Maggie's Farm

We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.

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Sunday, April 13. 2014

A Maggie's Farm Lower Manhattan-to-Midtown Urban Hike

It's in the planning stages, no date set.


I think urban hiking in cities with a little history can be just as interesting as rural hiking. More interesting, really - and I am an informed amateur naturalist.


There is no such thing as suburban hiking, though. That is just walking.


Due to my route's meandering nature with crosstown zigs and zags, street crossings, and opportunities for refreshments, photo stops, and pit stops, I think it could take 6-7 hours from South Ferry (Battery Park) to Central Park then back down 5th ave to Grand Central Stn. Good walking shoes required, and rain-or-shine. This will not be a stroll. The main point is not the landmarks, but the random stuff and people and colorful life and historical architecture in between.The landmarks are just for waypoints.


Preliminary route plan:


- South Ferry, Battery Park, with view of Statue of Liberty (easy to get to via IRT or whatever)
- NYSE
- Trinity Church
- St. Paul's Chapel
- maybe WTC
-  maybe South St Seaport
- City Hall
- Chinatown/maybe a quick noodle soup stop in Chinatown/Little Italy
- Soho/Cast Iron District
- Bleeker St/ Washington Square
- McSorley's (of course, for refreshment - I'm buying)
- Union Square
- Gramercy Park
- East Village/2nd ave for a while or West  Village - can't do both but both are scenic
- Then west across to Flatiron District, Empire St Bldg, and NY Pub Library
- Times Square
- Carnegie Hall (How do you get to Carnegie Hall?)
- Columbus Circle
- then thru Central Park to 5th
- 5th Ave back to Grand Central Stn (via St. Patrick's and Rock. Center)


Does this sound like fun, and a good work-out? Is it overly-ambitious?


If it's too much, there's always the subway or a taxi - but we are subway people.


A lively city full of wonders, packed with attractive, high-energy young people and all sorts of other interesting humanity. Not a great work-out, because it's all pretty much flat but it's hours of walking through a variety of neighborhoods. I am open to suggestions. I'm sure my son, wife, daughters, sisters and brothers-in-law will be game for this event. Sipp & Co. might be, too, and Bulldog. And our Men's Bible study group.


Photo:  I like that house on top of that building on 3rd Ave and 13th St. Rus in urba.



Posted by Bird Dog in Our Essays, The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation at 16:08 | Comments (20) | Trackbacks (0)

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My wife and I, and probably my boys, would definitely be up for this kind of outing.

I've done the Battery Park to Central Park route once - when I was just out of college and it was a beautiful summer day.

Did NYU Library to 56th Street one fine spring day after I'd finished studying for some grad classes and had to get up to the office and fix someone's problems.

I reversed that walk, at 3 am one night. I'd rather not discuss it.
#1 Bulldog on 2014-04-13 16:10 (Reply)
Haha.

One New Year's Eve, a gal and I hiked from W 86th St to University Place in a cold drizzle, at about 2 am. We bonded.

Sheesh. Youth.
#1.1 Bird Dog on 2014-04-13 16:17 (Reply)
Wish I could join you. I contend that Lower Manhattan is as interesting a piece of real estate as one is likely to find in America. Make sure you at least tip your hat to Fraunces' Tavern as you go by--a great American landmark and the epicenter of much of post-Revolutionary political life.
#2 The Other Andrew B on 2014-04-13 16:58 (Reply)
yet another who wishes to join the walk. Be sure to take lots of pictures.
#3 walt moffett on 2014-04-13 18:10 (Reply)
Bravo, Bird Dog.
If the Flatiron, then at least an expresso at Eately, if you can resist the rest.
#4 ns on 2014-04-13 18:36 (Reply)
Well, keep in mind that the South Street Seaport is basically closed and there isn't very much to see there, although the view of the Brooklyn Bridge from the terrace (if it is still open) is magnificent. If you swing past Trinity Church, make sure you see Alexander Hamilton's grave (scene of a memorable bicentenary gathering a few years ago that my wife and many others, all dressed completely in NY Black, attended), and when you leave the NYSE pause to admire the statue of George Washington outside Federal Hall. This statue - I Am Not Making This Up - once led a young member of a school party from (I think) North Carolina to exclaim, "But why is he here? Didn't he fight for the South?" Enjoy the walk.
#5 David in lower Manhattan on 2014-04-13 19:45 (Reply)
If you're going by a good deli, please pick me up a YooHoo and a corned beef on rye.
#6 fiftyville on 2014-04-13 19:47 (Reply)
Not much of a workout? My compliments, that's a heck of a hike. lol
#7 W. C. Taqiyya on 2014-04-13 19:59 (Reply)
Lower Manhattan is a great place for a hike. When I visit my cousins in SoHo, I just start walking without much of a plan- maybe go to a Chinatown bakery for some coconut rolls.
#8 Gringo on 2014-04-13 20:48 (Reply)
BTW, just saw the question...


