditional Brazilian entrees plus burgers with inventive toppings.

Address: 31-90 30th St, Astoria, NY 11106

This delightful Brazilian snackery in Astoria excels at bouncy little baked cheese balls and oblong fritters called coxinhas. But the real raison d’etre for this cozy little place are the burgers, Brazilian style. One of my favorite burgers here is the X Calabresa — a good-sized patty with two types of white cheese, lettuce, tomato, corn, potato sticks, an egg, and a slice of smoked sausage. The thing will set you back only $8.50, and you won’t miss the french fries. By the way, ask for specials; sometimes there’s only black beans and rice, sometimes an entire feijoada.

Shanghai You Garden

Fabled dumpling maker Zhou Jianhua left Nan Xiang Xiao Long Bao not long ago and went to Shanghai You Garden, which is now the best place in town to get Shanghai soup dumplings, also known as xiaolongbao or XLB for short. The skins here are imperially thin, the soup dense and oily, and the filling of the best one featuring pork and savory shreds of crabmeat. The premises are ultramodern, and other Shanghai dishes fill out the menu.

Shanghai You Garden

135-33 40 Rd, Flushing, NY 11354

Fabled dumpling maker Zhou Jianhua left Nan Xiang Xiao Long Bao not long ago and went to Shanghai You Garden, which is now the best place in town to get Shanghai soup dumplings, also known as xiaolongbao or XLB for short. The skins here are imperially thin, the soup dense and oily, and the filling of the best one featuring pork and savory shreds of crabmeat. The premises are ultramodern, and other Shanghai dishes fill out the menu.

13 La Duena Mexican Deli 2

Address: 103-22 Northern Blvd, Corona, NY 11368

The high quality of the food at this Mexican deli in Corona is apparent the minute you spy the orderly displays of cheese empanadas, meat-stuffed flautas, and chicharrones preparados, or fried cracker platforms used as vegetarian pig skins. Heaped with queso, guacamole, crema, and salsa, they make excellent street snacks. Other specialties include picaditas, sopes, and tlacoyos. Weekends, there’s goat barbacoa.

14 Hyderabadi Biryani & Chat

 44-27 Kissena Blvd, Queens, NY 11355

In its unique culinary traditions, the southern Indian city of Hyderabad — which has become a high-tech hub — has more in common with northern India. This is reflected in its signature dish, biryani, a spectacular rice cook up. The biryani is available in 12 varieties — including one vegetarian and one vegan. Rather than sitting on the steam table and drying out, it is assembled to order with freshly cooked morsels of meat and vegetables. The rice is kept exceedingly fluffy, delicately flavored with ginger, garlic, and cardamom. Other don’t-miss regional dishes include Kerala pepper chicken — which is so spicy it will burn your mouth, as will “bullet naan,” shot with fresh jalapeños.

18 Brazil Aroma

 75-13 Roosevelt Ave, Jackson Heights, NY 11372

There have long been inexpensive Brazilian cafes in Astoria peddling pao de queijo, elaborately dressed Cariocan burgers, and big Saturday servings of feijoada, the national dish of black beans and pig parts. Now, one has scampered over to Jackson Heights. Brazil Aroma seeks to partly emulate the great churrascarias of Newark’s Ironbound. The buffet clocks in at $5.99 per pound, and it’s easy to fill yourself up for six bucks or so. But you’ll also be distracted by the window at the end of the room — therein find a guy working a charcoal oven with a dozen spits, on which skewers of meat are pinned. This selection costs $7.99, and the skirt steak, pork sausage, and chicken legs are terrific.

 

19 Papa's Kitchen

65-40 Woodside Ave, Woodside, NY 11377

The eponymous Papa, father to the brother-and-sister co-owners, hails from Bicol, a region 250 miles southeast of Manila. The boxy dining room offers just a handful of tables,and the karaoke is continuous. Once a customer stops singing, another picks up the cordless mic and plows onward. A highlight of a recent meal included a wonderful sinigang: a tart fish soup floating a pompano and Napa cabbage in a tamarind-laced broth. Other enjoyable dishes included crispy pata (a pair of whole pork shanks roasted to perfect crispness) and the national dish of chicken adobo. There are a surprising number of vegetable-focused dishes, though vegetarians beware: these often contain fish or fermented-shrimp paste.

