The City that never sleeps

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Having fallen in love with the laid back get outdoors nature of Golden Colorado it has taken me some time to adjust to New York City. The two are complete opposites, Golden promotes its outdoor lifestyle and NYC promotes the life in the city; where being close to nature i.e. a window view of Central Park from your apartment will set you back $3000.00 a month.

Broadway to me seems a separate entity of NYC altogether. In some sense it reminds me of the Las Vegas strip, with just fewer neons and instead of people handing out cards of strippers and escorts you have people offering you free seats to the ‘funniest standup in town’ (free as long as you purchase a couple of drinks at the show).

We arrived into New York rather exhausted from our six hour flight from Denver and caught a cab straight to our hotel The Modern, near the corner of 55th and Broadway. The journey was going rather well until we reached lower Manhattan where we got our first introduction to NYC traffic congestion - brought about by President Barack Obama making a guest appearance on the Letterman Show which was less than a kilometer from our hotel.

Finally after taking what seemed to be an hour to reach the hotel from 62nd street we finally made it to our hotel. Unfortunately, only to discover that the hotel had made alternative accommodation arrangements for us that night due to a leaking pipe in what was to be our room. The receptionist went on to explain that we have a room waiting for us at the Bentley Hotel, up on 62nd Street, quite a bit away from the Broadway strip. Michelle was less than pleased, I wasn’t too thrilled either, the whole point of choosing the Modern was that we were in easy walking distance from Times Square.

Having worked closely with Receptionists in the past I knew taking my frustrations out on her would lead nowhere, she was just the messenger, so I swallowed my frustrations and worked on a solution. The solution wasn’t ideal, but it was making the most of a bad situation, we received complimentary cab rides to and from the Bentley back to the Modern as well as a upgrade to a Junior suite when we returned to the Modern. On top of that, aside from being located further away from Broadway, the Bentley was a rather posh hotel, a whole star grander than the Modern, and we had a room with a fantastic view of the Brookland Bridge. It’s just unfortunate that by the time we got there and settled in we were both too overtired to really appreciate it at the time.

The next morning, having checked out of the Bentley and back into the Modern we finally set off around midday down the Broadway strip. The strip spanned easily several kilometers with theatres and gift shops on each block. The M&M store, a favorite of Michelle’s and mine whilst in Vegas also had its spot on the Broadway strip.

The Broadway strip didn’t really thrill me as much as it did for Michelle, to me it was a repeat of Vegas, but a poorer repeat. Broadway was dirtier and somewhat sleazy at night, and to my surprise with the occasional broken neon light, not something I expected from the Big Apple.

Later, we boarded a tour bus to take in the sights of this metropolis. The history behind some of the buildings was incredible. What New York lacked in ‘wow’ it made up for with the history.

We passed the Macy Department store founded by Isidor Straus. In 1912, Traveling from Germany back to the United States, Isidor and his wife were passengers of the RMS Titanic when, on April 14, it hit an iceberg. Ida reportedly would not leave Isidor and refused to get in a lifeboat. The officer filling up the boat told Isidor that he could get into the boat with his wife, but he refused to before other men and instead sent his wife's maid, Ellen Bird, into the boat. Ida refused to board the half-full boat, saying "I will not be separated from my husband. As we have lived, so will we die together". Isidor and Ida both died on April 15 when the ship sank. Isidor Straus's body was recovered by the Mackay-Bennett and was buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx. Ida's body was not recovered. Since that day, in memory of the Straus’s, Macys west door entrance has remained closed since that day.

The next historic landmark we passed by was the Empire State building, the 102 story icon of America’s determination completed in 1931 standing as the tallest building in the United States (aside from the period between 1972 and 2001 when the World Trade Centre held that title). It was a very impressive structure, and a tribute to American engineering and determination - considering that the development of the Empire State building took place in one of the more darker moments in American financial history, the period nick named the ‘great depression’; a point in time which Central Park as we know it today for its lush green surroundings, zoo and piece n’ tranquility was at that time known as ‘tent city’, a place where those who had nowhere else to go wound up, a place where development tycoons employed cheap labor for the most risky of jobs. It wouldn’t be surprising to learn the lives that were lost during the construction of the Empire State building came from Tent City. Ironically, once the great building was completed (some 13 months later) America was still struggling its way through the recovery of the depression, and as a result not many businesses took up residence in this new tower. In fact, once competed the owner paid workers to travel the hallways at night turning on and off lights to various rooms at random, to give the impression that the building was buzzing with activity. To the locals, the Empire State Building was better known to the local’s in the know back then as the Empty State Building.

We then journeyed to ground zero; formally the location of the World Trade centers which met their fate on September 11, 2001. We have all heard of the tragedy that through the destruction of so many lives and united America and the world; we have all heard of the September 11 memorial, the notes to the firemen that did their duty on that day, the notes to loved ones which were lost. To our surprise those memorials and notes to loved ones had all been relocated to one of several remembrance memorials around the city, Ground Zero itself was under development, a new prouder Trade Center design was to be established in its place, one that honored the tragedy of 2001 but also looked towards the bright future of the United States of America.

After a fair amount of walking and stumbling through the WFC (World Finance Center) we finally came across a couple of the remaining street memorials honoring the brave firemen (incidentally the Fire station was located immediately next door to the WTC) who risked their lives that fateful day.

Although I am somewhat pre-determined to never live in NYC, I have so far enjoyed my visit. There are still a number of things yet to experience, from visiting the Statue of Liberty to my first Yankees match. It is going to be a fantastic couple of days ahead.

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