A few suggestions for "secret spaces" in my own neighborhood: the Biblical Garden on the grounds of the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine adjacent to the eastern extent of the south façade below the south-eastern ambulatory chapels (for its gazebos containing benches ideal for reading), the greensward on the Columbia University campus just west of Low Library and south of Earl Hall (for enough space for tossing a Frissbee), the grave marker of St. John Pollack, "an amiable child," in Riverside Park west across from Grant's Tomb (for contemplation), the grounds of Morningside Gardens, a two-square-city-block co-op between 123rd & La Salle Streets and Amsterdam to Broadway (for sitting on its benches at 10:20 A.M. Sunday mornings to listen to the swinging bells of Riverside Church's carillon summoning worshippers to church), beyond the playground at the northern tip of the huge traffic island whose southern end houses Grant's Tomb (for kite flying in the autumn river winds). Come and enjoy.
7
That lovely house at the end of Grace Court Alley with the built-in garage must be worth a fortune.
There are 248 'Mews', 'Walks' and 'Alleys' in NYC (pdf) : https://files.acrobat.com/a/preview/82fafb36-52eb-417f-a8c4-2a5e32a4736f
2
No mention of Grove Court? My favorite "secret" place to gaze upon with envy.
4
Me too. Enviable sanctuary.
2
You mean these -
https://data.cityofnewyork.us/Housing-Development/Privately-Owned-Public...
1
uh, yonkers is IN westchester....
3
One of the row houses in Sniffen Court was the home of Professor Irwin Corey.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/07/arts/irwin-corey-comedian-and-foremos...
It was also the location for the cover photo on the Doors "Strange Days" album.
3
Contrary to the points raised in the article, I savor and daily appreciate the neighborborly feel of my area on the upper west side of Manhattan. When I walk on Broadway in the upper ‘90s and low ‘100s, it’s common to exchange smiles and greetings with people I pass and many of the shopkeepers. Some of the shopkeepers and store managers greet me by name!! My neighbors and friends in the area often speak about the small town feel of our area.
7
Thank you for this delightful discovery walk in areas of New York I had no idea existed. Beautiful photographs.
10
Pomander Walk has sweet memories for me. I lived there for several years in the late 80s and early 1990s; my son learned to walk “on the walk.” It was not a place for only the wealthy. In fact, most neighbors were struggling actors, opera singers, and artists. We sold our apartment for $160,000.00 back then, and it was a tough sell as the apartments were very small. Consider THAT rise in Manhattan real estate prices. I don’t know about you, but our salaries have not increased six or seven- fold since then.
14
I think some of the comments reflect a misunderstanding of these gardens & mews, all of which (except maybe BK Heights) have been deeply endangered within recent memory. What's more, Sylvan Terrace, Striver's Row, and Jumel are all in neighborhoods that are hardly exclusive. And anyone who lived thru the terrible days of development mowing down everything in its path, such as Harry Helmsley's attempt to put a 40-story tower in Tudor City's gardens, will celebrate this article and the lovely spaces that have survived NYC's worst days.
23
Rather than celebrate exclusive enclaves that are unaffordable and closed to the public, why not identify enclaves that are open to the public? In particular, some spaces are open to the public as a condition to securing air-rights for ever taller buildings. These "public" spaces don't look open to the public, but they are ours. Identify these places in crowded areas in town, where the average person (and not the wealthy elite) can enjoy our lunch or read a book. That would be a service to your readers.
34
Why not? Because it was an article about mews houses and carriage houses.
5
A map of POPS (Privately Owned Public Spaces) can be found at https://apops.mas.org/ .
3
When I visit the city I stay next to Pomander Walk. A friend who went to Emily Dickinson school across the street mentioned that the Marx Brothers lived there. There should be a plaque.
10
As much as I love living in NYC, I envy the citizens of European countries for whom such living arrangements are very common and whose cities are very walkable, filled with beautiful architecture, statues and landmarks.
39
1) There are beautiful buildings full of history and ornaments in Manhattan.
2) What you are not getting in Manhattan (bar a few exceptions) is low-rise. But you are clearly idealizing Europe if you think quaint low rise neighborhoods are common and livable. Look at London: you indeed have quaint historical houses everywhere, but because low rise means less housing for a given amount of space, there is such a housing shortage that most people cannot afford these houses. Most people live far from where they work (in low rises that are charmless), and/or they cram in these low-rises, sharing them with strangers.
3) New York City is very walkable. And what actually makes a city walkable is the proximity of places, which you can only achieve with density. The more low-rise the urban architecture, the more people drive and the less they walk.
22
This article reeks so much of misplaced nostalgia… I am actually very glad that such low-rise neighborhoods are very scarce in Manhattan. Why would I care if there aren’t more of them? Only the 1% can afford such a place, so if you build twice as much, maybe then it’s the 2% who can? I mean it is quite nice that us plebe can walk around a neighborhood where we could never afford to live, but it is much more in my interest (and most people’s too) to have high-rises with lot of expensive apartments, so more people can pay a million to live there rather than spending their money pushing up prices in my neighborhood. It would be sad to lose these old houses, but after all I can see pretty old houses anywhere else in the country, and abroad as well, so I don’t really need them around where I live.
If we are talking about urban architecture, I can see how high rises will let less light in, make gardening more difficult, look less quaint, and are not as comfortable as houses (which only matters for people rich enough to live in them), but I find it more than a little odd that the fact that low rise means less housing for a given space is just not mentioned. It does matter, because less housing means more expensive housing, and unless you live in a bubble it is probably more of a concern than how much light your tomatoes are getting.
14
"It would be sad to lose these old houses, but after all I can see pretty old houses anywhere else in the country, and abroad as well, so I don’t really need them around where I live."
Oh, God.
We are talking about urban architecture and how to make cities livable.
Park Avenue is full of what we might call "high rises," but they are Rosario Candela designed buildings and beautiful. Not all tall structures have to be ugly, but tell that to modern developers.
"Us plebes," as you say, have our own low-rise enclaves, and we walk a lot, but it doesn't make The New York Times.
Take the subway to Bay Ridge, or to Gravesend, or to Sheepshead Bay, or to Canarsie, or to . . . .
Every once in a while you'll see a remnant or three of the old days, and imagine a time when, say, there were more of such houses, when black-windowed cars didn't roar by blasting foul sound systems. But what has taken their place are other low-rise private or two-family dwellings.
The reason New York City builds tall buildings is overpopulation by two distinct classes: Russian and other oligarchs who park their money into American real estate and poor people who will not control their childbearing and produce more poor people, who produce more poor people. In Brooklyn, more middle-class neighborhoods have been lost to the decades-long expansion of Section-8 housing than to today's gentrification -- which is, by and large, a reclaiming of old neighborhoods.