Happy Stony Noodle

 83-47 Dongan Ave, Queens, NY 11373 Elmhurst

Part of a Taiwanese restaurant boom that’s been sweeping Gotham, Happy Stony Noodle specializes in snacks and whole-meal noodle soups (mainly featuring beef), and other main course dishes, all in a rollicking atmosphere that has nothing to do with “stony,” alas. (The seeming adjective actually refers to the owner’s English nickname.) In the snack category find squid balls, popcorn chicken, oyster pancakes, and the cryptic “pork roll”; while full meal soups include #52 — flat wheat noodles with beef and tendon, which is my favorite. Standards like fly heads and three-cup chicken are also available.

27 Knish Nosh Knishes & Franks

Since 1952, Rego Park’s Knish Nosh has been enfolding tasty fillings in spongy dough and baking the heck out of them. The primary result is the Jewish snack called the knish, which was probably brought here by Polish immigrants around 1900. Knish Nosh makes them in the traditional round format — not for the pillow knishes associated with Coney Island — with a choice of eight fillings. These include cabbage, kasha, potato, and the undefined “meat.” The innovation here is simply making them much bigger than usual. Also available are several varieties of pastry-wrapped hot dogs, including the dazzling foot-long.

32 Spicy Lanka

159-23 Hillside Avenue, Jamaica, NY 11432

You might not think of downtown Jamaica as a hotbed of Sri Lankan cuisine (a designation reserved for Staten Island), but there is at least one formidable Ceylonese restaurant along Hillside Avenue’s amazing restaurant row. The premises is dark enough for a date, and the food is halal. Highlights include kothu roti, a pyramid fashioned from torn-up shreds of flatbread tossed with vegetables and egg, chicken, mutton, shrimp, or kingfish. Other recommendations include godhamba roti (a buttery wadded flatbread), and chicken biryani, which comes embedded with boiled eggs and sided by an excellent piece of fried chicken. The humongous entrees easily feed two.

33 El Comal

 148-60 Hillside Avenue, Jamaica, NY 11435

The city’s foremost Salvadoran pupuseria makes them from scratch — walk in the front door and you’ll hear the “thwap, thwap, thwap” of the pupusas being hand-patted. Pick various combinations of beans, cheese, chicharron de puerco, and loroco flowers (which taste something like pickled oregano), and you’ll have yourself quite a snack or a meal, especially if you slit the things and spoon in the cortado (pickled cabbage) and squirt in the hot sauce. All sorts of other Salvadoran set meals are also available.

Eating My Way down the 7 Line

Where I eat when I wander.. I take a long walk home from work often. That is the great part about being semi-retired and done at noon. And I eliminate any weight loss benefit by testing out eateries along the way. There are so many wonderful places to eat along the #7 subway line, that even I can’t possible attempt to try all of them. Here is the shortest of lists of a variety of places I love.
1.Stop Inn 
60-22 Roosevelt Ave
Woodside, NY 11377 Woodside
 Subway Stop: 61street Woodside

 I am including this restaurant because from time to time someone asks me to recommend a traditional American restaurant. I am not sure I know what exactly is a traditional American restaurant, but I bring those requesting one, here. It’s a diner like I remember diners- booths, eggs and hamburgers, friendly staff and checkered curtains hanging in the window. The reviews complain that the menu is pricey and they are a bit pricier than the ethnic restaurants but the portions are huge. Often you can order Yankee Pot Roast- so if you are looking for an example of traditional American food-that's about as traditional as I can think of.

2.Three Aunties Thai Market
64-04 39th Ave
Woodside, NY 11377 Woodside
Subway Stop: 61 Street Woodside

SriPraPha is a well-known, well reviewed Thai Restaurant. I haven't eaten there in years. No fault of theirs- just so many more Thai restaurants opened close to home. But across the street is a little Thai grocery with a small eating counter next to its front window. I ordered two chicken curry puffs. Each cost $1.50. Really, really delicious and there were all sorts of Muay Thai Boxing supplies to look at while I ate.

