We met our guide Jesse who was incredible, unapologetically un-PC, wearing pants he had cut off at the ankle for cycling and riding a bike with duct tape around the seat. We were the only ones on the tour apart from a woman from Panama, and a second guide who took up the rear. Apparantely cars in NY are 'used to things getting in their way' and move very slowly down the narrow one-way streets which are often blocked by delivery trucks. In the busy parts we had to follow Jesse between the stationary cars, but a lot of the major streets had bike lanes. The city is very bike friendly, and the city administration have introduced bike lanes and paths everywhere. I highly recommend these guys:
http://bikethebigapple.com/
First stop was Union Square, home to an extensive fresh local produce market right in the middle of the city. Apparently it has grown a lot and farmers from all over the state, New Jersey and Connecticut bring their goods. We also saw a big LED number ticker on the side of a building, counting up and up every second. Apparently this is a real-time counter of the national debt, I'm not sure who runs it but it seems you can do that sort of thing here quite easily and free speech is very much accepted. On the TV at the moment there are political campaign ads calling their opposition all manner of things, and it's the same on talk shows.
The we went through to the East Village, which is a very old and now very fashionable residential area. The streets are narrow and winding, and the houses are amazing:
This is the famous 'skinniest house in Manhattan' (in the middle) and reportedly sold recently for $5 million.
Washington Sqaure is a big park and public space through the Washington Arch. It's where they used to hang and bury criminals hundreds of years ago, and was also a favourite hangout of the beatniks of the 70s, Bob Dylan and other musicians. There is a great view of the Empire State Building too.
The NYU buildings are mostly in this area, and look very big and impressive. The wealthy homes of the 1830s are now offices and lecture halls. Columbia and NYU are the two biggest owners of real estate in Manhattan, and these are the NYU student dorms on the side of Washington Sqaure:
This real estate is worth hundreds of millions, and these four buildings have penthouses and rooftop gardens. Locals struggle to find accommodation downtown (vacany rate is 1%) but NYU freshmen get to live in multi-million dollar apartments in the center of Lower Manhattan. I can see why the locals are a bit miffed about this. Apparantely the area up around Columbia is also very nice, but no one can live there because the university owns all the buildings - 6 blocks worth.
Also near here is the famous Stonewall Inn, site of the 1969 riots which were a central part of the gay liberation movement. The story goes that the fights started when a drag queen hit a policemen with his high heel. There is a little park and some statues across the road to commemorate this revolution, which are a favourite photo subject and often get dressed up in lipstick and necklaces.
New York has always been a pretty liberal place, and the recent gay marriage bill was a huge cause for celebration. I really like that there are seemingly no complaints or homophobic reactions to things like this:
Then it was over to the Hudson waterfront, another green space and bike path, and views of the Jersey City skyline, where a lot of big companies moved their headquarters after 9/11. Jesse took us up onto the roof of a pier building, space they have ingeniously used to build parking lots and soccer fields. From there we could see the Statue of Liberty across the water, Jersey, and Lower Manhattan and the former site of the Twin Towers. This is Jersey City:
And there she is.
There are many of these spaces reserved for public relaxation and enjoyment. I think it's fantastic that in a city where real estate is at an absolute prime, they are continually trying to reuse space and create green spaces. In one of these, a man sauntered around smoking and the smell of marijuana hung in the still air.
We stopped at the Winter Garden complex for morning tea, which is opposite the World Trade Center. We tied up the bikes down by the water, went inside and looked out.
Ground Zero. It is a huge gap between the skyscrapers, and at the moment it's all a constuction zone for the new WTC Freedom Tower:
The building is going to be the tallest downtown, covered in mirrored glass and a futuristic curving shape. there has been huge controversy over what to do with the rest of the space, which is still ongoing. But in the footprints of the twin towers there are two fountain memorials, which we will go and see later.
The Sphere was a sculpture that was a meeting place in the World Trade center for decades, and was miraculously recovered with minimal damage. It has now been erected in nearby Battery Park as a temporary memorial.
Battery park and Battery Park City are reclaimed areas where they have built accommodation and park spaces. At the moment all the trees are bare, but they are everywhere and apparently the city is quite green in spring. So cool.
On our bikes again we rode into the heart of the financial district, the seat of modern capitalism. Lots of people in suits, walking very fast and talking on cellphones, but a lot of ordinary people too on their way to work or the subway. Any cars or trucks going into the World Trade Center are screened and bomb checked, and there are armed guards everywhere. More police presence on Wall Street, which was no different to any of the surrounding streets as far as I could tell. Because of the Occupy movement the big pedestrian concourse is fenced off and heavily guarded, as is the Stock Exchange entrance.
Near here was a good view of the Woolworth Building. I didn't realise that many of the buildings here are hundreds of years old, and the architecture is stunning.
Oh yeah, the top two sections of this building are penthouses which are probably worth $20 million each.
Next we went over the Brooklyn Bridge, which will require a new entry.
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