Not For Tourists Guide to New York City - Not For Tourists (2016)

Sports

General Information

Overview

Opened in 1910 as a popular port for trans-Atlantic ships, Chelsea Piers found itself neglected and deteriorating by the 1960s. In 1992, Roland W. Betts (fraternity brother of George W. Bush) began the plan to renovate and refurbish the piers as a gargantuan 28-acre sports and entertainment center. In 1995, Chelsea Piers re-opened its doors to the public at a final cost of $120 million—all private money. The only help from the state was a very generous 49-year lease. By 1998, Chelsea Piers was the third most popular attraction in New York City, after Times Square.

How to Get There

Unless you live in Chelsea, it’s a real pain to get to the Piers. The closest subway is the C or E to 23rd Street and Eighth Avenue, and then it’s still a three-avenue block hike there. If you’re lucky, you can hop a M23 bus on 23rd Street and expedite the last leg of your journey. L train commuters should get off at the Eighth Avenue stop and take the M14D bus across to the West Side Highway where you’ll be dropped off at 18th Street. There are two Citi Bike stations near Chelsea Piers: 22nd Street and 10th Avenue and 18th Street and 11th Avenue.

If you drive, entering from the south can be a little tricky. It’s pretty well signed, so keep your eyes peeled. Basically you exit right at Eleventh Avenue and 22nd Street, turn left onto 24th Street, and then make a left onto the West Side Highway. Enter Chelsea Piers the same way you would if you were approaching from the north. Parking costs $16 for the first hour, $21 for two, $25 for three on up to $60 for eight ($10 for each additional hour thereafter). Street parking in the West 20s is an excellent alternative in the evenings after 6 pm.

Facilities

Chelsea Piers is amazing. There are swimming pools, ice- skating rinks, a bowling alley, spa, restaurants, shops, batting cages—you name it. So, what’s the catch? Well, it’s gonna cost ya. Like Manhattan rents, only investment bankers can afford this place.

1 The Golf Club at Chelsea Piers ✵ 212-336-6400. Aside from potentially long wait times, the 250-yard driving range with 52 heated stalls and automated ball-feed (no buckets or bending over!) is pretty awesome. $25 buys you 90 balls (peak) or 147 balls (off-peak). If you don’t bring your own, club hire is $4/one club, $6/two, $7/three, or $12/ten. Before 6 pm on weekdays, you can whack all the balls you want for $25 between 6:30 and 9 am.

2 Bowlmor ✵ 212-835-2695 or www.bowlmor.com. Schmancy 40-lane bowling alley equipped with video games, bar, and private eight-lane bowling suite.

3 ‘wichcraft ✵ 212-780-0577 or wichcraftnyc.com. Handcrafted sandwiches, soups, salads, and sweets.

4 Paul Labrecque Salon & Spa ✵ 212-988-7186. Hair, skin, nails, and massage services to get you ready for the court, pitch, or pool.

5 The Sports Center ✵ 212-336-6000. A very expensive monster health club with a 10,000-square-foot climbing wall, a quarter-mile track, a swimming pool, and enough fitness equipment for a small army in training. If you have to ask how much the membership is, you can’t afford it.

6 Sky Rink ✵ 212-336-6100. Two 24/7 ice rinks mainly used for classes, training, and bar mitzvahs.

7 Pier Sixty & The Lighthouse ✵ 212-336-6144 or piersixty.com. 10,000-square-foot event space for private gatherings catered by Abigail Kirsch.

8 The Field House ✵ 212-336-6500. The Field House is an 80,000-square-foot building with a 23-foot climbing wall, a gymnastics training center, four batting cages, two basketball courts, and two indoor soccer fields.

9 Spirit Cruise ✵ 866-433-9283 or www.spiritofnewyork.com. Ships run out of Chelsea Piers. Dinner cruises start at around $80/person, and if you’re having a big function, you can rent the entire boat.

Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, there are no golf courses on the island of Manhattan. Thankfully, there are two driving ranges where you can at least smack the ball around until you can get to a real course, as well as a golf simulator at Chelsea Piers that lets you play a full round “at” various popular courses (Pebble Beach, St. Andrews, etc.). NYC has a number of private and public courses throughout the outer boroughs and Westchester; however, they don’t even come close to satisfying the area’s huge demand for courses. The Trump Golf Links at Ferry Point in the Bronx is a world-class course with amazing views of the East River, Whitestone Bridge and Manhattan skyline.

For swimming pools in Manhattan, you pretty much have two options: pay exorbitant gym fees or health club fees in order to use the private swimming facilities, or wait until the summer to share the city’s free outdoor pools with openly urinating summer camp attendees. OK, so it’s not that bad! Some YMCAs and YWCAs have nice indoor pools, and their fees are reasonable. And several of the same New York public recreation centers that have outdoor pools (and some that do not) have indoor pools for year-round swimming. Though plenty of kids use the pools, there are dedicated adult swim hours in the mornings, at lunch time, and in the evenings (pee-free if you get there early). Just don’t forget to follow each pool’s admittance ritual, strange as it may seem—the locker room attendants generally rule with an iron fist. And if you can wait the obligatory 30 minutes, there’s an authentic local food court near the standout public pool in Red Hook (155 Bay St, Brooklyn).

Then there’s the Hudson. Yes, we’re serious. There are about eight races in the Hudson each year, and the water quality is tested before each race. New York City also has some great beaches for swimming, including Coney Island, Manhattan Beach, and the Rockaways. If you prefer your swimming area enclosed, check out the pool options in Manhattan.

General Information

Overview

There are more tennis courts on the island of Manhattan than you might think, although getting to them may be a bit more than you bargained for. Most of the public courts in Manhattan are either smack in the middle of Central Park or are on the edges of the city—such as Hudson River Park (Map 5), East River Park (Map 7) and Riverside Park (Map 16). These courts in particular can make for some pretty windy playing conditions.

Getting a Permit

The Parks tennis season starts on the first Saturday of April and ends on the Sunday before Thanksgiving. Permits are good for use until the end of the season at all public courts in all boroughs, and are good for one hour of singles or two hours of doubles play. Fees are: Adults (18-61 yrs), $200; Juniors (17 yrs and under), $10; Senior Citizen (62 yrs and over), $20; Single-play tickets $15. Permits can be acquired in person at the Parks Department headquarters Central Park or Paragon Sporting Goods or online via the Parks website or by mail (applications can be found online). Renewals are accepted in person, by mail or via the website, except if originally purchased at Paragon.

Billiards Overview

Whether you’re looking for a new hobby or need a new atmosphere in which to booze (that isn’t your 300 sq. ft. apartment), a good pool-hall is a great way to get the job done. Or perhaps you simply enjoy a hearty game of 8-ball, and it’s as simple as that; in any case, an eclectic mix of options dot the island of Manhattan.

Bowling Overview

If you want to go bowling in Manhattan, you have four solid options. Keep in mind that there’s just about no way to bowl cheaply, so if you’re struggling to keep a positive balance in your bank account, you may want to find another activity or head out to New Jersey.

At Frames (Map 12) you can pay per game or per lane. Connected to the Port Authority (remember this in case you have a long wait for a bus), Frames has 30 lanes, a full bar and pub menu, and two game-rooms, with a new dance floor and lounge on the way. You can even make online reservations. At Chelsea Piers, you’ll find Bolwmor (Map 8). The high-end bowling alley also offers laser tag and a ropes obstacle course. Not cheap but they do feature all-you-can-bowl specials on slow nights.

Finally, for the world’s ultimate (hipster) bowling experience, head to The Gutter (Map 29) in Brooklyn—the borough’s first new bowling alley in over fifty years. It’s like a Stroh’s ad from the 1980s (except the beer is fancier). It doesn’t get any better than bowling on beautiful, old-school lanes and drinking tasty microbrews with your buddies.

