New York - Upper Manhattan

New York - Upper Manhattan(59th to 155th Street)
28/5/2010(Fri) Time Square, UN, Madison Avenue,Harlem, Central Park, Chinatown, Brooklyn Bridge, South Seaport Street

Manhattan Midtown - Time Square

Today our main destination is Upper Manhattan; but we still need to visit UN or United Nation. We take a subway train to Time Square. This is 2nd time we go to Time Square. There is exhibition by Arm Forces Recruitment Team. We also experienced the street free samples given and food testing along the street in NY.

Manhattan Midtown - United Nation


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United Nation Headquarter - Between 42nd and 48th streets of First Avenue and the East River. It is located in the Turtle Bay neighborhood of Manhattan, on spacious grounds overlooking the East River.Though it is in New York City, the land occupied by the United Nations Headquarters is considered international territory, and its borders are First Avenue on the west, East 42nd Street to the south, East 48th Street on the north and the East River to the east. However, according to the Agreement Between the United States and the United Nations Regarding the Headquarters of the United Nations, Pub. L. No. 80-357, 61 Stat. 756 (1947): “Except as otherwise provided in this agreement or in the General Convention, the federal, state and local courts of the United States shall have jurisdiction over acts done and transactions taking place in the headquarters district as provided in applicable federal, state and local laws.” Thus, "the district remains under the law and judicial jurisdiction of the United States.

The complex is also notable for its gardens and outdoor sculptures. Iconic sculptures include the "Knotted Gun," is Disarmament sculpture (Non-Violence), created by Swedish artist Carl Fredrik Reuterswärd and given to the United Nations by the Luxembourg government in 1988.

http://www.un.org/



Upper Manhattan

Upper Manhattan denotes the more northerly region of the New York City Borough of Manhattan. Its southern boundary may be defined anywhere between 59th Street and 155th Street. Between these two extremes lies the most common definitions of Upper Manhattan as Manhattan above 96th Street (the southern boundary of Manhattan Valley in the west and Spanish Harlem in the east) . This definition of Upper Manhattan takes in the neighborhoods of Marble Hill, Inwood, Washington Heights (including Fort George, Sherman Creek and Hudson Heights), Harlem (including Sugar Hill and Hamilton Heights), and parts of the Upper West Side (Morningside Heights and Manhattan Valley).

Harlem

From United Nation Complex, we walk across the road and saw a protest by a Shanghai Chinese man. A Beijing woman also having the same agenda. Going back to UN complex again, we took a bus to Harlem from a bus stop in front of UN plaza. A friendly white woman show us the direction. The bus pass through Upper East Side (UES) of Manhattan spans the section of the island from 59th Street to 96th Street east of Central Park and 5th Avenue. The UES includes Lenox Hill, Yorkville, Carnegie Hill and areas along Park Avenue, Madison Avenue and 5th Avenue. Above 96th Street is Harlem.


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Harlem is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan, which since the 1920s has been a major African-American residential, cultural, and business center. Originally a Dutch village, formally organized in 1658, it is named after the city of Haarlem in the Netherlands. Harlem was annexed to New York City in 1873.



Harlem
Harlem has been defined by a series of boom-and-bust cycles, with significant ethnic shifts accompanying each cycle. Black residents began to arrive en masse in 1904, with numbers fed by the Great Migration. In the 1920s and 1930s, the neighborhood was the locus of the "Harlem Renaissance", an outpouring of artistic and professional works without precedent in the American black community. However with job losses in the time of the Great Depression and the deindustrialization of New York City after World War II, rates of crime and poverty increased significantly.

New York's revival in the late 20th century has led to renewal in Harlem as well. By 1995, Harlem was experiencing social and economic gentrification. Though the percentage of residents who are black peaked in 1950, the area remains predominantly black.

Harlem stretches from the East River west to the Hudson River between 155th Street; where it meets Washington Heights—to a ragged border along the south. The western part of the street runs diagonally between the neighborhoods of Manhattanville and Morningside Heights from the north-west from an interchange with the Henry Hudson Parkway at 130th Street. East of Morningside Avenue it runs east-west through central Harlem to an interchange with F.D.R. Drive by the East River, where it becomes the Manhattan leg of the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge (formerly the Triborough Bridge).

