Why New York? Partially to do something different since NJ was done before, but also partially due to lack of tons of driver volunteers in the other thread. Do
not bring along a car; parking is expensive in NYC! Public transit should suffice for everything, unless you want to go hiking or visit West Point or some such.
Location:Here's the rental address:
https://goo.gl/maps/ZbLn5FMpS1C2354 Grand St
Brooklyn, NY 11211
Relevant intersection is Grand & Havemeyer St in Brooklyn.
It is most easily accessed by the following subway lines:
*
Marcy St (J, Z, M subway lines)
*
Lorimer St (L subway line)
*
Metropolitan Ave (G subway line) (but... unlikely you want to use this one, the G line sucks)
TransitBusIf you are on the East Coast, by far the cheapest way to get to NYC is bus travel. Greyhound will drop you off at the Port Authority on 42nd & 8th, which directly puts you into the subway system to get wherever you're going. There are various other discount bus lines (e.g. Megabus, BoltBus, etc.) which are also good, but be warned they will drop you off in the street. Most bus lines will accept a ticket for one time as valid at a different time, with lots of service, so there's also some nice flexible scheduling.
If you arrive at the
NYC Port Authority bus station, the subways you want to take to get to the Con location are:
* Take the A/C/E Downtown (blue line) to the
14th St stop. (It's just 2-3 stops away, short trip.) Transfer to the L.
* Take the L line to
Lorimer St stop. (14th & 8th is the start of the L line, so you can't go the wrong way; any train will work.)
-
CarIf you insist on driving yourself, you'll need to find some parking. There's also some pretty steep bridge tolls, and bridge traffic is going to be bad if you don't come at a non-peak hour. I'm sure something can be found in the area, but you may not like the price (read: consider taking a bus instead). It's about 24 dollars a night for overnight parking in NY. Really, don't do it.
-
TrainIf you'd like a slightly nicer way to get here, Amtrak service in the Northeast Corridor is pretty good, with much nicer interiors than a bus and more room to stand up and walk about. It's mildly more expensive, and doesn't really work if you live west of Pittsburgh or south of Richmond or so, but otherwise is fine.
If you arrive at the
NY Penn Station, the train stop you probably will arrive at, the subways you want to take to get to the Con location are:
* Take the A/C/E Downtown (blue line) to the
14th St stop. (It's just 1-2 stops away, short trip.) Transfer to the L.
* Take the L line to
Lorimer St stop. (14th & 8th is the start of the L line, so you can't go the wrong way; any train will work.)
-
AirplaneAir travel can hit any of three major airports in NYC easily enough. Any decent flight search website will have a "New York" option that includes all three: JFK, LaGuardia (LGA), and Newark Liberty (EWR). In general:
* If you have heavy luggage you don't want to lug through public transit, just take a taxi / Uber, especially from JFK or LGA. (Don't do this from EWR.) It's not THAT bad in price and will take you to the doorstep of 354 Grand St.
* If not, transit isn't bad. From JFK, it's 5 dollars to get on an AirTrain that will take you to the subway system, then 2.75 for a subway fare. From LGA, you will generally want an MTA bus ride to the subway system, where you then do the same thing afterward; should be 2.75 total. From EWR, you can take a NJTransit train directly to Penn Station in New York, which also connects to the NYC subway.
More precise directions to the con location:
* If you arrived at
EWR (Newark), take NJ Transit rail to New York Penn Station.
* From there, use the same instructions as above for train arrival - take the A/C/E subway line downtown to
14th St, transfer and take the L subway line to
Lorimer St.
* Do
not use a taxi/Uber from Newark. It will be expensive and slower, because that means crossing through Manhattan and two sets of bridges. Don't do it.
* If you arrived at
LGA (La Guardia), consider just taking a taxi / Uber.
* If you want to be efficient and use public transit, take the
Q70 express bus service from LGA. There's just one stop so you can't mess it up; after it hits all the LGA terminals, it goes directly to
Jackson Hts. / Roosevelt Ave subway stop and deposits you right outside it.
* Take the E subway line westbound in the direction of Manhattan. (Your ticket for the bus should transfer for free here and not cost you anything.) You are not actually going all the way to Manhattan, though. Transfer at
Court Square station, just before Manhattan.
* Take the G subway line. This is the start of the G line, so there's no direction to worry about, any train is good. Go to
Metropolitan Ave and get off.
* If you arrived at
JFK airport, consider just taking a taxi / Uber.
* If you want to be efficient and use public transit, take the
AirTrain to
Archer Ave / Sutphin Blvd. Careful! There are AirTrains that simply loop around between the terminals, and there is an AirTrain that goes to Howard Beach as well. Don't take those. You want Archer Ave / Sutphin Blvd.
* Take the J/Z subway line to
Marcy Ave.
During the Con itself, we'll use MTA subways to get around, or perhaps rarely MTA buses as needed. Basically, buy yourself a ~20 dollar pass, and you should likely be good. (I'll be happy to buy any remaining credit at face value if you have leftover money on it.)
--
Events:Will be hashed out more later, but the one thing I will add is that if you want to go to a "touristy" location that doesn't have ticketed seats (e.g. a game, a musical), we really want to go on Thursday or Friday, not Saturday or Sunday. This is stuff like the Statue of Liberty, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and so on that gets extra-crowded on the weekends. As such, expect the "tourist" focus to be on Thursday/Friday, and the casual / gaming focus to be Saturday / Sunday.
If you have some event your heart is set on, say so in this thread! We can see if we can get a group going. Otherwise, we'll post some suggested events once schedules get more locked down, and we'll see who's interested in what.