But The Gutter now has some serious competition, as sprawling Brooklyn Bowl (Map 29) has opened two blocks away. Featuring food by Blue Ribbon and live bands many nights, it’s already become another great bowling option—and again, far better than anything in Manhattan.

General Information

Overview

Barclays Center, the home of the Brooklyn Nets and New York Islanders, opened in 2012 as part of the controversial $4.9 billion Atlantic Yards redevelopment project that decked over LIRR tracks and focused everyone’s attention on controversial eminent domain issues, for a while there at least, until Barbra, Jay-Z, and Deron Williams redirected it again.

The original architectural design was created by Frank Gehry, the king of urban revitalization, but it was horrendously expensive, especially following the 2008 financial collapse, so the firm of Ellerbe Becket took over. The scaled-down plans proved to be horrendously uninspiring, eliciting negative comparisons to an airplane hangar and/or the downtown Indianapolis arena where the NBA’s Pacers play (also designed by Ellerbe Becket). In the end, expectations were lowered just enough to make the final product look kind of cool: the brown weathered steel exterior evokes the site’s industrial past and pays slight tribute to the brownstone materials in the surrounding neighborhoods. In addition, the height is not overwhelming; the structure almost fits snugly into the Flatbush Avenue streetscape. The triangular public space at the intersection of Flatbush and Atlantic is visually appealing: the new subway entrance features a living planted roof and the arena’s exterior structure, along with its oculus sky opening (don’t worry, we had to look up that word, too) and mesmerizing LED screen is—yikes—almost kind of elegant. As arenas go, it’s pretty nice looking. And it’s about 59 times more appealing looking than the Atlantic Center Mall, if you want to know the truth.

The Brooklyn Nets began playing at the arena for the 2012-13 season after moving from New Jersey. The NHL’s New York Islanders began skating at Barclays Center for the 2015-16 season after leaving Nassau Coliseum (elsewhere on Long Island) where they had played since their founding in 1972. The arena has hosted college basketball almost since it opened, including the Barclays Center Classic, an early season eight-team tournament. For those who don’t dig basketball, the concerts (accommodating 19,000 fans) have been big time: Barbra Streisand, Jay-Z (who owned a small stake in the Nets before becoming a sports agent), Billy Joel, not to mention the MTV Video Music Awards, which were broadcast from Barclays Center.

How to Get There—Driving

Parking is so limited that Barclays Center practically demands that you use public transport, but if you must, you can reserve a spot at the center (should there be any available, being a suiteholder helps), find a nearby garage, or scour for street parking.

How to Get There—Mass Transit

Part of the draw of Barclays Center is its proximity to Brooklyn’s largest transportation hub. The 2, 3, 4, 5, B, D, N, Q and R trains all service the arena, and you can also take the to Lafayette Avenue or the to Fulton Street. The LIRR stops at Atlantic Terminal, just across the street from the arena. In addition, eleven bus lines stop right outside or nearby.

How to Get Tickets

To avoid exorbitant Ticketmaster charges, the American Express Box Office (yes, even the freakin’ box office has naming rights attached to it) is open Monday-Saturday 12 pm-6 pm (Saturday 4 pm). Despite being a box office, they will not sell tickets to events on the first day tickets are offered to the public.

General Information

Overview

The $380 million Prudential Center (or “The Rock” to the media and fans) opened in downtown Newark in 2007 and immediately became a prime destination for major league sports and top-notch live music. With a capacity of 17,000-plus and all the bells and whistles of the modern sports going experience, the Prudential Center is the full-time home for the NHL’s New Jersey Devils and the Big East basketball’s Seton Hall Pirates. The Rock is hands down a billion times better than the cold and charmless Izod Center which is sitting in the middle of the Meadowlands all alone and empty except for the occasional Doo Wop or Megadeth concert (no joke)—its future is now as murky as a bucketful of Meadowlands swamp water.