A very good friend of mine and I were walking down the street in 1987. A car pulls up and the guy asks "How do I get to Carnegie Hall?"
My friend, always the jokester, replies "Practice, practice, practice. Sorry, I've always wanted a reason to say that."
He then directed the fellow properly on his way.

I know it's an old joke, but to actually see it used was a bit of a treat.
#9 Bulldog on 2014-04-13 22:37 (Reply)
Must see St Paul's Chapel . Where George Washington prayed after he was sworn in .. More moving than the exploitative WTC memorial , donation here only if you want to ..very inspirational , unsung history here. Closeby , century 21 is fab , eclectic shopping on Cortland street .
Instead of the SS seaport go up the West Side to High Line and Chelsea Marketn. Both places are good urban re use and very great people watching . Plus food is awesome .. The seafood at the fish market is even take out and can not be any fresher . The food network is upstairs . .
#9.1 Madhatton (Link) on 2014-04-13 22:59 (Reply)
Also, I know it's gone, but the old Sloppy Louie's was a place I wish I'd had the opportunity to visit.
http://www.thirteen.org/thecityconcealed/tag/sloppy-louies/

Ultimately, if memory serves, it became the North Star Pub, which I think closed in 2001. I did go to the North Star several times on summer evenings.
#10 Bulldog on 2014-04-13 22:44 (Reply)
I've been to NYC somewhere around fifteen times, and on every trip I've managed to set aside an extra day so that I could do The Walk.

Since I normally stay right around 85th, The Walk involves taking the subway down to the starting point at Battery, and then, over the course of maybe ten hours, working my way circuitously back up to mid-Central Park, and from there back to 85th.

Seems like every corner I turn, I see yet another iconic movie location. From the Central park steps that Macaulay Culkin ran down in Home Alone (I, or II, or III, or was it IV?), to all of the various places used in Taxi Driver, to the subway stations that have all been used in movies, to the surprisingly small NYSE building where Eddie Murphy cornered the OJ market, to the WTC site . . .

What can I say? It's no wonder they call NYC "Yuppie Disneyland." Most fun you can have in ten hours with your clothes on.
#11 bobby b on 2014-04-13 23:28 (Reply)
Yes, there is always something interesting to look at.
#11.1 Bird Dog on 2014-04-14 06:35 (Reply)
Sounds very interesting, i am in
#12 Trenton Beriont on 2014-04-14 07:26 (Reply)
Have always been in the City with "oldsters in tow or with anxious college students, eager to see friends or with specific museums demanding my attention.

Please give us a route map with streets named, so we can follow or plan some off-shoot routes of our own.

"Go west from... to..." is a bit vague for us out-of-towners who love the place, but don't understand the flow.
#13 Earl T on 2014-04-14 10:13 (Reply)
Get a detailed map of Manhattan, with the landmarks.

Then just get walking. You can't go wrong.

Google Maps also has lots of Manhattan detail.
#13.1 BD on 2014-04-14 10:57 (Reply)
Here's a walk I managed in the late 1960's.

Start from Brooklyn Heights, cross the bridge to Manhattan go uptown to Metropolitain Museum of Art, then walk back to Brooklyn Heights.
#14 JamesG on 2014-04-14 10:53 (Reply)
Great idea. For certain, a stop at McSorley's would oblige me to continue the tour in spirit only.
#15 Clarion (Link) on 2014-04-18 20:03 (Reply)
Ah, McSorleys. I was there on Good Friday with about 20 high school classmates (from a good Catholic school, of course), some of whom I haven't seen in 40 years.
#16 dcjuggler on 2014-04-20 13:49 (Reply)

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