3.Rajbhog- Indian 
72-27 37th Avenue
Jackson Heights, NY 11372
Subway stop- 74th Street Broadway on the 7 –the same station is called Roosevelt on the E,F and M,R trains

The door has a poster that states that the food available is vegetarian, vegan, Jain and kosher The small store has all sorts of interesting and eye catching sweets. I ordered Samosa Chaat-Chickpea curry with yogurt onions and tangy sauces for $6.99. It was really good and way too much for just me. Next time I will definitely try one of the sweets 

4. Lhasa Fast Food Tibetan 
37-50 74th St Ste 3750
Jackson Heights, NY 11372
Subway Stop: 74 Street

I did not stumble onto this place. That would have been impossible. I went looking for it one day based on an article I read somewhere. Now it has some fame and even Anthony Bourdain featured it on a May 2017, Parts Unknown program. It is always described as being in back of a cell phone store. Though that is only partially correct, Queens is filled with store fronts that have mini-malls, a succession of counters selling electronics, jewelry and the likes, things that don’t require racks and racks of space so several enterprises can share one location. So look for the address then walk in and wander around. If you look non-Tibetan and lost- someone will immediately direct you to the restaurant. What I like best is the hot buttered tea—but check out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efeZYOLu1TY for more information.

5. Arepa Lady Colombian 

77-17 37th Ave
Jackson Heights, NY 11372

Jackson Heights  (They moved.  This is the current location)

It seems like everyone knows the story of Arepa Lady. Maria Cano, a Colombian immigrant was an attorney in Colombia, but unable to practice in the US she opened a food truck that sold Arepas, a Colombian pancake made with corn flour and stuffed with all kinds of things. The business became very successful and currently has a location in Brooklyn as well.  Besides ordering Arepas, I like the appetizer variety plate, make sure to have one of the fruit drinks as well.

6. 969 NYC Coffee Japanese 
37-65 80th Street
Jackson Heights,, NY 11372
 Subway Stop: 82 Street

 One of the reviews in Yelp said something like “Holy moly, a real Japanese Restaurant run by a real Japanese person.” Again this is a really small shop with limited seating. I stopped in one cold day in February and the owner/ counterman had just returned from vacation in Japan, which he was really happy to tell me about. I ordered Onigiri- white rice- usually stuffed with fish. Maybe an authentic foodie would know that. I am not an authentic foody. The owner very carefully explained it to me. Because it was February, the Onigiri’s were shaped as hearts. I brought one home for my valentine. It was great.

7. La Nueva Bakery- Uruguayan
86-10 37th Avenue
Jackson Heights NY
Subway stop: 90th Street Elmhurst Ave
 I read about this one in a New York Times article about Latin, New York. I mentioned wanting to look for it to a co-worker who waxed poetic about the pastries there for the next ten minutes. It must have many different types of wonderful pastries, I insist on purchasing the alfijores, the caramel filled shortbread cookies I developed a passion for on vacation in Argentina. The bakery is Uruguayan but close enough.

 8. Rincon Criollo Cuban 
40-09 Junction Blvd Corona,
 NY 11368 North Corona
Subway Stop: Junction Boulevard
I went to Cuba on a cruise ship. It is an easy way to get a very shallow taste of Cuba. However, I spent more time eating Cuban Food in Corona than I did in Havana. If I didn’t enjoy the food, which I very much do, I would still go to look at the photos of old Cuba that line the walls. If it looks like those photos are from the family albums of the staff and customers – it’s because they are. Also, the walls are decorated with the wood map shaped cutouts of the countries from where the customers originated, Queens and the world in a storefront. 

Things to do in Queens- Especially along the #7 train-

Things to do in Queens-

Especially along the #7 train- all blue print should be clickable links for more information

I admit it.  I have a love hate relationship with the #7 train.  I have been stuck between stations- standing squished in crowded car with a heavy bag listening to the same We'll be moving in shortly, announcement over and over.  But I also have had a bird's eye (okay a low flying bird) of the changing landscape of Queens. Here is a list of things you can see from the train, and interesting stops along the way. I am not including the Manhattan Stops, 34th Hudson(the
Highline), 42 St Times Square, 5 Avenue (Bryant Park), Grand Central- all interesting but not Queens.

Things to see from the train

• The Manhattan skyline - multiple views from multiple spots
• The train itself - right after it comes above ground it makes a sharp curve and you can see the tail of the train chasing itself.
• The Courthouse - from the Court Street Station- the green colored roof covers one of the oldest continuously operating courts in the country
• The Hell Gate Bridge -on the northside- two bridges come into view.   The Hell Gate Railroad  Bridge built between 1912-1916, designed by Gustav Lindenthal, any resemblance in appearance to the Sydney Harbor Bridge is not coincidental. Next to it is the RFK Bridge (used to be called the Triboro) it connects three boroughs, Manhattan, Queens and the Bronx and is used for motor vehicles.
• The smoke stacks of the Ravenswood Power Station-
• The stained glass windows between Courts Street and Woodside Stations
• The new towers being built around Long Island City at Queensboro Plaza
• Pass the Jackson Heights stations and LaGuardia comes into view-the blue control tower
• In the far distance over the relatively flat low rise section of Queens you can see the Bronx and in the bridges that connect Queens to the mainland
• After 103 Street on the Southside -the sites of Flushing Meadow Park, 2 rocket ships in front of the science museum, the round towers of NYS Pavilion, the T shaped Terrace of the Park,and of course the various tennis stadiums and the Unisphere.
• On the northside- Citifield home of the New York Mets

