Queens County Farm Museum

Flush up against Nassau County, on the eastern edge of Queens ("Deep Queens"?), is a place that feels less a part of New York City and more like Long Island. As a working farm, this place, now known as the Queens County Farm Museum, dates all the way back to 1697.

With farm animals, hayrides, a corn maze right now, and free admission, this outdoor museum gets packed with families with children on a sunny weekend. On a warm sunny fall day there was even a a field strewn with pumpkins, generously called a "pumpkin patch."

There's even live music – on this day, a band that plays only songs from the '60s. They were good. They also added to the impression that we weren't in New York City any more, but in the strong orbit of suburban Long Island.

And where else can you find a hayride within the five boroughs?

The goats are a big hit with children – and grown-ups.

And who doesn't love alpacas?

It wouldn't be a canonical farm without pigs and chickens.

The farm grows crops too, enough not just for educational purposes but to sell.

As for the maize maze, we took the easy way: around instead of through.

The museum also invites history buffs into the Adriance Farmhouse. The home's original three-room form dates back to 1772. It's been added to in the intervening centuries, and the conservators have done a nice job setting up rooms to reflect different centuries of habitation.

The farmhouse has been restored nicely, with original elements like floors and some windowpanes. The museum offers tours of the house, also free.

What self-respecting farm wouldn't have a barn?

The farm is a good spot to take urban kids to learn about where food actually comes from, and to see animals and have some outdoor fun. Its sheer size is also a great feature for explorers looking for spaces to walk around at length without worrying about getting run over by a vehicle. Just gotta look out for those hayrides...

The Queens County Farm Museum is open seven days a week from 10 to 5, year-round except major holidays. There's a seasonal farmstand that sells fruits, vegetables, flowers, and herbs grown right on the farm. Also eggs. And free parking.

So don't be sheepish. Hop on a city bus, or into your car if you've got one. The Farm awaits.

All photos © Oren Hope

Paseo Park: A Linear Park in the Making, and Travers Park

Jackson Heights is one of the city's most lively and interesting neighborhoods, reputed to be one of the most diverse places in the world. Some have counted over 160 languages spoken in this section of Queens.

What Jackson Heights doesn't have is a park, or not much of one anyway. Alliance for Paseo Park is trying to change that by transforming a 26-block, mile-plus stretch of 34th Avenue into a linear park. We paid a visit recently to see how it's coming along.

So, is Paseo Park closed to automobile traffic?

Best answer I have right now: Yes and no. No and yes.

The Greenmarket sets up shop here on Sundays, a nice consonance. (The tents in the following photo are the giveaway.)

Are there festive, colorful blocks adorning these blocks? That's a yes.

The project grew out of NYC's pandemic-spawned Open Streets program, which sets aside stretches of certain avenues around the city for pedestrians only on Saturdays in the summer and has become a permanent feature of city life.

Why "Paseo Park?" "Paseo" means "a leisurely stroll or promenade" in Spanish.

While on your stroll or promenade, you'll come upon an existing park. Travers Park is primarily a playground and sports facility, but has enough spots for passive recreation that it merits a mention here. One unusual feature is a big grassy field that doesn't seem to be designated for anything but lolling about.

Not unusual are these stone chess tables, a common sight in New York City's parks.

Trees were in bloom on the day of our visit.

Travers Park also has its own "Friends of" organization.

Thomas J. Travers (1897–1958) was a community leader. Here's what I liked about the brief bio on the Parks Department website:

"After serving in the U.S. Navy during World War I, he returned to New York to marry his childhood sweetheart, Ann Desmond."

A New York Times article headlined "Jackson Heights, Global Town Square" reported in 2020:

Even by New York standards, Jackson Heights is changing so fast and contains so many different communities that no single walk can begin to take in the whole neighborhood. There’s a booming Latin American cultural scene, a growing Nepali and Tibetan contingent, an urban activist movement, pioneering car bans on local streets. This is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's district, and it is represented by a longtime openly gay city councilman named Daniel Dromm.

Open streets? Openly gay? All you have to do is open your mind, and look: a new park.

