Elegant escapes in the heart of SoHo, New York

The hotel was excellent value. It's very old and dated but... its location is one of the best in NYC without question. It offered the ideal jump off spot to explore Manhattan. The staff are friendsly and the room while dated was clean and did the job. I wanted to write a little blog about the trip itself, so if thats not your thing, skip on down to the hotel ratings. If not, read on. Enjoy. It would seem apparent that the decades of TV/Movie indoctrination I experienced about NYC were not exactly accurate. It is the cleanest safest big city I have ever visited. The only crowded area consists of 2 or 3 blocks in each direction around the Times Square area (tourists). The city is smaller than you'd think; deceptively so. One would imagine its scale so sprawling that it might take a day to traverse, but in reality it’s easily navigable on foot for the most part. This is aided thanks to the structured grid-like layout of consecutively numbered streets and avenues on Manhattan Island. 200 parallel streets running east to west bisected by 12 avenues running north to south make it intuitive to know where you are and where you are heading. The downtown (financial district) area at the south of Manhattan is the historic old town of NYC and as such the streets are not grid-like in this area, but more organic like a European city. The city grew from the South to North over the centuries. The architecture on display in the city is amazing. So many eclectic styles and construction methods are represented, from cast iron fabricated buildings to latest technologies. Colonial to Georgian, Gothic to Victorian, Art Deco to Post Modernist. It really is an astounding and beautiful sight to behold. The place seems to run like a Swiss clock. Buses, Subways, traffic lights, Ferries, everything runs to a schedule, 24/7, and is on time. Very predictable which is calming and nice (for control freaks like myself :) ) Any preconceived expectation that NYC would be in someway way chaotic, random, and uncontrolled were quickly dispelled. We took the free commuter Ferry from the Downtown South Ferry port out to St. George Staten island one morning. The Staten Island Ferry runs each way 24/7 every 30minutes on the half hour . A very pleasant trip that affords unrivalled views of the Statue of Liberty as it steams past Liberty island on its short 20 minute commute. 200 metres from the St. George Ferry Port on Staten island, there is a poignant 9/11 memorial monument dedicated to all those Staten Island residents who lost their lives at the WTC (one of the hardest hit communities as many workers commuted on the Ferry to work in the Financial district each day). The memorial site is set along the seafront and faces solemnly back over the Hudson where the Statue of Liberty and the skylines of Jersey city, Lower Manhattan, and Brooklyn can all be clearly seen 5 miles off in the distance. There are also excellent views of lower Manhattan on the return Ferry leg from St. George. Plenty of cops and security are visible everywhere across NYC. I suppose this is a necessity. All public gathering areas, Grand Central Station, Times Square, Ferry ports, Central Park; in fact it seems a great deal of the cops job is to park the cruiser at the corner of a busy intersection and just stand outside and be visible and available to members of the hms_main. They are all very approachable and obviously geared towards presence & tourism etc as much as 'fighting crime'. The weather was beautiful and we strolled around the city freely. There was never a sense of, 'if I take the wrong turn I'll end up off the beaten track' etc. The entire place felt 110% safe all the time, even after dark, and I'd be the first to say so if it didn't :) Those feelings just weren't there in Manhattan, which is strange really because the bigger the city usually the more intimidating and anonymous it can feel. We spent some time at an esplanade that runs alongside the Hudson just north of battery park downtown. A myriad of locals out walking their dogs, roller blading, cycling, strolling, sitting in the sun reading, eating and drinking at cafes. The whole place exudes wealth. I last felt the presence of that kind of wealth in Munich last year; clean streets filled with designer shops and restaurants frequented by well heeled locals. NYC evoked the same impression of wealth and modernity. An upscale city. I only witnessed one or two homeless people over the few days. No junkies or undesirables on display anywhere, no drunks. Well, no drunks apart from one solitary suited fellow we witnessed stumbling home at 745am on Saturday morning. You get the impression it's just not tolerated in public/tourist areas and anyone fitting that