Manhattan has always fascinated me, even if I don’t like most of its residents. When I was little, there were the movie theaters, and the Automats, as well as the circus in Madison Square Garden and the auto show at the Coliseum, as well as the toy departments in Macy's and Gimbel's. In high school I fell in love with Greenwich Village, and to this day it is my favorite Manhattan neighborhood. The first job I ever had was at Gristede’s Supermarket at 252 Third Avenue, after school and then through the summer. My first Manhattan date was a New York Knicks game against the Baltimore Bullets, at the 49th Street Madison Square Garden. During college, a friend lived in Stuyvesant Town on 14th Street and I often visited him, but since Manhattan has generally been very liberal (usually pseudo liberal) I continued to dislike the residents, and for a while, Manhattan itself.
When I got out of the Air Force in 1975 I discovered the visual and performing arts and went to the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Lincoln Center, St. John the Divine Cathedral, and Broadway for the first time in my life. I even thought of selling my car and moving there, since I can’t lick them, why not join them. Nothing ever came of the idea, though.
Since the first job at Gristede’s, I have generally worked in Manhattan. Some places include the Met Life Building at 200 Park Avenue, where I spent 12 years there between two different companies - a bank and a law firm. At 140 William Street I was a summer hire, working in the mail room of an insurance company. It was my base of operations for exploring Lower Manhattan. 10 years later it was 130 Liberty Street, where Ellen had also worked until just before I arrived there in 1981. I worked for a bank there and also used it as a base of operations. Sadly, it was damaged on 9-11 and is being demolished. 960 6th Avenue is the home of the best bank that I ever worked for - The Atlantic Bank of New York - from 1985 through 1987. 1251 6th Avenue is the home of the Canadian Consulate, as well as the first law firm that I worked for - Shea & Gould. The Consulate is still there; Shea & Gould is defunct. My current office is on the East Side on Park Avenue near the Helmsley Building. Since most of the Manhattan restaurants and watering holes are too yuppified, I generally prefer to eat and booze it elsewhere. However, there are or were some great places, such as Mickey Mantle’s on Central Park South. The name says it all. One Fifth, at 1 5th Avenue, was an art deco gem of a bar and restaurant where I always enjoyed having a round or two. At 61 5th Avenue was The Lone Star Café, a Texas honky tonk. The Lone Star beer was tops. These last two are gone.
I also love to go to St. John the Divine Cathedral, the largest Gothic cathedral in the world. I always notice something different whenever I am there.
While I went to high school in Brooklyn, and college in Queens, I did study information systems at Pace University's main campus near City Hall.
As with the restaurants, the stores also tend to be overpriced, but I still have some favorites like The NBA Store at 666 5th Avenue where I can check out gear from my favorite teams, shoot some hoops, and relax, and FAO Schwartz on 5th Avenue at 58th Street, my daughter's favorite. Great stuff there. Brooks Brothers is the perfect clothing store for a non-trendy pseudo-preppy like me. Ellen and I always love to go to Soho and the Scholastic Bookstore, at 557 Broadway. They have all of the Harry Potter books, as well as other Harry Potter merchandize. The store also sells books that we used to home school our daughter.
Architecturally, my three favorite buildings, all located in Lower Manhattan, are:
All three are Art Deco beauties.
When I am in Manhattan for purposes other than work, my favorite spots are Greenwich Village (I love everything about the place), Central Park (love to play softball there), The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Museum of Natural History, Lincoln Center, Rockefeller Center, and the Times Square theaters.
