Walking NYC : 14th Street - Union Square to Chelsea Market and Little Island (June 3, 2021)

hello everyone it's june 3rd 2021 it's 72 fahrenheit 22 celsius and it's 4 16 in the afternoon in this video i'm going to walk from union square in manhattan all the way to new york city's newest public park the little island so i'm starting off at the intersection of 4th avenue and 14th street but before i walk along 14th i want to go through union square and see what's up there's always a pretty lively area even today with the uh the sky a little bit overcast there's still a lot of people out here there's supposed to be a thunderstorm later in about an hour and a half maybe two hours from now so [Music] i'm pretty sure a lot of these people want to uh beat the rain before that happens right here we have mount sinai urgent care center there's a lot of fast food restaurants over to my right panera bread starbucks coffee this gnc location closed i don't know when that happened but that's gonna be uh there for a while i think like that retail right now is hurting in manhattan i got some food trucks over to my left okay [Music] give me another heart this building over here used to be the former union square savings bank i think that guy almost tripped thank goodness he didn't fall over but anyway i think this is a performing arts place now the daryl roth theater raymore and flanagan mattresses and furniture here i think this place over here is new 50 lawn it's a popular bubble tea spot these bubble tea spots have been popping up all over the city especially near the college campuses new brands especially like that one i've never seen before until they came over here i think the first bubble tea spot that really became popular here in new york was coco bubble tea so this is union square park in front of me i would go into the park but i want to show you what they did over here on the northern side of union square [Music] these are the union square public restrooms don't use them unless you have to because it's a little bit dirty in there this building here 200 park avenue looks like it's home to a sephora location on the bottom but even that one says that it's moving the entire area of union square and manhattan in general is uh changing rapidly retail has been hit very hard during the past year but over here this is what i wanted to show you this is a new spot called the freehold a cool little uh coffee spot beer and pizza i don't remember what was here before but this was definitely not a coffee place and a restaurant before and they even have a schedule here for their programming i think there's a cool little uh addition to the neighborhood bringing in some culture to an area which is known for a lot of tourism and gatherings famous barnes and noble bookstore usually when i come over here the union square green market is on it's usually here on saturdays and another day or two i forget but now it's a lot more local people here walking around a lot of them are students people working in the area i guess it is the start of rush hour right now so many people are making a way back home in the outer boroughs or elsewhere manhattan even new jersey new jersey's close by too they get the trains there we're on the western side of union square now mcdonald's restaurant we have this place barn zoo which is a korean barbecue spot i've personally never eaten here before but i've heard it's very good nyu has a major presence around the union square area so there's a lot of places that cater to the college population fondue korean barbecue you see they have some cocktails draft available and here's all their menu eye items fishermen noodle soup chili shrimp lots of stuff here i would consider these prices to be uh quite pricey but with korean cuisine usually they give you a lot of appetizers and stuff without you even asking for it unless you've had korean food before it's kind of hard to explain they uh usually have like stuff like kimchi and egg dish sometimes even like some coleslaw it's really nice or some steamed broccoli we got a local coffee place here joe coffee new york roasters i don't know how they are not really a coffee drinker this is the second starbucks location in union square the other one was on the east side this one's on the west side normally i find this one to be a little bit busier than the other side here's a nyu residence hall and if you get lost where the nyu buildings are you got a map here most of nyu's locations are in the greenwich village neighborhood we won't be heading there on this video actually 14th street makes up the border of greenwich village and chelsea so we'll be straddling the border over there to my right is fifth avenue now this door over here i guess it's going to become lids yeah it's definitely going to be lids because you already see the merchandise being stocked see a lot of baseball hats in there local staples store all right so we made a walk around union square now we'll continue over to the little island i made several videos about the little island already we're actually one main video but the other times was i was a guest on here be barr's channel his video and i travel to and from there here we got a bunch of retail stores foot locker game stop foot action the subway restaurant is open 24 hours i wonder how the little island is going to be at this time if it will detract people from visiting plus as a weekday evening baked by melissa didn't even look like there was anyone behind the counter there unless they're in the back another coffee shop in union square black cafe coffee and if you don't want coffee you've got juice here pressed juicery i always find these uh concentrated