The city’s summer free outdoor cinema festival schedule is almost complete. THE OFFICIAL GUIDE is on the website noted herein,  organized by the day of the week for each festival. Films usually start at sundown, about 8:30 p.m. Blankets and snacks encouraged! Yet to announce their lineups: the HBO Bryant Park Film Festival.

http://www.nycgo.com/articles/free-outdoor-summer-movie-screenings-2013/?cid=soc_facebook-free

WEDNESDAYS     

Hudson River Park’s RiverFlicks for Grown-ups at Pier 63      July 10–August 21

Summer on the Hudson: Movies Under the Stars at Pier I, Riverside Park_July 10 — August 14

SummerScreen in McCarren Park__July 10 — August 14

THURSDAYS                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Syfy Movies with a View at Pier 1,       Brooklyn Bridge Park        July 11—August 29

FRIDAYS                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              Intrepid Summer Movie Series       May 24 – August 23     On the Great Ship 
Films on the Green Festival   June 7 – September 5

SUNDAYS
Movie Night at Habana Outpost       June 6 – October  27    Really good Flicks!

Bryant Park films to be announced, and there’s Rooftop Films.com.  Bring a picnic and blanket, maybe a couple of sweaters.

You always  make new friends, maybe even from your own home town.

Spring through Autumn: we want to share ideas for our guests to consider during a stay at Park 79 Hotel. Best if it’s a return visit to New York City or a stay of at least a week. Even a mild winter’s day can invite these adventures.

STORM KING ART CENTER   http://www.stormking.org/         April 3 through December 1.  Widely celebrated as one of the world’s leading sculpture parks, Storm King Art Center is located one hour north of New York City, in the lower Hudson Valley. Its pristine 500-acre landscape of fields, hills, and woodlands provides the setting for a collection of more than 100 carefully sited sculptures. Coach USA (Short Line Bus) offers two day-packages, leaving from the Port Authority Bus Terminal. One program includes shopping at Woodbury Common Outlets. www.coachusa.com or call 800-631-8405.

Winter may be hanging on, with cold nights, windy mornings, but the Spring 2013 Season is definitely in full blossom!  Yes, blossoms are everywhere, but so are events, performances, highlights—no stopping them. SOME HIGHLIGHTS

 NOW THRU JULY 28:       THE BROOKLYN MUSEUM        John Singer Sargent’s Watercolors    

                                                                     http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/exhibitions/sargent_watercolors/    

Well worth a day in Brooklyn! And right next door – The Brooklyn Botanic Garden http://www.bbg.org/– for lunch and gorgeous spring strolling.

3 WEEKENDS: APR 27-28; MAY 4-5, 11-12   CRAFTS ON COLUMBUS    Such stunning handmade treasures

 http://www.timeout.com/newyork/shopping/crafts-on-columbus  

SUN., MAY 5:   The Great 5 Boro Bike Tour,  the largest cycling event in America–30,000 cyclists from all over the world,  Battery Park, 68km (42-mile).Through NYC on traffic-free streets, avenues and bridges. At the finish line, join the festival at Fort Wadsworth in Gateway National Recreation Area on Staten Island, with live music, food and exhibits.  ENTRY IS SOLD OUT, JUST ENJOY ALL THE EXTRAS

SAT., MAY 25 & TUES., JUNE 11:     CHAMPIONS COLLIDE   PROFESSIONAL SOCCER

 Chelsea United vs Manchester, then Spain vs Ireland.

http://newyork.yankees.mlb.com/nyy/ticketing/soccer.jsp   

SHAKESPEARE IN THE PARK — CENTRAL  PARK

http://www.shakespeareinthepark.org/

MAY 28-JUNE 30   THE COMEDY OF ERRORS

Sparkling new production of THE COMEDY OF ERRORS concerns two sets of identical twins, separated as children and now live as master-servant pairs  An exquisitely enjoyable mess of mistaken identity, wrongful imprisonment, questionable flirting and general mayhem!
July 23 – August 18      LOVE’S LABOUR’S LOST, A NEW MUSICAL     A love letter to Shakespeare in the Park , from the creators of Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson. Romance, revelry and enchanting music ignite in this contemporary yet lovingly faithful musical adaptation of Shakespeare’s comedy.