Subway Station:  Vernon Jackson- First stop in Queens

• Gantry State Park- best view of the skyline
• Corner of Vernon and 50th Avenue -traditional Police Station, 9/11 memorial on a light post 
• Changing Long Island City Neighbor- the mixed old frame wooden homes that once housed the blue collared factory and dock workers are now scattered among the high rise luxury towers
• New Long Island City Library- not open yet, but see what  the city builds when the luxury towers bring in the city's highest income earners.

Subway Stop:  Court Square

• Court Square Diner-right beneath the subway station- a real traditional looking American Diner
• Historic District- 21 Street and 45 Avenue.  - Brownstone Townhouses from the 1800's.  The guide books will tell you they filmed Carries's house from Sex In The City n Greenwich Village, but that was only the first season.  They used several locations and this was the most common
• PS 1- What has more recent- modern art than MOMA?- PS 1

Subway Stop: 61 and Woodside

• The Irish Bars-  Donovan's,  Saints and Sinners
• The Doughboy World War I Memorial - not a major- not miss attraction, but an interesting memorial-honoring the wounded rather than the victorious hero- and a destination for  anyone wandering around the neighborhood off the the main roads.

Stops: 74 and Roosevelt to 82 and Roosevelt

           Jackson Heights  enough to see here for its own page, but some highlights

• Historic District- apartment buildings built when the subway arrived - 
• Multi-Culture at its best- restaurants and stores from the Indian/Pakistani Community, the Nepal/Tibetan Community and the all parts of the Latin Community
• The Post Office - Federal Style Architecture with WPA murals inside
• The Public School- a 5 story example of NYC school architecture

Stop:  111 Street 

           Corona

Louis Armstrong House-  When Louis was among the highest paid musicians in the World he chose to buy a house in one of the most humble neighborhoods in Queens.  The house is preserved as a museum and open to the public.  Listen to the song Its a Wonderful World , and hear Louis himself describe the neighborhood.

Subway Stop:  Mets Willets Point

Flushing Meadows Corona Park

The Unisphere

At the Mets Game- Citifield

• The Queens Museum- especially for the Panorama- a scale model of the whole city!
• The Tennis Center
• Citi Field- its not Yankee Stadium- it is the other MLB home in NYC-
• The Hall of Science (even if you don't go in check out the real Rockets)
• The Queens Night Market- On a summer Saturday night -the equivalent of the Brooklyn Smorgasboard
• New York State Pavilion- where the aliens landed according to Men In Black

Subway Stop:  Main Street

Flushing

• Chinatown-maybe the largest Chinatown in the country(Sunset Park and Lower Manhattan would dispute it) Click the link for some interesting eating places
• Historic Flushing(all addresses are in the clickable link for Flushing)
• John Bowne House
• Quaker Meeting Hall
• St. George Episcopal Church
• Post Office- WPA Murals
• Free Synagogue of Flushing
• Lots more in link

Hungry?
The first link is from Vogue Magazine- I do not look like I read Vogue.  I would look a lot less like a Vogue person if I tried all the eateries (or even a tiny fraction of them) along the way.  But here are various suggestions:

from Vogue
from NYCGO
from Tripsavvy

Latin New York

36 hours in Latin New York\



The article covers Jackson Heights.  



day in Jackson Heights

Thursday I walked home down 37th Avenue.  My goal was to check out the La Nueva Cafe.  I read the article in the Sunday Times travel section and was determined to  check it out while attempting to put together the day's 10,000 steps.  As I walked down 37th Avenue the sky ahead was clear blue, the sky behind me was sunny but towards Northern Boulevard menacing clouds gathered.  I entered La Nueva Cafe with my jacket rolled into its nifty pouch and the umbrella buried in the bookbag. 

