How to Be a New Yorker

0:00This is all of it on WNYC, I'm David First, filling in for Alison Stewart. They say if you can make it here, you can make it anywhere. So what does it actually take to make it here? New York Magazine has some suggestions in their latest issue and their newsletter, How to Be a New Yorker. There's put together a list of 259 things New Yorkers should know, split into categories like how to celebrate the good stuff, how to look good, how to raise a city kid, and how to have a pet in an apartment. It has places to host a party, places to take a cheap class, places to get a haircut, and much more. Joining us now is Features Editor Julia Edelstein. Welcome. Thank you so much for having me. And listeners, how do you survive as a New Yorker? Join the conversation and tell us your New York tips, childcare, hair care, pets, food,

1:05art, money, having a good time. How do you get by and where do you go to do it? The number 212-433-WNYC, that's 212-433-9692. So last year, the special How to Be a New Yorker Edition focused on the basics of existence. What's the theme for this year? This year, we thought about it as more advanced New York-ing. So last year, we really wanted to get into how do you find a place to live? How do you get around? How do you go eat something? And we really crowdsourced that from our entire staff. And this year, we were like, okay, how do we do part two? Because we really want to make this an annual tradition at New York. It's sort of a... To build on that. Yes, to build on it. It's sort of an evolution of a franchise we've had for a long time called Best of New York, where we curate the very best vendors in the city, to the best florists, the best shoe shops. And I think living in New York has gotten only more complicated. And so we thought, let's dig into some sort of more micro-advanced categories.

2:09So we whittled it down to these ones. There are many more on the cutting room floor that I hope we'll get into next year. Right. Next year, we'll be the 752, whatever. So how was the process for coming up with these lists different from last year? So last year was the first time we had attempted it. We actually had a giant Slack channel and everyone on our team who are all diehard New Yorkers contributed their wisdom. And we also went out to a lot of very specific subject matter experts. This year, we had that Slack channel going. And we also went out to a lot of notable New Yorkers. So we have tips in here from Tina Brown and Isaac Mizrahi. But we also had reporters on assignment digging into each of these categories that we had picked. A few categories didn't make it in because we hold these tips to a very high standard and we really want them to be things we didn't know and we're very knowledgeable New Yorkers. So these are the ones that made it in for this year. So you're not just filling in the blanks here, willy-nilly, they're really taking it seriously.

3:11Yes. I don't want to stand behind these. So let's get into some of the categories. The first category here is celebrate the good stuff. So what kinds of celebrations are we talking about? So we covered everything from weddings to bar mitzvahs, to birthday parties, to just sort of those special dinners that we all want to have that are one of the great things about living here, I think, is that you don't have to just go to the local restaurant in your town. And you can do something really spectacular for celebrations. One of the tips I love is that Lovato or which is one of the hardest reservations to get in the city right now. One of the best restaurants has a private party room that I think many people don't know about on the second floor. It can seat about 20 people. You can do the same menu that you can do in the regular dining room. And so that's just like a really elegant, memorable meal. But there's also be an age dairy. You can rent that place out for 700 bucks. You get a tuna melt lesson and karaoke with the party. So it just really runs the gamma, but we were really aiming for little known memorable

4:13experiences. I'm going to interrupt the how to celebrate the good stuff conversation right now to read a text. We're just receiving. And if you want to join this conversation, give us a call. The number is 2124339692. This text says how to be a New Yorker. You need to focus on how to behave in public, especially on public transportation. And number one, the max number of people walking side by side on the sidewalk is two. Wow, that's, you know, I have a colleague who always wants this tip in. And we're like, that's more etiquette than the types of things we're doing. But he's like, everyone needs to take their backpacks off when they're on the subway. And it, you know, he will go to his grave just trying to get this message out. So here I am sharing, sharing the gospel. But I think that's two seems, that seems small to me. Depends what sidewalk you're on, I think. OK, sidewalk dependence there. So any other bars and restaurants as standing out to you among the party venues?

5:18Well, there was, for a kids party, there's a really fun place in Williamsburg called Twinkle Place Base. We are kind of against bounce house parties and trampoline parks, which are very popular right now, but chaotic. You can have teacup pigs come to your party at this place at Twinkle Place Base, which we think is very special. So this is a unique place for a kids party? Yes. Another unique party place is actually the circle line, the cruise, the ships. You can have up to 600 people there. You can have your wedding there. And there's also a great place in Staten Island called Zara Forest, where they do flaming plates of meat and the waiters all sing to you. And, you know, I hadn't heard of it before we did this piece and I think it's a great pick. That sounds great. And since we're talking about kids parties, let's talk about this. This is a big category here. Now to raise a city kid. That could be, there's a lot there. Yes. And we, this is probably a category that I think we'll come back to next year and we'll dig into a different age ranges, but we decided to just approach it to just give parents

