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MANAGING NEW YORK
The City That
Defines "World Class"¯
By Ray Chatelin
Photos by Toshi

NEW YORK, NY - The first thing you have to understand about this city, is that it's more than just another place to visit. It's a city/state, a world onto itself with the real and the imagined combined in one place and where you have to diminish it in your mind before you can successfully navigate its charms.

Few destinations match its scope. Paris, Mexico City, Tokyo, London, Sao Paulo, Singapore, and Hong Kong come to mind as destinations that are more than mere cities. What defines them is the fact you find anything from any other part of the world within their boundaries. And you can spend a lifetime at any of these places without ever having discovered all of what's there.

The term "world class"¯ is often used to define even medium-sized cities simply because they're pleasant place to live. But, being "world class"¯ really means having the very best of everything and being the standard for a wide range of human activity whether it's the arts, architecture, shopping, educational institutions, or being the center of financial activity. New York defines the term.

So how does a mere tourist cope with a mega metropolis like New York? It's simple, when you think of it. Instead of being overwhelmed by the scope of the place - which you will be in first hours of arrival ... think of the place as a series of villages.

Go to a Yankees game and The Bronx becomes a village in which to explore. Attend the US Open tennis tournament in Flushing in August/September and the borough of Queens becomes your objective. And when you visit the Metropolitan Museum, you enter the world of Central Park and the Upper East Side.

In New York's sprawling Chinatown, in lower Manhattan, almost all Chinese goods found in China can be found there, including food, clothes, jewelry, souvenirs, etc. On the north side of Canal Street are many jewelry stores while on the south of Canal Street are small gift, handbag, perfume, watch stores and big supermarkets, etc. Mott Street and its surrounding streets are the best places to shop where most of things can be bargained.

Visitors to Greenwich Village usually expect to find the 1960s still in full bloom. Sorry about that, but while this small area below 14th Street and west of Broadway has been a Mecca to the creative, rebellious and Bohemian for more than 100 years, starving artists can't afford to live there any longer.

Alas, most of the fabled Beatnik-era ambiance is gone, but you'll still find coffeehouses like Caffe Reggio and Cafe Figaro ... places that inspired writers Jack Kerouac and William Burroughs. But you can still plan a day around the history of the place, its shopping, and its fine restaurants.

One of the biggest mistakes first-time visitors make when planning a New York trip is to "see New York". Good luck. You don't "see New York", you experience what it has bit by bit. If you try to devour it at a single sitting, you end up with metropolitan indigestion because there's just too much to be seen and experienced.

Even though I've been to the city on many occasions, and in fact lived there for two years, I still find value in taking city tours just to see what has changed. For the city is in constant change. For example, parts of the city that once were undesirable - such as Harlem - can quickly become the in-place to live.

One thing is guaranteed about visiting this city. If you choose your hotel wisely, it will make your time there memorable. Pick a location that's removed from your main interests or your ability to tolerate noise, and it'll be a long slog. Even though New York offers some of the best public transportation in the world, you don't want to waste too much time just getting back and forth to where you want to visit.

You'll constantly hear the terms, "midtown"¯, "downtown"¯ and "uptown"¯ thrown about when visiting New York. The terms have real meaning. Midtown is Manhattan's main business district and when you walk along Fifth Avenue from Central Park south to about 14th Street. Downtown (below 14th Street) contains Greenwich Village, SoHo, TriBeCa and Wall Street, the financial district. The phrase "downtown" can also simply mean south of wherever you happen to be at the moment, while "uptown" refers to all points north.

If you want to be in the middle of the action, then by all means find a hotel in the heart of the midtown area. While 42nd Street and Broadway may be where you'll find the action such as the theater district, and you'll be on a constant high, with all of your senses coming into play for every minute you're there. It's also the noisiest.

If you want tranquility, find a hotel in the Upper East Side, just off Central Park. You'll find yourself in one of Manhattan's finest neighborhoods, where restaurants are plentiful along Second Avenue and where you can window-shop to your heart's content. The Upper East Side stretches from 59th to 96th Streets, between Central Park and the East River and with its world-famous museums, elite schools, luxury boutiques, and proximity to Central Park, the family-oriented Upper East Side can be one of the best places to explore.

It is a convenient location for exploring Central Park, as well as the many museums constituting Museum Mile. Madison Avenue is home to many couture and designer shops and even if you can't afford to buy anything, the window shopping is extraordinary. Park Avenue is lined with gorgeous pre-war apartment buildings and gardening down the median makes it a great place to stroll.

Manhattan itself is a series of little worlds and one of New York City's great assets is its easy access by foot. It is mostly laid out like a grid - uptown/downtown streets intersect with cross-town streets, making it easy to navigate even for the first-time visitor. That changes in Lower Manhattan, in the Battery area, where streets are a bit less grid-like.

The city is also quite flat, and exploring it on foot is the best way to get a real feel for the different neighborhoods. It's also the least expensive way to get around and sometimes, depending on traffic and distance, the fastest. And, should you decide to pack it in, there's always the option of either the subway or a taxi - the latter being relatively inexpensive and plentiful.

New York is one of the most magical places on earth, where you'll find that money will get you anything, but there's also much free activity to be found within its boundaries. A live-theater ticket will cost you upwards of $100 to see performances of the latest plays on Broadway. But, there's also plenty of theater in smaller off-Broadway venues at a third that cost.

And so it is throughout the city. Plan your visit well, manage its assets with some thought, and you'll find yourself in love with the place and its gregarious residents.