Pale Hipster Skin Exposed At Water Taxi Beach
The 300 or so New Yorkers that remained in the city this Memorial Day weekend all seemed to converge yesterday on [Water Taxi Beach]. Essentially, its a strip of sand on the edge of industrial Hunters Point, Queens, that seems to have been created as a promotional device for the [Water Taxi](http://www.nywatertaxi.com/default.aspx) brand. From now until October 8th, its open every weekend for your sunbathing pleasure.
We arrived after an easy five-minute Water Taxi ride from the 34th street pier (boats run once an hour, at around 20 minutes after). The ride costs five dollars, although perhaps funds are collected by an honor system, which, in our confusion, we violated. Note: the New York Press does not endorse stealing, swindling or hustling of any kind. Across the river we were herded into an enclosure with rows of picnic tables and lines for beer, burgers (hot dogs and soy dogs also available), and Sangria. The design highlight of the beach was a multicolored, neon plastic palm tree that flashed brightly after dark. In the center of it all was a volleyball court, and beyond that, the DJs of [Turntables on the Hudson] operated under a yellow tent with a plywood dance floor that brought to mind some of the less successful Bar Mitzvahs I attended as a youth. This all changed after dark, when crowds seeking good music and the chance to dance and drink outdoors mobbed the joint, making a relaxed evening of drinking and chilling untenable.
From about four pm til eight, though, the crowd, made up of hipster parents with their kids, and muscle-bound men with oily hair and tight T-shirts, was manageable. Sitting in cigarette-butt infested sand with a Magic Hat # 9, watching the midtown skyline through a chain-link fence, while it seemed ridiculous at first, became almost soothing as the music washed over us, the delightfully berry-ish brew worked its magic, and the days troubles drifted out to the water, along with a stray volleyball punted by a clumsy player.
Those looking for a truly bucolic evening in Long Island City might do better to head a couple of blocks up to [Gantry Park], where long piers are accented by undulating wooden benches and panoramic views, and a multi-level stone walkway leads you through a garden of native grasses at the waters edge. But for music thats neither annoying nor transcendent, a priceless cross-section of New York summer-dwellers, and just the slightest feeling of escape, Water Taxi Beach is your destination.