Manhattan Community Board Four - New York City: Fill & Download for Free

As a tour guide and entertainer in NYC, it's really difficult for me to mention only one, so I won't. Here are some of my favorite things:A bit of history: The One New York Times building (from which the ball drops on New Years Eve),located in TIMES SQUARE, is completely empty and devoid of tenants, with the exception of the street level Walgreens. This is because the current owner realized he could make more money from signage than space rentals. Prior to 1904, Times Square was called Longacre Square because it was one long acre. It was not yet the Broadway Theatre District; it was the horse and carriage district. New Year's Eve in NY had been always officially celebrated downtown at Trinity Church (highly recommended history-rich site with Manhattan’s only remaining in-use cemetary and final resting place of Alexander Hamilton). Adolph Ochs, head of the Times, wanted to move his newspaper, which was located downtown, up to the site where it now stands in Times Sq. on 42nd St., but there was a problem: The Pabst Hotel (of Milwaukee beer fame) stood on the site and would have to be torn down. No problem, money talks! It became the very first skyscraper in the world to meet the wrecking ball. When the Times opened in 1904, Ochs announced his publicity scheme to move NYC’s New Year's Eve celebration to Times Square. For two years, there were fireworks and crowds of 200,000, but city officials worried about fires, so in 1907 someone had an idea of a dropping ball. The rest was history. The first ball was of wood and iron, was 5 ft. diameter and weighed 700 lbs.. The current ball is made of over 2,500 Waterford crystals, is capable of over 16 million digital color combinations and is 12,000 lbs. No, I have not nor do I ever plan to be part of that crowd unless they ask me to perform in it some day.BROADWAY THEATERS Currently, only 4 of the 40 Broadway theaters front Broadway: the Winter Garden (formerly a horse stable - the horse ring was renovated into a theater. For the first 10 years, it was the only one in town with a runway into the audience for chorus girls, which earned its nickname the Bridge of Thighs), the Broadway Theatre (where my partner assistant-orchestrated the original “Miss Saigon”), the Palace Theatre (lots of ghosts) and the Marquis Theatre. The others are mostly located on side streets. I suppose you could add the Vivian Beaumont Theater in Lincoln Center to the list, since Lincoln Ctr. is located on Broadway, just not in the theater district. Therefore, the qualification for a Broadway theater has nothing to do with its location; instead, it’s the designated number of seats: 500+ (off-Bdwy is 199 to 499 and off-off is anything under that). There are currently over 200 theaters total in the theater district alone. If you are standing in Duffy Square (epicenter of the theater district) at TKTS (the discount ticket booth) in queue for discount tickets to one of these Broadway shows and happen to glance across the street to 1552 Broadway (46th St.), you'll notice four actress statues carved into the building: Ethel Barrymore, Marilyn Miller, Rosa Ponselle and Mary Pickford. This was the I. Miller Shoe Bldg. The sign said “I. Miller The Show Folks Shoe Shop Dedicated to Beauty in Footwear.” His clients were the most elegant, famous ladies in NY. He staged a contest, asking customers to vote for their favorite stars, the above ladies won and their likenesses were sculpted in marble in 1929. I. Miller closed in 1970 and over the years the starues fell into disrepair; the biggest culprit guilty of neglect was the big TGI Fridays sign that covered them. They were heavily damaged, but when Fridays moved out, they were restored to their glory days. Now these srar ladies proudly watch over Duffy Square, perhaps flirting with the bronze statue of George M. Cohan. That'll give you a few of yesteryear’s favorites to Google while you wait in line. TIP: If the line is too long at TKTS, and sometimes it can be, there’s also a Downtown TKTS that nobody knows about, and therefore no lines, at 190 Front St. (corner John St.) in lower Manhattan. Of course, by the time you walk to the subway, wait, board, travel, disembark, walk, purchase ticket, walk back, wait for train, ride back, you’ve probably spent more time than you would waiting in line. So do your downtown sightseeing the same day you want to see a show and you can efficiently kill two birds with one stone. Or stand and wait in the excitement of Times Square. The other night I had a client. We reached TKTS Times Square at 6:30 p.m. There was no line and they snagged two orchestra tickets for Bernadette Peters in “Hello Dolly” at a total of $200. Your call.TIDBITS OF INFO: There are Native American Caves way uptown Manhattan in Inwood Park. (I haven't visited these yet but hope to in the very near future and it's next on my list.)Sections of the Berlin Wall — Next to 520 Madison Avenue is Paley Park, a nice little outdoor space. Inside the building itself is an exhibit in the lobby — 5 pieces of the Berlin Wall. (I heard it was removed for restoration and will be moved to another location — don't know whether it's back up or how much of that is fact. Best to check it out yourself.) Trapeze School of New York — Pier 40 West Side Hwy. You can take trapeze lessons, or watch from the street as people swing on the rooftop trapeze. Trapeze classes are on my agenda this summer! Open April thru Oct, I believe. Music Under N.Y.