Inside La Nueva Cafe did not disappoint.  I ordered 4 alfajores - a short bread sandwich cookie, layered with Dulce De Leche. A week in Argentina was enough to acquire an addiction to alfajores.  And while I was there I might as well get the cheese bread and some scones.  All for a grand total of $15.  But wait- they didn't take credit cards.

Out in search of an ATM (they have one in the store- but unwilling to pay the addition surcharge- I went to look for a cheaper option) I stopped in the supermarket for some dinner ingredients hoping they would have a cash back policy- they didn't)  With shopping bags and still no cash I proceeded onward. And then the skies opened up.

Long story short- I found the Capitol One bank four blocks away, Thought about abandoning the baked goods for another day- but the subway station at 84th Street was not running trains to Flushing.  Went back to the bakery, explained in two languages that my bags had been put aside.

I bought the items, Stuffed down a scone- the alfajores are too good not to savor, and headed down to  Northern Boulevard for the bus.  The sun had returned, and the scone staved off hunger.

Were the alfijores worth it?  Definitely!

The Botanical Gardens and Vicinity

Flushing has a horticultural history.  The post about Flushing has a quite bit of information about this history.  But here is a short visit around some interesting gardens and  a few other things as well.


1. The Queens Library Flushing Branch.
41-17 Main St, Flushing, NY 11355
The original library, long since replaced , was the first lending library in Queens.  The current building, with the curious mitosis carving on the Kissena Boulevard side, is the latest in a series of three libraries located on this spot. It is one of the busiest branches in one of the busiest library systems in the world.
more information from the architects

2, The U.S. Post Office
41-65 Main Street 11365
Gone are the days when I eagerly awaited the igloo that would appear on the lawn selling holiday postage stamps.  But the post office remains an impressive structure
From Forgotten New York
As post office architecture goes, Colonial Revival is a popular style — Flushing’s majestic post office building, Main Street and Sanford Avenue, with its pediment and six Ionic columns, is similar to post offices in Hunters Point and also in St. George, Staten Island. It was constructed from 1932-1934 and designed by Dwight James Baum and partner William W. Knowles; most of Baum’s other NYC buildings are in Riverdale, Bronx, including the neighborhood’s iconic bell tower at Riverdale Avenue and Henry Hudson Parkway.
Go inside, and the busy patrons never look up, but if you do you are rewarded with the sight of WPA era murals depicting different scenes from the history ( or perceived history, some representations are not exactly accurate) of the 12 towns that make up Flushing. The immigrant artist Vincent Aderente painted them.  Much more information about each mural on the Forgotten New York website.

3. The Queens Botanical Garden
43-50 Main Street
From the Garden's website
Located at the northeast corner of Flushing Meadows-Corona Park in Flushing, QBG evolved from the five-acre “Gardens on Parade” exhibit showcased at the 1939-1940 New York World’s Fair. Officially opening as “The Queens Botanical Garden Society” in 1946 after local residents saved and expanded the original exhibit, the Garden remained at the original World’s Fair site until 1961, when it was moved to its current location on Main Street in Flushing. Among the original plantings taken from the 1939 site are two blue atlas cedars that frame the iconic tree gate sculpture at the Garden’s Main Street entrance today. QBG has become a 39-acre oasis in one of New York City’s most bustling and diverse neighborhoods.

4. Evergreen Community Gardens in the Kissena Park Corridor
Colden Street starting around Juniper Avenue
In the 1980s a group of Korean Immigrants began cleaning away the trash and creating a community garden.  Today over 300 plots over 5 acres are lovingly tended.

5.) New York Chens Buddha Associates

46- 38 Kissena Boulevard

This pagoda structure sits on the corner of Kalmia Avenue and Kissena Boulevard.  Sometimes I See people who are dressed in what I consider traditional Buddhist Monk clothing,  coming out, sometimes I see people dressed in three piece suits coming out.  I could find no information about it on the Internet.

6) Hindu Center of North America

     The Ganesh Temple

      45-57 Bowne Street

The Temple Canteen is often listed in guidebooks as an attraction.  The canteen, originally developed in the 1980s to provide food for ritual use,  is a bustling restaurant that serves good, reasonably priced vegetarian food.  The Temple and Community Center cover several blocks and are ornately decorated.  The community is welcoming and friendly to visitors from all faiths.

