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- [00:08]
A
This is all of IT on wnyc. I'm Alison Stewart. Coming up this week, we've got Rashida Jones and Will McCormick, who wrote the new comedy the Invite, starring Seth Rogen, Edward Norton, Penelope Cruz and Olivia Wilde, who directed it, too. They'll be on the show tomorrow. Rashida and Will. And then later on in the week, comedian actor John early details his offbeat directorial debut, Mad Maddie's Secret. Tony and Grammy nominee Megan Hilty will preview her Cafe Carlisle residency. And comedian Roy Wood Jr shares some lessons about being a dad ahead of Father's Day. That's all ahead this week on ALL OF it. Now let's get this hour about New York started with the best tours. If you went outside at all this weekend, then you probably noticed some summer is upon us. And we all know what that means. Tourists are descending upon the city in droves. And for a lot of us, those tourists may even be descending upon our apartments and into our weekend plans. Yes, we're coming up on that time of year when your friends and family come into town and you, the local, are asked or tasked with the responsibility of deciding what are we going to do? Of course, there's an endless number of iconic tourist destinations here in the city. You've got Times Square, the Brooklyn Bridge, the Staten Island Ferry. The list goes on and on. And some of those big name destinations might be really worth checking out. But as anyone who lives here knows, there's a lot more to the city than that. So right now we're putting our brains together to map out an alternative itinerary for when you have to play tour guide. My guest is Heidi Chew, the journalist for the City Reporter who co writes the weekly newsletter called Summer and the City. Thanks so much for joining us, Heidi.
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B
Thank you so much for having me. Alison.
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A
Listeners, when you're showing visitors around town, what are the touristy thing that you absolutely have to go see and what's not really worth the hype? What are your own personal favorites that you may not be on any official list? Is your favorite bar an open mic night, A drawing class, A Not that famous park, A Hole in the Wall restaurant? We're taking your tips on how to play tour guide. Our Phone number is 2124-3396-9221-2433 wnyc. You can text in or please call us and you can join me and Heidi on the the air. All right, Heidi, let's start with some big name destinations that you think are worth checking out. You said that Central park makes your List. Why does Central park make the list for you?
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B
I mean, it's. The poetry of Everyday life is so alive at Central Park. You have tourists there. You have locals. It's also just like people who lives on the Upper east side, Upper west side, it's their local park, and people hang out there, and people are having picnics. There's just so much to see. And I think a lot of times I go to Central park and I see people never go past the terrace. I'm like, walk past the terrace, walk past the reservoir. Go up to Harlem. End it at Harlem. Don't just stop at 75th street or whatever. And that just has to be always worth it.
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A
What's your favorite part of Central Park? Just.
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B
Personally, that's a hard one. I do think the part near Harlem, I don't know what it's called. It's like this big circle towards the top. I love that part because sometimes there's musicians up there, and it's usually more quiet and chill. I mean, the terrace is obviously beautiful, and there's no. You know, it's always worth going.
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C
So what about the Met? Do you consider the Met its own separate trip, or do you tie it into the Central park aspect?
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B
It has to be tied to the Central park aspect, I think. And it's so beautiful inside. And I think, you know, the mistake of going to the Met sometimes is like, I want to see everything. And you just have to go in with a mindset that, like, maybe I'm not going to see everything. And I think it's great for bringing your friends, too, because it's so. The collection is so vast. There's always something that works for somebody, and I think that's always great.
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C
When you think about the big, dumb lines that we see all around town, what is worth waiting in a big dumb line for? Is there a touristy attraction? Is it whether you want to actually just see what's on the other end
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B
of the big, dumb line? You know what I think when I do see a big, dumb line? That's when I. My brain goes, this is time to be spontaneous. It's like, maybe I just peek into the window and see what's going on. If it doesn't feel like my vibe, maybe I just walk around the block and see what I stumble upon. I am not a fan of lines.
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C
Clearly, I'm not either. All right, tell us about some places that people might write off for being too touristy, but which are actually really great.
- [04:48]
B
I think the Brooklyn Bridge. Honestly, I think, you know, I Haven't been there in a while. And this was before, you know, there used to be a lot of vendors on there. So it might be a different situation now. But one thing I always do when my friends come to town is take the ferry to the Dumbo park, walk around the park, walk across Brooklyn Bridge, end up in Chinatown, get a dinner. Like that's my always my go to itinerary whenever someone visits. And I think it's just worth it. And especially if you go around like sunset time, it's like facing west so you get to kind of see some of that and it's beautiful.
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C
That's beautiful. Where else?