— Many of the musicians and singers who perform in our city's subways are part of Music Under N.Y., (sanctioned by the Transit Authority). These performers audition to perform in the most coveted subway spots. The ones I personally know are respected members of the cabaret and entertainment community and do this for the tips, so if you happen upon some of them performing and enjoy their performance, it's nice to consider leaving them a gratuity. Museum of the American Indian (Across from Bowling Green at the southernmost tip of Manhattan) - Part of the Smithsonian Institute and located in the former Alexander Hamilton Customs House, a major example of Beaux Arts architecture; BATTERY PARK (Great views of the Statue of Liberty and located right next to the Staten Island Ferry, which is free and goes right past the SOL). You can also visit in Battery Park the Skyscraper Museum, the Irish Potato Famine Memorial, the Jewish Heritage Museum and more. Battery Park is within walking distance from many other major historic attractions relating to Dutch Colonial New York (New Amsterdam - now known as FIDI for Financial District), South Street Seaport and a couple blocks from Fraunces Tavern - NYC’s oldest historic tavern and a great place to have lunch or dinner. It’s where Washington bid an emotional farewell to his troops. It also has a small museum. Note: if you’re in this part of town and see a street sign that’s black, it means it’s a colonial street. Further uptown, brown street signs indicate a historic block. Chelsea Piers — Hudson River at Meatpacking District. Take a stroll on the brilliantly landscaped High Line, a repurposed walkway offering a delightful blend of imported flora, urban art and cityscape over abandoned railroad tracks. When you reach the meatpacking district, look for an old archway over Pier 59 (at 13th St). This is a tragic site where the Titanic was supposed to dock. You can barely make out the faded lettering “White Star Line.” Next to it is Pier 54 where the Lusitania, which was sunk by a German submarine, set sail. Part of the Chelsea Piers now a sports center. The Whitney Museum is also in this immediate area. Woolworth Building. - If you can, book a tour of this Gothic beauty, NY's tallest from 1913-32. Fascinating history. It's closed to the public but they offer (monthly?) tours. One of the truly grand lobbies of the gilded age. The 80-floor elevators were tested by dropping them (Siri/auto-correct had changed ‘elevators’ to ‘actors’ - “tested actors by dropping them” - glad I eventually caught that one!).ZODIAC AT GRAND CENTRAL — Grand Central Terminal is full of fabulous secrets. My favorite: Half a million passengers commute through Grand Central Station everyday. Most of them are completely unaware of the zodiac mural above their heads. If you look at it closely, you might notice something odd: it's the backward view of the zodiac. There have been several explanations for this but no one really knows why. The one most commonly referred to is that it would be the view from above looking down on the stars, as it was built during a time when people were highly spiritual and astrology was taken very, very seriously. It was last restored in the 1990′s when Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis spearheaded the restoration of Grand Central.THE BEST VIEWS Finally, the best views of New York City are obviously not in New York City, but are directly across the river - in Weehawken, New Jersey. This is the spot where Alexander Hamilton was killed in the duel with Aaron Burr. Hamilton Park is located on the cliffs along the palisade on Boulevard East. It's easily accessible by bus and only takes 10 minutes to get there from Port Authority. You can also view the site from the Manhattan side by standing alongside the Hudson from around 45th Street and looking toward the row of mansions lining the cliff. (I used to occupy the top floor of one of those homes you're looking at — complete with THAT view, across the street from the noted site.) Hamilton Park also offers summer jazz festivals by the water, some decent restaurants and one can even do some fairly challenging rock climbing a few miles to the north). Aside from the NJ Transit buses, you can also get there via NY Waterway (a ferry terminal at 38th St. and West Side Hwy. I took the below photo last week at a party about a half mile away (close enough; sorry it’s a little grainy).

