It’s beginning to look a lot like the holidays, everywhere you go in New York. Our reporters offer seasonal dispatches from Brooklyn, Manhattan and the Bronx.
Parking Flap Dims Excitement Over Lights
BROOKLYN – It should be the most wonderful time of year again for Dyker Heights.
For three decades, residents of the southern Brooklyn neighborhood have been wowing visitors near and far with their impressive Christmas lights and decorations. The displays have become a major attraction – and tour companies like A Slice of Brooklyn and Tour America area cashing in.
To deal with crowds, police have restricted parking strictly to tour buses along part of bustling 86th Street four days a week from 5 p.m. to midnight. That’s rankled some residents, who say the restrictions take away parking from the elderly and visiting family members.
– Janae Hunter
Harlem Window Displays Celebrate Holidays and History
Harlem is standing out in its own way for the holiday: Eight businesses along Frederick Douglass Boulevard, from 114th street to 122nd street, feature window displays capturing the essence of the Harlem Renaissance .
The windows depict the prohibition period and salute flappers, whose Roaring Twenties style and spirit defied the rules of how women conducted themselves at the time.
The holiday window displays also highlight quotes from famous artists and writers of the time, among them Langston Hughes, Duke Ellington and Ella Fitzgerald.
The displays will remain up until Jan. 3.
– Nicole Ashley
Train Show Pulls Into Botanical Garden
BRONX – The New York Botanical Garden Holiday Train Show offers not only little locomotives: The trains chug past 150 miniature structures, including replicas of Rockefeller Center, the Statue of Liberty and Saint Patrick’s Cathedral.
This marks the 25th year of the train spectacle, an-all age delight.
“I’m reliving my second childhood,” said visitor Lou Deholcer. “I love electric trains, although mine disappeared about 40 years ago.”
Visitors were also impressed with the famous landmarks, all made of natural materials.
“I thought it was super cool how they had the bark and they made it like little bricks on the building,” said youngster Catherine Dodman.
– Erica Jackson