The 'Joker Stairs' Are Luring Tourists to a Quiet Bronx Neighborhood

It’s Friday, so read up on the rise of the “Joker Stairs,” the arrival in Brooklyn of a beloved grocery store, and some tales of highly unusual NYC commutes.

1. The ‘Joker Stairs’ Meme Fuels Tourism to the Bronx …

Vulture’s Nate Jones spent a sunny day at the so-called “Joker Stairs,” an imposing staircase in the Bronx’s Highbridge neighborhood where a key scene from the new “Joker” movie was filmed. And guess what? Many of the throngs of young visitors from Dallas, Thailand, Queens and elsewhere who were busy Instagramming themselves on this otherwise unremarkable bit of urban infrastructure hadn’t even seen the movie yet. “They were coming to create images they’d seen online,” Jones writes — not what they’d seen in a theater. But regardless of what brought them there, some locals weren’t too thrilled about it, writes Gothamist’s Jesse Vad.

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2. Wegmans Fever Takes Hold in Brooklyn …

“No one moves to the city to push an oversize metal cart down an aisle and save 45 cents on cold cuts,” writes The New York Times’ Ginia Bellafante. All the same, New Yorkers are very, very excited about the arrival of beloved upstate grocery chain Wegmans to the Brooklyn Navy Yard this week. Hopes for the new retailer go way beyond cold cuts: “Wegmans will sit similarly on the outskirts of a diverse group of neighborhoods that have not coalesced seamlessly. Will a grocery store make the difference?”

Inwood

204 Sherman Avenue

$1,900 No Fee

1 |

Chinatown

82 Bayard Street

$2,250 No Fee

1 |

Upper West Side

309 West 109th Street

$2,700 No Fee

1 |

Kips Bay

207 East 33rd Street

$3,200 No Fee

1 |

Washington Heights

570 West 172nd Street

$2,415 No Fee

2 |

Murray Hill

51 East 34th Street

$3,050 No Fee

1 |

Murray Hill

49 Park Avenue

$2,975 No Fee

1 |

Lenox Hill

310 East 74th Street

$2,975 No Fee

1 |

Hell’s Kitchen

739 Ninth Avenue

$2,500 No Fee

1 |

East Village

256 East Tenth Street

$3,125 No Fee

1 |

Murray Hill

163 East 36th Street

$3,100 No Fee

1 |

Washington Heights

506 West 170th Street

$2,409 No Fee

2 |

3. Presidential Pies Arrive on the Upper East Side …

According to Time Out’s Bao Ong, you can now eat pie like President Obama. Bill Yosses, a former White House executive pastry chef, has opened Palais by Perfect Pie on the Upper East Side, where actual 44-approved faves will be on the menu. Ong reports that Barry O. started out loving banana cream, but turned to fruit pies in his second term. They all sound great to us.

image of 30 hudson yards viewing platform

The viewing platform atop 30 Hudson Yards will open to the public March 11, 2020.

4. Endless NYC Views Are Coming Soon to Hudson Yards …

Curbed’s Zoe Rosenberg reports that the great glass shard sticking sideways out of supertall 30 Hudson Yards will soon open to the public. The long-anticipated viewing platform 1,131 feet above street level will be known as Edge at Hudson Yards and will open March 11, 2010. Tickets for what claims to be the highest outdoor observation deck in the Western Hemisphere will run $34 to $36.

5. And! The Crazy Things New Yorkers Do to Avoid the Subway

The Wall Street Journal’s Anne Kadet has an amusing tale of commute, er, alternatives. Two daily subway rides got you down? How about getting to work by electric skateboard, or unicycle, or — our favorite — jet ski. Of course, running, walking or biking — even 90 minutes each way, in the snow! — remain popular, too.