← All Of It with Alison Stewart
All Of It with Alison Stewart
What the Hack?
00:27:12
Christopher Bononos joins to share his favorite hacks for living in NYC and we'll take listener calls.
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Chris Urbanos
Listener support WNYC Studios.
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Alison Stewart
Today we are launching our new series, what the heck? Well, we crowdsource hacks that will make different aspects of life a bit easier. And we begin with life hacks for the greatest city in the world. Like which subway car is closest to the exit leading to your apartment? Or what time to hit the supermarket and avoid the lines. Or that slept on bar with the best happy hour deal. Chris Urbanos is the city editor for New York magazine and has put together a list of some of his New York hats. Hi, Chris. Hey, Chris, are you there?
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Chris Urbanos
I am.
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Alison Stewart
How are ya?
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Chris Urbanos
All right. It's good to be here. I'm excited to kick this series off.
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Alison Stewart
Excellent. So before we go deep into New York hacks, thinking broadly here, why do you think New York presents sort of a unique opportunity for life hacks as compared to other cities?
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Chris Urbanos
Well, for the simple reason that it's so, so much harder to live here most of the time, you know, it's more congested than any other American city. It's more crowded, it's busier, it's more expensive. There are days those of us who think this is the greatest place in the world and would never live anywhere else have our moments.
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Alison Stewart
So what do you think is challenging about hacks for New York City? I think it's because everybody's so different. What do you think?
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Chris Urbanos
That's true. And I think, you know, money is a lot of it. We're surrounded by people who can sort of effortlessly live here because they're so well off, and that tends to suck up resources that the rest of us might have. So that's part of it too. There's a lot of envy.
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Alison Stewart
Listeners, we want to get you in on this conversation. Let's hear it. What are your New York hacks? Those underrated tips that make life in a city a little bit better. Call or text us now. 212-433-WNYC. That's 212-433-9692. Any subway or commuting hacks you might have, Any nightlikes you have for that mightlife hacks you have to save money or have more fun or tips for navigating a busy New York Street. 2124-3396-9221-2433 wn. We want to hear hacks. Imagine somebody is moving to the city and you tell them, oh, you got to know this. That's what we want. 212-433-9692. All right, let's go to the first hack on your list, and that is how to decide where to live. What is important when you consider deciding about where to live?
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Chris Urbanos
Well, there's no one solution to this, needless to say, where you live in New York, based on your taste, your schools, all sorts of things. But finding an apartment in New York is agony. And there is no. There is no one fix. Needless to say, I'm not going to give you a tip. That is magical. And then suddenly you'll have a cheap apartment exactly where you want it to be. There's two things I always tell people when they ask me this. One is to accept that the perfect apartment does not exist and will not exist, but that very often, you know, you can. You can find the apartment you want, except it has one big thing wrong with it.
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Alison Stewart
That's great. That was important. That's a big, important.
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Chris Urbanos
You look, you accept one big flaw in order to get everything else. Like, if the thing you just absolutely want to have is an outdoor patio or something like that, you know, then you have to accept that something else is going to be wrong with that place. The kitchen stinks or, you know, the bathroom's too small or something like that. It's two blocks further than the subway than you want. It's something like that. But you, you're going to have to compromise on one thing unless you have basically unlimited funds. So, you know, search within yourself if you like, and say, what's the. What's the thing you can give up most easily? Maybe you would love to have a big chic kitchen, but honestly, you don't cook very much. Maybe that's enough, you know, so that's one thing. The other thing I'd say to people is very often you want a certain neighborhood. You love a neighborhood's vibe or whatever, and it's just too expensive or inaccessible or you just can't find the place you want. What you can do, and this is what I did, actually, when I first moved to New York, is you go a few stops down the line, a couple of subway stops past where you want to be, uptown, downtown in Brooklyn, you know, and you just make it easy to get where you want it to be. I was a few bus stops from the neighborhood where all my friends. But I meant I could be there in 15 or 20 minutes. And it was, it was the compromise I made. And I, I really, I got a. I was able to, you know, find an apartment I could afford. And I, I tell people this. You know, just accept that you, you can get some of the flavor of a neighborhood if you move slightly beyond it in one direction or another. And then transit systems, you know, there for a reason.
