Tag: NYC

The Map With Every Public Restroom In The Five Boroughs Of New York City

You guys, I think this is a dream come true!

If you’re ever in NYC, especially if you’re a tourist, it’s not always easy to find a public toilet. Some places let anyone use the facilities, some only allow customers and clients to use them. You might go past a public restroom but not want to use it because based on smell and visuals alone, who knows what’s been going on in there. You may be in the middle of a residential area (they exist!) and just not know where the nearest bathroom that’s open to the public is. And let’s face it…sometimes when you gotta go, you gotta GO, right?

Well, Dr. Wansoo Im, who has his PhD in Urban Planning, has developed a fix for that. An Associate Professor at Meharry Medical College and a former Adjunct Professor at Rutgers University, Dr. Im is a pioneer of interactive, web/mobile-based Geographic Information Systems to support community-based participation and research on a wide range of social and environmental issues. Dr. Im’s projects have included nationwide watershed maps, maps of potential mosquito breeding grounds that could contribute to the spread of the Zika virus, and a mapping project of operating gas stations in the wake of Superstorm Sandy. But the best project he’s worked on, at least for tourists, is the one where he’s developed a community participation-based interactive map of every available restroom in Manhattan, Brooklyn, the Bronx, Queens and Staten Island.

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Going To NYC? Heads Up: MetroCards Are Finally Being Replaced

If you been to New York City in the past 30 years or so and have used public transportation, chances are you’ve used MetroCards, those yellow and blue swipe cards. Part NYC staple and part annoyance (Any other tourists ever deal with these? You swiped too fast. You swiped too slow. You can’t top your card off so it ends up “even” by the time you go home. And heaven forbid you have several cards that’ve expired – why the hell do they expire??? – and you want to combine them all into one new card), they’ve been around since the early 1990s. But now, it seems, they’re going away in favor of (gasp!) 21st century technology.

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Theater Fan? Here’s How You Can Get Broadway Tickets For Half Price (Limited Time Offer)

There’s nothing quite like live theater and if you’re going to see live theater in the U.S., Broadway is “the” place to go.

Unfortunately, ticket prices for Broadway shows have been going higher and higher. There are a few ways to get tickets cheaper (we go over them in this post and this one, too), but there’s also this way, which is only available for a short time…

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The General Public Can Only Enter This Place Once A Year, For Just One Hour, And The Time Is Almost Here

Many people seem to enjoy the excitement in going into places where they’re generally or usually not allowed to go. They may be abandoned sites, like Discovery Island and River County at Walt Disney World. Maybe it’s the old City Hall station of the NYC subway system.  Perhaps it’s “forbidden” countries like Cuba (we went to Cuba for my last birthday that “ended with a zero” simply “because I could.” Granted, at the time we could go there legally and relatively easily, but it was right after 50+ years of not being able to).

So when I discovered that Gramercy Park in NYC is locked up tight and closed to the public almost all the time, but is open for just one hour, just one night a year, it got me very interested.

Why do they open it once a year?

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Ever Want to Actually Have Breakfast at Tiffany’s? Now You Can! (Updated 11/18)

You know the scene – Breakfast at Tiffany’s, the classic film based on the novel by Truman Capote, opens with Holly Golightly (Audrey Hepburn), nibbling on a pastry and drinking some coffee while peeking into the windows of the Tiffany & Co. It’s early and the store isn’t open yet, so all she can do is gaze longingly at everything.

Since the film’s premiere in 1961, no one’s been able to really eat breakfast at Tiffany’s (I mean, really, they sell jewelry, china and silver!), but if you’re a Audrey Hepburn fan, get ready to swoon, because now you can!

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