IT’S NEW YORK
BUT NOT AS YOU KNOW IT Jane Mulkerrins suggests 10 great ways to take a fresh bite out of the Big Apple
New York knows what it’s good at, and the clue’s in the name: the city’s currency is novelty. In many ways, this non-stop metropolis invented the city tour, with its Jewish food walks, Sex and the City bus excursions and actor-led walking history treks. Of course there are the tourist mainstays — Central Park, the Empire State Building, Rockefeller Centre and the Guggenheim Museum — the must-see sights on your first visit. But even the city’s bestloved monuments are open to a revamp, giving even the most obvious of places a dash of fresh allure.
1LADY LIBERTY
In May, the new Statue of Liberty Museum opened on Liberty Island, a $100m development funded by investments from A-list names including Diane von Furstenberg, Ralph Lauren and Google co-founder Sergey Brin. A gift of friendship from the French to the US in 1886, the statue soon became an international symbol of freedom, democracy and human rights. The Liberty Island views are hard to beat.
2THE DEFINITIVE BAGEL
If food-obsessed New York City runs on one thing, it is the bagel, and Ben’s Bagel Tours offers an educational odyssey. The new Lower East Side Nosh Tour, a two-and-a-half-hour walking itinerary, visits the traditionally Jewish Lower East Side — now a buzzing hipster stronghold — with tastings of knishes at Yonah Schimmel’s Knish Bakery, pastrami at Katz’s Delicatessen (pictured right), pickles at The Pickle Guys and a bialy at Kossar’s Bialys, all accompanied by historical commentary and insider knowledge. Other bagel-focused tours include Chinatown and Little Italy, the High Line and Meatpacking District, and Grand Central Station. Tours $55 (R788) pp; bensbageltours.com
3EVER HIGHER
In the decade since its opening, the High Line — the elevated park running along the west side of Manhattan from Gansevoort Street to 34th Street, planted with wild flowers and decked out with loungers and benches — has become one of the most popular spots for a stroll in New York. This month, it opened its third and final section. Called The Spur, it is located on a stretch of the original elevated railway track, and includes a piazza with panoramic views up and down 10th Avenue and 30th Street, as well as wooden seating for entertainment and arts events.
Free; thehighline.org
4FERRY NICE
The best way to see the city is by boat and there’s no need to pay for a fancy harbour cruise. Two years ago, NYC Ferry was launched as a commuter service to connect areas traditionally underserved by public transport for a reasonable $2.75 (R40) one way. Today, the system connects fashionable Brooklyn neighbourhoods such as Williamsburg and Dumbo — key destinations for flea-market enthusiasts — the Bronx, the Upper East Side, the Lower East Side and the Financial District, the beaches at Rockaway, and, by 2020, Coney Island, too. ferry.nyc
5SUNSET SPOT
In the 19th century, the stretch of Brooklyn waterfront south of the eponymous bridge was a run of busy piers and warehouses. By the end of the 20th century, the 35ha of dockland and derelict piers had long been abandoned. In 2002, using soil excavated brooklynbridgepark.org. from the new World Trade Center site, construction began on turning it into a new park. The 2km stretch is now home to not only lawns, meadows and waterfront promenades but also free sports pitches and courts, a marina and public barbecues. In summer, the park hosts concerts by the Metropolitan Opera, free outdoor film screenings, dance classes and basketball clinics. There are few better spots from which to watch the sunset over downtown Manhattan, particularly from the deck of Pilot, the 100-year-old schooner, now an oyster and cocktail bar, moored alongside Pier 6.
6BASEBALL HERO
When, in 1947, Jackie Robinson joined the Brooklyn Dodgers, it signalled the end of racial segregation in baseball, a sport that had forced black athletes to play in separate leagues since the 1880s. Robinson’s impact on sport and
contributions to the civil-rights movement will be recognised with a museum in his honour in downtown Manhattan, expected to open later this year. The 1,720m² museum will feature interactive exhibitions and programming highlighting the life of the sixtime World Series player and his efforts in fighting for social and economic equality for all. jackierobinsonmuseum.org.
7WORLD PRIDE
June is LGBTQ Pride Month, and the city has just put on a month of events marking the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall uprising — the spontaneous demonstrations against a police raid on a pub in Manhattan’s west village — and half a
century of the city’s struggle for LGBTQ rights. It all culminates in the Pride march itself (it takes place today), but the New York Historical Society is marking the anniversary all summer with two special exhibitions, Letting Loose and Fighting Back: LGBTQ Nightlife Before and After Stonewall, and By the Force of Our Presence: Highlights from the Lesbian Herstory Archives.
A special installation, Say It Loud, Out and
Proud: 50 Years of Pride, features imagery from New York City Pride marches and other LGBTQ protests from the ’60s to the present day. Talks and walking tours from the Historical Society will focus on the advancement of LGBTQ rights. nycpride.org; nyhistory.org
8GENTRIFICATION 101
The rapid gentrification of New York has made it cleaner and eminently safer for locals and tourists alike, but the resulting rise in rents has pushed the city’s artists ever further east, from the West to the East Village, then from Williamsburg deeper into Brooklyn. Bushwick, with its plethora of old industrial warehouse spaces, is now the city’s most thriving artistic neighbourhood, and a great place to engage with the lively street-art scene. Free Tours by Foot offers guided, pay-what-you-wish tours of some of the best graffiti and art, including the Bushwick Collective, a vast, outdoor, street-art gallery, after which guides will direct visitors to the best of the local vintage shops and hipster bars and restaurants, including the renowned Roberta’s for pizza. freetoursbyfoot.com
9MUSEUMS FOR DUMMIES
Billed as tours for people who don’t like museums — but suitable for all those who do as well — Museum Hack tours tear up the rule book on visiting hallowed cultural institutions. Led by irreverent renegade guides, the tours take visitors behind the scenes, tell little-known stories about the art and artefacts and hold games and challenges in the galleries. Popular tours include the weekend evening Met VIP tour ($99 including wine) and the Badass B **** of The Met — a firmly feminist tour — both at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Un-highlights Tour of the Natural History Museum (both $69/R980). There are options for kids. Museumhack.com.
10DOWNTOWN STYLE
When the city rebuilt the financial district transport interchange destroyed on 9/11, it didn’t hold back. The Oculus, which connects 11 subway lines, is a spectacular $4-billion building with a white, spinelike structure, designed by Spain’s Santiago Calatrava. The enormous, light-filled atrium links to the sparkling new World Trade Center mall, with outlets including Cole Haan, Kate Spade, Boss, Tumi, & Other Stories and Bose.
Every Friday, Smorgasburg food market sets up in the atrium, with more than 30 vendors. For bargain-hunting chaos, the original, enormous Century 21, with designer discounts galore, is just across Broadway. westfield.com/westfieldworldtradecenter
● L S. © Telegraph Media Group Limited [2019]