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Alison Stewart
We've got a great text. Always have an old lady strolling cart to bring to the grocery store.
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Chris Urbanos
Oh, my gosh. Yes.
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Alison Stewart
So important. Let's talk to Don from Park Slope. Hi, Don, you're on the air.
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Chris Urbanos
Hi, yes, I'm calling because it's always driven me crazy that people use cones to stay spot and in some cases it's legal. If it says Con Edison on the cone, yeah, okay, great. But if it's just a cone that's in front of a couple spots, take those cones away and take that spot.
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Alison Stewart
Thanks. I like his attitude. Appreciate it. Very New York attitude. Take those cones, take their spot.
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Chris Urbanos
Respond to civil disobedience with more civil disobedience, everybody.
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Alison Stewart
What are your New York hacks? Those underrated tips that make life in the city a little bit easier? 2124-3396-9221-2433, WNYC. You can also reach out to us on social media at Olivet wnyc. Chris Bonanos, he is the city editor for New York Magazine. He is walking us through our very first what the heck? All right, let's talk about New York. It can be a town of extremes in your apartment. It can be ice cold or it can be furnace level hot. You have a hack for enjoying what you call the quote, seasonless New York spots. What do you mean by seasonless spots?
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Chris Urbanos
Well, you know, there are plenty of places nowadays that are climate controlled, you know, department stores or whatever, certainly. But I'll tell you where. A million years ago for the magazine, I wrote a story about where to stay cool in the summer. And I ran around 20 or 30 places in New York with a little thermometer taking readings, you know, and the thing I learned is that when you go to the big museums, the temperature never changes, the humidity never changes. And it's because they have these extraordinary climate control systems to protect billions of dollars in art. You know, they can't deal with humidity or anything because it expands, it contracts the paint on the canvas cracks. Things happen. You know, they're trying to protect things that are sometimes thousands of years old. So they have the most incredible temperature control. You go into the Museum of Modern Art or the Metropolitan Museum, it is always 74 degrees or thereabouts. And it's always, you know, cool and dry and comfortable. And, you know, the other thing I would say is that when it's really hot, if you want to Stay outside if you want to. If you don't want to disappear into the bowels of a museum, get up high.
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Alison Stewart
What do you mean by high?
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Chris Urbanos
Rooftops. Anywhere. Even though they bake, if there's any kind of pergola or anything, there's one place I love, you know, the Niarchos Library, which is across from the big schwarzman Building on 42nd Street. This is the New York Public Library's circulating branch across the street.
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Alison Stewart
Do I know it? That's where we host get lit, so I know what you're about to say.
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Chris Urbanos
Our book club. I don't think I realize that's where you do it in person. It's a great building, rebuilt a couple of years ago. It's a really nice library, first of all, you know, and it's the New York Public Library. It's a splendid institution. And there's this great roof deck with a cafe that's even open into the evening sometimes, if I'm not mistaken. It's sort of, you know, people know about it, but not really. And I just. I mean, I went up there, you know, when it was warm a few months ago, and I just spent an afternoon just sitting there and reading. It's. It's the best, you know, if you go up really high, like to the Empire State Building Observatory or something. The wind is wonderful on a hot day. You know, it's really. You feel this warm sort of. It's almost like a desert wind because you're so much above the city, even though it's humid. That kind of doesn't feel oppressive in the same way.
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Alison Stewart
Let's go through a few texts. This one says, don't walk slow. Yes, I agree. Get to know your neighbors. It might come in handy one day. That's Avi from Manhattan Subway hack. For those of us who are always running late, the conductor always closes the door on the first half of the cars first, the back half half. So head to the rear to minimize the chances of getting slammed. The door slammed in your face. W let's talk to Mark from Madison, New Jersey. Hi, Mark, you're on the air.
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Mark
How are you, Allison?
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Alison Stewart
Doing great.
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Mark
Hey, you know, a couple things. Back to the subway hacks. I think once you're a true New Yorker, you know where to stand on the platform to get to the best exit or the connection. I used to take the subway from Astor Place, and I knew always to stand at the far end of the platform to catch the next one. And the other thing for a hack, for a New Yorker is When you take a cab, make sure you go to the street to catch the cab. You're going uptown or downtown, that is going in that direction versus have the cab catch and do the sudden turn. One other suggestion for you, Allison, is if you've ever read the island at the center of the Universe, I'd love for that to be part of the book group. That's a great book and it's a total New York book.
