ChrisTurk

Manhattan is a big shopping mall. You can buy anything if you know the right place. Fortunately most of it doesn't feel super commercial so I can deal with it. While you're on Canal (undoubtedly shopping) if you get as far over as Broadway avoid the far too common Starbucks and stop by the Lafayette coffee shop, which is just a little ways up, surprise, Lafayette st.

What happened to the sex shops, porn theaters, and drug dealers? Times Square used to be one of the seediest places in the US if not the world. It used to be Disneyland for adults, now it's just Disneyised and made tame. But nobody seems to notice because they've gotten used to the place's new aura. Doesn't mean it's a bad place, just not what it used to be famous for.

If you're ever up around w 125th and Amsterdam, stop by Golden Krust. The jerk chicken is pretty good, but the coconut bread is to die for. Hooray for Harlem. Just the name of the place and the history associated with it (and the name's reputation) makes it seem more exciting, but it really isn't all that big of a deal.

And that's not a good thing. Somehow the place is just too self-aware, too TV-hip to be that interesting a place to hangout. If you want to play tourist and see where your favorite shows are filmed, fine, but I'm not interested in watching you gawk so I'll be somewhere else.

I was trying to get to the Hourglass on w 46th, but misread the sign and turned down w 47th by accident. I don't care about diamonds, I'm not interested in diamonds, but it seems all they had were diamonds and more diamonds (and one very flamboyant boutique, if you know what I mean). And after seeing this street, I could do without diamond shops for a while.

It isn't. I heard about "Madison Ave advertising agencies" and I thought the place would be full of advertising people the way Wall St has a wall. I was very very wrong.

One block over from Park Pl. (Heh, like in Monopoly), it has some of the snazziest shops imaginable. My god, though, some of them are expensive.

So you know it's full of college students. It depends on your perspective whether that's a good or bad thing. When I went, I liked it. It does have a lot of decent places to eat nearby (Cuba is one block over on Thompson), but I was there for the NYU Business and Law bookstore. Meh, it has books. I thought it was the site of the Poe house NYU demolished, but it wasn't. That's on w 3rd.

Oh, and skip the Duane Reade just up Becker. It's a mess and service is terrible..

I gotta say, when I first saw it I thought Grand Central station on a Monday morning may well be the busiest place on earth. That was until I reached the street. Carrying luggage through that was simply impossible so I decided to stop at one of the trillion or so little eat places right there (I don't remember which now, it may have been Oren's as I do remember pastries) to wait it out.

To get around the mess where the World Trade Center used to be (which is STILL a great gaping hole) I had to go up West to Murray, Murray over to Greenwich, down Greenwich to Park, Park over to Broadway, Broadway down to Fulton, Fulton over to Church, and Church up to Vessey. If I'd known it'd be such an ordeal, I would have walked or found an alternate route. I hate driving on one way streets.

I didn't have to take care of anything but I stayed in an apartment overlooking the park for a month. Basically rented a friend's place for the month. Cost me all of $600 because that's what she was subletting the place for. Hooray for rent-control wonkiness. I gotta say it was the first time I'd ever spent a lot of time in a place I didn't need my car. And I was certainly disturbed that I got mugged for the first time in my life in a city where I couldn't carry my gun. It certainly was an experience.

Go here for no other reason than Katz's Deli. Really. In spite of everything else in the area it's my favorite. Be sure to ask one of the owners about the rumors that they're about to sell out to a developer or move the store or retire to Tahiti. Savor the pained look on their faces. And the cheesecake is spectacular. Did I mention they deliver nation wide?

There really isn't much here. I mean there's gas stations and convenience stores and whatnot with the usual generic trappings of suburbia, but that's about it. There's nothing particularly special about it apart from the deceptive name. Driving past I was certain it would take me to the Pacific, but it didn't. It didn't really go anywhere, it was just a place.

Dolores itself seemed pretty tame (and some friends live there), but it was close (within walking distance) to several of the restaurants friends had recommended. La Provence was a quarter mile over on Guerrero St. Quite tasty. And the delightful Tao Cafe was just about across the street from La Provence. We never did get to go to Liberties, but it was right there.

