New Roosevelt Island Tram in NYC

by Mike Barish on

Cities employ myriad modes of transportation for commuters and tourists. From subways to rickshaws to monorails to water taxis, there is no shortages of ingenuity when it comes to moving people around. In 1976, however, New York City became the first city in the world to operate a tram for urban transportation. The Roosevelt Island Tram transported people between Roosevelt Island and east side of midtown Manhattan up until March of 2010 when it was shut down for renovations. Today, a brand new, modern, state-of-the-art tram once again allows commuters and tourists alike to sour over the East River and enjoy views of Manhattan unavailable anywhere else.

Gadling took a ride on the new tram before it even opened to the public. Can urban transportation be exciting? Keep reading to find out.

%Gallery-108524%The new tram was fabricated by Leitner-Poma. You might not know the name but, if you ski, you very well may have enjoyed their products. They’re responsible for many of the gondolas, ski lifts and trams you find on mountains around the world. Perhaps that’s why the new Roosevelt Island Tram looks significantly sleeker and more sophisticated than the rest of the bland, utilitarian vehicles that comprise the rest of the New York City transit system.

For those of you worried about a repeat of the 2006 incident in which 47 Roosevelt Island Tram passengers were stuck 250 feet in the air for several hours, rest assured that this new tram has several backup systems and fail-safes. The two trams run on four motors but can operate on only one. There are four independent braking systems. Perhaps most importantly, the tram can run completely off the grid and keeps a hefty supply of gas to power its generators.

The ride is smooth and silent. Unlike the subway, there’s no jerky start to jostle passengers. Suddenly, seemingly effortlessly, you begin elevated above Second Avenue as traffic flows right below you. Huge windows provide 360-degree views of Roosevelt Island, the East River and the east side of Manhattan. As you gently pass the upper floors of high rise buildings, it’s certainly amusing to spot people at the desks as you’re pretending not to stare. Before you know it, you’re at the apex of the ride, high above the East River.

The trams themselves are spacious. The windows keep claustrophobia at bay. A tram operator rides with passengers and controls everything using a touchscreen interface. This is a far cry from New York’s 100-plus-year-old subway operation. Everything about the tram seems modern and sleek.

With the new tram in place, Roosevelt Island is once again accessible via public transportation beyond solely the F train. And while more people may know about the Staten Island Ferry, the Roosevelt Island Tram is another wonder of New York City transit. For just a swipe of your MetroCard ($2.25), you can take a three-minute ride above the East River. Not too shabby for a New York City attraction that actually serves a very useful purpose.

Impromptu striptease on Delta flight ends in hospitalization

by Tom Johansmeyer on

It’s always wild when passengers do crazy stuff on flights, but the trend has taken a new twist: the media always seems to be present. A CNN photographer was on hand to find bullets left behind by a law enforcement officer, and now a news manager from Newsday was present to witness a passenger stripping.

On Delta Flight 6562 over the weekend the woman, who hasn’t been named, peeled off layers until she reached a state only the TSA could appreciate, as flight attendants tried in vain to cover her up. According to the Associated Press, she yelled, “No! No! No!”

The woman was said not to have interfered with the flight and was taken to Jamaica Hospital Medical Center in Queens when the flight landed. She isn’t expected to face criminal charges. There’s no word on whether she left the flight with a thong full of singles.

There is a silver lining in all this. Not too long ago, Delta was proclaimed the worst airline in the United States. With perks like this, I expect that perception to change.

[photo by Steve Zak Photography]

Ten ways to travel like Qadhafi, according to Wikileaks diplomatic cables

by Tom Johansmeyer on


So, if you were a Middle Eastern strongman leader, how would you hit the town in New York City? I don’t know about you, but I’d want to do it with a real looker on my arm (and everywhere else). Apparently, that’s what Muammar al-Qadhafi has in mind. According to confidential diplomatic cables recently unearthed by Wikileaks and published by the NY Times, the Libyan leader prefers to travel in style. Specifically, he can’t “travel without his senior Ukrainian nurse, Galyna Klotnytska.”

The Wikileaks-released cable continues:

He also appears to have an intense dislike or fear of staying on upper floors, reportedly prefers not to fly over water, and seems to enjoy horse racing and flamenco dancing. His recent travel may also suggest a diminished dependence on his legendary female guard force, as only one woman bodyguard accompanied him to New York. End Summary.

So, what else is on Qadhafi’s list of travel necessities? Well, he makes the likes of Axl Rose seem pretty easy to accommodate. Here are ten of my favorites:1. A plan: Qadhafi doesn’t like leaving details to chance, it seems. Over his 40-year rule, the cable says, “arious proclivities and phobias began to reveal themselves in every logistical detail.”

2. Efficiency: why take a new picture for his visa? Qadhafi noted that he had portraits of himself on “hundreds of billboards” in Tripoli. Surely, one of them could be “shrunken to fit the application’s criteria.” (Eventually, he agreed to have his picture taken for the visa application, though.)

3. Ground floor: Qadhafi “must stay on the first floor of any facility that was rented for him.” I also prefer to stay on the first floor, preferring not to have to wait when I want to get back to my room. I also like a room near elevators when I can’t stay on the first floor.

4. Tents: no, not the kind that happens first thing in the morning when you wake up … Qadhfi actually wanted “accommodations with room to pitch [his] Bedouin tent … as it offers him a non-verbal way of communicating that he is a man close to his cultural
roots.”

5. Leg-stretching: the Libyan leader is not a fan of long flights and won’t stay in the air longer than eight hours. In fact, he stops in Portugal before heading all the way to New York. Qadhafi reportedly hates to fly over water.