juice bottles to be quite pricey you get a bottle like this and it costs you like six dollars i mean you can go inside a supermarket and get like a half a gallon of orange juice for the same price here we've got the new school one of the other colleges in the area that's very famous the other one is parsons over here we got a local fruit vendor heck instead of buying juice why don't you support this local food vendor get four mangoes for five dollars instead of one little juice from the pressed juicery so this is fifth avenue see the empire state building over there you know it's kind of strange you have a storefront here that's split between td bank and republic bank and republic bank almost kind of has like the same setup as td bank i don't know if they're related companies but the republic bank logo looks like the old commerce bank which was acquired by td bank many years ago and i think this is the only republic bank branch i've seen in the city here's the goodwill store you can come here and get a lot of stuff at discounts people with like extras stuff in their closet they come here and donate all their unused clothing i've donated many stuff to goodwill before especially when i outgrew clothes or had some old electronics lying around that i don't need anymore here's a spot that's released another discount store a lot less across the street we've got a smoke shop and also vv bubble tea not really a big fan of vv bubble tea but they're decent if nothing else is around we've got guitar center on 14th street good for all those musicians that play in the park levi's store famous for their jeans that last quite a long time this is kind of neat i haven't seen this 169 amalgamated clothing and textile workers union that must be an old sign because i don't think that union exists anymore that bus is all electric i was looking at it again because it was making a sound i haven't heard before but all clean energy i know the mta runs the subways and buses here they're investing in electric buses popeye's chicken next to golden crust caribbean bakery and grill also uh there's one bubble tea spot that i miss that's really good it's easy i miss it because the canopy is up higher but their drinks are very smooth and refreshing if i go to a bubble tea spot in the area that'll be it it's easy here's the 6th avenue 14th street subway you can also catch the path train here too which goes to new jersey but if you need to catch the number one two or three subway don't enter over here because it's a very long transfer i've done it before and i'd much rather walk on street level than through the subway tunnels underneath got some new construction here at 101 west 14th see the greenwich village neighborhoods down there or neighborhood i should say this building is going to be a mixed-use building when it finishes both residential and commercial hey that person no attention i'm doing what i'm doing hello here we've got good stuff for diner but it's not open ymca is over here [Music] about that incident back there too that's that's really why i don't like that scaffolding also because it really narrows the uh the width of the sidewalk so it's like a really uncomfortable passing people and it's dark down there it's not the first time i've encountered negative experiences with passing someone on underneath the scaffolding structure we got the salvation army across the street a large salvation army branch this might even be their headquarters in new york city yeah it is executive headquarters right there chelsea bagel and cafe they're closed as well after two o'clock now we got two really nice murals here this one and this one don't know what's going to happen here with this vacant lot but i hope they turn it into something that's uh nice for the neighborhood now back to what i said about the uh one two three subway if you were to get in on sixth avenue you would have to walk all this way in order to get over here why not just do it on street level like i said and again with the scaffolding this is the subway station one two three located on seventh avenue oh so we've got a big corner place over here home of crispy crunchy chicken and eye pizza ny not sure how these pieces uh places are but you can see they're advertising their special 5.99 with a drink and two slices and they got here the donut pub there's a spot you can easily pass by but they're recommending people try their croissant donuts and that looks very good look at the size of these donuts too the stack is like that big you don't see that in a place like dunkin donuts they also got vegan donuts available that is neat huh also if that special on pizza was not good enough for you there is a 99 cent pizza place across the street soho 99 cents so is edible arrangements people like to come here for special occasions here's an art framing store and i'm walking by right now i'm smelling a lot of beer because a lot of liquid comes out of the beer cans and alcohol bottles from the recycling these people were looking at this advertisement already divorced today for only 449 dollars thank goodness i don't have to worry about that yet and i wish i don't have to worry about it ever la nacional restaurants well here we go we've got a drink menu plates to share and also a summer menu and hot and juicy crawfish restaurants and here's a spot that will shock a lot of you this is the kgb espionage museum or used to be now it's papered up and no one can go in there now it's becoming keys art i guess well there's a lot of stuff that's changing in manhattan a lot of stuff i didn't know is uh changing so quickly so so now we're on the final subway stop on the l line and the furthest west on 14th