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Alison Stewart
All right, noted. Thanks for calling in. Let's talk to Denise from Manhattan. Hi, Denise, thanks for calling all of it. You're on the air. Good afternoon. I live in the wholesale flower Market on 6th Avenue and 28th street and 28th street between 6th and 7th is the wholesale flower market that designers and party people buy their market their flowers. If you need to buy roses, you can get two dozen fresh from South America roses for about $35. But you got to go from 4am to 12 noon. They sell to retailers, so they open before the retailers. That is a good tip. Thank you so much for calling in. My guest is Christopher Bonanno, city editor of New York Magazine. Our first installment of our 2025 series, what the hack? We are asking you for your New York hacks, those underrated tips that make life in the city a little bit easier. 212-433-WNYC 212-433-9692. You can call in and join us on air or you can text to us at that number. We've got subway hacks, so I'm going to turn it to you now, Chris. You have a transit hack now that the stations on the old IND subways are color coded. How so?
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Chris Urbanos
Yeah, this is is an ancient color coding system dating back to the 20s and 30s. It was an architect named Squire Vickers who did a lot of the work on those stations when they were being constructed. And it's a thing. It's sort of the idea is to subliminally signal to you where you are in the system as you're going along each line. The wall tiles are consistent in color from station to station between express stops. So that, for example, if you're going uptown on the AC, right, you get to 59th Street. Tiles are blue. Tiles in the station stay blue until you get to 125th street when they turn green. The idea is that you can sort of half be paying ATT. And if you know your stop is 125th, the green is sort of you pick it up in the background, so to speak, and you kind of wake up to it. And you don't have to check the numbers. You don't have to crane your neck and look at the, the sign on the pillar. You don't have to do anything like that. You just pick up the tile colors and you know, it's there are a few stops that have been renovated over the years unsympathetically to this system. And so, you know, it's not foolproof. But especially if you're commuting on a line every day, you can sort of get used to this and pick it up, you know, get it into your head and navigate it without looking too hard.
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Alison Stewart
Here's a good text when you take the subway, carry a tote bag with you. In the spring, fall and winter, when you get on the train, take off your coat or sweater and put it in the tote bag so you're not roasting on the subway. Let's also talk to DeForest in Yonkers. Hey, DeForest, thank you so much for calling all of it. You're on the air.
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DeForest
Hi, how are you? I have what I use as a kind of mantra. I live in Yonkers, but I work in New York, in the city, in Manhattan actually. And I use this as a contra, as a kind of mantra. I say to myself, I'm only looking for one parking space. Now, it works on the law of attraction and I have worked it for years and I have discovered parking spaces show up out of what I think thin air, out of nowhere and the most unlikely places. There are times, obviously when I have to put it in a put it in a lot or walk an extra long distance. But generally speaking, I have been coming up with these parking spaces that look like they come up out of nowhere. And it's just a simple mantra that I repeat over and over again. I'm only looking for one parking space.
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Alison Stewart
DeForest, thank you so much for calling. Let's talk to Stuart, who's calling in from Long Island. Hi, Stuart, you're on the air.
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DeForest
Hi, how you doing? Well, my tip is if you do have a car and there's a snowstorm coming, try to park on the left side of a one way street because the plows all push the snow to the right side. So the cars on the right side of the one street will get inundated with snow and require some serious digging. But on the left side, not so bad.
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Alison Stewart
Thanks for the tip. We appreciate it. So Chris, we asked some producers what their tips were and we asked one of our producers, Malik, and it's Interesting because he's not from here originally. So his answers were really pure from the heart. And he said some museums have some sort of free discounted Friday situations. And if you go to the Museum of the City of New York, you might as well plan on making a trip to the El Museum de Barrio too. Do you have any places like that where you do a one, two punch?
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Chris Urbanos
Do I? Well, you know there's lots of, there's lots of like shopping and stuff where I, I make a little loop or whatever. But in terms of institutions or any.
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Alison Stewart
Places that are free that you want people to know about, not so much free.