The switchbacks are all downhill (it'd be much more fun to watch some kid learn to drive a manual transmission up the street rather than down it) and it seems to always be packed with traffic. The flowers are entirely transitory as well -- in fact they were dead and brown when I saw the street. And yet... and yet it's one of San Fran's most memorable streets. So memorable that I almost forgot about it entirely.

No, really, I did. Early evening, right in front of the pizza shop. A crowd gathered and watched as the cop patted down the hooker and the hooker (he? she?) talked smack about the cop, his mother, and the things the three of them did together the night before. Quiet a show. That's all the memory I have of the street and I doubt it's an hourly show, but I bet some creative buskers could recreate it for tourists. Not that I'm certain it was real. Fun for all ages, though.

One of the other reviewers mentioned the Hilton San Francisco, and I just want to back up what he/she said. It really is a nice place to stay, and the courtyard is a great place to relax and swim and lounge in the sun (in the summer, at least, the rest of the year is just too chilly for proper sunbathing in SF) while you plan the rest of your day.

It's one of those streets that makes me wonder whether San Francisco isn't just a party and food town with a few residential bits thrown in to make sure there are people to do the partying and eating. Great food and nightlife, as it should be considering they named a region of the city after this street.

I'm half disappointed half impressed that they've turned the place from "be a hippie" into "buy a hippie," but I shouldn't have . I'd say skip it and head down to fisherman's wharf. Better food down there and fewer college students pretending to be hippies. Stop by Golden Gate Park instead, or head to fisherman's wharf, which is only maybe 4 miles north of here.

Best for retirees having acid flashbacks, I think.

..and there's traffic. My god, is there traffic. I'm almost tempted to use the old Yogi Berra-ism "nobody goes there anymore, it's too crowded," but clearly everybody does go there. And it's worth braving the traffic, too, if for nothing other than the food.

Keep the kids and grandparents on a short leash, lest they get hit by a passing streetcar.

It's like everything all at once all the time. I wouldn't have expected San Francisco to have a place so much like New York City, but yet so different. Somehow it's just more fun, less somber, than NYC, and the great swaths of astonishing restaurants and hotels and shops make it a great spot for tourists, if not so much for seasoned travelers.

I mean, there are places to park to get to the somewhat scrubby beach, and a bike path on the shore side of the street. And I know I saw some surfers out there in the water, but it seems so residential that I have my doubts about it for a vacation spot. It is pretty though. And there is the SF zoo, but I'm not a fan of keeping animals in cages for the sake of our own amusement. I'd rather eat them.

Industrial space and dirt. That pretty much sums up the feel of the place. We got lost looking for our hotel, traveled too far south, and ended up here. We're traumatized such a hideously empty place exists so close to a beautiful place like The Strand.

The view of the ocean is pretty as long as you don't look inland or particularly close to the shore. Yuck. Recommended only for people you don't like.

A winding road through hills covered in California scrub (sage?) with few houses and glimpses of the ocean here and there. Shame it had to end and shame we had to share it with anyone (just a few, though). It was early morning on a weekend as the sun was rising, before everyone decided to turn San Diego's streets into a parking lot. Not as good as a trip all the way up the PCH in a convertible, but great fun nonetheless. It's too much fun to ruin it with old people and children so this is for singles and couples only.

One is too many, if you get stuck behind it in traffic in a convertible. The existence of public transportation is nice, but sucking hot exhaust on a hot day is unpleasant no matter what. We were almost tempted to put the roof up and crank on the air conditioner. Almost, but not quite.

Looks like it has a few decent decent restaurants and shops. They certainly seemed pretty busy from our spot in the street, but that might just have been the day we were there. Everything seemed kind of busy then.

I hereby decide that Retirees are to blame for the traffic problems that day and recommend the street for everyone but them.

It's a couple of one-way streets with a really wide median (like a narrow strip of drab and empty park) and does a weird jag in the middle where right around Polk it sort of stops being "Normal" for a bit and then rejoins "Normal," which for some reason is coming from the west. There's gotta be a short stretch of perfectly straight, well-maintained road with light traffic and a few small houses with nice yards named "Odd" somewhere around here.

The proximity to one of the better bits of University Ave makes up somewhat for the street's strangeness in organization.

The place to go if you, say, slice your shin open on a bit of beach crud and need stitches. The nurses were busy, and the doctors not so friendly. We waited a while to get service, even though newly arrived patients in the ER cringed at the blood caked on and oozing through my friend's jeans. But it all got taken care of eventually.