An all-day wait on line in the park–picnics, music, making friends. Tickets are distributed at 1pm, then the audience returns for the evening outdoor performance.

Yankee Stadium Salute

 ANNUAL FLEET WEEK IN NEW YORK CITY  

MAY 22-29 

http://www.newyorkled.com/nyc_events_Fleet_Week.htm.

ANNOUNCEMENT; Fleet Week HAS BEEN CANCELLED BY THE GOVERNMENT

Hosted nearly every year since 1984, Fleet Week New York is our celebration of the sea services. Citizens of New York City and our visitors from everywhere salute and celebrate Sailors, Marines and Coast Guardsmen. Fleet Week includes dozens of military demonstrations and displays throughout the week, as well as public visitation of many of the participating ships. As the ships start to arrive in our harbor in mid-spring, very young men and women in their uniforms seem to be everywhere. And we jaded NYorkers smile and hug them!    Seeing the ships sail silently beneath the Verrazano Bridge http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verrazano-Narrows_Bridge  and into our vast harbor is history-come-alive. (This could be a good time to read about the BATTLE OF LONG ISLAND: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Long_Island. Stepping aboard each ship leaves you with unforgettable images as you return to your land life. Scheduling will be announced in early May.   Governors Island: http://www.nyharborparks.org/visit/gois.html The Island is welcoming hundreds of thousands of visitors from May 26 to end of September. Arts, cultural and recreational programs now have the island known as New York City’s “Playground for the Arts,” hosting cultural events, food festivals, concerts, performances and much more on weekends.

So, even if Fleet Week 2013 has been cut back by today’s government realities, we can all salute and welcome our ships and their stewards.

After a miserable winter that was 2012-13, New York’s outdoor fairs are a  major welcome. Street fairs started in the late 1960’s, mainly then to raise money for schools, programs, street renewals, etc.  Now, they are “big business,” but, in spite of ourselves, we love-tolerate them. The locals love them, visitors really enjoy them.  Bargains, great photo ops, irresistible foods, music—EVERYTHING!  Too many to mention, but a link such as  http://socialeyesnyc.com/manhattan/ covers all the boroughs, all the warm weather months…even very local fundraisers or ethnic celebrations. Some are on our Park 79 Hotel online calendar, but we’ll name a few favorites here. Check and see what fairs will happen during your own stay.  They are held well into late October—weather permitting, of course.  Then the traditional holiday fairs take over.

Union Square/Broadway Festival  Apr.7 11am-6pm  Broadway, 17^th-23rd  

Columbus Avenue Craft Fair April 27, 28; May 4, 5;  11, 12. Columbus Ave., 77^th-81^st St. This is GORGEOUS!  Beautiful handmade crafts, clothes, jewelry.   http://craftsoncolumbus.com/

Eighth Avenue Festival April 27, 2013 11am-6pm   Between 14th and 23rd St

7th Annual New York Dance Parade  May 18, 2013  1pm   21st St. & –Broadway to St. Marks, Tompkins Square Park          http://danceparade.org/wp/the-parade-route/

Taste of Tribeca May 18,  11:30am-3pm      Duane Street between Greenwich and Hudson
http://www.tasteoftribeca.com/

9th Ave.Int’l. Food Festival  May 18 & May 19, 2013    12pm-5pm
Ninth Avenue between 42nd and 57th St     http://ninthavenuefoodfestival.com/

26th Annual Livable West Side Festival  May 26, 2013  11am-5pm  Broadway between 73rd and 86th Streets

There are parades as well, celebrating Americans from everywhere;  walkathons to raise monies for charities.  It all really seems endless.  ENJOY!