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B
Where else? Washington Square park, low key. Oh, interesting. It's great people watching place. I remember just spending so much time there when I first moved to New York because everyone's just so expressive and like proudly themselves. And there's just something very refreshing about that, I think.
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C
What are some of the places that you think are overhyped a little bit?
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B
Ah, the Statue of Liberty, I have to say.
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C
Statue of Liberty.
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D
Okay.
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B
We don't have to get onto the island. Maybe if you must like go on the Staten island ferry or go to Red Hook and stop at a distillery or brewery and just sit and see the Statue of Liberty from afar. Times Square, unfortunately, if you must go, I say like spend the day in town, get drinks, go after midnight. And it's a different world after midnight. It's actually quite peaceful, I think, and poetic.
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C
That's kind of beautiful.
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B
Yeah.
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C
This text says Ray's candy store on Avenue a. Meet Ray. $5 soft serve is huge. The entire East Village and Lower east side food and people watching Mecca Whispering Wall in Grand Central slide in Teardrop Park. That's all from one person. Thank you so much for for weighing in. Hey visitors, if you have to show people around town, what do you do? What's a touristy thing that you absolutely cannot miss? Which touristy spots aren't worth the hype? What's your own personal favorites that might not be on any official list? Is it a bar? Is it an open mic night? A drawing class A not famous park? Our phone number is 2124-3396-9221-2433. WNYC. Let's take a coup. Sally is calling in from the Upper west side. Hey Sally, it's nice to speak with you. You're on the air.
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D
Well, my favorite trip, no matter how old or young the people are, how much they want to spend or how little they want to spend, is to figure out what time sunset is and then arrange to be at Staten island ferry about 30 minutes before. When you're on the Staten island ferry going over to Staten island, be on the right side. You will get a magnificent skyline view, and you will also pass very close to the Statue of Liberty and get some incredible pictures. If it happens to be full moon or nearly full moon, you will see that on the way back. Then when you get off the Staten island ferry, which, of course is free, when you get off, you can easily walk up and over to the. The World Trade Towers area. And if you're still. Still with people who enjoy walking, you can walk up a little bit further and eventually get to the high lines.
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C
Great recommendations. Thank you for calling in. Let's talk to Jack, who's calling in from Queens. Hey, Jack, thanks for taking the time to call, all of it. You're on the air.
- [08:20]
E
Hi. Thank you. Well, a couple things. I'm a Queens boy, born and raised, Something that no New Yorker should ever miss or your visitor. First is the panoramic view of New York City Located in the Queen's Museum. It's fabulous. You see the entire city of New York laid out. It's tremendous. And up until the mid-90s or so, anytime there was a new building that was built, they would replace it on this huge panoramic. As long as you're in that neighborhood, Another good place to check out is the Lemon Ice King of Corona. They're delicious. I mean, it's a New York phenomenon. And while you're there, just walk down the block and you can watch some people playing bocce at Spaghetti Park. And the last plug is a little personal. Okay. Now, it's the statue of Christopher Columbus. It's on this little triangle. It's right off of the elevated line in Astoria. And actually, it was a statue made by my godfather. And it's beautiful. And they've made it now, and rightfully so. They're also recognizing the indigenous people. So it's nice. It's a nice thing to do. And it's something that would not be on your radar typically.
- [09:36]
A
Love that. Jack, thank you so much for weighing in. All right. He talked about going to the Lemon Ice King. It's probably going to be hot most of the summer. It was a little hot Saturday and Sunday. What are some good things to do when you're walking around and it just seems like it's. It's way too hot?
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B
Go inside. Like, I come from a very subtropical place where there's a huge mall culture. So Even when I was thinking, okay, what would I recommend to my friends when I this summer? I think museums gonna play a big part of it. Just cause you can duck inside and just cool off a little bit. Yeah.
- [10:09]
A
You wrote a newsletter recently that was called Weird Tours for hardened New Yorkers. Tell me about some of these weird tours that you went on.
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B
Well, one of them is a rat and garbage tour that actually takes place here in lower Manhattan.
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A
Okay.
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B
What's more New York than rat and garbage? I guess. And you know, every block smells different every summer. And it's really, you know, it's weird in its name, but really it's about sanitation history, which I think is quite fascinating. If you're a history nerd and daredevil. Tattoos do a tattoo history tour until I think the 90s or correct me, I don't know, somewhere in the 90s it was banned. Tattooing was banned. So there is like a rich tattoo history in New York City and that's fascinating as well. Wow.
