Book Review: Fodor’s Family: New York City with Kids by Meryl Pearlstein

Sitting in a suburban New Jersey park one day, I was having a discussion with a friend who asked, “Do you know what the longest mile in the world is?” My immediate response was, “The one I have to walk?” “No,” he said. The longest mile is the GWB between New York and New Jersey.” For those who don’t know, the GWB is the George Washington Bridge that runs between Fort Lee, NJ, and Washington Heights in Manhattan.

My friend was wrong. The GWB is actually only nine-tenths of a mile, but the point he was making was very true. A common Jerseyan reaction to news of an event in New York City is, “Oh, I’m not going all the way into the city.” Less than a mile, right? But for many, going into New York means a lot more than that — the traffic is horrendous, everything is more crowded, and the sales tax is higher. Then there’s the $8 bridge toll and the parking nightmare. They may have only a mile between them, but city dwellers and suburbanites are worlds apart in many respects. The well known antagonism between New Jersey and New York (after all, New York stole [co-opted] the Statue of Liberty) doesn’t help, either.

Because of these deeply entrenched cultural factors, many people who can actually see the Empire State Building on their daily commute in Northern Jersey, are totally unaware of the wonders New York City has to offer. They aren’t alone. There are many people living in New York who are just as clueless. Oh, everyone knows Broadway, Rockefeller Center, and Radio City Music Hall (don’t they?), but New York City holds so much more.

My primary interest in reading Fodor’s Family: New York City with Kids, was to find things to do with my grandchildren when I visit New Jersey (yes, there are things to do in NJ, but there’s so much more in NYC — besides, they can do stuff with their parents in NJ), since I moved away a decade ago. You just can’t go in to The City from one year to the next and expect that everything will be the same. Fodor’s Family: New York City with Kids turned out to be exactly what I needed; however, this little volume is also an excellent resource for people who are visiting New York City without kids.

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