18 year olds coming to NYC

Do a self-walking tour of Greenwich Village, my favourite neighbourhood (I live there). Check out Strivers Row in Harlem--fantastic architecture. SoHo, TriBeca, Canal Street, Chinatown, Little Italy, Arthur Ave. in the Bronx. Ride the subways--what an education for an out of towner!<p>

 

Hit the touristy spots: Rockefeller Center, St. Pat's, Wall Street, South Street Seaport, Ground Zero, Bronx Zoo, Botanical Gardens.<p>

 

Don't forget the outer boroughs, the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens. I've lived here for 50+ years and haven't run out of things to photograph.<p>

 

Don't worry about crime. It's at historic lows. You're safer in Midtown at night than you are in London at daytime. Just act sensibly, don't flash anything.<p>

 

Take the buses, subways, cabs. I haven't used a car in New York in over 40 years. Get out and pound the pavement. Enjoy the nightlife. But beware of those sleezy 7th Avenue electronics stores, avoid them at all costs--unscrupulous thieves who prey on unsuspecting tourists.<p>

 

We're the "capital of the world," enjoy it! A street photographer's paradise!

I'll echo what Heather just said above. The LES is <i>not</i> "eerie" and "dangerous." Just use good judgment. And yes, the 7 train is great.<p>

 

If you're into street photography, New York is the most ethnically diverse city in the New World. Most New Yorkers won't hassle you if you snap their picture--hell, most won't even notice you.

Mike - 6'4" or not, people don't necessarily liked to be photographed. Having been glared at and hassled on many occasions for shooting on the street, I have learned to be polite and back off if someone is offended by my camera. We don't need any headlines in the Daily News about dead photographers.

As shooting pictures of bridges is illegal, I walked over to a cop directing traffic near the 59th St. Bridge last summer and asked him if I could take pictures of the Bridge. "Sure" he said, "you don't look like a terrorist." I'm not sure that the rest of New York's Finest will be so accomodating (nor so discerning)

I didn't mean to say that i plan on intimidating people into letting me take their pictures. What i did intend to say was that very few people tend to try and be not nice people when they see me. I always attempt to be polite and considerate. I keep hearing bad things about the NYPD, are they really that bad? Maybe i've just watched too many bad movies about NY policemen.

I think Eric Waller reads the New York Post, which incorrectly reported last year that the

MTA had banned photography on the subway. The correct story is that the MTA proposed

a ban that was open to public debate. The public was able to submit their thoughts and

arguments regarding the ban up until Jan 10th, 2005, after which the MTA will make a

ruling one way or the other. There is no specified deadline that I know of for that ruling.

The current

policy, as laid out on the MTA website as of today, February 7, 2005 is as follows:

 

"Photography, filming or video recording in any facility or conveyance is permitted except

that ancillary equipment such as lights, reflectors or tripods may not be used. Members of

the press holding valid identification issued by the New York City Police Department are

hereby authorized to use necessary ancillary equipment. All photographic activity must be

conducted in accordance with the provision of these Rules."

 

So, shoot away, just leave your strobes, tripods, booms, cranes and generators at home.

Hi, I am originally from New York and after moving away for quite a number of years I recently had to move back for a couple of years. One neighborhood that has really seen a rise in the past few years is an area some call LoHo. It is adjacent to both the East Village, Chinatown and Little Italy. You could spend zillions of hours just getting to know the East Village. That is a great place and you really have to spend time walking through the streets including what is known as the alphabets-Ave A, B, C and the area from Delancy up to about 7th or 8th Street. Just above Ave A is 1st and 2nd. Then you walk a bit west and you end up in the West Village which is also a place you can walk endlessly and still never really see all there is to see.

Another of my favorite areas is the upper west side. There are some great old places starting up by the Museum of Natural History (if you don't go there I'll never talk to you again!). 86th and Columbus (or maybe Broadway, I forget) has been renamed Isaac Bashevis Singer Blvd. after Nobel Prize winning author of the same name. He lived up there.

Now then, back down way south, if you cross Delancey St. at 2nd, you will find Katz's Delicatessan and you MUST NOT MISS IT. It is at the corner of Ludlow and Delancey. Diagonally across the street from Katz's, on Ludlow, is also a fantastic tiny little restaurant called Grilled Cheese. You must go there. All of these places are highly photogenic as well. You could wander the lower east side for years and still be enchanted.

Ken

Oops, I thought of some more great things you must do in the city. First you should walk over the bridges. You can walk over the George Washington Bridge, the 59th Street Bridge (Queensboro Bridge), the Williamsburg Bridge which spans the East River and you end up in Brooklyn. You walk a few blocks to the south and you are in an orthodox/chassidic Jewish neighborhood and man, it is like going backwards several hundred years to the "old country. When you cross the Williamsburgh Bridge and go a tad to the north you are in 20 something land which is overcrowded with cafes and artsy fartsy stuff. You can also walk a bit further south in Manhattan from the Williamsburgh Bridge to the Brooklyn Bridge and walk across that. If you are feeling energetic you can walk across the Brooklyn Bridge, walk a few miles through many Brooklyn neighborhoods and then end up in Williamsburg (Brooklyn) and cross back over to Manhattan and you end up in LoHo and a few blocks from the East Village, SoHo and the West Village. A bit further up the East River going north is Greenpoint which has been undergoing quite a bit of transitioning and sadly, the old Polish neighborhoods are giving way to the East Village types but there is still enough of an old country flavor to satisfy. And still a bit further upriver is Astoria, Queens. And then of course there is Coney Island, Sheepshead Bay, both in Brooklyn and da Bronx, not that safe of a place, really, nearly all 3rd-5th world. You will have an absolute blast.