street on 8th avenue if you want to go to the little island park too this is the closest subway station to it it's about uh three long blocks away it's a little island over here so this is a museum now museum of illusions i kind of remember that being a cvs store before oh wait this is it this is the cvs heck i'll even go in here and i'll show you a little bit of the interior because it's kind of cool you come in here and it's like you're transported into an old arcade i mean look at this place you can really tell it's like old architecture help me up these stairs sorry we have any problems i mean it's unbelievable but this across the street now is a museum of illusions i've never been in there but i'll be curious to go oh here's the clean energy bus all electric bus these buses are brand new and the 14th street corridor is a good place for the mta to launch these and debut these because there's not much traffic over here it's mostly a bus way and from what i could tell 14th street is a pretty wide street with not too many issues also this is something for the history books as of june 10th the m99 service will be discontinued because 24 7 subway service is back what happened was uh originally the subways they were closed early like at midnight i believe for cleaning due to covid and then the mta transit authority they moved it up to 1am because people were unhappy about it closing so early and then they eventually moved it up to 2am but because the subways were not operating overnight the authority needed to add some consolidation or consolation for people who traveled between the outer boroughs and manhattan so they had these overnight buses feast and our lady of guadalupe church across the street i like their logo beastly feasts here's kogane ramen kind of hard to miss i mean uh very easy to miss because it's downstairs here and they also got some plants blocking part of the menu but they got lobster ramen red tonkatsu ramen a lot of stuff available i don't think i've tried this place before in fact it's one of the uh spots like i said that was easy to miss all right so we are now at 9th avenue this fa area is famous for being the border of the meat packing district there's also an apple store on the corner there's oh gosh yeah i remember this place wow this used to be a food hall i think this used to be called the gansevoort market or something like that but i went in there one time i think i even made a video on it and there were a lot of like great places in there to eat and hang out it's definitely a lot less busy than chelsea market which i'm about to visit but yeah remember uh the news saying that that location was going to close up that food market which is sad to see something changed all right so now we're going to walk over to the other side of 9th avenue and i'll head into chelsea market so here's the apple store on 14th and 9th and over here we've got the starbucks grocery starbucks reserve i've heard mixed things about this place some people call it an overpriced tourist trap and then others say there's a great spot i'm also might have to mute the audio or replace it because there's a lot of music playing here i'll just try to talk over it so hopefully youtube doesn't detect it at all but kind of a cool place they got like a actual a big coffee roaster in the back and different kinds of tables really cool thing to experience and over here used to be a port authority terminal now it's the headquarters of google in new york city interesting how they change their logo with the two o's with the colors of lgbt since june is pride month also you can see them turning the first floor here into a retail store that's going to be a google specific retail store but yeah google headquarters building across the street and over here to my left is the chelsea market google also owns this building over here but chelsea market is a mixed food hall and commercial space most of them google offices i wonder how many people are in here today is the chelsea markets also chelsea market is home to the youtube space in new york this used to be the nabisco factory where they process famous cookies like oreos you see look at this biscuit works in the world for those who don't know biscuits are the same thing as cookies in the united kingdom so i guess all the cookies back then even in new york were referred to as biscuits back then chelsea wine vaults looks like a clean store a stand just dedicated to fresh flowers fat witch bakery it's a really cute space around here lots of different places got dg smoothies juices wraps and bowls lilac chocolates don't come here on an empty stomach or you're going to be gaining like 10 pounds when you finish there's even a pizzeria over there berlin currywurst german beer and wine served amy's bread google sometimes decorates decorate the building um during the holidays especially special events like halloween and during christmas time famous los tacos numero uno has a line over there i think they're the best tacos in the city and don't discount this place either num pong they got great vietnamese sandwiches oh we got a band playing too chelsea market waterfall this place here lobster place is both a seafood market and a dining area i think you can pick whatever kind of seafood you want and have them cook it for you and you can eat it right here and then there's even more places over here like things jamaican jerk kitchen big half these stores weren't even here the last time i was at the chelsea market ayatai this is actually a very famous thai restaurant in elmhurst queens and now they have a location in chelsea market so really cool that they came here let me just confirm excuse me are