Leftover Metrocard Change Infuriates Some
UPDATE: City To Remove 14 Blocks Of Bike Lanes On Bedford Ave.
Hamster Rides The 4 Train
Bouncer Beatdown at Jay-Z's 40/40 Club
2nd Avenue Subway Cooling System Will "Blight" UES
The mention of the Time Out NY 50 Best Blocks in the City article in Extra Extra yesterday really got some conversation started. Here are some of those comments:
Hmm, that is a pretty weird list. Other than 20th between 9th and 10th, I can't agree with any of those picks. I have to say it: this is utter and irrational reverse-snobbism. Having grown up on the UES, I am completely aware of that neighborhood's deficiencies and I understand that there were various criteria taken into account by TimeOut. But, damn. No 78th between Park and Lex (or any of the other 50 quite townhouse streets)? Was price weighted? It's nice to live in Jake Boobkin's coveted below-14th-Street-or-Williamsburg Green Zone of Awesomeness, but when I stop by my parent's house I do notice that it is, you know, a lot nicer.Luke - 100% agreed. Expand the list to top 30 prettiest blocks, and I might buy it. Not one block in Brooklyn Heights? In historic Prospect Park South? On the UES/UWS? Riverside Drive? Forest Hills/Jamaica Estates? Surely you jest. I'm also a tremendous fan of Fuller Street in Windsor Terrace, if anybody knows where that is. I'm obsessed with it, really.
one thing that caught my eye from that list was that all but one of the top 10 scored a 6 in 'New York-ocity'. If yr going to include such a vague and ambiguous category, then at least vary the scoring a little bit to fool us...
Yeah, I was thinking the same thing on the Time Out picks re Ditmas area... not to mention, they gave the Red Hook street a "6" for transportation, the same as the Manhattan address on the upper west side that followed... um, really? Red Hook has transportation as good at the UWS? Yeah right. Maybe in their Fairway-colored dreams.
Much of the carping appears to have been a result of Time Out's devilishly sophisticated scoring mechanism, which rated the blocks along six categories (Aesthetics, Amenities, Green factor, Noise and traffic, Public transit, New York-ocity, Affordability). Certainly "New York-ocity" leaves some room for bias and subjectivity-- and probably resulted in the poor showing for the outer boroughs ("Manhattan led the way with 25 entries, followed by Brooklyn with 14; Queens with six; the Bronx with three; and Staten Island with two.") On the other hand, since affordability was taken into account, many of the most expensive blocks in the Village, Upper East Side, and Brooklyn Heights were left off the list.
We took a closer look-- mapping the top 25 blocks using Wayfaring above. After intense study, we've decided that the list is something of a crap-shoot-- it's interesting in that it points out some blocks and neighborhoods that we've never heard of, and identifies qualities that make some neighborhoods desireable-- but the actual street-selection is too biased to be meaningful in any real way. Of course, that won't stop it from pissing you off once you realize your neighborhood was completely ignored. Let the carping being. [Related: the chattering classes at Curbed and Brownstoner are also discussing the list.]
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How exactly are you sure that this list is "too biased to be meaningful" when you freely admit that you've never even heard of some neighborhoods (!!!) or blocks?
Do you just intuit that there's no possible way they could be nicer than what YOU would have picked?
My neighbourhood is on the list. (I'm not actually on block #11, but am about 100 yards down the street.) Time Out does seem to have a thing for Inwood, it was listed as one of their "5 neighbourhoods on the verge" a few months back, and also in the recent "forgotten New York" issue. I'm all for the publicity if it helps convince people that the tippy-top is not all that far away.
regarding the last comment cited above: to repeat a comment from the original post, red hook's coffey street received a 2, not a 6, for transportation. why quote someone who is obviously wrong?
holy shit its beanbag amerika. i met you at a party in bay ridge once. weird.
Here's another quote that is wrong. The first and second quotes say "no UWS/UES, no Riverside Drive" when #10, 13, 29, and 32 clearly list those areas. Don't create controversy over the article if your facts are wrong. Considering how subjective criteria can be, I thought TimeOut put a lot of effort into this story and explained how they came to their list.
funny, i got run over by a car on their number 1 block while biking to work a few weeks ago.
nice block though :)
Pickles, you are totally right! I misread those tiny little symbols they used. I need to get my eyes examined! I thought it was really weird that red hook ranked so high for transportation. ;) A 2 is much more realistic.
I'm so psyched. I'm moving to block #1 at the end of the month.
Erik - Gothamist only listed the top ten yesterday, which is the reason for my comment about the absence of those n'hoods. I didn't know there was a top 50. That said, I still think it's ridiculous that those n'hoods didn't have a block that appeared higher than number 10.
So funny that renters care ("my" block--LOL). There are easily 50 blocks on the UES in the 60s and 70s that are incredibly awesome, beautiful, convenient, etc.--more so than any of the lame shite TONY chose.
Samantha, you are still wrong. West 78th is No. 10.
This is all Time Out filler crap anyway. Half of their cover stories are random junk.
i'd recommend using a more distinct color for the feature next time - instead of a blue that is almost exactly like the water color. it makes it difficult to see
It's interesting that such a large percentage of TONY's picks are blocks made up of brownstones and/or townhouses. Hardly any contain larger buildings, i.e. the kind you'd find lining West End Ave., Riverside Dr. or even parts of Brooklyn Heights.