Madison Avenue

Our last movie-focused walk is also our first in our home stretch of special walks covering multiple boroughs at a time. Here we draw inspiration from the 2002 Spike Lee film "25th Hour" and the Edward Norton monologue contained within called "F*ck New York." In it, Norton's character Montgomery Brogan rails against the people and neighborhoods that make this city what it is. We'll visit as much as we can of the soliloquy, from Chelsea to Wall Street, Bensonhurst, Alphabet City and everything in between.

Our loose end tour of Manhattan harkens back to our walk of Midtown, where we marched up and down the gridded streets to cover every scrap of territory. This time we're on the Upper East Side, where we somehow missed many of the avenues that parallel Central Park. We'll go from 1st to Madison, then head down to the mid-forties to hit some of the cross streets we missed earlier in the year.

New York City is known for its rich literary history, and this week we'll visit the neighborhoods and locations that harbored the greats. Starting in in Williamsburg to visit Betty Smith's 'A Tree Grows in Brooklyn,' we'll hop the bridge for the remainder of our walk, visiting the birthplace of downtown birthplace of Herman Melville, the poetry scene of the East Village, the home of Langston Hughes and the Harlem Renaissance, and the infamous Chelsea Hotel among many others.

The first in our series of musical walks focuses on the odes to Manhattan's streets and neighborhoods. We'll hit everywhere from the Manhattan Detention Complex to the neighborhoods Across 110th Street exploring the inspiration for some of New York's most famous songs. Acts covered include The Jim Carroll Band, Bobby Womack, Joni Mitchell, Bobby Rodriguez y La Compañia and many more.

This week we tackle the most famous Green space in the city and possibly the world: Central Park. We'll cover it from tip to top, with detours to the shores of the Upper East and Upper West Side to see the sights and meet our daily mileage quota.

Our first look at Midtown pays homage to the grid that defines it. From 23rd to 59th Street, we walk up and down 1st to 11th Avenue until we reach our marathon limit. This includes too many sites to mention, from the Chrysler and Empire State buildings; the Theatre District and Times Square; Grand Central Station; Rockefeller Center and so much more.