How to Get There—Driving

Follow NJ Turnpike southbound and take Exit 15W onto I-280 westbound. Turn right on Exit 15A towards Route 21 southbound. Turn right onto Rector Street. Turn left onto Broad Street southbound. Continue on Broad Street to Lafayette Street and make a left. Prudential Center will be on your left hand side. There is lots of parking, but traffic can still be unpredictable. Always allow more time than you think you’ll need. Highways surrounding the arena include 280, 78, NJ Turnpike, 1 & 9, 21, 22, Garden State Parkway, 80 and NJ 3.

How to Get There—Mass Transit

No need to get on a bus anymore at Port Authority, thank goodness, for Devils games. Just take NJ Transit to Broad Street Station, then switch to Newark Light Rail to Newark Penn Station, which is only two blocks west of the Prudential Center. Even easier is taking the PATH train to Newark Penn Station. The arena is only a short walk away. Call or check the website for more details.

How to Get Tickets

The box office is open Monday to Friday from 11 am to 6 pm and is closed Saturday and Sunday, unless there is an event. To purchase tickets without going to the box office, call Ticketmaster at 800-745-3000, or visit their website. Or try TicketsNow (www.ticketsnow.com) or StubHub (stubhub.com) the day of the game to find some good deals.

General Information

Overview

The $1.6 billion MetLife Stadium is a state-of-the-art facility that hosts 20 NFL games a season—the most of any NFL stadium—as well as the biggest of big name concerts. In February 2014 it became the first cold-weather outdoor stadium to host a Super Bowl (though interestingly it wasn’t the coldest temperature ever for a Super Bowl game). The stadium is home to both the New York Jets and New York Giants; the changeover from week to week to give the facility home team touches is fascinating in and of itself. Even the team shop switches from one to another. So that $1.6 billion is put to good use. Did we mention that New Jersey taxpayers are still paying off bonds from the old Giants Stadium, which was demolished in 2010?

How to Get There—Driving

MetLife Stadium is only five miles from the Lincoln Tunnel (closer to Midtown than Citi Field), but leave early if you want to get to the game on time—remember that the Giants and the Jets are a) sold out for every game and b) have tons of fans from both Long Island and the five boroughs. You can take the Lincoln Tunnel to Route 3W to Route 120 N, or you can try either the Holland Tunnel to the New Jersey Turnpike N to Exit 16W, or the George Washington Bridge to the New Jersey Turnpike S to Exit 16W. Accessing the stadium from Exit 16W allows direct access to parking areas. Parking costs $30 for most events except NFL games where all cars must have pre-paid parking permits only.

How to Get There—Mass Transit

On game days NJ Transit now runs trains directly to the stadium (Meadowlands Sports Complex) from Secaucus Junction for events over 50,000. Round-trip tickets are $4.50 and travel time is 10 minutes. Train service begins three hours before the start of a major event or football game. After events, trains will depart frequently from the Meadowlands for up to two hours. Metro-North runs trains directly to Secaucus Junction for selected games.

How to Get Tickets

In general, scalpers and friends are the only options for Jets and the Giants games. Try the resale sites if you’re dying to attend a game. The box office is open Monday-Friday 11 am to 5 pm.

General Information

Overview

Once resembling the Doge’s Palace in Venice (c.1900), the since-relocated Altoid ‘tween Seventh and Eighth Avenues atop Penn Station remains one of the legendary venues in sport, becoming so almost solely by way of the sport of boxing. Now, for good and ill, “The World’s Most Famous Arena” houses the NBA’s Knicks (catch Spike Lee and various supermodels courtside), NHL’s Rangers, The Liberty of the WNBA, St. John’s University’s Red Storm, as well as concerts, tennis tournaments, dog shows, political conventions, and, for those of you with 2+ years of graduate school, monster truck rallies and “professional” wrestling. There’s also The Theater at Madison Square Garden for more intimate shows. Check out MSG’s website for a full calendar of events. A $1 billion (!) renovation completed in 2013 upgraded nearly everything and added two bridges running parallel to the floor that provide a unique view from way, way high above.

How to Get There—Mass Transit

MSG is right above Penn Station, which makes getting there very easy. You can take the A, C, E and 1, 2, 3 lines to 34th Street and Penn Station, or the N, Q, R, B, D and PATH lines to 34th Street and 6th Avenue. The Long Island Rail Road also runs right into Penn Station.