6:22a place that was really for them in this package this year. There's so much to it. I think there's elements of navigating the school system that just a few basic tips can really help you when you're looking for daycare, for example, finding a twos program that is in the same center as a free 3K and 4K program. Makes a lot of sense because you'll get priority admission into those programs and it's something that a lot of New Yorkers know, but many don't. And so people pick the wrong program and then they don't get a good placement for 3K and they wish they had, they had no. And then another great tip was about schools. There's so much school choice in New York, it's unlike any other city, it's just stand outside the schools, the elementary schools that you're interested in and talk to the parents who are waiting for their kids. A lot of parents told us that that was how they figured out where to send their kids, more than going on message boards or even tours. I mean, this is a conversation that could fill up a couple hours right here, but you can read much more in the issue where also taking your calls if you want to join the

7:27conversation. Two, one, two, four, three, three, nine, six, nine, two. Let's hear from Leah in Manhattan. Welcome to all of it. Thank you for taking my call. I actually was the one who texted about how many cookies to offer lunch. So after this, I'm going to go get 12 to 18 cookies. Excellent. My recommendation that I give to everyone when they move somewhere new, but especially in New York is to find a place to volunteer. I moved here in 2016 and the first week here, I volunteered at an art book fair. And since then, I've volunteered at the Parks Department to count trees. I've volunteered at my local plan parenthood. I've volunteered at our community fridge. There's so many places to get involved. It's a great way to meet your community, but also to help improve it. It's also a great way to just get to know people and to really feel like you're making a positive impact. It's really hard when you first moved to New York to kind of feel settled. You feel like an outsider, but it's a really great way to find the people who will welcome

8:29you into the city and to learn how to be here. Leah, thank you for that great suggestion. And I wish you luck with your cookie launch as well. What about that? Find volunteer work? Yeah, I think that that's a great suggestion because it's really crucial to find a community in New York and to find something that makes you feel like you're, it's not so large and that when you're walking around, you recognize people and also to feel like you're giving back to the city and that you're part of it. Actually in the package in our pet section, one of the tips we have is that there are two animal rescue centers where anybody can go pick up a dog and take a dog that needs to be adopted and take them for a walk, which is maybe not the best way to meet as many of your neighbors, but definitely a nice way to feel connected to the city and give back and just do something fun for yourself. Sounds great. I'd like to join this conversation. Let us know how to use survive as a New Yorker, two, one, two, four, three, three, WNYC. That's two, one, two, four, three, three, nine, six, nine, two. When you have to take a quick break, we're speaking with New York Magazine Features Editor

9:33Julia Edelstein talking about the magazine's 2026 edition of How to Be a New Yorker. More coming up next. It's all of it on WNYC. I'm David first. Thanks for joining us today. We're speaking with New York Magazine Features Editor Julia Edelstein. We're talking about this great article, 259 things New Yorkers should know and we're asking for your feedback as well. The next category is how to learn something new. What kinds of things are you talking about here? We really wanted to get into just this idea of enriching yourself, which I think is a big reason we all move here and then we get so busy working and running our errands and dealing with everything else that we forget that there's like a million opportunities and it can be hard to figure out what to do, what's good, what's not.

10:34Some of the most basic tips that we found were if you're over 60, you can audit for $65 class in the CUNY system, which is really an amazing deal and there's some incredible courses to take. It's much cheaper than trying to audit at Columbia or at NYU and at the Bureau of Manhattan Community College if you need credits to apply to graduate school or you're working towards a bachelor's degree, that is the most cost-effective way to get those credits at $265 per credit. We've sort of looked around everywhere and these are the two I think just best deals and it's not like screaming out at you unless you know. But there are also just so many fun kind of random things you can do, like there's this place called Brooklyn Breenery where you can do a one-day course in very quirky topics and some people even suggested doing it as a date. For example, they have a history of toilets class, they have a history of toilets.

11:34Sure, that's a first date right there. Yeah, I think I just read that there's the first toilet is on the rocket that's going to the moon right now. I don't know. Maybe that could be added. And then there's a dumpling-making class there. There's a foraging class that you can do throughout the park system with Steve Brill who's been at this for about four decades, which is really fun. There's fly fishing, you can do in Central Park. Lots of fun things. Lots of fun things. There's some great ideas. We can answer this text, but we have a question here. What are some good pet-friendly places for families with dogs? Okay. Yeah, we do have a whole pet section in here. What we found is that when you get a dog, you sort of have to... What people told us is that you have to sort of figure out where are the dogs welcome in your neighborhood and where aren't they and it's a lot of observing.