you the original ayada thai from elmhurst elmer's yeah i was right i'm telling them yeah so if this ayatai is the same one as the one in elmhurst the same owners this place is good and now this is a really interesting spot you can get a lot of cool instagram pics over here with all these lights pearl river mart is over here whoa pearl river mark really decorated their area full of lanterns chinese dragons this is their chelsea market location but the main location is located in tribeca along broadway [Music] bakery it's also a local bookstore in here there's something about bookstores that really attracts people people like flipping through the pages and touching a physical book and little art their gelato really good spot for gelato over there and now we're walking out of the chelsea market onto 10th avenue i only have one more avenue left before i reach the uh western end of manhattan all right so that was a fun walk through the chelsea market above me is the high line elevated park was formerly an abandoned train line but they turn into a public park and is one of the most famous attractions now in the city wonder what's up with all these uh people in uniform across the street all these police officers strategic responsible i think this spot before used to be a car uh dealership but now this retail space is empty waiting for the next tenants i think there was also a disney related store previously there it is the little island i doubt i'll be able to get in there without a ticket just because of how popular it is what happened with the little island is um it used to be that the tickets were free after 8 p.m until closing at 1 a.m but because the park proved to be so popular they changed that whole policy so now you need a time ticket to get in any time after noon the tickets are free but it's still annoying that everything is booked for like weeks on end [Music] all right let's cross the streets oh gosh and now this is one of my most hated intersections in the city about across over 11th avenue a lot of people refer to this as the west side highway [Music] actually the little island park doesn't really look too busy today this is one of the like main things that really detract from this park is every time you want to go to you got to cross over this i have a feeling that someone's going to get seriously hurt crossing the street just visiting this park it's no joke there's a lot of traffic here and the lights are not timed correctly and then you got impatient drivers like that so uh if anyone in the higher up position is watching this video do something please about this crazy amount of traffic here that this new park is bringing over to the west side before someone gets hurt at least time the light to be a lot shorter i think it's on for way too long for such a popular area now because to me this isn't really a proper highway this is like a regular street there's still sidewalks and people can still walk here all right we successfully crossed over now let's see if we can get into this park without a ticket okay there it is little island a gift from barry diller cost 260 million dollars to build the entire island is supported by these tulip looking structures and if you want to see more of it if i'm not able to get in you can feel free to watch my little island video this is the old structure of the pier 54. used to be the canard and white star line pier building the lusitania set off from here and the titanic was supposed to dock here all right we need a ticket to go in now yeah oh we can just go in okay only for today wow all right okay so we got into the little island without preserving a ticket this is awesome okay wow this is awesome i really wanted to visit this park again but i didn't want to uh wait weeks to do so okay this is great [Music] maybe what i'll do is uh i'll do a quick walk of the island and then end it at the amphitheater all right hey this is my third time to the island so far and this is always the main attraction here people love this musical structure and i'm assuming that my experience with the food and drink here is going to be a lot better than opening day because on opening day this was so chaotic they got my order wrong i got iced coffee instead of iced tea and honestly the food wasn't really that good the fries were very soggy but i'm sure they've gotten a lot better now there was like over 40 minute waits for food on the first day what is um surprising to me is that this grassy hill area is entirely closed off now the only time i saw it open was on opening day and even in the renderings of the little island they had people like sitting on the lawn and having picnics and whatnot i guess they didn't really expect that volume of people on the opening day so they need time for the lawn to relax and heal itself but yeah i can see that being a problem you see here our lawns are resting please help us take care of them by not entering i mean it really detracts from the experience of a picnic if you're expecting to come here to go on the lawn but now they got signs up telling people what everything is welcome to the amp here's the amphitheater alright folks i think i'm going to end this video here if you enjoy this walking adventure all the way from union square along 14th street through chelsea market to the little island park then please smash the like button for me subscribe for some more videos like these and i'll see you next time take care everyone bye [Music] you

Channel: ActionKid

Views: 15,843

Rating: 4.9073358 out of 5

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Id: M1Zwn8qd1Jo

Length: 55min 21sec (3321 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 10 2021