6. His crew: Qadhafi, like most world leaders, doesn’t travel alone. In fact, he “appears to be almost obsessively dependent on a small core of trusted personnel.”

7. His ladies: Kolotnytska, the senior nurse and “voluptuous blonde” isn’t the only girl Qadhafi has in his life. He has a staff of four Ukrainian nurses, but Kolotnytska is his favorite. When problems appeared to be coming because of a late visa application, “the Libyan Government sent a private jet to ferry her from Libya to Portugal to meet up with the Leader during his rest-stop.”

8. Dancing: Qadhafi, apparently, is a fan of the arts. He loves to watch dance troupes, with one visit featuring some from the Ukraine, Tunisia, Algeria, Egypt and Morocco. He’s also enjoyed bands from Mexico, Russia and New Zealand, among others. However, Qadhafi has a soft spot for flamenco, once deciding to “stop in Seville (for a “personal trip” according to the Spanish Ambassador here) on his way back to Libya from Venezuela specifically to attend a flamenco dance performance.”

9. Security … not so much: once upon a time, Qadhafi’s female guards were part of his entourage. This isn’t really the case any more, with only one of the lovely ladies accompanying him.

10. Friends: it’s important to communicate with Qadhafi, it seems, because he’s been isolated so long. Like Shaft, the cable identifies the Libyan leader as “a complicated individual”. And, given the nurses and guards, the parallels with Shaft continue … “no one understands him but his woman …”


[photo by StartAgain via Flickr]

Forking Fantastic hits Morocco with Brown & Hudson culinary tour

by Alex Robertson Textor on

Now that Thanksgiving is underway, it’s time for many of us to start thinking about our immediate futures. The holiday season and our travel schedules for the new year are all on deck.

Here’s one very appealing idea for travel in the new year.

Tamara Reynolds and Zora O’Neill, Astoria’s very own Forking Fantastic dinner club team, have teamed up with Brown & Hudson to create a seven-night culinary tour of Morocco.

Forking Fantastic began as an informal supper club. It has spawned an international fan base as well as a guide to entertaining: Forking Fantastic! Put the Party Back in Dinner Party.

Back in July, Gadling published an entertaining Q&A with the very lively Tamara Reynolds. Since then, the Forking Fantastic team has been swept up in a media whirl. Ms. Reynolds can be seen on several upcoming episodes of Unique Eats on the Cooking Channel and both Tamara and Zora were featured in the New York episode of Jamie Oliver’s Jamie’s American Road Trip.

The Brown & Hudson tour takes in Marrakech, the Ourika Valley, and Essaouira. The tour runs from May 28, 2011 through June 4, 2011. A three-night Fez add-on option is also available.

Hanging out with the Forking Fantastic ladies in Morocco doesn’t come cheap. Brown & Hudson has priced the tour at £3,495 ($5520) per person based on a 16-person tour and on a double occupancy basis. The single supplement is £685 ($1080).

[Image: Flickr / Ahron de Leeuw]

The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade balloon inflation

by Tom Johansmeyer on

The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade always attracts a crowd from the Upper West Side of Manhattan down to W. 34th Street, where you’ll find the store for which the parade is named. It can be exciting to cram onto the streets and see each of the floats and balloons roll by. Even if it is chilly outside, with the coffee in your hands quickly growing cold, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and experiencing it in person does not compare to having it on television in the background when you’re preparing Thanksgiving dinner.

If you come to New York City for the parade, there’s an attraction the night before that doesn’t draw the same hype, yet I find to be much more fun: the balloon inflation. From 3 PM to 10 PM the night before Thanksgiving, crowds converge on the blocks that circle the American Museum of Natural History to watch the balloons slowly take shape. For many, this is an alternative to going to the parade, providing both the experience of seeing the balloons and the feel of an insider going behind the scenes. A unique touch for me is a Gadling family connection: Melanie Nayer‘s father was part of the crew inflating the balloons in years past.

Getting photos for @gadling (@ Macy’s Parade Balloon Inflation w/ 113 others) http://4sq.com/ajc4qcless than a minute ago via foursquareTom Johansmeyer
tjohansmeyer

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%Gallery-108282%You can feel the crowd start to form well before the W. 79th Street entrance. As low as W. 75th Street, the Columbus Avenue sidewalks became crowded, and by the time I passed Shake Shack, on the corner of Columbus and W. 77th Street, I was effectively in line. It moved quickly, however, and within 15 minutes, I was crossing Columbus with friend and fellow travel blogger Laurie DePrete and headed toward the first balloons down on W. 77th Street.

From 3 PM to 6 PM, the scene changes drastically. Balloons go up as the sun goes down, and characters begin to come to life. Some, such as Snoopy, were not yet recognizable, while others, including Shrek and a Smurf, were already recognizable. At points, the bodies were jammed in, making it virtually impossible to move, but there were spots where the spectators moved easily.

Turn the corner from W. 77th Street to Central Park West, and there’s nothing to see: all you do is walk up to W. 81st Street, where the spectacle continues. Spiderman, Santa and Kung Fu Panda were taking shape on the street.

He exit wasn’t as crowded as the entrance, but t still took a few minutes to push up to W. 82nd Street, where the walking was a little easier. If you’re without kids, the next natural stop is Prohibition, a bar on Columbus Avenue between W. 84th Street and W.85th Street for an excellent Irish coffee and a chance to shake off the chill of the November evening air.

There’s nothing quite like going behind the scenes of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, even if it isn’t the exclusive experience that it sounds. If you do want to get a great view, though, whether it’s for the balloon inflation or the parade itself, nothing compares to making friends with someone who lives in a building overlooking the inflation or parade route!