Fortunately it wasn't tough to find the place as it's pretty much the tallest building in the area. But aren't hospitals always that way.

It's a quiet street, at least the north end of it was. Quiet, though, was a bad sign for us. We turned around when we realized we'd gotten off the 8 at the wrong place and turned down the wrong street. There's an apartment complex and then a whole lot of nothing, or at least that's what it seemed to be when we made our odd detour. Being near the university it was probably home to a lot of students.

Not that that's a bad thing. They tend to gather places where there's fun to be had, and this isn't really an exception. Bars and clubs and coffee house-type hangouts abound. Perhaps there's an overabundance, but there certainly are a lot of students. Good pace to stop for a bite if you're headed to the beach or for a drink on the way back.

The view over the little lakey type marina thing was a bit lame compared to the view of the ocean on the west side. It's not as much fun to watch rich people sail boats as it is to see the ocean (particularly for an AZ native). We did get to see a few boats pass as we went over the bridge to the marina's entrance. And we did wonder what would happen to us in an earth quake if we got stuck on the bridge. That was kind of fun, but driving in traffic on this street? Not so much. I'd hate to live here, just for the traffic.

It's a bit busy because it's one of the main thoroughfares (if you can call a four-lane street a "thoroughfare," though everything does seem connected to it) in the area. The mall at the east-ish end (Midway Towne Center, with the pretentious "e" on the end of "Town") isn't half bad for shopping, and the beach at the other end is nice as well, but I do worry about the Ocean Beach "Athletic Area." I mean, all they seem to have is a half-dozen baseball diamonds. How athletic is it if they only cater to the one sport.

The beach. The reason, I think, San Diego exists. This one's unimaginatively called "Ocean Beach" but it's still pretty nice: well kept, with green space as well as sand. But there's a break water that extends west from the north end of the beach. As such swimming there is more like going into a lake than taking a dip in the ocean.

Other than the beach, which is only really at the southwest end, there's a bunch of expensive-looking houses. Some might be nice to live in, being so close to the beach and all, but others just seem McMansion sized.

It's a very residential street and certainly looks like an expensive place to live, being so close to a beach and beach-front parks. I only was there during the day on the weekend and it certainly seemed like a pretty busy area. Oh, and the walk down the pier is pretty uneventful. The view of the breakwater to the north is pretty cool and it's eerily bereft of traffic noise at the far end. It's something to do when you're at the beach but would rather explore than laze in the sand.

This is the main retail street near ASU. It is loaded with great shops and restaurants from super cheap to fast food to a high-end steak house. There's tons of stuff to do at any hour of the day and you're never at a loss for a well-attended football game or a hike in the national park spaces around the area. The Gammage regularly hosts Broadway plays and musicals, and is just down the street.

The down side is that it's not the quietest neighborhood as it's dominated by college students, housing prices are stupefying, and so is traffic most days, though public transportation is very good as the university transit center is right there.

Nearby there's a zoo, a desert botanical garden, a golf course, a Chinese grocery, and a visitable archeological dig site. Not to mention it's just down the street (3 miles) from the university. And two of the best barbecue places in the city are right around the corner, as is an indoor go kart track. Not to mention it'll be less than a mile from the new light-rail system being installed.

But there was at least one murder on the street within walking distance of where I lived (found out about it on the news), and cars were broken into regularly in my apartment complex's parking lot or had their windshields smashed. Noisy neighbors were common and public transportation was awful. Though just down the street from the university (and the university transit center), it took an hour and a half and two buses to get there. Traffic is nearly always awful, thanks to the narrowing of the main street just to the south (Washington) for light-rail construction.

It really is about half-way between the university and the local and well-respected community college. At a stretch there's a lot of strip malls in walking distance, and a grocery store, but this place really shines in its Mexican food. I can't say enough good things about La Herradura (a salmon colored building, which I think is across the street (east) of a Jack in the Box) and the blue (or least it was when I went there last) taco shop. Stop by if you ever get a chance. But beware takeout. Their food is freshly fried, and immediately put in styrofoam containers which sometimes melt from the dripping hot grease. There's also a tortilla factory (a real one that makes tortillas, not the chain restaurant) that makes delicious and freaking enormous tortillas -- big enough for a burrito the size of your head.