7) The Olde Town of Flushing Burial Ground

Entrance on 46th Avenue between  164th and 165th Street

When my children were in grade school this park is where we went for picnics and field days and hanging out.  But then it was renovated and in the process of doing the renovation, it was determined that the area was, in fact, a burial ground. The story is filled with history and deception and of course Robert Moses, and the determination of one man,Mandingo Tshaka, to preserve its rightful place.  
From the Website: https://www.nycgovparks.org/parks/the-olde-towne-of-flushing-burial-ground/history
The ‘re-discovery’ of burial grounds within our municipality is an experience shared by many cities world-wide. The City of New York has buildings and parks that stand on former burial grounds. In the 1990’s, when Parks began a renovation of the site, local activist Mandingo Tshaka drew attention to its previous history. In response, Parks commissioned a $50,000 archaeological study in 1996. Archeologist Linda Stone concluded that the site served as the final resting-place for between 500 to 1,000 individuals. Death records for the town of Flushing exist for the period 1881 until 1898, and show that during this period, 62 percent of the buried were African American or Native American, 34 percent were unidentified, and more than half were children under the age of five.

Ridgewood

Ridgewood Queens

Get off the Wyckoff station in Bushwick Brooklyn and walk one block to your east and you are in Ridgewood.   Pieter Claesen  Wyckoff did something like that in 1637. Although he was from Holland he was German speaking  And so began the settlement of the area by German speaking Europeans  Today Ridgewood remains both an area with a strong history and relationship with the German heritage community as well as an area where immigrants from around the world make their first American home.

Much of the information in this entry comes from;
The Illustrated History of Greater Ridgewood
 a book By GEORGE SCHUBEL Editor of the Ridgewood Times Published by Ridgewood Times Printing and Publishing Company,1913

(any thing in the gray book is a direct cut and paste.

Like the wonderful Topsy in “Uncle 
Tom’s Cabin,” Greater Ridgewood 
seems “just to have grown up” in a nor- 
mal and steady way for many years, 
without any authoritative record of the 
origin of its name.

The walk begins at
1) Venditti Square- The restaurant Caribe Star stands in the middle.  The square is named for a detective who was shot in the square in 1986 while on a stake out. The restaurant and the store La Botanica Abete Oshun, are both indicative of the changing demographics of the community.

2) The Liberty Department Store across the street at 54-00 Myrtle Ave was once the RKO, an old Vaudeville theater.  http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/4621

3) Clemens Triangle.  - The World War I  War Memorial https://www.nycgovparks.org/parks/myrtle-avenue-clemens-triangle/monuments/1340  Take a good long  look at the different representatives of the three branches of the military.  There are always more things to notice.

4) The Rite-Aid Across from Clemens Square. 55-60 Myrtle Ave. It is an old bank repurposed as a drugstore,  Go inside, its worth a look around.

Inside the bank turned Rite Aid

Turn right on Seneca after leaving the bank.  

There is IS  77

19) Intermediate School 77

Private instruction could, of course, also be had at 

home by long-haired, spectacled dominies, who traveled about throughout the 

neighborhood in those early days and volunteered to meet the demands of 

education for a shilling or so a day and board.

Trade and the Evergreen Board of Trade, worked tirelessly in the matter 
for almost two years, calling mass meetings, agitating through the civic boards 
and newspapers, and bringing to the attention of the city authorities in other 
ways, the absolute need of the school, with the result that an appropriation 
was granted and Public School No. 77 on Covert Avenue, between Center and 
George Streets, was built. It is to be hoped that the children who now enjoy 
the advantages of this magnificent building will never forget the labors of those 
who made Public School No. 77 possible. 
 
The school is considered one of the finest in the city. It is a four-st 
brick, stone and terra cotta building of 
the collegiate gothic style of architecture, and stands about where the dancing 
platform of Deckelmann’s Ridge- 
wood Park was located. 

5) Ridgewood Bank- the decoration on the door, from the bank.  The bank is filled with interesting decoration on the facade, on the door and everywhere you look.

“From a broad civic point of view,” the 
article continued, “a local National Bank 
founded on a sound and trustworthy basis, will 
lend credit to the community; it will put the 
section on a higher footing: it will increase land 
values in the vicinity, add to population, in- 
crease business and, above all, promote home 
rule. 

