As a native New Yorker, I have
traveled through Manhattan, New York quite often
throughout my life. Manhattan is my favorite U.S. location because it
offers an endless list of great things to enjoy! To say there are an
abundance of things to do and see in Manhattan would be quite an undervalued comment.
Manhattan offers: limitless restaurants with every type of ethnic food;
the highest-standard plays in the world with humor, drama, and music, many
innovatively displaying freedom of speech; multi-cultural museums; impressive
architectural buildings within every block; ferry, speed, and cruiser boat
journeys; subway, railroad, and Amtrak trains; alternate vehicular rides from
cabs, limousines, and buses; many huge or small parks; gorgeous bridges to
enter and exit all of its boroughs; and several tunnels (even one with a
pathway to New Jersey). The list goes on and on with endless
segmentations within each grouping.
Manhattan also
has…tourists. It's one of the most visited places in the world.
It's also one of the busiest places in terms of working, schooling, and
residential commuters. Together, that's a formula that's destined for congestion!
It seemingly requires extreme separation – like oil and water. Ah, yes,
the "New Yorkers" and the tourists are not exactly ideal, but in the
end it has proven day-after-day to successfully function. Somehow, the
oil and water find a way to coexist while forcibly mixing sporadically!
Earlier this year, the New York
Post published a list entitled, “12 Ways to really piss off a New Yorker".
Half of the listed items touched upon similar thoughts that I've personally
expressed over the years.
Below are their 6 categories,
along with my very own commentaries:
“Walking down the street hand
in hand in hand”
I know we all offer love to one
another in varying degrees; but, do we need to form large links of hand-to-hand
chains? I know tourists don’t want to separate from each other, but Manhattan
offers segmented blocks/streets to help lessen wandering distances. After
all, it’s not like you’re in the midst of Disney World where their deprived
workers don’t typically rush to get anywhere. Manhattan’s daily travelers,
on the other hand, are trying to commute to their next destination without being stuck
playing a child’s Red Rover game!
“Stopping in inappropriate
places.”
One of the most dangerous things
to do is riding an escalator behind someone who chooses to obstructively stop
at the landing plate. Even worse, these tourists will usually have a
stroller or luggage cart. Then, there are tourists that stop in the
middle of a sidewalk to take a picture of one of the thousands of impressive
architectural structures or of themselves. Usually, the pictures are
impossible to get correct - trying to frame a too-close skyscraper, or trying
to capture a touring photo of a partner.
Daily Manhattan travelers do not have the physical structure of “Casper,
the Friendly Ghost”.
“Avoiding sidewalk grates
while wearing sneakers.”
I actually disagree with the headline, but certainly feel that there’s issues with tourists walking on grates, specifically in high-heels. Can’t female tourists clearly notice that the circumferences of their heels are usually smaller than that of the grate holes before their shoes get stuck? Plus, in the rain, metal tends to get slippery - why walk on steel? Both conditions are commonly known by 3rd graders!
“Renting a Citi Bike and pulling
an Alec Baldwin by riding the wrong way down a one-way street.”
Actually, the bike riders in
general are commonly more dangerous than the cabs! While tourists are
definitely accountable for this, so are New York’s own delivery workers or
general bike riders. Bicyclists ride
along all paths in all directions, even on one-way streets or sidewalks.
“Driving your car into the
city and getting really angry about the traffic.”
This is another item in which
tourists are not the only culprits. As
mentioned, Manhattan offers trains, buses, and even cabs - all which typically
cost less than parking and tolls.
Tourists and surrounding city/state visitors should highly consider such
alternate smart and economical choices.
“Acting like we’re all going
to mug you.”
Tourists’ facial expressions or
any of their physical attributes say it all. Many of them clearly show
fear, especially the defensive mothers. Now, I understand protecting your
child, but from commuters? The majority of us just want to get to our
work, school, or any of the other common daily destinations. In fact,
commuters only see you as an obstacle or a deterrent. By the way, the vast majority of Manhattan
commuters are not criminals!
Here are 3 of my own added categorized peeves, along
with my supporting comments:
Frustratingly observing tourists
fall for tourist traps
Typical tourists will visit
Manhattan with a desire to see a Broadway play (which most of us love, too), plan
on eating at a “popular” city restaurant, and even fall for taking one of the
famous tour buses. Most Broadway plays are worth anyone’s time; so, kudos
to tourists for spending their money wisely!
As for their choices of eateries, I despise when they fall for farces
such as all but one of the “Famous Ray’s
Pizza” or the highly overrated “Lindy’s”.
Trust me; we never eat at either chain. Similarly, many tourists
get sucked into other tourist traps such as tour buses. Imagine riding one of them during rush hour
in New York City?
MetroCard usage
Well, it’s understandable that
tourists would be unfamiliar with the functionality of MetroCards. Unfortunately, many of them clog the
passageway through the subway turnstiles - similar to the aforementioned Red
Rover sidewalk walkers! Tourists can lessen
the clog and not cause a ruckus if they would collectively “practice” in just
one turnstile, offering us alternative choices during our rushing moments to keep
us on our demanding schedules.
Arriving late to a major event
It’s understandable that
traveling through Manhattan can be confusing, but if you’re going to attend a
performance, please aim to get there early! Some tourists arrive at such
venues late without considering the disruption of others. We like to
spend our invested entertainment money with the intention to actually see the
whole event without bodily obstructions. Then, after they’ve already
disturbed us, we’d really appreciate if they’d hold off chattering to recap about
their tardiness.
In closing, while I do get frustrated with tourists as described above, I also fully understand that typical tourists including New Yorkers, such as myself, can cause disturbances or even uproars to hometown inhabitants. I also don’t doubt that other cities quickly spot New Yorkers and justifiably criticize us for our aggressiveness and other annoying issues we cause them. Furthermore, I realize the fact that NY tourists contribute towards New York's economy and I definitely appreciate their admirable desire to see the greatest city in the U.S. Lastly, I admittedly love helping tourists whenever they ask me for assistance! Undoubtedly and gratefully, tourists are a huge part of what makes Manhattan…Manhattan!!
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