How to Get Tickets

Box Office open Monday-Saturday 10 am-6 pm. Try Ticketmaster or the resale sites for single-game seats for the Knicks and the Rangers. The ubiquitous ticket scalpers surrounding the Garden are a good last resort for when your rich out-of-town friends breeze in to see a game. Liberty tickets (and tickets for other events) are usually available through Ticketmaster. First day of concert ticket sales are via Ticketmaster only.

General Information

Overview

Shea Stadium, the Mets longtime former home, is all but a very distant memory, except for some rousing Billy Joel concerts toward the end there that they sometimes replay on PBS late at night. And although most find Citi Field appealing enough, its debut coincided with the worldwide economic downturn and a particularly brutal period in the Mets history—connected in more ways than you’d think. The ballpark’s corporate sponsorship was questioned and mocked after Citigroup received a government bailout; renaming the stadium “Debits Field” was one of the more inspired reactions. Then came news that the Mets ownership had been investing with Ponzi pro Bernie Madoff; the team’s finances took a, er, real hit, and management began paring its payroll. Thus began a vicious cycle of high ticket prices and mediocre seasons; sort of like the economy itself, come to think of it…

All of that aside—and it’s a lot to put aside!—Citi Field is actually a pretty nice ballpark. Fans enter through The Jackie Robinson Rotunda, getting a little lesson on civil rights as they read the inspiring quotes etched in the façade and pose for pictures next to Robert Indiana’s sculpture of the number 42. The food options are strong, from Danny Meyer’s Shake Shack (beware multi-inning lines) to the Italian sandwiches courtesy Mama’s of Corona. Beer options rise above the typical Crud Light—head to the outfield beyond the scoreboard for expanded tap and bottle options.

So much about Citi Field seems to be a response to the old Shea Stadium. Where the old sprawling multi-use facility sometimes seemed cavernous, Citi Field strives for an intimate experience—the only problem is that sightlines are often blocked, even in the high roller seats behind the dugouts. Speaking of which, tickets are expensive—after all, they have to pay for the privately financed $800 million-plus stadium somehow—but the resale market is robust and the Mets tier ticket prices so that a weeknight game against a lousy team can be a pretty good deal (even if you have no view of the left field corner). Oh, and a bit of advice: steer clear of section 538—yes, the seats are cheap, but that out-of-town scoreboard works hard to block your view from the upper reaches.

How to Get Tickets

You can order Mets tickets by phone through the Mets’ box office, on the internet through the Mets’ website, or at the Mets Clubhouse Shops (11 West 42nd St, the Manhattan Mall, and Roosevelt Field Mall in Garden City). StubHub (www.stubhub.com) is a good option to scoop up unwanted tickets at reduced prices and there are StubHub kiosks located just outside the entrance to Citi Field.

How to Get There—Driving

Yeah. Good luck trying to make the first pitch on a weekday night. But if you must, take the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge to the Grand Central Parkway; the Midtown Tunnel to the Long Island Expressway to the Grand Central; or the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway to the LIE to the Grand Central. If you want to try and avoid the highways, get yourself over to Astoria Boulevard in Queens, make a right on 108th Street, then a left onto Roosevelt Avenue. Parking is absurdly expensive, but if you’re willing to walk 15-20 minutes there is free street parking in the Corona neighborhoods surrounding Citi Field.

How to Get There—Mass Transit

The 7 train runs straight to Citi Field, and the MTA frequently offers special express trains that make limited stops between Citi Field and Times Square, making it by far the easiest way to get to the stadium. The E, F, M and R trains connect with the 7 at 74th Street-Roosevelt Avenue. The other option from Midtown is the Port Washington LIRR from Penn Station, which stops at Citi Field on game days. Seastreak (seastreakusa.com/mets.aspx or 800-BOATRIDE) runs ferries from Highlands, NJ for selected games; see website for details.