Taking a walk in Jackson Heights? Park Odyssey recommends a dosa and a curry at vegetarian South Indian restaurant Samudra followed by ice cream at Jahn's.

All photos © Oren Hope

Hunter's Point South Park and Gantry Plaza State Park

Our three-borough NYC Ferry tour began with a sail from Manhattan to the new Naval Cemetery Landscape in Brooklyn. It continued in Queens at another new park, Hunter's Point South Park, which was, the Parks Department website notes, "until recently an abandoned post-industrial area in Long Island City."

Until, that is, the advent of the NYC Ferry. If that wonderful, rampantly money-losing service survives the COVID-19 financial crisis—and, in the slightly longer term, the sea level rise that's on track to submerge the city's coastline—it will stand, or rather float, as Mayor Bill de Blasio's signature legacy. And the 10 newly constructed acres of Hunter's Point South Park are more than anything else a part of the ferry infrastructure.

Luckily for hungry city explorers, there's food here: a pandemic-thinned takeout menu from LIC Landing.

It was a quiet day on the turf.

Apparently someone had been wishing for winter.

But the kids here today were perfectly happy with water in its unfrozen form. Even Mrs. Odyssey took a spin through the spray.

The dogs were having a grand time too.

The landscaping reclined in summer bloom.

And the East River lay reasonably calm.

So Hunter's Point South Park proves to be mostly a place for activities, not relaxation. It's contiguous with Gantry Plaza State Park, which now has its own ferry landing just to the north.

It shocked me a bit to discover that my previous visit to Gantry was a full decade ago, when this blog was a mere stripling. Like the blog, Gantry Plaza has developed apace. It still hugs a narrow strip of waterfront. But there's more length to walk. The gantries remain, testaments to the area's industrial past. But the vegetation feels wilder. A spectacular row of food trucks abuts the northern part of the park. Most notably, the Pepsi sign, once slated for oblivion, has not only been preserved, but has evolved into a sculpture-like picnic spot.

Walk past the park's northern tip and cut east along Eleventh Street Basin, and you'll spot a relic of ferries past. The old Prudence Ferry operated in Rhode Island into the late 1990s and, it's said, will still crank up if you ask it nicely. It resides now in front of the old Plaxall warehouse complex. Plaxall bought the boat intending to turn it into a floating beer garden, while the warehouses were slated to be demolished to make room for the canceled Amazon headquarters. None of that happened, and the basin is a quiet, untended place on a beautiful summer weekend, quite the contrast to the bustle of the parks just below.

All photos © Jon Sobel, Critical Lens Media

Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge

Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge is part of the vast Gateway National Recreation Area, which spans New York City and New Jersey and also includes Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn and Fort Tilden and Jacob Riis Park in Queens. We paid an April visit mid-pandemic expecting few fellow excursionists. Instead we found the parking lot packed. Seems we weren't the only ones desperate to get out of our apartment and into the sunshine.

Fortunately the paths around picturesque West Pond are wide enough to maintain social distancing, and most (though not all) human visitors were wearing masks.

We'd forgotten that this is a birdwatchers' haven, and hadn't brought our binoculars. Honestly, I had barely even had this blog in mind when we planned the day, that's how urgent was the need to just get out and enjoy nature. We did get a good look at a number of iridescent blue tree swallows.

Brian Ralphs / Creative Commons

Several other bird species were present too, just a tiny fraction of the hundreds of types that come through here each year.

At the edge of West Pond, shore birds were poking their long beaks into the sand, while in the distance the towers of Manhattan loomed.

The view across Jamaica Bay itself was wide open.

When we left, the entrance was even busier, with cars crawling around the lot looking for spaces. Our parks seem even more important to us when in-person activities are all cancelled and we spend most of our time in our homes. We don't choose to live in a city so we can stay at home. The whole point is to be out, experiencing the multitude of cultures, the activities of every kind, cultural events, gatherings, restaurants, nightlife. Just now, parks are pretty much what we have left.

Except where noted, all photos © Jon Sobel, Critical Lens Media