Central Harlem begins at 110th Street, at the northern boundary of Central Park; Spanish Harlem extends east Harlem's boundaries south to 96th Street, while in the west it begins north of Upper West Side, which gives an irregular border west of Morningside Avenue. Harlem's boundaries have changed over the years; as Ralph Ellison observed: "Wherever Negroes live uptown is considered Harlem."

The neighborhood contains a number of smaller, cohesive districts. The following are some examples:

1. West Harlem (west of St. Nicholas Avenue and north of 123rd Street)

- Hamilton Heights, around the Hamilton Grange
- Sugar Hill
- Manhattanville, north of Morningside Heights

2. Central Harlem
110th St. to Harlem River, 5th Ave. to St. Nicholas Ave.
- Mount Morris, extending west from Marcus Garvey Park
- Strivers' Row, centered on 139th Street
- Astor Row, centered on 130th Street

3. Spanish Harlem, also known as East Harlem or El Barrio (east of Fifth Avenue)
96th St. to Harlem River, East River to 5th Ave. Famous heart of Puerto Rican culture in the United States.

Despite radical changes in recent years, crime is still relatively high

Harlem 125st St

125th Street is a two-way street that runs east-west in the New York City borough of Manhattan, considered the "Main Street" of Harlem; It is also called Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard. After 5th Avenue is West 125 Street. Apollo Theater is at No. 253, West 125th Street. Former president Bill Clinton maintains an office on No.55 West 125th Street.

125th Street, is the Harlem of the Harlem Renaissance, the center of African American culture in the early twentieth century. While old standbys like Sylvia's soul food restaurant and the Apollo Theater are still going strong, Harlem and particularly 125th Street are amidst a renaissance as new homeowners renovate historic brownstones and new development surges. A new Marriott hotel is planned for 125th and Park, and former President Bill Clinton's offices are in the neighborhood as well. There are famous churches in the area, such as the Abyssinian Baptist Church, and some of these have famous gospel choirs.

The Apollo
The Apollo opened in 1913 as a whites-only burlesque theater, but it is best known for playing host to legendary African-American artists like Billie Holliday, Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie, Count Basie, and Aretha Franklin. After nearly closing its doors in the 1970s, the renovated Apollo bounced back with a re-vamped Amateur Night ("It's Showtime at the Apollo" on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m.), and enough tours and TV shows to cement its celebrated status. Nowadays, comedians like Margaret Cho, Bill Cosby and Paul Mooney as well as musicians like Wynton Marsalis take the same stage where Thelonius Monk, Ella Fitzgerald, and James Brown first took a swipe at fame. A collage of photos of past and present performers lines the walls of the art deco lobby.

We took the bus from 1st Avenue, Midtown NYC after visited United Nation(UN). Crossing 96th Street, First Avenue runs through Spanish Harlem, a historically Puerto Rican neighborhood. Before Puerto Rican migration in the 1950s, much of this area was populated by Italians and known as "Italian Harlem". First Avenue in Italian Harlem was the site of a major open-air pushcart market in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries. There is still a small Italian enclave in the Pleasant Valley section of East Harlem, between 114th and 120th Streets. The northern reaches of First Avenue, north of roughly 110th Street have also seen a significant increase in Mexican residents. The bus stopped at E 125th Street bus stop, at the junction of 1st Avenue. After getting down from the bus, we walked along the 125th street, walk into a supermarket to buy orange fruits(where all friendly sale personnel are black), and continue walking until we reached a bus stop in front of row of townhouses at 5th Avenue, Mount Morris Historic District. We then waited for bus to take us to Central Park. We need to go Central Park before night fall.

The M4 bus makes its slow way up to the Cloisters from the Village via the East Side (Madison on the way up and Fifth Avenue on the way down), across 110th St., and via Broadway and Fort Washington Av. further north - a nice way to see the changing face of Manhattan but a very slow way! There is a large commuter bus terminal under the ramps to the George Washington Bridge (175th Street between Broadway and Fort Washington Avenue) with service to points to suburban New Jersey and New York.

