Tours

Plan your schedule now to take advantage of one or more of this year’s local tours. No matter which adventure you decide to embark upon, there is one common denominator: the way to experience and learn about a city is to meet with, talk to, and learn from the people who live and work in the area.

The schedule of tours is provided below, with descriptions and capacity limits. Tour attendees must preregister for the Annual meeting in order to sign up for tours. Reservations are required and will be accepted on a first-come, first-served basis. Confirmations will be mailed prior to the Annual Meeting. If insufficient enrollment causes cancellation of a tour, fees will be refunded in full.

Tour 1 - Chelsea’s Commercial Art Gallery District [Details]
Friday, August 10, 2:30 - 4:30 pm
~~Saturday, August 11, 2:30 – 4:30pm~~
Fee: $5.00 *SOLD OUT*

Leader: Julia Rothenberg, New School University

West Chelsea, New York’s most important gallery district is home to over 350 commercial galleries and is, arguably, at the center both symbolically and financially of the booming global art market. The development of the West Chelsea gallery district over the past decade, along with arts’ increasingly important position in the market for luxury consumption and the tourism industry, has paralleled the rapid gentrification of the adjacent Meat Packing District, an area bordered by low-income housing projects and until just recently a district known for prostitution and sex clubs. This walking tour will provide participants with an introduction to West Chelsea’s varied gallery scene and will include visits to a number of commercial galleries as well as several more experimental venues. We will also look at the surrounding real-estate context and such adjoining projects as the High Line (the plan to turn an elevated railway into a park), the Chelsea Market and the recently land marked Gansevoort Meat Market.

NOTE: The admission price will include the roundtrip subway/bus fare on New York's MTA system. The MTA cards will be distributed on-site to paid attendees at the Tour Assembly/Departure Area. MTA buses are wheelchair accessible as are most of the galleries and other sites we will visit. Attendees in wheelchairs should be advised that there is often construction and some streets are cobbled in this area. Every effort will be made to avoid less accessible routes or to provide alternate routes. (Subway/walking tour; limited to 20 participants)

Tour 2 - Chelsea’s Commercial Art Gallery District [Details]
Friday, August 10, 3:00 - 5:00 pm
~~Saturday, August 11, 3:00 – 5:00pm~~
Fee: $5.00 *SOLD OUT*

Leader: David Halle, University of California, Los Angeles

West Chelsea, New York’s most important gallery district is home to over 350 commercial galleries and is, arguably, at the center both symbolically and financially of the booming global art market. The development of the West Chelsea gallery district over the past decade, along with arts’ increasingly important position in the market for luxury consumption and the tourism industry, has paralleled the rapid gentrification of the adjacent Meat Packing District, an area bordered by low-income housing projects and until just recently a district known for prostitution and sex clubs. This walking tour will provide participants with an introduction to West Chelsea’s varied gallery scene and will include visits to a number of commercial galleries as well as several more experimental venues. We will also look at the surrounding real-estate context and such adjoining projects as the High Line (the plan to turn an elevated railway into a park), the Chelsea Market and the recently land marked Gansevoort Meat Market.

NOTE: The admission price will include the roundtrip subway/bus fare on New York's MTA system. The MTA cards will be distributed on-site to paid attendees at the Tour Assembly/Departure Area. MTA buses are wheelchair accessible as are most of the galleries and other sites we will visit. Attendees in wheelchairs should be advised that there is often construction and some streets are cobbled in this area. Every effort will be made to avoid less accessible routes or to provide alternate routes. (Subway/walking tour; limited to 20 participants)

Tour 3 - New York’s Changing Waterfront [Details]
August 13, 4:00 – 6:00pm
Fee: $5.00 *SOLD OUT*

Leader: William Kornblum, Graduate Center, City University of New York

Come see what is happening along the New York waterfront with a water-taxi tour of the Hudson and East Rivers. We’ll get excellent views of Lower Manhattan and the Battery, the Statue of Liberty, Governors Island, the Brooklyn docks, the Lower East Side, the East River Bridges, and the South Street Seaport. Emphasis will be on the sociology of changes along the waterfront, once the world’s busiest port and now the site of large-scale residential and park development.

There is a minimum of walking involved, and the places we’ll visit are accessible to all. The tour fee includes the MTA fare to/from Pier 44. After arriving at the pier, participants will purchase their Hop-on-Hop-Off tickets ($25 general, $15 for seniors), which are good for two days of unlimited water taxi use, so you can go back to places we have visited or take the water taxi to new places along the shoreline.. The water taxis are a relatively new feature of the harbor and have indoor as well as outdoor seating, so we can go in almost any weather.