New York City!  No dispute that this is absolutely the world’s greatest city.  But, a “greatest city” must have distinctions found nowhere else.  We do not have an ancient history that includes, “greatest” something. No incredible mountain image forms our horizon.  We have never had a great king.  New York City has achieved its greatness in a blink of time compared to the world’s other great cities.  It is not easy to pull one great feature from the rest.  But, given our location on the Upper West Side, Park 79 Hotel does boast proximity to the world’s greatest center for  ALL the performing arts. URL’s can bring a reader to each of the 29 indoor and outdoor venues, with facts and figures; each facility is, of itself, worth a blog. Wikipedia leaves nothing out.  We wish to share personal experience that we hope will lure our hotel guests and readers to this extraordinary presence of Lincoln Center. Please keep in mind: This stretch from 59^th to 66^th streets, Amsterdam Avenue to Broadway, was, before this massive urban renewal project, gritty, dangerous, mostly impoverished, avoided. The Rockefeller family saw into NY’s future and led the initiative to have a true performing arts center.  1962–the brilliance came together as the Metropolitan Opera, Philharmonic Hall and the NYS Theater opened.  Today, in 2013, this is “ancient history.” The 21^st Century Lincoln Center is now the architectural as well as cultural center for truly everyone.  While many performance tickets are beyond affordability at times, many free or moderately priced events allow everyone a performing-arts experience. Yes: outdoor HD opera at the Met; summer nights’ dancing around the magnificent fountain to a full band; children are entertained free of charge; the Big Apple Circus comes to town yearly in Fall-Winter;  the Lincoln Center Film Society (and several film festivals) reigns in two theatres; the world’s greatest new student talent in music, theatre and dance at the Juilliard School performs free or at minimal cost; the Lincoln Center Festival in summer; Lincoln Center Out of Doors fills the promenades and stages in summer with talented performers of every style and for all ages. Whew! Don’t want to leave out the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts and its free (fabulous) performances and exhibits.  Mozart and friends reign in late summer. Be sure to experience at least one venue during your stay, perhaps joining a guided backstage tour.  Every season, every performing-arts favorite—enrich your PARK 79 HOTEL stay.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE UPPER WEST SIDE

PARK 79 HOTEL’S HISTORIC LOCATION

PARK 79 HOTEL proudly rests on a significant corner of New York City’s Upper Westside.  A neighborhood only too recently named one of the “worst,” “most dangerous,” “least desirable,” etc., now has a prominent place on the, “Most Desirable Neighborhoods in NYC”  list.

 Settled by the Dutch early-mid 17^th century, naming this stretch of land, “Bloemendal,”  Valley of the Flowers…or, Blooming Dale.  Tobacco was the main crop.  In 1703, Bloomingdale Road—later to become Broadway—was built for growing commerce.  Late 18^th century, the high, rocky area saw country estates, farms and fine homes.

Central Park, created in 1853, changed the economic face of the West End.  Squatter and lower-income tenants were forced to abandon their park setting, many moved west, building shacks and lean-tos.  By the end of the Civil War, this now suburban area was assimilated into New York City.  The West End remained largely underdeveloped through the 19^th century. Bloomingdale Road (now renamed, “The Boulevard”) was widened and joined by new sewage lines and the extension of the elevated railroad on Ninth Avenue (Columbus Avenue).  Gentrification came with the grand apartment buildings: the Dakota and San Remo were the start and are still the architectural gems in this 21^st century.

Hotels and vacant lots populated The Boulevard.  The Upper West Side as it is today took its distinct form, then through the 19^th century. Early in the 20^th century, our home, 117 West 79^th Street was built. The subway system—first in America—opened in 1904.  The elevated train (fondly called, “The El”) remained until 1940 in the area.

Cathedral Church of St. John Divine  started its glorious history in 1892, and new and great change came to the Morningside Heights section when  Columbia University relocated in 1897.  This brought a level of recognition to what was already a growing intellectual/artistic movement on the Upper West Side.  Artists and academics melded into this now totally mixed population.  In time, seedy pockets developed in sections east of Broadway as lower middle class families filled neglected, older buildings.  Major downturn in the neighborhood’s attraction came with the 1930’s, lasting through the 1980’s.  The influx of Europe’s Jews escaping Nazism) mid-20^th century was followed by the arrival of African-Americans from the impoverished South; then Russians, Dominicans, Puerto Ricans, Haitians, Cubans and Ukrainians.  Major urban renewal began in the mid-50’s, and it was the birth of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in 1959 that brought rebirth to the borders south and north, west to the Hudson River.  Soon–the downtown campus of Fordham University, renewal of the  American Museum of Natural History,  New=York Historical Society, Columbus Circle/Time Warner Center,  upscale boutiques and national chains, and the magnificent renewal of the Hudson River waterfront…and Central Park   It has all come together, and we are proud to share this with the world’s visitors who select Park 79 Hotel.