12:35There are a couple dog runs that we mentioned in the piece that are, I think, superior. Also we did... This one didn't make it in, but bark in the park at City Field. One of my colleagues really was advocating to put this one in because she says it's the most fun thing that you can possibly do with your dog in the city. Plus, it has a great name. Yes. Bark in the park. Yeah, and it happens a couple times a year. The Transmitter Park and the Salt Marsh Nature Trail in Brooklyn are standout spots for walks and are great to take your kids to. There are a couple really fun stores that, I think, families could have fun shopping with their dogs. There's zoomies in the West Village and canine styles on the Upper East Side and gone to the dogs in Park Slope. We also have a list in the package of where the dogist, who is a sort of famous Instagram dog photographer, takes his dog and he likes Tom and Jerry's and Market 57, which is a food hall. Okay. Great suggestions right there. If you want to join this discussion, if you have a question or if you want to share a

13:39New York tip, just give us a call to one, two, four, three, three, nine, six, nine, two, and let's welcome Carla from the Upper East Side. Welcome to all of it. Hi. How are you? Do you have a suggestion for things to do in New York City? Well, you know, on the last segment, you were talking about, you know, how do you enrich yourself? And you know, I mentioned that within my building, it's rather large building, so there's a lot of elderly neighbors and I've really gone out of my way. I mean, it's easily enough to like say hi and ask them, are there errands that I can run for you? And in fact, probably one of my closest friends I feel right now is Rosalind, who's well into her nineties and we go and get our hair done every Friday or we take a walk together or she'll take me to whatever favorite museums and show me around and in fact, I've introduced Rosalind to my children and we've all come together, she's a different religion than

14:41we are and we will go and celebrate holidays with her and she'll join in our holiday celebrations and I just feel like it's a really meaningful way to like give back to my community and you know, feel like I'm doing something and giving, you know, letting them give something to me. Carla, thank you for sharing and a great way to give back and also a great tip right there, interact with your neighbors. Yeah, I think making friends, we thought about doing that category and I think hearing this story makes me really want to approach it in the future. I live in a large building too and there are a lot of wonderful things like that happening there as well. I think it's really a perk of New York City that's underrated. And Julia, we just heard that story there of going to get hair done together. So that leads us right into one of your other categories that is how to look good. These are tips for salons, spas and barber shops, right? Yeah, and yeah, just generally looking good, which I think is such a big interest in the

15:43city. One thing I learned about are that there are some very inexpensive massages you can get at two sort of training facilities. One is the Swedish Institute and one is called Mildred Ellie. I also learned about West 8th Street between 6th Avenue and McDougal is Foot Massage Row. That's probably where you can find the best foot massages. There's three different places there to check out. And we do have a ton of different, you know, very specific recommendations for places to go for eyebrow shaping and specific types of haircuts and, you know, where to go if you're trying to grow your grays and have that look natural, you know, it's beauty is so tailored to the person, but we tried to kind of hit on every issue. That's great. And there's so many more. You're going to really have to, as the name of the piece suggests, there's a lot to wait through here, 259 things New Yorkers should know. You can read much more about it in New York magazine.

16:43Let's take another call, Carol in Lynn Brook. Welcome to all of it. Hello. I didn't want you to forget about the orchid show at the botanical gardens, which is special every year, but this year it's Mr. Flower Fantastic's concrete jungle, which is certainly a nod to New York. They have a pizza place, a subway station, a little kind of iconic New York, this place, all in flowers and seeds and bark and their own natural ingredients. It's amazing. It's such a special thing every year, but this year I think, especially so. And that runs until April 26th. Okay. That's a great suggestion and that's, you can't ignore that show, right? Yeah. Oh no, it's definitely on my list. I can't wait to see it. And just I guess we have about 20 seconds to tell me the answer to this one here, but how to see live music. That's a great category in this list.

17:44Yeah, there's so much free music and our reporter Dan Riley, who's a music journalist, gave just a million great tips. One thing that he said was often like these shows in Prospect Park Central Park, they sell out, but you don't necessarily have to be inside the venue to enjoy it. You can actually just perch your picnic blanket somewhere nearby within the park and you can hear it. He also recommends Operation Gig, which they put on free porch concerts in Dittmiss Park that are really memorable fun to shows. He also recommends Pioneer Works in Red Hook as a great venue where they change the stage and the setup of the venue, depending on who's playing there. And it's a very special live music experience. That sounds like a great tip. I'm also seeing a tip here from your list that venue box offices still exist and can save you money on ticket master fees. Yes, I think depending on how old you are, you either know this and they're like duh or you did not know this.

18:45And I think it's just an important PSA that the hours of the box office are not normal. So you need to go online and check when they are open. It's not necessarily like you can just show up 9 a.m. on a Monday and buy your tickets. But you will avoid all the fees. You can often get a lower price ticket just by showing up at the venue. And we're getting a text right now. Someone says check out the annual Tulip Festival at the West Side Community Garden. It is a real gem. It runs from April to early May and evolves from week to week. We clearly need to add multiple hours to this segment. But we have to wrap it up right there. We've been talking about New York Magazine's suggestions on how to be a New Yorker and their list of 259 things New Yorkers should know, features editor Julia Edelstein. Thank you for joining us. Thank you.