NOTE: The MTA farecards will be distributed on-site to paid attendees at the Tour Assembly/Departure Area at the hotel. The tour will gather at the New York Hilton and depart for the Water Taxi dock on Pier 44, West 44th Street. (Subway/boat tour; limited to 20 people)

Tour 4 - The Sustainable Bronx [Details]
Saturday, August 11, 2:30 – 5:30pm
Fee: $25.00

Leader: Margaret Groarke, Manhattan College

The Bronx handles more than its fair share of the city’s garbage. Heavy truck traffic leads to high rates of asthma – in the South Bronx, seven times the national average. Overall the Bronx has a large amount of parkland, including two of the city’s largest parks – Van Cortlandt Park and Pelham Bay. But many neighborhoods, especially in the South Bronx have insufficient open green space. Environmental racism and the health effects of the garbage industry are issues in the Bronx.

And so perhaps it’s not surprising that the Bronx is a pioneer in green development. On this tour, we will visit with the people of Sustainable South Bronx, who are working on the reclamation of industrial space and highways for green spaces, green roofs, and garbage issues, and Fordham Bedford Housing Corporation, a non-profit housing company in the Northwest Bronx, which has incorporated several green elements in its most recent gut rehabs and new construction, including the first green roof on an affordable residential building, and rainwater harvesting. If time and traffic permit, we’ll swing by Yankee Stadium, where the city has taken public parkland from the people to build the team a new stadium. Tour registrants will meet at the Tour Assembly/Departure Area at the hotel. (Bus/walking tour; limited to 50 people)

Tour 5 - Brooklyn, America’s Fourth Largest City [Details]
Sunday, August 12, 8:30 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.
Fee: $30.00 *SOLD OUT*

Leaders: Philip Kasinitz and John Mollenkopf, City University of New York

Although it has been part of greater New York since 1898, the City’s most populous borough maintains much of its storied distinct identity. Today’s Brooklyn is home to both new immigrants and long-established “white ethnics,” the nation’s largest contiguous predominantly African American community, enclaves of young “hipsters” and rapidly gentrifying Brownstone neighborhoods. In this bus/walking tour will visit African American Bedford Stuyvesant, West Indian East Flatbush, Hasidic Borough Park, Asian/South American/Scandinavian Sunset Park and the newly revitalized Red Hook Waterfront, before ending with pizza in the shadow of the Brooklyn Bridge. Along the way we will meet with local social scientists and activists who will tell us more about the issues facing these diverse communities.

NOTE: Paid attendees will meet at the Tour Assembly/Departure Area at the hotel. While the bus will return to the hotel, those who wish (and who have the time) can end the tour by walking across the Brooklyn Bridge and retuning via public transportation. Tour fee does not include lunch. (Bus/walking tour; limited to 25 people)

Tour 6 - A Gay and Lesbian History Tour [Details]
Sunday, August 12, 10:30am – 12:30pm
Fee: $18.00

Leader: The Big Onion Tour Company

Before Stonewall: Discover the many facets of lesbian and gay history as we trace the development of Greenwich Village. Stops include: The Stonewall Inn, The Duplex, and sites associated with Bayard Rustin, Willa Cather, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Audre Lorde.

NOTE: Transportation to the meeting site is NOT provided for this tour. Participants may get to the tour location by taxi, subway, or any way that suits. Those wishing to share taxis to the tour location should meet at the Tour/Assembly Area at the hotel where ASA staff will help in hailing taxi service. The tour will meet at the northeast corner of Fifth Avenue and Washington Square North, across from the Washington Square Arch. Please look for our guide holding a sign that reads “Big Onion Walking Tours”. Meeting site is easily reached by taking the “R” or “W” train to the 8th Street station, it exits one block away from our meeting site at Broadway and 8th Street. (Subway/walking tour, limited to 25 people)

Tour 7 - Chinatown After 9/11 [Details]
~~Monday, August 13, 8:30 – 11:00am~~
Saturday, August 11, 8:30 - 11:00 am
Fee: $5.00 *SOLD OUT*

Leader: Margaret Chin, Hunter College

New Yorkers continue to adapt to the changes wrought by the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. On this tour we will visit Manhattan’s Chinatown, a downtown neighborhood adjacent to the area destroyed by the collapse of the World Trade Center. While much of the city’s (and the nation’s) attention has focused on the re-building of the towers and the appropriate design for a memorial, the low income and working class residents of Chinatown struggle to preserve their community and rebuild their lives. We will observe the street closures still in place five years after 9/11 and their impact on Chinatown’s traditionally vibrant street culture and local businesses, and tour the new construction and gentrification rising out of the ashes, rapidly altering the community. We will visit with community activists and learn more about how residents are coping with the changes and what is in store for this historic ethnic enclave. (Subway/walking tour, limited to 20 people)

NOTE: The admission price will include the roundtrip subway/bus fare on New York's MTA system. The MTA cards will be distributed on-site to paid attendees at the Tour Assembly/Departure Area. Attendees in wheelchairs should be advised that there is often construction and some streets are cobbled in this area. Every effort will be made to avoid less accessible routes or to provide alternate routes. (Subway/walking tour; limited to 20 participants)