Finding your way in a big city
So here is a long, possibly boring, discussion about the New York roadmap. More than most of my blog posts, this was written for me, not you. But you are welcome to read it. I won't mind if you get bored and stop reading.
New York is an easy city to find your way in- for a big chunk of Manhattan Island the Streets are numbered from 1st through to 242nd St and orthogonal to that the Avenues are numbered first through ninth. Fifth avenue is the 'middle' and if you are on a Street (as opposed to an Avenue) West of fifth you say something like "160 West 24th St", or if you are East you might say 65 East 113th St. I happen to be staying at 160 W 24th St which is on the corner of 7th Ave. Catching the subway "downtown" means going to streets with smaller numbers (say from 77th st to 23rd street) whereas going "uptown" means going to streets with bigger numbers (say from 13th St to 112th st). After two weeks here the St/Ave grid is second nature- I can confidently place things "over on 4th Ave between 13th and 14th" or "up on 42nd St on 7th Ave".
Of course its a real City which means the nice grid falls apart at some point- Broadway cuts diagonally across the city (I believe it was the old stage coach line) and even by 13th St the grid is falling apart at the edges as the point of the island closes in. By the time you get to Wall St all semblance of order has fallen apart and the roads are more organically shaped and no longer numbered.
The subway system, at least for Manhattan Island portion of the city, is very easy to navigate since they largely follow the nice grid. And with the little prepaid transport card ($2 a ride) its very easy to get on and off.
Its lucky it is all so easy because I keep being asked for directions.
Apparently I have the right combination of looking approachable and knowledgeable because I've now been asked five times for directions- a Slavic gentleman ("Subway? Back down that road near City Hall."), a couple of slightly drunk girls late on a Friday night ("No, we are past fifth- definitely on the West side- you want head back that way over to the East side"), a Japanese girl ("the boat house is back up over the hill- follow that path and it will take you there") and so on. I've been able to answer all the questions (on one occasion a local answered before I could but I did know the way!). This happened to me on my European tour too where I got asked for directions in pretty much every city I visited. (Memorably even in Brussels and I was only there for a couple of hours in total. A lady pulled over in her car, on a round about, and asked for directions to a museum- by chance I'd walked past it). My hit rate there was probably around 90%.
Possibly I know where a lot of places are because I like walking so much, and maybe I get asked so many questions because I walk around a lot. And New York really is a very walkable city.
Yesterday I had a fabulous time revisiting portions of the city in daylight- that is where most of the building porn has come from. The city is, I guess unsurprisingly, different during the day. There was market on Broadway which was really quite large (between 14th and 10th St I think), Union Square had a lot of artists hawking their wares (in addition to the normal crowd of people just hanging out) and I saw the Staten Island Ferry packed to the gills from Battery Park- equally packed.
I have been guided in my walks by my reliable, pockets sized and ultra-convenient New York 'popoutmap' which folds out something like this:
The pocket sized map unfolds to a map of the subway system both sides of which then pop out (using a very nifty origami-like "flower unfurling" system) to a much larger and more detailed map of streets and tourist highlights. It is incredibly useful.
Riley gave it to me for my birthday. Kris was looking for birthday presents looked at this map and showed Riley and then went to put it way because I would have access to Google maps and wouldn't need such a thing- but Riley insisted on having it because it was Just So Cool. And he was absolutely right.
New York is an easy city to find your way in- for a big chunk of Manhattan Island the Streets are numbered from 1st through to 242nd St and orthogonal to that the Avenues are numbered first through ninth. Fifth avenue is the 'middle' and if you are on a Street (as opposed to an Avenue) West of fifth you say something like "160 West 24th St", or if you are East you might say 65 East 113th St. I happen to be staying at 160 W 24th St which is on the corner of 7th Ave. Catching the subway "downtown" means going to streets with smaller numbers (say from 77th st to 23rd street) whereas going "uptown" means going to streets with bigger numbers (say from 13th St to 112th st). After two weeks here the St/Ave grid is second nature- I can confidently place things "over on 4th Ave between 13th and 14th" or "up on 42nd St on 7th Ave".
Of course its a real City which means the nice grid falls apart at some point- Broadway cuts diagonally across the city (I believe it was the old stage coach line) and even by 13th St the grid is falling apart at the edges as the point of the island closes in. By the time you get to Wall St all semblance of order has fallen apart and the roads are more organically shaped and no longer numbered.
The subway system, at least for Manhattan Island portion of the city, is very easy to navigate since they largely follow the nice grid. And with the little prepaid transport card ($2 a ride) its very easy to get on and off.
Its lucky it is all so easy because I keep being asked for directions.
Apparently I have the right combination of looking approachable and knowledgeable because I've now been asked five times for directions- a Slavic gentleman ("Subway? Back down that road near City Hall."), a couple of slightly drunk girls late on a Friday night ("No, we are past fifth- definitely on the West side- you want head back that way over to the East side"), a Japanese girl ("the boat house is back up over the hill- follow that path and it will take you there") and so on. I've been able to answer all the questions (on one occasion a local answered before I could but I did know the way!). This happened to me on my European tour too where I got asked for directions in pretty much every city I visited. (Memorably even in Brussels and I was only there for a couple of hours in total. A lady pulled over in her car, on a round about, and asked for directions to a museum- by chance I'd walked past it). My hit rate there was probably around 90%.
Possibly I know where a lot of places are because I like walking so much, and maybe I get asked so many questions because I walk around a lot. And New York really is a very walkable city.
Yesterday I had a fabulous time revisiting portions of the city in daylight- that is where most of the building porn has come from. The city is, I guess unsurprisingly, different during the day. There was market on Broadway which was really quite large (between 14th and 10th St I think), Union Square had a lot of artists hawking their wares (in addition to the normal crowd of people just hanging out) and I saw the Staten Island Ferry packed to the gills from Battery Park- equally packed.
I have been guided in my walks by my reliable, pockets sized and ultra-convenient New York 'popoutmap' which folds out something like this:
The pocket sized map unfolds to a map of the subway system both sides of which then pop out (using a very nifty origami-like "flower unfurling" system) to a much larger and more detailed map of streets and tourist highlights. It is incredibly useful.
Riley gave it to me for my birthday. Kris was looking for birthday presents looked at this map and showed Riley and then went to put it way because I would have access to Google maps and wouldn't need such a thing- but Riley insisted on having it because it was Just So Cool. And he was absolutely right.