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OP, this is a interesting topic/question but the reason you've gotten this response is because you've targeted the wrong crowd. The majority of people on this forum are average New Yorkers. They are stressed, don't have enough time and constantly feel the pressure of being in NYC - you can interpret that as you wish. You have to ask this question to tourists.
The coolest thing I did in NYC was leave NYC for a weekend just to let loose. I usually go to PA or Upstate NY to breathe some fresh air and refresh my mind for the upcoming Monday.
Also, check out Nevada Smith's on 3rd ave. Beer's $10/pint so be prepare yourself for that.
Native New Yorker here and I found lots of cool / fun things to do in NYC. I hate to admit it - not recently, though. I've become too responsible and need to focus my energies.
I went to high school in Manhattan and when we cut out we had a blast. One time 4 of us went to the Citicorp building (for those of you who do not know it is a skyscraper in midtown with a distinctive angled top). The boys knew a way to sneak to the top of the building (mind you - this is pre-9/11). This included sneaking past at least one security guard and walking up a ladder but we got to the lower outside edge of the building. It was so cool! We didn't stay that long but I always smile to myself if I think of this time.
With contribution from other members on this forum, this can become one of the coolest threads.
All up to us now.
As we all live in this huge city, there are lots of cool places, experiences, etc all around us that we walk by every day without noticing simply because we don't know it exists.
For me, for example it was learning about Vince Giordano band that performs every Mon, Tue in midtown small club playing music from the 30-40s swing. It's weird, there is a door you pass by that leads you to a basement that set up like a restaurant (they moved since to a new location). That's where I also saw Liza Minnelli. It's a 12 people I think band and it's just a unique experience to at least see this once. Feels like you went back in time.
I am thinking .... how many more of these kinds of places, not just swing, or music, exist all around us and we simply pass by it. It can be a cool cafe, some sort of a club, anything weird ... just something you would share with your friends ......... please share here.
P.S. Lots of tourists read these forums ... they'll love it as well.
We are native new yorkers. This type of questions serve no purpose to us and are irrelevant. These questions should be best suited to be answered by Transplants who admire NYC more than stressed out locals. As for me what is the coolest thing I have done in NYC? Before 9 11 I used to beam laser pointer towards planes landing at LGA. Walking on subway tracks during high school. Watching a raccoon climb up a tree and jump into someone's apartment like a burglar. Throwing McDonald's wrapper into an NYPD car which the officers left the window open. This was my teenage years that I remember.
My favorite memories of living in NYC were the summer weekends when I was able to leave NYC. New England and the Adirondacks are amazing this time of year. Heading up on the Thruway when the run down ghetto section 8 buildings give way to the rolling hills of the Hudson Valley is nirvana. Only tourists and recent transplants glamorize NYC as some sort of magic movie set. For people that are stuck there earning a paycheck, it is nothing more than a crowded, stifling, rat hole filled with ghetto people.
Coolest thing I ever did in NYC was me and my wife and our best friends and fam blew thousands at a club in the Meatpacking District one Saturday night. I'm not a club person but wow was that some experience...we shut it down! Far Rock was definitely in the building that night.
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"The man who sleeps on the floor, can never fall out of bed." -Martin Lawrence
A cool place to visit is the rooftop cafe at the Metropolitan Museum of Art which is only open during the summer. I also enjoyed being taken out for my birthday to the old Rainbow Room (Rockefeller Center) and the former Windows on the World restaurant at the former WTC to see the July 4th fireworks.
Another neat place is the Forest Hills (Gardens) Square near the Long Island Railroad station which looks like one has stepped into a quaint old village/town center in Europe.
Also walking across the different bridges across the East River and taking the Roosevelt Island tram and seeing the different view angles is interesting to compare for a local person. One sees the city from slightly different perspectives each time.
This is exactly what I envisioned for this topic to become. People sharing cool places, experiences, etc that tourists or native folks would appreciate.
For example, my wife knows very little of NYC and loves any time I take her somewhere in Manhattan, especially if place is unique or with great view, etc .... I hope more people share their knowledge of NYC and not just hatred.
Life is too short. If you hate it here, get out. Stop bitching about things. Learn to enjoy what is given to you. What you don't like... try to change. What a waste of life it is to just complain about stuff and see life as glass half empty every day.
To me, the coolest thing is attending low-budget plays by up-and-coming theater groups. Many are Actors Equity Showcase performances, with extremely professional standards. They often produce plays by new playwrights, with a world premiere right here.
The tickets cost about the price of a movie but the professional actors give it their all. They're held in small rental spaces, seating fewer than 100. That means every seat in the house is a close to the stage. Each synopsis can be researched under "Off-off-broadway" to find yourself themes of interest.
Some serious, long-term companies include: Flux Theater, Retro Productions, Boomerang, to name a few. Shows are occasionally reviewed by mainstream press, like NYTimes, when they can free up a reviewer. Really this level of theater deserves much better attention by the press. If not, there are bloggers who follow the companies and write intense, thoughtful reviews for theater.com and other places. If you research reviews first (just google title of a current show), you can choose some excellent shows for around $18-25 per ticket, and find availability.
Movies are great, but to be in a room for live theater, with breathing actors' emoting, and be part of the audience response, is much more exciting. Acting and directing is so competitive in NYC that the quality is these Off-Off-Broadway productions can be very high. Many belong to NY Independent Theater for ranking and voting each year, which also keeps them working at their best.
Last edited by BrightRabbit; 06-06-2015 at 02:40 PM..
Spending a grand on strippers in Las Vegas and hiking through the Amazon rain forest which revealed one of the world's highest waterfalls, drinking alcohol in the grand Canyon on the Colorado river. I know I'm adventurist. The world is so much bigger and grand than NYC. These are the coolest things I did as a new yorker.
Last edited by Bronxguyanese; 06-06-2015 at 04:39 PM..
Rock and roll karaoke at Arlenes Grocery down on Stanton St. Great band and usually some great singers belting out classics. I've been a dozen times at least and always a great crowd.
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