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Chris Urbanos
But I will tell you about one little museum that I am especially fond of. You know, in, in my experience, one artist museums tend to be a little, you go in and you go out and you spend a few minutes and get bored. But there's a major exception in Queens. Have you ever been to the Noguchi Museum?
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Alison Stewart
No.
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Chris Urbanos
It's devoted to the work of Izumo Noguchi, the mid century sculptor, set designer, artist, architect, furniture designer, lighting designer. He was really a major figure. Died in the late 1980s and the museum is meant to showcase his work. Work. And it is built in his old studio which is a good size. It's like an old industrial building in it's more or less Astoria and it's built around a central courtyard that's just beautiful. A little sort of reinterpretation of the Japanese garden. They have a great shop selling the paper lamps that he designed, those Akari paper lamps which you may know and they just, it's just, it's a really wonderful place to spend an afternoon and they don't get enough love and I, I, you know, I'm always sending people there.
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Alison Stewart
Love it. We're going to continue with our what the hack. We're talking about New York City's hacks. Things that make this city is easier. Christopher Bonannos, the city editor for New York magazine is our guide. We'll take more of your calls after a quick break. This is all of it. You are listening to all of it on wnyc. I'm Alison Stewart. My guest is Christopher Bonannos, city editor for New York magazine. He's here for our first installment of our 2025 series what the heck Where. Throughout the year we're going to brainstorm tips on making your life a little bit easier and taking and taking your calls. Right now. Working things off with New York life hacks. What are your New York Life Hacks? 2124-339692-21243-WNYC. Let's look at restrooms. Never leave anywhere without stopping in one. Get a New York City library card and use the cultural pass for free. So many museums are available for free. Never get into an empty subway car, especially if the car before it or the car after are crowded. It means something not nice is going on in there. Let's go back to your list, Chris. Broadway hacks, we do a lot of theater on their show. Sometimes it's so expensive. When's your favorite night to go and why?
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Chris Urbanos
The best bet is usually a weeknight when there are fewer tourists. You'll be there with New Yorkers and really probably the least crowded night and thus the easiest night to get a ticket to a hot show is Tuesday. Usually the matinees are also sometimes a good deal the midweek matinee. But Tuesday nights tend to be quietest. There's also the extra detail that a lot of shows are dark Monday. The shows that aren't are sometimes, you know, more available on Monday because people aren't expecting it. I have also heard that if you go on a Tuesday night because a lot of the shows are dark Monday, sometimes the actors are more rested and you get a better show sometimes. There's also one other trick that I'm going to offer and I can't guarantee this will work, but I know of people who've done it. If there's a really hot show, and I'm talking about Hamilton in 2016, 2015, where you just can't get in, nobody can get in. Everything sells out for a huge amount of money way ahead of time. Try this. Clear an evening, go to the box office, show up at the theaters and at 7:55, just before the curtain, ask if there's one ticket. Sometimes there's either a cancellation or you know, the the people will buy blocks of tickets and there's one seat abandoned in the middle that never sold or there's just a leftover in the back or standing room. Sometimes once in a while you luck out and they'll have one to sell you at face value.
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Alison Stewart
How about restaurant reservations? People plan ahead. They use the apps. But you like the good old fashioned way of calling the restaurant.
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Chris Urbanos
Yeah. Well, here's the thing, right? The apps get a lot of it, but get a lot of tables. But sometimes depends again on the restaurant. Depends on the place. They hold back a few for people who call. It doesn't work everywhere. Believe me, it doesn't work everywhere. But sometimes if you just pick up the phone and call, they answer, which is itself kind of a crapshoot these days. But if they answer, sometimes the reservations line will have tables that aren't fed to the apps. Or again, they will have a last minute cancellation. You can try at the last minute too. You know, if you want 8:00, you call at 7:40, you say, did anyone cancel tonight? Maybe you're lucky. Maybe you're lucky. It is it costs you nothing to call. And you know, sometimes you can do great.
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Alison Stewart
Let's talk to Tina. Hi Tina, thanks for calling, all of it. You're on the air.