- [10:55]
A
This text says there are multilingual Harlem tours that are well worth it. Another said, I always insist out of towners go to the New York Historical Society and the museum in the city of New York. This one says Staten Island Greenbelt has more than 30 miles of hiking trails
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C
that run from the tallest point in
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A
New York City to the beaches, to wetlands through woodlands.
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C
Anything a nature lover could want right here in the city.
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A
We are talking about what to do
- [11:22]
C
when you're playing tour guides for friends or family who are visiting you in the city. My guest is Heidi Chu from the City Reporter who helps write their summer
- [11:29]
A
and the city newsletter.
- [11:31]
C
We also want to hear from you. Where do you take tourists when they come to visit? Is there a touristy site that you say, yes, you have to see it. Which ones are not worth the hype? What's on your own personal favorites list? Our number is 2124-3396-9221-2433 W. You mentioned going to a museum. That's a really. It's like I would like food. When you're thinking about museums, how do you. What's your rubric for deciding which museum you should go to or not?
- [12:01]
B
I think it's a balancing act between how many people are going to be there. Am I actually going to be able to see the things and also like what's on view? Like, I think it, you know, what I recommend just depends on the person's interest. Also like, you know, if, if it's like sometimes museum close out certain floors when they're in between shows and, you know, that's something to consider. But for me, I think, you know, I think of like the Noguchi Museum, for example. I think it's beautiful because it's a perfect mix of outdoor and indoors. Like, the outdoor part is so, like peaceful. I feel like it's poetic, it's Zen, but then when it gets a little too hot, you can duck inside and just look at pottery. And that's, that's nice too. And obviously being in Astoria, Longan City, there's plenty of food to choose from from around there.
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C
So what else is on your list?
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B
On my list? I mean, MoMA, PS1. I'm also a Queens girl, so I'm shouting out all these Queens museums.
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A
I love it.
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B
Moma Piaz one is great in the summer, especially when they do their warm up series at night, you know, so you get, you know, the museum itself, but also DJs and summer party vibes. That's great. Not a traditional museum, but the Tenement museum is always great because it's such a nice way to get the history of immigration in the city and walk around. And you can do the apartment tour of version of it, but you can also do the walking tour part of it. And I think both are awesome.
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C
Has one of the best gift shops.
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B
Agreed.
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C
In entirely in New York.
- [13:21]
B
Agreed. Totally.
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C
Yeah. Let's take another call. Let's talk to Willa in Brooklyn. Hey, Willa, thanks for calling all of it. You're on the air.
- [13:32]
D
Hi, Allison, thanks for having me on. Yeah, I love taking people to Brighton Beach. I mean, it's a city beach that you can get to on public transit really easily. It's also like the people that live in Brighton beach year round, everybody of all ages are using the beach. So it's a really like, you really feel part of, like the community that lives there as well as everyone who's trying to go cool off. I love getting food at Tashkent or Cafe Koshgar, taking it to the beach, having a picnic on the beach. Also, there's a new contemporary art space that has opened up in a window display at a former pharmacy on Brighton beach and 7th Street. It's run by Ryan, Forrest and Fioscher, who've lived in the neighborhood for a long time and have taken over the window space. And they're starting to program different installations in it. So that's worth checking out when you're walking on the way to the beach.
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C
Thanks for the tip. What do you say? Are you pro beach? If you have visitors coming to New
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B
York depends on them. But mostly, yes. I think there is something so special about like hopping on the A train, going to Rockaway and just feels like a little bit of a getaway. And it's always really nice. But. And it's just the vibes. Reese is awesome. You can take a bus from Flatbush, plenty of Caribbean food when you before or after. That's always nice.
- [14:56]
C
You suggest going to the Bronx. What should I see if I'm going to the Bronx?
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B
I love the botanical garden there. It's, I worship it. I go there maybe like two or three times a year. I love it during the orchid show. I love it during, like, you know, the springtime. Love it during the fall when the leaves change color. And it is also a great combo with like Arthur Avenue. So instead of going Little Italy where it's super packed, like you can do the 1, 2 combo up in the Bronx. And I love that.
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A
Let's talk to Jessica, who's calling from Hicksville, Long Island. Hey, Jessica, thanks for taking the time to call Olive at. You're on the air.
- [15:30]
D
Hello. I haven't been there in quite some time, but I would take my friends who are visiting and I forgot the name of the park, but it's on the upper way, Upper west side of New York. And it just shows what Manhattan was like before it was settled by Europeans. It is very peaceful, beautiful old trees and very quiet and beautiful.
