New York is the greatest place for kids. When my daughters were a little younger I would buckle them into the double stroller, pack up a couple of sippy cups, hard boiled eggs and rice crackers for lunch and go see the sights. We would do the playground hop, stopping at every playground on our way across town. My destination was either City Bakery (for a chocolate cookie) or the Cupcake Cafe across the street in Books of Wonder (for a cupcake). It was a dilemma, cookie or cupcake - which one to consume? I never had to worry about it being fattening because pushing the double stroller was such a work out. I always tried to time my expedition to coincide with the farmers market in Union Square so that I could purchase my groceries and tie them onto the stroller. The only thing I had to be careful of were the moments when my daughters would charge towards the swings, leaving my ... [more]
New York with Kids, Victoria Kann
Stuyvesant Town
Stuyvesant Town, large brick buildings that run from 14th to 20th Streets, from First Avenue to Avenue C, are a mess of functional residences that were originally built in 1943 to house returning veterans of the Second World War and their families. They have gone on to house middle-income New Yorkers in 8,757 apartments. Stuyvesant Town and its sibling Peter Cooper comprise eighty acres that house more than 25,000 residents--and were sold on October 18, 2006 to Tishman Speyer for $5.4 billion dollars. New Yorkers are aghast that one of the last bastions of affordable housing will soon be converted to yet more luxury rentals. One might read a brief history of Stuyvesant Town on Wikipedia and note that in its creation in 1943, the project displaced 11,000 residents along with their business, schools and churches.