UES reference

When I was a young kiddo, if you wanted to learn about something you broke out the dusty encyclopedia. You guessed which book the entry you were looking for would live in, and had a 50-50 chance of either finding the entry or being told to "see volume 21, T-V."

Of course the Internet has made things a lot easier in terms of finding information, but I do kind of long for the days of organized information. Last night I spent a good 25 minutes combing the NYC Rent Guidelines board site looking for the list of rent stabilized buildings which is located NOT in the site's apartment guide but in the housing research section. A friend of mine was looking at an apartment on the UWS and wanted to know if she made the list.

This just goes to show that the information is out there but not always where you think. Since I'm a bit move-poor at the moment I've been satiating my shopping addiction by looking for cool stores to shop at in the UES. The problem is the UES is so big! 59th st to 110 st. Does anyone else not see a need for a split? The neighborhoods are not defined enough. Try looking for stores in Lenox Hill and all you'll find are links to the hospital and the veterinary clinic.

Then again, sometimes the information is exactly where you think but you find a roundabout way of getting there. I worked with web usability a lot as a freelancer and I'm always amazed in tests when people miss the huge button in front of their faces and instead click through 3-4 layers of a site to find their destination. The common sarcastic reply - 'My way was more fun though.'

I started searching for stores at nymag.com, because they seem to have everything Manhattan-related there and they're snarky without being inaccessibly so. Somehow I ended up going from there to the Wikipedia entry for the Upper East Side which is where I should have started. Because from there I was linked to uppereast.com which has a handy list of shops of all sorts organized alphabetically with fully detailed address listings including cross streets! Hot damn. My new favorite site. I already found out that 3rd Ave has an Urban Outfitters, a Scoop and a Victoria's Secret, all nearby. The site also had links to several blogs written by residents. These are exactly the kind of resources I need.

Later on, I realized that doing a simple Google search for 'Upper East Side' would have yielded the same results. My way was more fun though.