Ever since I was little, I always felt at home by a body of water. No, I was not a mermaid in my past life. Born and raised in the heart of Chicago, I lived there for thirteen years and — you guessed it — I was near a body of water. Lake Michigan was “my lake,” as I liked to call it. Chicago gave me both the lake and the city – in New York, I found this same experience at the pier.
It wasn’t just back in Chicago that I found peace by a body of water. When I would travel to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina or Tampa, Florida over the summer, the beach always brought me an immense sense of happiness.
Science supports my experience of finding calm near water. In addition to promoting physical activity and general fitness, spending time near water slows down our heart rate and reduces stress hormones, boosting our mental health.”
“Staring at the ocean actually changes brain waves’ frequency and puts us into a mild meditative state,” as written in the American Association of the Advancement of Science journal. No wonder those who live by a body of water seem so “chill.”
I can attest to those statistics having experienced those benefits personally. I would try to seek out that sense of happiness whenever I had moments of stress from school or life in general. Back when I was an undergraduate student at Illinois Wesleyan University, I would often make my way to the pond in White Oak Park just to take a break from the frenzy of life in a college town. After spending some time there, I would feel recharged and ready to take on the rest of my day.
Today, NYC piers give me a similar sense of relief from city life and allow me to take in the beauty of New York. When I first moved to New York six months ago, I felt that the stimulation of the city was very different from the life I was used to. New York City is an adjustment from Chicago and even more so from the suburbs of Wilmette, Illinois, where I moved later in my teenage years. The NYC Piers have provided the sense of peace that I longed for, a reminder of home.
When I exit my apartment on Madison Street in Lower East Side of Manhattan, I am greeted by the shouts and distant chatter of neighbors mostly yelling out “f*** you” to one another, if I have to be completely honest. There’s definitely a lot of vitality there. There’s a Deli shop by my apartment where a group of adolescent kids spend their time smoking blunts and catcalling women — myself included — as I walk to class or make my way to the pier.
While the walk to the pier might not be the prettiest sight, Manhattan is still wonderful— and I don’t mean to be sarcastic. There really is no place like Manhattan.
It only takes me about seven minutes to walk to the pier. Along my walk, I pass pier 36 along the East River. The gentle breeze brushes my hair away from my face and the smell of the river eases my senses as I take a deep breath. The seagull sitting on the bench nearby is judging me, but it’s okay — he still looks adorable.
The sound of the waves splashing together allows me to forget about the petty seagull, and the worries and stresses of my day all seem long forgotten. The mesmerizing sight of the Brooklyn Skyline makes me feel as though I could stay there forever. It’s nice to get away from your responsibilities for a bit — just a bit. That moment makes me feel like I’m on vacation. It gives me an immediate boost of happiness.
I wonder, though, if people in New York feel the same.
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Erick Cuevas
By the pier, a couple from Phoenix was telling me about their sweltering summers back home as they waited for a tour on the Top View Liberty Cruise. “You get used to it,” Erick Cuevas said. “I always joke that I’m a lizard at this point because I love the heat — I can’t stand the cold.”
Cuevas considers the pier a main attraction in New York. “I would’ve wanted to walk along the pier anyway — just because I like to find places like this, where it’s kind of secluded and away from the noise, but it still has that feel of the city that you’re in.”
Cuevas also enjoys the environment of the pier back in Phoenix. “The only place that’s similar to this is the Tempe Town Lake area where ASU is. There’s an artificial lake that has been created there, and I spend a lot of time there too to get a similar vibe — just walking along the water.”
The pier reminds Cuevas of a vacation spot. “Walking along here reminds me of the times I’ve visited family in California, because they live next to the port of L.A., there’s a couple piers to walk around there.”
David Ryder
Along my path to the pier, I also pass a man walking dogs. He is walking his mom’s dogs heading west along the river. In his left arm, David Ryder is carrying Dolly, while his right arm held onto Polly’s leash. “Dolly’s terrified. I think it might be the sound of the subway. It’s just a lot of stimulation, a lot of sounds going on,” Ryder said. “When we’re at my parents’, in New Jersey, she loves it. She loves running in the grass, but I think it’s just New York City that scares her.”
Dolly is like your local New Yorker — scared of the subway.
As a resident of the Lower East Side, Ryder is walking his dogs before work — though he’s typically more of a runner at the pier.
“I come here often,” Ryder told me. “My run usually starts on this pier and then goes all the way to Manhattan and back.”
Ryder enjoys watching the Brooklyn Skyline from the pier over the years. “I like the view of Brooklyn a lot, the skyline has grown considerably — I used to live by Seaport. Now I live in Lower East Side.”
According to him, the Skyline is unique. “It’s New York City so there’s nothing like that,” Ryder said. “The view of the Brooklyn Bridge is very scenic, and I like being by the water.”
My experience walking along the NYC piers has brought me a sense of peace and happiness that some people in New York feel as well. Universally, humans are drawn to water, as Wallace J. Nicholas outlines in his book “Blue Mind.” He states that everyone has a blue mind— “a chance to escape the hyper-connected, over-stimulated state of modern day life, in favor of a rare moment of solitude.” So, the next time you want to take a break from city of New York, head to the pier.