General Information

Overview

When a city or a team builds a new stadium they usually take the opportunity to come in with something bold and fresh. When the Yankees opened their new stadium in 2009 after 85 years in the old place, it was striking how similar it looked to the old version. And that was by design: after all, as they say, if it ain’t broke, spend $1.5 billion to basically replicate it across the street. Architecturally, the exterior and the iconic frieze at the top of the upper decks are just about exactly the same. That said, there are some key changes—the concourses are wide and airy, the concessions are better (the Lobel’s Sliced Steak Sandwich Cart is far and away our favorite), that 59-by-101-foot HD LED scoreboard is boffo-redonkulous, and the open-plan lower level allows you to catch a glimpse of the action from the area behind the expensive seats. That’s the good. The not so good includes but is not limited to: seats cost more and seem farther away from the field of play, the place doesn’t get as loud anymore, there is a stupid wire that runs across your field of vision on the first and third base lines from the upper levels, you have to pay extra to get into the schmancy outfield bar, you can’t get into other places without a fancy seat, half the fancy seats go unused so there is all this empty space where all the best seats are, there are major unconscionable blind spots in the bleachers where that schmancy outfield bar juts out—we could go on. One thing that’s the same: you still can’t bring a bag into the place, which is just asinine if you’re coming from work.

If you’ve never done it, make sure you check out Monument Park at least once. A sort hall of fame for Yankees players, Monument Park sits just beyond the center field wall. The bronze plaques immortalize the great players—and there have been many of them over the years—who made the franchise one of the most successful in all of sports. And then there’s the way oversized tribute to George Steinbrenner, the cantankerous owner who rescued the team from irrelevance when he led an ownership group to purchase the floundering team from CBS in 1972 for about $10 million. When Steinbrenner died in 2010, the Yankees were worth $1.6 billion. Situated dead center, Steinbrenner’s plaque is about five times the size of any other, including those to Mantle and DiMaggio—both of which dutifully flank The Boss. Monument Park is open until 45 minutes before the start of a game. Follow signs from the main entrance.

Yankee Stadium has hosted several non-baseball events: concerts like Metallica, Jay-Z and Justin Timberlake, European soccer, college football, and several NHL outdoor games. It is also the home of New York City FC (www.nycfc.com or @NYCFC), the city’s MLS franchise. The field layout for NYCFC games is slightly odd, with one end of the pitch roughly along the first base foul line and the other end somewhere near the left field wall, meaning that a lot of the seats can seem removed from the action; check the seat map before you buy tickets. And then there’s the monumental task of sodding the infield (and removing the picther’s mound) for each game. This is no dirt and grass early season Raiders game at Oakland Coliseum, that’s for sure. All that aside, soccer in Yankee Stadium is a blast, and (sorry Red Bulls) having a hometown team to root for is a, er, kick.

How to Get There—Driving

Driving to Yankee Stadium from Manhattan isn’t as bad as you might think. Your best bet is to take the Willis Avenue Bridge from either First Avenue or FDR Drive and get on the Major Deegan for about one mile until you spot the stadium exit. From the Upper West Side, follow Broadway up to 155th Street and use the Macombs Dam Bridge to cross over the river to the stadium (thus avoiding crosstown traffic). Parking (in contrast to ticket prices) is cheap, especially at lots a few blocks away from the stadium.

How to Get There—Mass Transit

Getting to the stadium by subway is easy. The 4 and D and the B (on weekdays) all run express to the stadium, and you can easily hook up with those lines at several junctions in Manhattan. A dedicated Metro-North station (Yankees-E 153rd Street) brings folks from Grand Central on the Hudson line in under 15 minutes. Seastreak (seastreakusa.com/yankees.aspx or 800-BOATRIDE) runs ferries from Highlands, NJ for selected games; see website for details.

How to Get Tickets

You can purchase tickets by phone through Ticketmaster, at the box office or the Yankee store, or online through either Ticketmaster or the Yankees website. StubHub is a good option to grab unwanted tickets, especially when the team is underperforming. And of course the illegal scalpers who are all over the damned place.