H C N A 05 - Who do you want to see?

[zadojla]

I am getting ready to make an executive decision on the hotel i think. it'll probably be one right near a bridge, but on the Jersey side... that'll make it MUCH more affordable for us. the one thing that i would like to know is how much cabs will cost us to get into the city every day. also, i'm going to find a decent subway map and try to find something with easy subway access. I can't remember... did one of you already tell me that the subway DOES or DOES NOT go to Jersey?

 

Oy, where to begin!

 

1 - The subway only covers four of NYC five boroughs. It does not leave the city at any point.

2 - Cabs are horribly expensive and hard to get; plan for public transportation.

3 - If you want to stay in NYC, it should be in Manhattan, east of 10th Ave (lower numbers are east) and south of 72nd St (lower numbers are south)

4 - You have to very careful on the Jersey side; some of the nearby towns are very dangerous, like Newark or East Orange. Jersey City and Hoboken have good access to the city via public transpotation.

5 - There are only four bridges between NYC and NJ; you are better off looking at rail transit, especially since the water taxi company just declared bankruptcy.

6 - Another possibility is downtown Brooklyn. It is only minutes from Manhattan via subway, but it has changed so much since I lived there, I can't offer much guidance.

 

Check out the Metropolitan Transportation Authority website.

http://www.mta.nyc.ny.us/

 

A little geography:

 

NYC is enormous; it is a large city that incorporated all its nearby suburbs over 100 years ago, resulting in a population of 7,500,000.

It is divided into five boroughs. Manhattan is what most people think of as NYC. Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, and the Bronx are mostly residential. Parts of each of these boroughs are dangerous. Each of the boroughs is a separate county, making NY unique in being a city containing multiple counties. (The county names are sometimes different than the borough names. Go figure.)

When residents of Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island say "New York" or "the City", they mean Manhattan. When Bronx residents mean Manhattan, they say "downtown".

The subway has 453 route miles. I believe it is the largest system in the world, and it runs 24x7. There is commuter rail, NJ Transit going west and south, Metro North going north, and the Long Island Railroad going east. There are also buses, but outside the city, they are oriented to serving commuters.

Manhattan and Staten Island are islands, Brooklyn and Queens are both on Long Island. Only the Bronx is on the mainland. Therefore, bridges and tunnels are constant bottlenecks.

 

There's plenty more, but I'll post it as it occurs to me.

[IrishEyes]

Hey zad, becca is right, you totally rock!

Thanks for the info, that will help. I will check for some places in the area you mentioned... what i am afraid of is saving cash on the hotel by staying in Jersey and then paying double what we saved in cab fare...

dave, you're a lifesaver also. i know it would have taken me forever to fin some of the stuff that you did. the problem with Google is that it only works well when you already have an idea what to look for... which in this case - i did NOT. so you saved me lots of time, and i appreciate it.

[IrishEyes]

i'm thinking we'll try for the Daily Show and maybe let people do Broadway on their own, if that is something they are interested in... Dave, can you make a call and try to get us 15 tickets to the Daily Show... tell them that you represent an international web-based Science Forum that is holding a Convention in the City, and we'd all like to visit their show. You can even throw in that we've got our editor coming in from Norway, an Administrator coming in from Canada, and another from DC. See if that'll get us the tickets. If not, let me know...

[pgrmdave]

What date would we like to go see the taping?

[beccareb]

I am under eighteen, but I'm would be perfectly happy staying behind. Actually, I will only be happy if I'm not a burden on anyone, especially not because of my age.

[pgrmdave]

um...I just did a little more research on the Daily Show...they only tape Monday - Thursday...I'll look for more shows.

[alexander]

I'm 18, and i still feel like that, beccareb... I'm considering taking a train to the big apple, i heard that the tickets arent expensive... But the Daily Show sounds awesome! I'm psyched about going to Linux Conf this Febuary in Boston, i cant imagine how psyched i'll be about going to NY in May.

P.S. is anyone from here going?

here are my 2 reasons:

1) I heard that Gentoo will finally have a booth there, so i gotta visit!

2) Microsoft also has a booth there, my friend is going to ask representatives questions that wont get answered, positively anyways, basically making fun of Windows and Microsoft in general, that should be fun to watch, or even attend...

[alexander]

Comedy Club!!!???

[Killean]

A comedy club could be an idea for some. Doesn't really matter who is up on the stage from what I had experienced, for some reason a live comic is great fun.

 

Since Broadway is optional, David Letterman might be in again. (I'm disappointed that The Daily Show is out but not a real problem.)

