Photo courtesy of the Empire Realty Trust
One of the city’s most romantic spots, both in the movies and in real life, is offering couples a free photoshoot. The Empire State Building will treat twosomes to a free photo session from a professional photographer at the iconic skyscraper’s 86th-floor observatory. On October 10, visitors will receive a complimentary photoshoot with the price of admission to the main observatory.
Little Island May 2020 © CityRealty
New York City’s annual month-long celebration of architecture and design returns to the five boroughs this week. In its 10th year, Archtober offers hundreds of architect-led building tours, lectures by design experts, and exploration of lesser-known wonders of New York’s built environment every day during the month of October. Like everything else, this year’s festival will look a bit different because of the coronavirus pandemic, with virtual talks and tours, self-led activities, and socially-distanced in-person events.
Photo credit: Countdown Entertainment, LLC, courtesy of Times Square Alliance
The Times Square Alliance announced that its annual New Year’s Eve celebration will take place this year virtually, and it will include the famous ball drop. This will be the first time in 114 years that the December 31 event will not have a crowd. The news came as Mayor de Blasio extended his executive order limiting event permits through December 31, 2020.
Image courtesy of Smoky Mountains
It officially feels like Fall, and whether you’re good and ready for sweater weather or you’re sorry to see summer go, there’s no avoiding the fact that cooler temps and shorter days are on the way. One way to savor the changing seasons is to enjoy the majestic hues of autumn foliage. If you’re hoping to catch the changing season at its peak, there’s no better tool to plan your leaf-peeping strategy than SmokyMountains.com’s Fall Foliage Prediction Map. This interactive infographic will tell you when and where foliage is expected to appear, and when it will reach its peak, in your area. Here in NYC, expect peak foliage to hit around mid-October.
Photo by Viviana Rishe on Unsplash
Did you know that when Henry Hudson first arrived on the shores of New York Habor in 1609, he encountered 220,000 acres of oyster beds–nearly half the oyster population of the entire world! In recent years, however, that number had almost entirely diminished, which is where the Billion Oyster Project came in. Since 2014, they’ve been working to restore oyster reefs to the harbor with the goal of adding one billion oysters by 2035. Their work hasn’t stopped during COVID, and this year, the nonprofit’s annual party is going virtual. Next Thursday, join the Billion Oyster Party for a shucking lesson (don’t worry, you’ll get your mollusks in the mail!), food demonstrations, timely discussions, and more.
Photo via Pixabay
With autumn in New York City quickly approaching, you can take in the changing leaves and crisp air, and there are few places better to do that than a local farm. Some of the best spots near town offer apple and pumpkin picking, in addition to a slew of other fall-ready activities, making it easy to bring some of the season home with you. Ahead, we’ve rounded up our 10 favorite spots that are open this year with COVID guidelines in place.
Photo courtesy of Macy’s, Inc.
The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade has been a New York City tradition since 1924. In modern times, the event draws a live crowd of roughly 3.5 million and is made up of 8,000 participants, including performers, marching bands, dancers, and more. But those large numbers of people mean that this year’s pandemic-era parade will look a bit different. Macy’s announced today that its 94th annual parade will be a television-only presentation with participant capacity reduced by 75 percent, a two-day staging, and balloons being flown by vehicles instead of the usual 80- to 100-person teams that corral each balloon.
Salt-N-Pepa’s “Push It” leather jackets; Photo courtesy of Sotheby’s
Next week, Sotheby’s will host its first-ever hip hop auction with iconic memorabilia from the music movement that got its start in New York City. One of the biggest items of the auction, which will be held live on September 15, is the crown worn by Brooklyn-born Biggie Smalls during the 1997 “King of New York” photo shoot, the last portrait of the rapper before he was killed just days later. Another amazing item at the auction includes over 20 love letters penned by a 16-year-old Tupac Shakur to his high school sweetheart.
A young Tenement Museum member was treated to an advance tour after starting her own fundraising for the museum and raising $1,000. Photo by Gemma Solomons
The pandemic has taken its toll on almost every New York City museum, but the Lower East Side’s Tenement Museum has had it especially hard. Because of the cramped quarters of the historic tenement houses that make up the museum, they’ve been unable to reopen indoors. As NY1 reported in late July, the museum laid off 76 part-time employees, 71 of whom were tour guides. But there’s now a glimmer of hope for the museum that educates people on the history of immigration to New York in the 19th and 20th centuries. They will be restarting their outdoor walking tours for single household groups beginning this weekend. Read more
Photo by Steven Pisano via Flickr cc
Though the Village Halloween Parade was just a small neighborhood gathering in 1973, it has taken place and grown every year since then except after Hurricane Sandy in 2012. This year, however, the beloved event is being cancelled for the second time ever due to COVID-19. Jeanne Fleming, who has been the director of the parade since 1985, broke the news yesterday to the Post, but promised New Yorkers a special “trick” in its place, though she’s remaining mum on those details for now.
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