By Brad Adams

The idea of shunpiking to avoid limited-access roads applies to visiting New York City, where it makes sense to shun double-deck tour buses in favor of sidewalks and subways, the better to see New York like a New Yorker. It’s also a good idea to leave the car at home. Come by public transportation (plane, train, bus) to escape the inevitable traffic jams in and around the city, some so nightmarish you would think you went to Los Angeles by mistake.

Another type of public transportation is the Staten Island Ferry, the best way to see the Lower Manhattan skyline, especially at night. The ride is free, and the sight of the Statue of Liberty is a bonus, day or night, but at night the lighted torch is easier to see.

You will also want to go shopping or at least window shop at Macy’s in Herald Square, which calls itself the largest department store in the world, or Bloomingdale’s on Lexington Avenue at 59th Street. The boutiques on Fifth and Madison avenues are also tempting, but for bargains take the F train to Delancey Street, then walk two blocks west to Orchard Street for shoes, leather goods, clothing, fabrics, even eyeglasses.

No one would come to New York and not see Times Square, if just for the billboards, the news zipper on the old New York Times Building, the theater marquees and the old burlesque houses, some of which are now multiplex cinemas. What you might miss if no one told you is the 60-foot-high Ferris wheel ($2.50 a ride) inside Toys ‘R’ Us on the east side of Broadway at 44th Street. There’s also a 20-foot-high automated tyrannosaur (T-rex) that roars periodically and a huge Barbie dollhouse. On the other side of Times Square, at 45th Street, is the Marriott Marquis, where 11 glass-enclosed elevators whisk visitors to various floors, including the revolving restaurant on the 48th (top) floor. If you are not in the mood for food and a view, other restaurants await on the lobby level (eighth floor), the base of the hotel’s 37-floor-high atrium. Those with time for a Broadway show can get half-price seats at the TKTS booth at 47th Street. And while you are in Times Square, note the newly widened “sidewalks,” which take up lanes once reserved for vehicles.

Manhattan is still one place where large malls have yet to encroach, but there are small ones in Grand Central Terminal, Penn Station and the Port Authority Bus Terminal. Next to the shops on two floors of the bus terminal on the west side of Eighth Avenue between 40th and 42nd streets are two interesting sculptures: “The Commuters” by George Segal and “Jackie Gleason as Ralph Kramden.” “The Commuters,” two women and a man waiting at a gate, is done in bronze with a white patina and dates from 1980, when the sculptor was in his mid-50s. It is near the main ticket windows inside the south wing. Jackie Gleason, in bus driver’s uniform with lunch pail in hand, is outside on Eighth Avenue near 40th Street, unsigned but unmistakable.

Above the huge central concourse of Grand Central Terminal on 42nd Street between Vanderbilt and Lexington avenues is the recently restored celestial ceiling with the constellations, and although the other railroad hub, Penn Station, has succumbed to office building expansion, the tracks are still there (underground). Across the street, on Eighth Avenue between 31st and 33rd streets, the sprawly former General Post Office is under consideration as a new Penn Station to rival Grand Central. Whether that happens or not, the architecture remains impressive.

Were you to pass Central Park on a tour bus, you would see the trees, the grass, maybe even some flowers, but you would miss the zoo, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Tavern on the Green, Belvedere Fountain, the lake, Joseph Papp Theater, the Great Lawn, the Sheep Meadow, the statues, the bridges, the merry-go-round and the skating rink. In addition, depending on the day and the weather, some of the best free entertainment in the city takes place in Central Park: concert performances by the Metropolitan Opera, fully staged operas by the New York Grand Opera, concerts (sometimes with fireworks) by the New York Philharmonic, jazz concerts and Shakespearean plays.

Across the street from the park on Central Park West between 79th and 81st streets is the American Museum of Natural History with its acclaimed display of dinosaurs. It is also the site of the Rose Center for Earth and Space with the newly reopened Hayden Planetarium, the Cullman Hall of the Universe and the Gottesman Hall of Planet Earth.

To get a calendar of events, call the Convention and Visitors Bureau at (212) 484-1222. While in town, pick up a copy of the Weekend Section of The New York Times, which comes out on Fridays and has comprehensive lists of Broadway, Off Broadway, Off Off Broadway shows, films, classical and popular music events, art galleries, activities for children and walking tours.

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