The oldest, best, and probably dirtiest underground train system in the world. 24 hour service that links me to anywhere I want to go in the city.

A new artificial island park where all New Yorkers and visitors can experience nature and art in a unique urban oasis on the Hudson River. The park features a lush, seasonal, landscape with rolling hills, winding pathways and dazzling views coupled with programming that includes music, dance, theater, poetry, comedy and arts workshops for all ages.

Bill Brand presents an animated movie to passengers on the B and Q subway trains coming into Manhattan from Brooklyn. The project was modeled after the zoetrope, a 19th-century optical toy, which animated images inside a revolving cylinder, so that they appeared to move when viewed through narrow slits. Brand mounted 228 hand-painted panels in self-contained, illuminated units along the three-hundred-foot platform. Hop on a Manhattan-bound B or Q train at the Dekalb Avenue stop (corner of Dekalb Avenue and Flatbush Avenue Extension). Look out any window on the right side of the train.

Somewhat off the beaten Williamsburg-track, Brooklyn Art Library is nestled on a mostly residential street. It’s home to tens of thousands of artist sketchbooks known as “The Sketchbook Project”. Over 100 countries are represented and their “collection houses books from small communities in Mongolia next to professional illustrators from New York.” You can donate one of your very own! All the sketchbooks have been cataloged for easy searching of their vast shelves, by artist and subject, and visitors are invited to browse what feels much like a hands-on museum. The Art Library also remains one of the few places to find art supplies (while limited) in the neighborhood, and if you’re in the market for a special gift (including books, totes and the cutest retro pennants) for your favorite art-lovin’ bibliophile, you might just get lucky here.

Packed with the most amazing painting and sculpture from the early Renaissance to the 19th Century. One of my favorite details is this effortlessly executed dog in Fragonard's "Progress of Love" panel peering out at us with such sincerity - a resounding acquiescence to the forces of nature.