Long Island City

Long Island City is what happens when a factory district gets a waterfront park and a subway that takes four minutes to reach Midtown. It is mostly new towers now, but the good parts are very good, and the view is unbeatable.

The green space is the whole argument. Gantry Plaza State Park runs along the East River with the old rail gantries left standing, piers you can sit on the end of, and the Manhattan skyline directly across the water. The Pepsi-Cola sign, first lit in 1940 and a city landmark since 2016, glows red at the water’s edge. Hunter’s Point South Park continues south with lawns and an oval overlook. Between them, this is the best free sunset in Queens, and it is never as crowded as it should be.

The art is the other reason. MoMA PS1 shows contemporary work in an 1890s public school, with pieces in the stairwells and a summer courtyard party. A walk or short bus ride north gets you the Noguchi Museum, which Isamu Noguchi built from an old photo-engraving plant across from his studio, with a garden in the middle of it, and Socrates Sculpture Park, a free waterfront park with large outdoor work in it.

Eat along Vernon Boulevard, which is the closest thing here to a main street, then walk back to the water for the light.