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Tina
Hi Allison. Great show and love the magazine. So I actually your your double whammy brought to mind. I whenever I go to the botanical gardens, I always make room to go to Arthur Avenue afterward. The two are institutions and sometimes if you have the stamina, you could do Bronx Zoo instead of Arthur Avenue or switch it up. But my original column is about landlords and rental stabilization. If you're lucky enough to get an apartment that you like, and particularly in a pre war building, especially if you see older people, the likelihood is that there's some rent stabilized units there. And if your place has been upgraded with maybe some new appliances or something, you can check the rent stabilization board and look at the rent stabilization history and see if the landlord increase the rent by pretending to make lots more capital investment in the unit than were actually made. They will claim it so they can deregulate your rent stabilization into, you know, free market rent. So a couple of my friends have done this and gone to court when they found it was truly faked on the, you know, the landlord pretended to make these, got thousands of dollars in back rent.
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Alison Stewart
Good tip. Thank you so much for calling in about that one. My guest is Christopher Bonanno, city editor for New York Magazine. We're going to talk about supermarkets in New York. Many have experienced the Sunday morning Trader Joe's line out the door. What's your hack for hitting the supermarket?
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Chris Urbanos
It's not so much a hack as an enthusiastic recommendation. I mean, plenty of people know the great new supermarkets, you know, places like Fairway or wherever. My favorite store in all of New York City anywhere is Cloustian's on Lexington Avenue, 123 Lexington Ave. Near 28th Street. It's not exactly an undiscovered gem, but it is. It is a spectacular place. It started life in the 1940s as an Indian spice shop and it has since expanded into almost every kind of ethnic groceries. And they sell spices in bulk of when I tell you, incredible variety. And you can basically. They basically seem to aim to carry everything that's sort of like from France and Spain to the west to maybe to East Asia. In the east, you know, China and Japan and Korean ingredients with a lot of emphasis on the Middle east and India and you know, it's, it's the sort of place where there's an entire room full of different variations of hot peppers. There's a, there's a, you know, an aisle full of flowers. I mean types of flour and I don't mean blossoms. I mean, you know, for baking. It's just, I have never gone in there wanting a non regular supermarket ingredient and not walked out with it. They always have it, everything, ever. It's the only supermarket where I go to browse sometimes. Because you think you discover new ways of cooking just by walking up and down the aisles. It's so good. It's also got this weird. This is a bit of history, but just building it's in is an old, you know, formerly a brownstone on Lexington Avenue, it was once occupied by the Vice president of the United States, Chester Arthur, New Yorker. He was inaugurated in the front parlor.
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Alison Stewart
Who knew?
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Chris Urbanos
Yeah, up with a, up with a, up where the bitters are.
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Alison Stewart
Let's talk to Ronnie from Sugarload, New York. Hi, Ronnie, thanks for calling. You're on the air.
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Tina
Hi. So when you were talking about weather, one of the greatest things is to take a ferry ride. The new ferry system goes all around New York. It's not free, but it certainly is a good buy and certainly kind of special. You can go from the Bronx, you can go down to Wall street and go to Long Island City, Astoria. And by the way, when you were talking about the Noguchi Museum, I actually took the ferry to Astoria and got off and went to the Noguchi Museum. But on the way I stopped at Socrates, which is an outdoor sculpture place that is free. So that's my suggestion.
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Alison Stewart
Both. All great suggestions. Chris, we're coming to the end of the segment. Is there any hack that I haven't asked you about?
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Chris Urbanos
I don't have anything else that leaps to mind. I mean, the best advice I have is just noticing like you were talking earlier about finding the right spot on the platform to exit. You can commute for a long time without ever doing that. And then one day you just have to start. You have to force yourself to pay attention. And you do it once and it gets programmed into your head and then you go on autopilot and it's until you change jobs. You're gonna commute there every day pretty much for the rest of your employment there. So, you know, being a New Yorker is partly about being wise to your environment anyway, and that's my, that's my best advice as a, as a, as an observer of the city. You know, noticing is especially valuable.
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Alison Stewart
Christopher Bonannos is city Editor for New York Magazine. Thanks for joining us for our first episode of what the Hack.
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Chris Urbanos
Anytime.
- [27:18]
Alison Stewart
Great to be here. Thanks to everybody who called in. Since WNYC's first broadcast in 1924, we've been dedicated to creating the kind of content we know the world needs. In addition to this award winning reporting, your sponsorship also supports inspiring storytelling and extraordinary music that is free and accessible to all. To get in touch and find out more, visit sponsorship.wnyc.org.