For all the great things about the tri-state area, there’s much left to desire in terms of the weather—especially during winter. Sure, cities like Boston and Chicago have worse winters, but New York winters are still lengthy, snowy, and make us long for the couple months of heavenly sunshine and beach-going known as summer. This winter has been quite different. There was Winter Storm Jonas, whose snow melted within a week, and the weather has been anarchy ever since then. One day it was 34 degrees with scattered showers, the next day there was a cold weather alert, and the week after it was 56 and sunny.
On one of the rainy days last week, I went to SoHo for some school project-related business. After I was finished, the rain had cleared up, and I figured I would go through Washington Square to get back to the PATH. Usually you can see the Empire State Building from the end of 5th Ave at Washington Square which, despite being a bit touristy, is certainly a view to appreciate. However, as soon as I got to the park, I only saw rain clouds. Just my luck. I got my umbrella out and continued walking.
By the time I got to 14th St, it had stopped raining again. I got a small coffee and went to Union Square. People were still out with their friends, dogs, or boyfriend/girlfriend. I somehow managed to find myself very relaxed, even though I should have been worrying about when the next scattered shower would be. After having my few minutes of peace in Union Square, I continued my trek to the Christopher St. PATH station, which required going through the neighborhoods I was most familiar with – Chelsea and the Village. Again, it started raining.
At this point, I wasn’t expecting anything fun or unusual. It was raining, I had to rush back to campus to edit The Stute, and I was going through the same old neighborhoods, so I wasn’t going to find anything cool that I could check out later. I was wrong. On my route to the PATH station, I found two new pizza places and a new chocolate place, although I couldn’t stop at any of those.
Thinking about that day made me realize how easy it is to get distracted and enjoy yourself in the city. Even though the weather was miserable, I was going through neighborhoods I already knew. There was no exploring to do, and though I eventually had to rush, there was still plenty for me to enjoy. I wasn’t simply walking to the station on ‘cloud 9’, there was enough to keep me alert. Neighborhoods in the city never fully go stale, eventually something will change. A new store will open up, the seemingly endless construction will finally be finished, or the neighborhood may just feel special that day for no particular reason.
To everyone who goes to the city fairly frequently: if a neighborhood seems to be getting old, take a break from it for a couple weeks and go back to it afterwards. The neighborhood’s probably completely new. It’s also great to go to places you don’t frequent; I rarely go to Chinatown but absolutely love it when I do go there (aside from the days when the streets smell like seafood vendors) because I never know what I’ll find.
If you rarely go to the city, I have two words of advice if you want to have fun: get lost. Seriously, just get off the PATH or subway somewhere and look for something that catches your fancy. Obviously, this advice only applies in the safe neighborhoods. Don’t do this in East New York or Mott Haven at 3 a.m..