6) Norma's Cafe- 59-02 Catalpa Avenue- 

Coffee shop with community roots.

https://www.normascornershoppe.com/

7) Morscher Pork Store  58-44 Catalpa Avenue
 Hand painted sign with illustration from Grimm's Fairy Tale  It translates into something like Table Spread thyself

8) St. Matthias 58-15 Catalpa Ave.
The ornate church with its  "wedding cake" style architecture has long been a center of the Polish community.  There is a statue of Pope John Paul the second  out in front.
-http://www.saintmatthiaschurch.net/saintmatthiaschurch/CALENDAR.html

After passing the church turn right on Onderdonk and you are now right in the middle of the historic district.

Historic Ridgewood 
The Matthew Model Flats.
http://www.brownstoner.com/history/queenswalk-the-plan-for-ridgewood-part-2/

The story of the steady growth and development of what is now known as 
Greater Ridgewood is like the story of a modern fairy tale. Within the 
incredible short space of half a score of years, hundreds upon hundreds of 
houses have been built, making the development and progress of our 
section at once the wonder and admiration of the Greater City. 

The upbuilding has all been done in such a normal and quiet way that no one 
outside the immediate zone of development was aware of the transformation that 
was taking place. From an insignificant hamlet of worked-out farms and scattered 
homes on the Queens side, the section became transformed into a wide-awake, 
energetic community and, like modern Aladdins, the people of our section, by 
their industry, thrift and civic pride, have caused it to become, to all apparent 
purposes, a city within a city. 

With this remarkable change has come about a change, of course, in the life 
and activities of the section; old farms and old landmarks are disappearing, and 
in their stead blocks upon blocks of residential houses are appearing, as if by magic, 
from the ground, and newcomers are swarming into them as fast as they are ready 
for occupancy. 

9) Ridgewood Library 20-12 Madison Street 
Queens http://www.queenslibrary.org/ridgewood
 It was the first library constructed in Queens by the city and not industrialist-turned-philanthropist Andrew Carnegie.

This Branch, known as the Ridgewood 
Branch, was opened on March 18th, 
1911. The only place available was a 
store on the corner of Greene and Covert 
Avenues, too small to accommodate the 
people who wished to use the library. 
In consequence, it was at first largely 
used by the children, who crowded in, 
excluding the grown people. There was 
a registration of 972 persons from March 
18th to 31st, including children. More 
than 2,000 volumes were circulated in 
the same time, of which 72 per cent, 
were children’s books. Of the persons 
using the reading room, 94 per cent, were 
children. 

 11)  Romanian Orthodox Church
The building was once the fanciest Mansion in town

12)  66-45 Forest Ave- wood frame house 1884
This house predates the building of the Matthews Model Flats


13) IS 93  note the gargoyles on the facades


14)Gottscheer Hall 657 Fairview Avenue

http://gottscheerhall.com/about-us

Once beer halls, were community centers where folk who lived in small apartments gathered to pass the evenings, plan social functions and support the communities in Europe they left behind.  This is one of the few examples left.  Gottscheer is a region that located in Slovenia, but was once part of the Austrian Empire.  If you click on the history on the menu from the website linked above you will learn a whole lot about Gotschee, if not a whole about the hall in Ridgewood.  And you could book your next affair there if you care to.

15) Linden Street
There is a lot of variation in the decorations of the facades if the rows and rows of Matthew Flats.
Only this block has faces carved in the stone above the windows.

note the face in the carvings above the flats on Linden Street

16) St.Aloysius Roman Catholic Church 382 Onderdonk Ave

http://www.saloysius.org/
The convent located halfway down the side street dates back 125 years.







17) Stockholm Street
http://forgotten-ny.com/2008/04/stockholm-syndrome-ridgewoods-landmarked-block/

There are 32 houses built on this street between 1907 and 1910.  The street has landmark status.  And it is literally paved with yellow brick stone.

1

18) Linden Hill Cemetery

Ferenc Molnar, the writer, whose short story, Roger and Hammerstein based the musical Carousel  is buried in this cemetery.  Walking around the paths  affords a beautiful view of the distant Manhattan skyline

Ridgewood

See map at end of the post

Caribe Star- Venditti Square   T

54-00 Myrtle Ave

Clemens Triangle

Rite Aid

Ridgewood Savings Bank

Norma's Corner Shoppe

Morscher Pork Store

St Matthias Roman Catholic Church

Queens Library at Ridgewood

Madison St & Onderdonk Ave

Putnam Ave & Fairview Ave

66-45 Forest Ave

IS 93 Ridgewood

Gottscheer Hall

Linden Street facades

St Aloysius Roman Catholic Church

Stockholm Street

Linden Hill Cemetery