- [15:56]
A
Thank you so much for calling Jessica. We are taking your recommendations where to take visitors out around town, whether it's touristy thing that you absolutely cannot miss or you think that's not worth the hype, but you should try this place. Our number is 2124-3396-9221-2433. WNYC. We'll be right back. You're listening to all of it on wnyc. I'm Alison Stewart. We're talking about what to do when you're playing tour guide for friends and family who are visiting New York City. My guest is Heidi Chu from the City Reporter who helps write their summer and the city newsletter. We're also hearing from you when you're showing visitors around town. What is the touristy thing that you absolutely cannot miss? What's not worth the hype? What's your own personal favorite? Our number is 2124-3396-9221-2433. WNYC. We talked about Queens. We talked about the Bronx. Talking about Staten Island. How about Brooklyn?
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B
Brooklyn, it's always fun it's always nice. And the alternative to Central park is always Prospect park because it has such more of a family vibe. People are out grilling in the summer and picnicking and all of that. And the Brooklyn Museum, especially on the first Saturday, is like amazing place to be in.
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A
It is. What about Red Hook?
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B
Love Red Hook. I had just gone recently. I love doing like a distillery, brewery, cidery sort of tour and you can just sit by the water and sip on a little something. And Pioneer Works is a great sort of exhibition space that I really enjoy. And it kind of also has that same getaway feeling of going to a beach in some ways because you're surrounded by water. If you just focus that way, you can forget that you're in the city. So that's always nice.
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A
I'm going to ask you to think about this question and then we'll go to calls. But what are your favorite neighborhoods to walk around in? Think about that and we'll talk to
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C
Hannah, who's calling us from Brooklyn Heights.
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A
That's a good neighborhood. Hey, Hannah, thanks for calling, all of it.
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D
Hi, thanks for having me.
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C
Sure.
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D
I wanted to give you guys my suggestion, which I always think is such a fun summer day. If you have visitors, go to Coney Island. I think it's criminally underrated. You can catch a Cyclones game on the water. The sunset's gorgeous, they have cheap beers. It's super fun. It's easier to get to than you think. And you can go on the Cyclone afterwards, which is also crazy. And you can end your night at L and Beast Maloney Gardens, which is a great pizza place in the area.
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C
I absolutely agree with you on that one, as does a texter. It says, can't go wrong with the
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A
cyclones for 10 bucks. And Nathan's for a hot dog.
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C
Let's talk to Nora calling from Sleepy Hollow. Hey, Nora, thanks for calling, all of it.
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D
Hi, thanks. I want to say the old growth forest up in Inwood is, I think called Inwood park. And it's beautiful. There are trails through the forest and it's really wonderful. And also you said that you thought the Statue of Liberty was overrated. But I had my good friends from Minnesota. That's where the 13 year old daughter wanted to go. And it includes Ellis island, which is really interesting. I mean, a sense of when the family was told these people go to the left and they can stay and those people can't, and they were never going to see these people again. What it really felt like to go through there when it was processing Immigrant. The Tenement Museum, too. I would second and I would say the same thing. And when you're in those apartments and really hearing about how life was lived by a very large family in a tiny apartment there, that's really worth it. The Met is a favorite, and they have a place called the Visible Storage, which is on the second floor mezzanine. And I'd only learned about it because my Minnesota best friend told me she read an article about it in the New York Times. And they have, like, rows and rows of gilt picture frames and grandfather clock and all this glassware and also paintings and sculpture, and it's just kind of fascinating to wander around in.
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C
That sounds amazing. Thank you for the tip. This text says, for jazz lover, Eastern Queens, home of Louis Armstrong, then Adelaide Heights, home of Basie, Ella Lena Horne, Cab Calloway, and James Brown. Jackie Robinson could call it the 20th century black elite Tour. All right, I started with a question for you, Heidi. What's your favorite neighborhood to walk around in in New York, as a reporter?
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B
I mean, just to take us back to Queens. Jackson Heights is always fun if you're looking to eat. If you love street food, walk, walk under the seventh train line. You can. You can't go wrong. It's called the International Express. For some reason, like for. For a reason. And food from all over the country, from all over the world. And that's always fun. I think Chelsea, if you like art, because there's plenty of galleries that you can just be spontaneous and walk into and walk out if you don't feel like it, and stumble upon another one. So I think those two are great. Agreed with Brooklyn Heights and Cobble Hill. Just that whole waterfront is beautiful.
- [20:58]
C
Yeah. I spent Saturday just wandering around Chelsea, just going gallery to gallery to gallery, and it was so amazing to see how much art. I mean, I understand the galleries are a certain level of art, but it was really beautiful to see that much creativity in the city.