 

If we do make any plans for those who are 18 years of age or older, something must be planned for an alternative for our younger crowd or if some do not wish to see a talk show/comedy club/Broadway. I'm coming up with blanks other than board games.

[zadojla]

Quick fact:

Most of the interesting things in Manhattan are between 4th and 81st streets, and 3rd and 10th avenues. There's plenty elsewhere, but we're talking a weekend here, not a lifetime. That area is well-covered by subway and bus, much is within walking distance.

Detail:

A standard city block in Manhattan is rectangular. It is 1/20 mile between streets, and 3/20 mile between avenues. The streets run east-west, the avenues run north-south. If you see a reference to East-something street or West-something street, that means you are on the part of Something Street east or west of Fifth Avenue. (This is not true in the boroughs, where street naming is very complex. For instance, Brooklyn was once seven separate towns, before it became a city, and then part of NYC in 1898. Queens was five separate towns until 1898, and each one still has its own post office.)

[zadojla]

Quick fact:

...(This is not true in the boroughs, ...)

This is a New-York-ism. It means the four boroughs other than Manhattan. If I were talking to native NYers, I would say "New York", not "Manhattan". I am avoiding ambiguity.

 

Un-footnoted statistic:

I read once, but did not verify, that 30% of the people in the USA live in NYC or used to. I find that hard to believe. NYC's population is about 2.5% of the US population, and almost half of NY State's. Much of the rest of NYS is very rural, including some near-wilderness areas in the Adirondack Mountains.

[zadojla]

If we do make any plans for those who are 18 years of age or older, something must be planned for an alternative for our younger crowd or if some do not wish to see a talk show/comedy club/Broadway. I'm coming up with blanks other than board games.

 

There are a bazillion museums. Sounds boring, but the Metropolitan Museum of Art has remarkable collections of musical instruments and medieval arms and armor, for instance.

 

A real NY'er thing to do is to take the Staten Island ferry from Manhattan to Staten Island, and then come right back. Nice boat ride, good view of Statue of Liberty and downtown skyline. (N.B. There is nothing in Staten Island of interest to a tourist, unless you are a light rail buff. Then take the Staten Island Rapid Transit to the end and back. Oh, there is also Ft. Wadsworth, a 19th century casemated fortress.)

[Killean]

Dave mentioned that to me when I brought it up. Most of the activities that I mentioned or have been mentioned seem like nightly activities. Personaly if they weren't I would wish to go see the museum of art, any museums of natural history (Been to Winnipeg's "Museum of Man and Nature" roughly ten times in the past five years and getting bored with exhibits to a certain degree. Nothing really changes), or science centers/planetariums.

 

So, what exactly is there to do during the night time? This could be the time that we part directions, or when we have the internet chats with all our friends who could not make it.

[zadojla]

(N.B. There is nothing in Staten Island of interest to a tourist, ...

 

There is also the longest vertical-lift center span bridge in the US, a railroad bridge that used to carry a now-defunct branch of the railroad across Arthur Kill, which separates Staen Island from New Jersey. The fourth-longest vertical-lift center span bridge in the US, is also the longest for automobile traffic, and connects Brooklyn to the Rockaway section of Queens. It is the Marine Parkway Bridge, but does not connect to Marine Parkway, which is about a mile to the west. You can't make this stuff up.

 

Another real NY'er thing to do is walk across the Brooklyn Bridge.

[zadojla]

So, what exactly is there to do during the night time? This could be the time that we part directions, or when we have the internet chats with all our friends who could not make it.

I never was a real night-life person, and I moved from NY about 18 years ago, so I am hardly up-to-date. I used to like to go to places like Chinatown or Greenwich Village, eat out and walk around looking in stores and enjoying the ambiance. This only works if the weather is nice. The used to be a store that carried every paperback science fiction book in print. It is likely gone now.

[IrishEyes]

I am under eighteen, but I'm would be perfectly happy staying behind. Actually, I will only be happy if I'm not a burden on anyone, especially not because of my age.

 

Don't be silly, becca... I'm sure there will be a few that don't attend... any chance your dad will sneak you in? :)

 

and you will NOT be a burden on anyone. In case you haven't noticed, we're nto exactly the wild and crazy party animals type. i doubt there will be anything that you really can't do... besides, this might be the perfect chance for the ladies to go shopping... no guys to worry about, nothing else to do... oh yeah, i can almost feel my credit card in my hand now... :)

[Killean]

Crazy party?! Where's the crazy party?! Why didn't someone mention a crazy party before now? Now I have to shift some of my funds to buy alcohol and pizza. :) Party! Party! Party! :) What a second, if I am legal here in Canada to buy booze, am I able to do the same in the States where the drinking limit is 21?