Looking for a chance to wait forty minutes to get your neglected bike onto the McBain elevators, then ride many miles in the freezing cold? Read on, my friend.

Staten Island is probably foreign ground to the vast majority of Columbia students, and with good reason -- even on a good day, it's an unbelievable trek. However, it's often worth it to travel out there. If you're looking for weird and little-known places, well, Manhattan is no longer the place to find them. But Staten Island is a vast expanse of empty, unpopular, and abandoned wonders.

Case in point: the boat graveyard. Tucked away on a forgotten corner of the island's west shore is a swampy little plot of land where wooden and steel boats have been haphazardly rammed into the shore and left to decay. A continuous string of craft lets you walk hundreds of feet out into the water.

Photos and more narrative after the jump.

He may have baby-sat New York as the crack epidemic left pipes and vials all over city sidewalks and the Crown Heights riots fissured West Indian-Hasidic relations in that neighborhood, but David Dinkins' opinion still holds sway. A politician with firm roots in the Harlem political establishment, Dinkins wrote an op-ed in support of Columbia's Manhattanville expansion in the City section of this Sunday's Times.

"Columbia's Manhattanville proposal takes the best of these ideas to gradually create a new kind of open, urban campus that will improve local streets; bring back commercial life to Broadway, 125th Street and 12th Avenue; and better connect the residential areas of Harlem with the waterfront park now under construction along the Hudson River."

As the Neighborhood Retail Alliance (a.k.a momandpopnyc) points out in an item published Monday (that curiously does not mention the Dinkins op-ed), Dinkins is also on SIPA's payroll -- he teaches classes and has hosted a forum on urban policy there for the last dozen years. Meanwhile, other Harlem politicians, community groups, and Borough President Scott Stringer (who actually has some measure of oversight in this whole process) remain skeptical.

Gothamist has a handy little digest of the op-ed with some links.

First-years, Bwog summons you from your groggy Sunday morning hangover. The air is warm and crisp, the sky is blue -- perfect for an afternoon outing to Staten Island.

Well, the destination is not so romantic (Fresh Kills landfill on Staten Island is home to New York's refuse), but the journey. Oh the journey. The half-hour long (free!) ride on the Staten Island Ferry is calming and gentle, you can watch the city skyline and Brooklyn's bridges shrink against the horizon, as the Statue of Liberty and sleek Verrazano Bridge come into view.

The boat is always laden with camera-clicking international tourists and Staten Island commuters -- prime territory for people watching -- and travels from the ferry terminal downtown (get off at Whitehall St. on the R train-- the 1 doesn't run to South Ferry today) to the newly renovated terminal on "the Island", as natives call it. The area immediately around the terminal at St. George may warrant exploration, but Bwog reccommends staying only until the next ferry to Manhattan arrives. Buses to other parts of Staten Island are few and infrequent, and it is not exactly a walkable borough.

Ferries run every half-hour on the weekends; check the schedule before you set out.

The Met and MoMA are undeniably spectacular, but you'll visit them for Art and Lit Hum sometime in the next four years. Instead, Bwog recommends that you art fans start with obscurity and work your way up! Bwog art critic Julia Butareva brings you nine museums where tourists won't clog the exhibits. You're a New Yorker now, after all.

P.S.1

P.S. 1, an extension of MoMA focusing on young contemporary artists, is in Queens. That's right, Queens. The art is a mixed bag, but it's a wonderful place to spend the day--if the art tires you, hang out on the roof and observe all the fashionable people. All summer, they hold Warm Up dance parties, which involve beer and more fashionable people. Hurry, because the last one is on Sept. 2nd. Columbia students get in free here — it's part of MoMA — but bring $10 for the dance party cover.
Admission: Free
Hours: 12-6 Thursday through Monday
Address: Jackson Ave. and 46th Ave. in Long Island City
Directions: 1 to Times Square, then 7 to 45th Rd./Courthouse Square; Exit onto Jackson Avenue and walk right one block to 46th Avenue.

Studio Museum in Harlem

This is a lovely, community-oriented museum within walking distance of Columbia. Exhibits of high school kids' photography share space with fun and interesting contemporary art by mostly local artists.
Admission: $3 suggested
Hours: 12-6; Saturday 10-6
Address: 144 West 125th Street
Directions: Walk north to 125th and head east.

Bwog decided to forgo packing up a messy dorm room for a cloudy voyage to City Island. Floating in the foggy Long Island Sound but technically a part of the Bronx, it's the closest thing New York City has to a fishing village; complete with yacht clubs, fried fish stands, and nautically-themed lawn ornaments.

One Bwogger weighs in on Columbia's possible downtown expansion...

Is Columbia aware that it has the opportunity to purchase a piece of (cinematic) history in the 99th Street Metro Theater?

Every night you spend drunk at the Abbey causes the same existential crisis: lazy as you are, you really do need to get out of Morningside Heights. Now the Blue and White offers you a no muss, no fuss approach. A four stop, weekly walking tour. Print, follow, see a little, and come back to Carman feeling like you've accomplished something—then head to the West End. After all, you deserve a celebration.

In honor of how few Columbians have actually walked past Teachers College, we bring you a chance to bound through the streets of our northern neighbor's neighborhood. Inspired by the Autobiography of Malcolm X, this tour takes you to some of the less known but more interesting sites in West Harlem. None of these sites are found on any tourist maps, and we like it that way. Stop where we tell you, take a look around. It'll be more fun then getting brunch at Deluxe again, we swear.

Your parents are paying $40,000 a year for you to sleep through class, your hipster jeans cost more than rent on a studio apartment—but now the Bwog offers you a way to see the city: for free.
Some of our favorite haunts:

Highline
Beginning around 34th Street near 10th Avenue (which used to be called Death Avenue until the Highline was built in 1934, thus removing train traffic from ground level), this over-ground railroad bed continues south for about 22 blocks (just over a mile). Going there is free because it's technically illegal, but if you manage to get on and avoid the trespassing fees, you'll get one of the greatest views New York City has to offer.

Bwog staffer Lydia Ross spent a day in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Canarsie exploring the hidden gems of Rockaway Blvd.

Despite a history of racial tensions, Canarsie—located near the southeastern shore of Brooklyn—is today home to an incredibly diverse population of Europeans, African-Americans, and Caribbean immigrants. In search of cultural history and potential adventure, I took the L train to the end of the line and began my exploration.

Discounts, Discounts, Discounts! (10:30)
I step off the train onto Rockaway Parkway, the busiest shopping street in Canarsie, and am overwhelmed by signs advertising discount merchandise. My first stop is Stella's Wholesale Liquidations, which has everything from the Smart Edge Bilingual Laptop for kids to framed copies of Impressionist art. Next I proceed to one 99-cent store after another, buying more cheap shit than a girl could go through in a dozen lifetimes.