There aren’t any Walmarts in the five boroughs and there will probably NEVER be a Walmart in at least four of the five boroughs (Staten Island excepted). None of the community boards in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens or the Bronx want the extra vehicle traffic that a Walmart would bring, and none of them have the parking a Walmart requires as part of siting. There’s a Walmart in Valley Stream, right across the border from Queens in Nassau County. But there’s small chance that Walmart will put a store here.

Not only doesn’t NYC like him, they don’t mind telling him so. For instance, there’s a petition before the City Council to rename the strip of 5th Avenue outside Trump Tower “Barack Obama Avenue” and it’s getting traction I’m told.Despite having the planet’s most dense collection of Xillionaires, CEOs, upwardly slithering professionals, Wall Street masters-of-the-world and trust fund babies (like him), Trump’s home borough of Manhattan only gave him 9% of the vote. Citywide he took only 21%. I remember Republicans LMAOing when Gore failed to carry his home state of Tennessee by just 2%. Trump lost NY State by 22.5%.Trump did much better in blue collar enclaves like Staten Island but it has a long history of electing unsavory characters like Michael Grimm and the Molinari dynasty. However it did jettison its Republican Congressman Dan Donovan in 2018 and elected moderate Democrat Max Rose so there’s hope for them.Trump has been wreaking his brand of divisive, dishonest, racist crap in NYC since the 70s. By the Millennium there was hardly anyone who didn’t have an opinion of Trump, probably 90% negative. The best that could be said about Trump was that his relentless, naked self-promotion and his clusterfucks du jour were an endless source of amusement and WTFs? for New Yorkers.But then life got real for golden boy. In the wake of his Atlantic City, Trump Air and other financial train wrecks as well as a high profile divorce by Ivana which painted The Donald in a very negative light and which also left him almost $1B in the hole, Trump saw that he needed to revamp his image. For the first time in his privileged, cushioned life people were actually saying “no” to him. US banks didn’t want to lend to him, investment groups weren’t interested in his projects and even the city, finally free of the political clout of his well-connected father, was telling him to take a hike. So he became a Democrat,But like everything he does it was a con. Trump needed friends and quickly. Friends with money and power. He, like most people, thought that after Bush’s disastrous presidency and two failing wars the Democrats were in the catbird seat for 2008. NYC is after all a Democratic town and Hillary was the likely front-runner so he schmoozed the Clintons. He said flattering things about Bill and Hil, he expressed his view that the country needed to emulate Canada’s national health care system, that women should have the right to choose and he praised the Democrats for being the country’s best bet for a strong economy. I wish we had Twitter back then. It would make for some hilarious then-and-nows today. I mean more than there already are.He thought this political “conversion” would put him close to the next seat of power until that skinny, eloquent black man entered the race and wouldn’t take Trump’s calls. When it became obvious that the Dems weren’t going to bite his stinky bait, Putin yanked on the hook and Trump re-registered as a Republican.Political positions of Donald Trump - WikipediaWhat’s interesting (above) is that Trump apparently never registered to vote until he was 41 years old. Yeah, that’s a civic-minded man of strongly-felt political beliefs.Even most die-hard NYC Republicans who would never vote for a Democrat would begrudgingly admit that Trump is a scumbag. He’s just got too much apolitical NYC history to answer for. What Trump’s airhead apologists fail to comprehend is that NYC’s dislike for Trump predates any of his pretentious political aspirations by at least 20 years. If anything, he was more disliked during the 1980s and 90s than he was in 2016, and that includes the 8 years when he was a registered Democrat. He was seen by most New Yorkers, Democrats and Republicans alike, as an egomaniacal, loud mouthed rich kid with no sense of boundaries, a “lucky sperm” who grew up in wealth and white privilege and a reckless, spoiled brat and shallow opportunist who couldn’t wipe his own butt without his father’s help.Here’s the thing about grifters like Trump: they live in the moment and the moment is all about what you can give them now. Because of that his positions change and turn on a dime depending on what’s in it