The street itself is dominated by dorms and more dorms, and that means college students as far as the eye can see. It's in walking distance to a Safeway if you're feeling ambitious, but you're better off riding a bike or driving. There's plenty of parking and stuff to do besides go to classes. Nightlife is down on 4th avenue and on University Dr, and well within walking distance. The university rec center takes three minutes to walk to. Being right beside the stadium, it isn't a quiet place come game night, and the roads are almost always very busy. The university has plenty of green space to hang out on, but you won't be doing much of that in the summer.

Down the block from the downtown bus station is quite possibly the best restaurant in the city. Right next to a wig store, down the street from an enormous music shop, and open 24 hours is a great little diner called Grill, and is reason enough to visit the street. They serve all kinds of great stuff and even occasionally have live music. Be sure to ask for cheese on your tater tots.

Aside from that it's a pretty quiet retail street with all of downtown in walking distance (small downtown).

The street is dominated by shops and restaurants and clubs designed for college students. And as such is populated almost entirely by college students as well. It's near the university, important for that drunken stumble back to the dorm, and near downtown where the train and interstate bus stop, important for visiting parents in far-away cities. It may be one of the only places in town that doesn't seem to shutdown by 6 or 7 in the evening.

It's a long street, but where I lived was kind of in the middle, just around the corner from the mall. As you'd expect decent restaurants and shops and stuff are everywhere, though nearly all of them are big-name chains. But what might surprise you is that rental prices were entirely reasonable. Public transportation was excellent, for Tucson, as well, with buses every 15 minutes or so, and grocery shopping was within walking distance.

All the housing in the area is entirely lackluster. it really is verging on the poor and poorly maintained side of town, hourly-rental motels and everything. That said, rents were cheap, people were friendly, the street was free of traffic, and everything worked (even the hot tub at the complex where I lived, and broadband internet).

The big part of it was its proximity to Oracle Rd. Just up the street a couple miles is Tucson's biggest mall, with movie theaters and health clubs and every commercial feature you could want. Down the street was the local community college. The bus could get you to either.

A bit of stuff was truly within walking distance, but not much. A couple convenience stores, a now-moved health club, a cemetery (Tucson's largest), and a few industrial shops.

You can't live up here unless you have a car. Really. Some places on the street -- particularly major intersections -- are near enough to strip-malls with grocery stores and upscale shops, but those are pretty few and far between. It's almost entirely big houses and residential property in communities just off the street, though there is a huge stretch of country club up there, a high school, and a few apartment complexes.

It was, when I lived there, too far away from the central office to get broadband internet, limiting me to 56k dialup, but the cell reception was great.

As a college student, I found rental prices were outrageous and the only restaurants nearby I could afford to go to were the fast food places. It's really a place for established grownups with jobs, or people who've already retired.

Even so there wasn't much option for them. If they wanted to get to the library (very nice, but also very small) or most of the nearby upscale restaurants, they'd have to drive or spend time hiking miles up and down the tall hills of the area.

There was a bike shop where local cyclists met for rides, and nearby national park space for hiking, but aside from that it was pretty limited in fitness "facilities."

The mass of nearby residential property and the high school mixed with the few lanes made this the busiest street I'd ever lived on. Traffic would be backed up for at least an hour, especially in the morning. Public buses were infrequent: two in the morning and two in the evening, just before and after rush hour.

The west end of the street borders on the industrial but east of 1st ave it gets more homey and residential. They even have islands and speed bumps in the road to slow down traffic on the street, but there are plenty of

Public transportation is as good as it gets for Tucson, which isn't that great, to be honest. But there's plenty within walking distance once east of Campbell. Everything nearby of interest takes place on Grant, though, but it's tough to find houses on Grant..

Within walking distance, mostly on Grant, there's a variety of restaurants including pizza and Cajun (live music on Tuesdays), dancing, coffee houses (at least two, I recall. One of which roasts their own coffee), a movie theater, and several used bookstores. The area really reflects its proximity to the university and much of the entertainment is geared toward kids that age. For the company of more mature people, you need to travel further from the university.

Housing is priced higher than average for the city, but it's certainly not the most expensive part of town, nor even the most expensive street. The slow traffic is good for kids, but I saw a number of noise violation stickers on the windows of the houses in the area -- complaints from neighbors, but I never heard any of them from where I lived.