The additional costs of visiting New York City
Lest I be accused of always focusing on the positive developments in travel, here are two additional costs of visiting the most popular touristic city in America.
After 150 years of permitting visitors to pay what they choose to pay for admission to New York City’s great Metropolitan Museum of Art (home to many of the world’s outstanding paintings, in addition to ancient Roman and Greek statues, temples and vases), the officers of that remarkable place have chosen to charge an admission rate of $25 per person to out-of-state and foreign visitors.
Until now, visitors from anywhere in the world have been charged only what they wanted to pay for admission, and the great majority of them have chosen to hand over only $1 or $2.
Residents of New York, whose local taxes already support that edifice, will continue to pay the amount they choose. They will be asked to display identification proving their local residency. But all other would-be visitors will be slapped with a wholly unexpected $25.
Do we applaud this move? Far from it.
Bastions of culture should be supported by general tax revenues, as in London, where most great museums are free to visit. These opportunities should not be barred off to people of low income, as New York’s “Met” will now be.
For the same reason of economic justice, all of us should vigorously oppose the administration’s proposal to eliminate public funding from public television or the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Those institutions are the only access that most low- income Americans have to decent levels of culture. They should be supported by public revenue.
New York City’s other bad news? That’s the recent decision by the 612-room Moxy Hotel, located near Times Square, to occasionally charge as much as $349 a night per room. We (including yours truly) were all led to believe by the public relations efforts of Moxy’s corporate owner, Marriott Hotels, that the Moxy would be a low-priced property, a haven for cost-conscious visitors to expensive New York City. It now appears that the Moxy’s manager has been permitted to charge whatever the traffic will allow.
Viewed against the Moxy’s hype, this was a less-than-honorable act by Marriott Hotels.
Note to the reader: Please be sure to confirm all rates and details directly with the companies in question before planning your trip. The information in this column was accurate when it was released, but prices are competitive, sometimes limited and can always change without notice.