for Trump in that moment. Sooner or later, everybody finally gets that he’s a liar and an empty suit, or “All hat and no cattle”, as NJ casino billionaire Steve Wynn once said about Trump. All those angry, MAGA hat-wearing morons who attend his rallies, chant his divisive slogans and think they know him: you’re in for a rude awakening, my foolish friends. You’re just the latest in a decades-long line of marks and future victims of the Trump con.Those pre-2016 decades of Trump have also left almost every New Yorker with a personal anecdote about him: how he screwed a caterer/builder/contractor friend so badly it took them years to recover financially, how a neighbor’s black mother was rejected for an apartment in Trump Village even though she had a good-paying job, how Trump used slumlord tactics to empty a building he wanted to condo, how he grabbed the ass of or tried to kiss a guy’s waitstaff-girlfriend, how he was seen in a downtown bar hanging all over a bleached blond D girl while Marla was pregnant with Tiffany, how a musician was never paid for a gig at one his wife’s glitzy salon parties. I have some of my own, including this: Steve Harrison's answer to Have you ever met Donald Trump in real life? Is he the same person that the media portrays him to be? How is he different when not seen through the eyes of the media?What’s conspicuously absent are anecdotes about what a swell guy he is. Other than Trump’s own engineered stories that is — like how he selflessly took it upon himself to renovate Central Park’s Wollman Skating Rink when the city was so bogged down in a financial crisis that it could barely keep the streetlights on. He would do it free of charge! What a guy! What gets left out of Trump’s narrative is that while he took full credit for the work he stiffed the contractor who actually did the job pro bono, HRH Construction. He welched on his agreement to use HRH on future Trump jobs, didn’t even give them footnote credit in his glossy, self-glorifying grand reopening literature, pocketed the $3M that NYC gave him and then skimmed the Wollman box office for the next 30 years.Is Donald Trump Saving NYC Millions, or Making Millions Off Taxpayers? | WNYC | New York Public Radio, Podcasts, Live Streaming Radio, NewsThe best Trump-manufactured legend about himself was how he stopped his limo, jumped out and chased off a bat-wielding crazy man and saved the day. According to the legend, the assailant trembled and ran as soon as he recognized SuperTrump. Too bad there wasn’t a single identifiable witness in the crowd who would back up Trump’s version of events. Witnesses actually say that he drove up after the man was gone, saw the crowd, asked what had happened and quickly jumped back in his limo and drove off.NYC politicians also didn’t and don’t like Trump. Mayor Ed Koch was famous for saying “I wouldn’t trust Trump’s word if his tongue were notarized.” Mayor Bloomberg commented, “I’m a New Yorker. I know a con man when I see one.” NYC’s former Comptroller and Brooklyn DA, Elizabeth Holtzman… let’s just say she recently wrote the book on Trump:The Case For Impeaching TrumpTrump is still sucking on NYC taxpayers for concessions he weaseled from us 30 years ago which 98% of us can’t even afford to enjoy. Together those tax breaks amount to over $800 million he conned from the city which is still paying him, even for his own hideous Trump Tower pad.Community boards hated him for his bullying tactics and, when he didn’t get his way, personally insulting comments about them to the press. He pissed off half of Greenwich Village every night when his huge and incredibly loud, 24-passenger Trump Air Sikorsky S-61 helicopters flew low over the Hudson River with their AC casino high rollers en route to the 30th St heliport. I used to catch it landing some nights after my show as I pedaled my way down 12th Ave. I never saw more than three or four people riding in it. It had to be bleeding money. But it had “TRUMP” in six-foot high letters on its side so it was a flying billboard for his vanity.I co-owned a restaurant near the Brooklyn courts in the 90s and used to overhear the judges and lawyers laughing about Trump’s latest legal brain fart. I recall one judge talking about Trump’s obsession with having judgments against him sealed: “It’s like he thinks that if it’s sealed he can go on TV and say that it never happened or that he won.” Which he did.Nobody was harder on Donald Trump than Village Voice investigative reporter, Wayne Barrett. He was all over Trump’s criminally bizarre behavior from the very beginning, long before there was even a molecule of a thought that Trump might run for political office some day.The Muckraker Who Tormented Trump