description is carted off immediately. Places and areas that are usually gathering points for undesirables in every big city I have been to (train stations, bus stations, public parks, subways, ferry ports etc) just did not have that element in Manhattan. Obviously a conscious decision by the city planners not to allow it. The Ferry port for example was immaculately clean and well staffed and with a security presence. Grand Central station the same with its marble and cut stone and chandeliers appeared more museum than transport hub. The subways clean, safe, and efficient. The public parks we visited were well maintained and clean. Amenities are provided for city patrons and maintained as such. Clean, safe, secure, and fit for purpose. Central Park was a hive of activity in the early mornings. Filled with locals out exercising before work, or just enjoying the calming green space and warm morning sunshine. In central park it was very easy to forget you were in a large urban cityscape such was the wide open space, woodland, and park sound and birdsong. I've been to a few big cities (London, Paris, Munich, LA, San Fran, Chicago to name a few) and NYC is certainly in a league of its own. It feels more European than other US cities too. I think the sense of depth of culture and history portrayed in the people and architecture gives NYC a soul that’s devoid in many other large US cities. There are many sub communities within the city such as 'Greenwich village' and 'SoHo'. Communities where you imagine that residents know their local grocer and their neighbours by first name. New York lacks the anonymity inherent of many big cities. I'm not exactly sure what I expected from NYC but my perceived ideas were wrong, which surprised me. I suppose I maybe expected (at worse case) hustle bustle, busy (dirty) streets, homeless people, incessant car horns, smoke, etc. It seems like my expectation was shaped by watching 70s and 80s crime dramas doesn't it. Haha. In fact, NYC was spacious, safe, clean streets, approachable friendly courteous people (not just the professionals either but the residents), amazing architecture, history and culture, cleverly conceived planning, organized, easily navigable on foot. Some city blocks are designated "quiet zones" where there is a 300 dollar fine for using a mic on a tour bus or honking your horn. Residential areas I imagine. Men in Black 3 was filming down by Battery Park one of the days so we hung around for a quick look. It was very interesting to see the movie making process in real-time. Things on a movie set are timed and arranged to the second as it often involves closing public streets to traffic and pedestrians with police assistance and for the minimum time required to get the shot. I think MIB3 is set in the 1960s. They lined the side streets with 30 or 40 classic 1960s cars, 50 or 60 extras in 1960s costume stood waiting. The pavement was quickly cleared and pedestrians redirected down side streets, cones appeared on the road and police blocked and diverted traffic, some crew members sprinted quickly across the set, places everyone, ACTION, the whole street was suddenly filled with passing 1960s cars, and a pavement filled with 1960s individuals walking up and down, most of them smoking and carrying briefcases (I guess everyone in the 1960s smoked :) ). 20 or 30 seconds later, CUT!. The cones cleared, the streets opened to traffic and pedestrians again. The whole thing took maybe 60 seconds. Minimum disruption. A very slick process. We visited ground zero on one of the days and the WTC tribute centre. It was surreal to see this exhibition 100m from where the events took place. Wall cases filled with recovered artefacts, personal items, lumps of molten metal with glass embedded in it, parts of the aircraft etc. I've read and seen a lot about it before, but the emotional impact is much more visceral when you see the 1000s of 'missing posters' in person, 1000s of personal photos donated by the victims families, documentaries about the fire fighters, about individual stories of loss. The grief and the extent of the atrocity was palpable there. Boxes of Kleenex left on benches throughout the exhibit give an indication of what it was like there. I suppose in summation it would be an understatement to say I was impressed by NYC. It exceeded every expectation I had of it. I'd be hard pressed to have anything but praise, but if pushed I would say it could do with more open WiFi hot spots like San Francisco or Tallinn :). Starbucks were leading the way though. Every Starbucks had free WiFi and with over 200 of them in Manhattan, you're never too far from checking Google maps or e-mail. New York; truly in a different league to every other big city I have visited. Stunning.