While walking along 125st street, you will feel the difference compared to other streets in Manhattan downtown. Most are blacks, after reading about the neighborhood you feel a big heavy. But some of the people we talk are actually friendly. Due to time constraint and our plan to visit Central Park before night fall, we are not able to walk the W 125 street, and missed Apollo. What a shame....





Central Park



Central Park is so big, when we asked the bus driver to stop us at Central Park. The driver asked back, "Which part of Central Park?". We have no answer for that. We just dropped at the bus stop, when we see the greenly Central Park, do no know which part of Central Park....

Central Park is a public urban park in the heart of Manhattan in New York City. It is visited by approximately twenty-five million visitors each year. Central Park was first opened in 1857, on 770 acres of city owned land. In 1858 Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux on a design competition to improve and expand the park with a plan they entitled the Greensward Plan, construction began the same year and was completed in 1873. In 1963 Central Park was designated a National Historic Landmark.

Central Park is today managed by the Central Park Conservancy under contract with the City of New York. The Conservancy a non-profit organization contributes 85% of Central Park's $25 million dollar annual and employs 85% of the park's maintenance staff

Central Park is bordered on the north by West 110th Street, on the south by West 59th Street, on the west by Eighth Avenue. Along the park's borders however, these are known as Central Park North, Central Park South, and Central Park West, respectively. Fifth Avenue retains its name along the eastern border of the park.

The Met - The Metropolitan Museum of Art

If you walk or pass by Central Park, along 5th Avenue, you will noticed crowd sitting at the steps in front of a large elegant building, with flagpole on both side of building. There are trishaws, street hawkers, artist, street performers around. The place is The Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, known colloquially as The Met, is an art museum located on the eastern edge of Central Park, along what is known as Museum Mile in New York City, United States, North America. It has a permanent collection containing more than two million works of art, divided into nineteen curatorial departments. The main building, often referred to simply as "the Met", is one of the world's largest art galleries; there is also a much smaller second location in Upper Manhattan, at "The Cloisters", which features medieval art.

Represented in the permanent collection are works of art from classical antiquity and Ancient Egypt, paintings and sculptures from nearly all the European masters, and an extensive collection of American and modern art. The Met also maintains extensive holdings of African, Asian, Oceanic, Byzantine, and Islamic art. The museum is also home to encyclopedic collections of musical instruments, costumes and accessories, and antique weapons and armor from around the world. A number of notable interiors, ranging from 1st century Rome through modern American design, are permanently installed in the Met's galleries.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art was founded in 1870 by a group of American citizens. The founders included businessmen and financiers, as well as leading artists and thinkers of the day, who wanted to open a museum to bring art and art education to the American people. It opened on February 20, 1872, and was originally located at 681, Fifth Avenue, New York.



Manhattan Downtown - Chinatown & Brooklyn Bridge


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We went to Chinatown to see the bridges, Manhattan and Brooklyn, not realize that South Street Seaport and the pier is just some distance away. The sky is already dark, there is not people in Chinatown, there are some teens and occasionally families or senior citizen out enjoying their walk. Most shops already closed.

Walk along the East River Bikeway at night, you can see the night view of two bridges, Manhattan Bridge and Brooklyn Bridge, and at the far end is South Street Seaport. Brooklyn Bridge (USA, 1883), is the first steel-wire suspension bridge.

Not many people along the East River Bikeway, only some runners, bikers, anglers.

That night, we went back from South Street Seaport to Queen late.

Tomorrow we are going to Boston by guided bus. The tour was booked at tour agent office in Flushing. A 2 days 1 night tour, one night in Boston. There will be a lobster dinner at Boston, on the way we will also visit Cambridge, the campus of Harvard and MIT. Initially our plan is to go on private tour all by our own. But after the Niagara Falls, the family members are tired(not me, I still prefer private tour), they wish to have a change. Another advantage is the hotel is cheaper, and private tour need additional day for tour of Cambridge. The disadvantage is we need to follow tour schedule, that mean there is no time to Portsmouth and other part of New England. We decide for a guided tour.