Business Times - 21 Mar 2009
Take a bite out of Lower Manhattan
That's where you'll find the Big Apple's hip and happening neighbourhoods like Greenwich Village, SoHo, TriBeCa, Nolita and the Lower East Side. By Geoffrey Eu
THERE'S only one way to explore The Big Apple - and that's one juicy slice at a time. To most visitors, New York City means Manhattan, the island that is the smallest (a mere 59 sq kms) but most well known of the city's five boroughs. Other parts of the city, such as Brooklyn and The Bronx, may have an abundance of attractions and individual charms, but Manhattan will be the focal point of any visit.
People who live in Manhattan might still be inclined to refer to the rest of New York as 'the outer boroughs', but that's just in keeping with the brash character of the native New Yorker, who will likely tell you that the best way to experience the city is to inhale it, one great neighbourhood at a time.
Obviously, unless you have unlimited time and financial means, it wouldn't be possible to get more than a brief glimpse of the city during the course of a single visit, so assuming you have already gone through the typical visitor check list - retail therapy, Broadway show, major museums and galleries, Central Park horse and buggy ride - that still leaves plenty of interesting gaps to plug.
It may simply be a matter of attitude and style, but there is a world of difference between the upper and lower halves of Manhattan. Just ask Billy Joel, a Downtown guy who once fell for an Uptown Girl. Where you choose to live and hang out says a lot about who you are and the lifestyle of your choice - and hardly ever the twain shall meet.
For an island that is home to roughly 1.6 million people, Manhattan is relatively tiny - just 21.6 km from north to south and 3.7 km at its widest, with the Hudson River to the west of the island and the East River to the east. For those who care, however, the 'happening' part of Manhattan is defined by the area below 14th Street, where neighbourhoods like the Meat-Packing District, Greenwich Village, Chinatown, Little Italy, NoHo, SoHo, Nolita, TriBeCa and the Lower East Side are located.
Lower Manhattan, the area at the bottom of the island where Battery Park and the Financial District can be found, is also home to three of the country's most potent symbols. The Statue of Liberty has an enduring significance to US citizens, many of whose ancestors passed by it when they arrived by ship as immigrants from Europe.
The area where the twin towers of the World Trade Center stood until the terrorist attacks of Sept 11, 2001 has a special emotional hold over not just Americans, but people from all over the world. And Wall Street - whose origins stem from a wooden wall built in 1653 that was the northern boundary of the Dutch settlement of Nieuw (New) Amsterdam - has unfortunately come to symbolise the current recession and all that ails corporate America.
Of all the Downtown districts, SoHo is, after Greenwich Village, perhaps the best known, and the first neighbourhood that visitors in search of that special Downtown atmosphere will gravitate towards. It is of course notable for a proliferation of trendy shops and restaurants, and also where many celebrities can be spotted, walking their dogs and children, or simply trying to appear incognito.
SoHo (an acronym for South of Houston Street) is also where architects come to admire the largest concentration of cast iron buildings in the world, a historic district whose distinctive fire escapes have starred in design books and feature films over the decades. The buildings' loft spaces were originally used by 19th-century textile manufacturers and later by artists and galleries, but nowadays, prohibitive rents have turned the majority of these definitive downtown spaces into high-end stores, hip restaurants and upscale homes.
TriBeCa (or the Triangle Below Canal Street) was where the artist community retreated to from SoHo, and it remains one of the best known, artsy neighbourhoods in New York. It too has become a repository for funky hot spots and celebrity sightings.
Nolita (North of Little Italy), on the other hand, has undergone a more recent transformation, from old tenement homes for Italian immigrants and hangouts for notorious gangsters to simply another version of the current SoHo. However, there are still opportunities to make a special discovery or two, be it a juice bar, bespoke jewellery or cutting-edge furniture.
Perhaps the current leader of the hip district parade, though, is the Lower East Side, which has shed its image as a slummy neighbourhood - originally inhabited by poor immigrants from Ireland and Eastern Europe - and turned into an increasingly gentrified extension of the adjoining districts of Chinatown to the south and the East Village to the north.
Trendy restaurants like Allen & Delancey, wd-50 and The Stanton Social now stand together with Katz's, the quintessential New York deli - still going strong after 120 years.
Visitors who wish to trade in their Uptown and Midtown hotels - or even their Fashion Central digs in SoHo like The Mercer Hotel or the SoHo Grand - can also get an up-close look at this once-derelict, now-chic neighbourhood by checking into one of the haute lodging places that have sprouted up here, such as the quirky Blue Moon Hotel, converted from a tenement building, and the more conventional Hotel on Rivington.
Despite the serious inroads made by trendsetters and lifestyle mavens into these previously rough-and-tumble neighbourhoods, there's still something edgy and industrial, something weird and wonderful and beautifully unscripted about life in the lower reaches of the city.
From the visitor's perspective, there's no such thing as an unwelcome side to The Big Apple. Take a bite out of Downtown and Lower Manhattan - there's nothing quite like these neighbourhoods anywhere else.
Emirates flies twice daily to the Big Apple via Dubai, arriving at the JFK airport.
Passengers can enjoy Emirates' spectacular A380 aircraft (on selected flights to New York), which offers a range of innovations that are unparalleled in the travel industry. This includes onboard shower spas in the First Class cabin, where travellers can freshen up in a shower cubicle with water temperature control and products from Emirates' premium spa brand, Timeless Spa.
First and Business Class passengers can also enjoy a relaxing time at Emirates' onboard lounge, where a fully-stocked bar containing premium-brand liqueurs, spirits, hot and cold canapes, and snacks are readily served.
Other features include the award-winning ice (information, communication and entertainment) system which features more than 1,200 inflight entertainment channels, SMS and email facilities as well as seat-to-seat calling. Each cabin is also fitted with a unique mood lighting system to help passengers combat the effects of jet lag.
Passengers who wish to explore more of the United States can also visit Los Angeles, San Francisco and Houston, which Emirates flies to once a day. For more information, visit www.emirates.com/sg or call Emirates at Tel: 6735-3535.
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