The Final Four

May 10, 2008

"This is a Queens-bound E train... step in, stand clear of the closing doors please."

Day after day, for the past 8 months, I've heard these same repetive words loudly over the PA system as I board the 'E' train to get crosstown, from the west side where I live, to the east side where I work. Having time and again gotten off the train at the last stop in Manhattan before the train continues on to Queens, I finally satisfied my curiosity for what lies beyond the island to the east, or what typical city dwellers like to call the 'burbs.

It's hard to believe I'm down to my final four weeks in this crazy/wonderful city. So with only a few more weekends to explore parts of New York that I haven't yet already (basically the other four boroughs that make up NYC), I took an afternoon jaunt out to Queens for some uncharted-territory-wandering. Home to New York's two major airports, the NY Mets baseball team, the USTA National Tennis Center (where the US Open takes place), and Queens Center (the most profitable per-square-foot mall in America - who knew?!), Queens is the second most populous borough wherein nearly half of its population are immigrants.

So I may have spent more time riding the subway than physically exploring the parts of Queens that I wanted to (I rode the entire line minus one stop, both there and back), but at least being above-ground made the long commute seem a little less tedious. It was interesting to see how similarly different it would be to live in a suburb of 'the city'; similar in terms of the scenic sight of fire escapes, different in terms of a little less clutter, a little more space. I'm even more curious now to see how the borough to the south compares... next stop: Brooklyn.

Part of New York World's Fair Bell Telephone Pavilion;
also seen in Men In Black

The Unisphere in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, a relic from the 1964 World's Fair, is the largest globe in the world; also commonly seen during live coverage of the US Open.

The Arthur Ashe Stadium, part of the USTA National Tennis Center, and a storage yard for Queens-bound '7' trains

Shea Stadium, home of the NY Mets

Much like the Yankees, the Mets are playing their final season in Shea Stadium, after which they'll move across the street to their new stadium, Citi Field