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B
Totally.
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C
Now, here's a question. How do you strike a good balance between having a plan and leaving room for spontaneity?
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B
I am someone who loves what I call structured spontaneity. So I just like to pin things in a certain neighborhood on my Google map. And I'm like, okay, this day I'm going to go to this neighborhood and show them. And like we mentioned earlier, if there's a line, maybe I go to something else instead. So that's generally how I, you know, hit part of the spontaneity part. The other thing is that I find that Sometimes when people are coming from out of town, maybe in, like, places where people drive a lot, they're very nervous about walking. And I'm like, interesting. I think walking long stretches is one of the best way to see the city. So I think stumbling upon things while you're walking is. Is just another way to do it.
- [21:56]
C
A lot of people who live here might feel sort of corny doing a typical touristy New York thing, but sometimes you have to kind of shed that to have a good time. You have to lean into the cheesiness of it all. What advice would you have for people to get over that?
- [22:13]
B
I always think about things that are, like, so typically touristy that everyone's like, oh, no native New Yorker would go to that. But what if I actually just tried it? For example, the Empire State Building is one place I hadn't gone to, but one of my friends happened to work in the building, and he's like, well, I can get you up for free. Do you want to go see it? And I said, yes. And I was like, I actually don't regret this, but. And that was really nice. And even things like, you know, Coney island is another one where people are like, oh, maybe it's typical touristy, but the kookiness is fun. Go see it. I think it's just thinking about what you haven't been to and just leaning into that and saying yes instead of being like, okay, let me recoil.
- [22:53]
C
Let's talk about breaking the bank. You got a person in town who's got deep pockets. What would you suggest they spend their money on?
- [23:00]
B
Buying me a dinner? No. I don't know, because I don't think. I don't think too much about that, because I don't spend too much money going around. But I think there's so many good restaurants. So if you're gonna spend money, then spend money on some really yummy food.
- [23:14]
C
Let's talk to Amanda, who's calling in from Danbury. Hey, Amanda, thanks for calling all of us.
- [23:21]
D
You're welcome. Good afternoon. How are you doing?
- [23:22]
C
Doing great.
- [23:23]
D
My suggestion you had mentioned looking for some things to do in Brooklyn. I actually have a cousin who's an FDNY firefighter, and she's like, yeah, we're over in Red Bank. We're always looking for, you know, visitors. We can do an adult tour. You can come see the fire trucks. And I think there's nothing more New York than visiting a fire department.
- [23:41]
A
That's a great suggestion. Thanks for calling. As we start wrapping up in the beginning of the summer. You launched your summer newsletter a few weeks ago. Can you give us a preview of what's coming up or what we can look for online of past editions?
- [23:56]
B
Yeah, I mean the one that we just published last week is all about pride and queer clowns, which is a subculture I stumbled upon. I had so much fun reporting it. So another thing I would recommend people do this summer is like go see a clown show. It's fooling around. It's fun. That's fun. So next week we have our juneteenth issue coming up. A lot about jazz, a lot about that, a lot of we're thinking about fishing a lot. Thinking about City island, overnight fishing boats. And if you're a Knicks fan or into the whole basketball thing like I am two weeks ago we also did a basketball edition just to sort of celebrate all these fun Knicks thing going on.
- [24:32]
A
You have a list of different things you've been looking at. Is there anything that we missed on your list that you just want to make sure everybody knows about?
- [24:39]
B
Well, one thing I really love, I don't know if I want everyone to know about, but I will share it is I do really love the Gantry Plaza State park in Long Island City. It's such a great alternative to Domino park. Such a great alternative to all the other Brooklyn side waterfront parks. It's very quiet most of the time. It's very much like a still a family neighborhood park, so still get beautiful views.
- [25:01]
A
My guest has been Heidi Chu from the City Reporter. She helps write the Summer and the City newsletter. Listeners, thanks for weighing in. By the way, this will be available via transcript, so wait a couple of hours and you can write down all of these recommendations that you made as well as as what Heidi has recommended as well. Heidi, thanks for coming to all of it.
- [25:21]
B
Thank you so much for having me.
- [25:23]
C
WNYC Studios is supported by AT and T Summer. It's when we share more time, more memories and more photos and at @&t the iPhone 17 Pro is your summer essential. Its center stage front camera auto adjusts the frame to fit everyone into group selfies. Right now at, at and t ask how you can get iPhone 17 Pro on them with eligible trade in requires eligible plan terms and restrictions apply. Subject to change.
- [25:48]
B
Visit
- [25:51]
C
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B
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