Beware of Mean Streets

Let this serve as a 'traveler's warning' if you plan on being in New York City's Chinatown...those are some mean streets...and I'm just referring to day time!

I grew up going to NYC's Chinatown frequently. I think we used to go once a month, if not every other month. So after doing that for many, many years with my family, by the time I was able to drive, I knew how to drive myself into the city, park at the now 'off-limits' Police Plaza, and walk into Chinatown to do what I had to do.

Never had a problem walking around Chinatown. It isn't the type of place where we would go to spend the day eating, shopping, mingling with the locals...no. It was the type of place where we would go, get our hair cuts, have some lunch, buy some groceries and make it home in time for dinner. I still pretty much follow the same routine today. I don't think I have ever stayed long enough to have two meals in Chinatown. Not that I'm not willing - but when you're in New York City, there is PLENTY of other stuff you want to be doing.

Flash forward to present day when I now go into Chinatown with my sister and usually a child. The child we decided to go into Chinatown with for this latest trip is four. He is still too small to be doing all that walking to and from the PATH station but too big to carry around if he were to get tired so that required us to bring in a stroller. Here's your warning - Chinatown is NOT stroller friendly. The sidewalks are often packed with locals and tourists ... and you have a lot of traffic just on the sidewalks alone. The locals, usually elderly, walk REALLY slow and the tourists like to walk and just stop in their tracks to look at what's around them. What happens to the person with the stroller? We are forced to stop short and block pedestrian traffic behind us because people are too ignorant to move off to the side. There were instances where I just took to the streets and pushed my nephew there because there was less traffic.

The stroller unfriendly areas aren't just on the outside (streets and sidewalks) - much like other Asian and European cities, if you walk into a restaurant, everything is so narrow inside that you're forced to leave your stroller in a corner, pray to God that someone doesn't walk off with it, and have your meal. Going into a store is much the same - where I first have to get the stroller into the store (usually up 1-2 steps) and then roll it straight into a store....if I don't see anything I want in the store, I usually have to do a K-turn with the stroller to get out of there.

People really don't care that you have a stroller and a small child that you're trying to transport. The streets are so unkempt that I had a cup of milk-tea in the cupholder of the stroller and half of it splashed out of the 'to-go' cup and onto the stroller because the sidewalks were so bumpy. No one moves out of your way - hey, they have their own agendas. BUT they will stop to tell you that the kid's feet, in the stroller, is dragging along the sidewalk. I can't tell you how many people told me that and it's like, 'I know! He's too big for this stroller but he's sleeping so leave me alone!' And it's not like they're telling me - they're pointing or yelling at me in Cantonese (which is not Chinese dialect of choice) so I yell back in English.

What did I learn from this latest romp into Chinatown? I'm no longer going into the city with a stroller. I am okay with going with kids but they will be walking. Although I had a great time in the city with my sister and nephew, I feel like I need another trip to do my leisurely shopping in the jewelry stores...sans stroller.