Cruising in New York: the Ramble, Riis Beach, and Fire Island
A woodland in Central Park, a Rockaway beach with a long memory, and a summer path on Fire Island. None of them are what 1965 guides promised.
New York’s outdoor places are historic first and convenient second. Public sexual activity is illegal in the state. Go for an accurate picture, not for a fantasy of an unsupervised park.
Central Park
The Ramble is the 36-acre woodland between the 66th and 79th Street transverses. It was the city’s best-known outdoor ground for decades, documented by historians and by the NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project. It is also full of birders, and the NYPD is not a rumour. Use it as a walk you can explain.
The Rockaways
Jacob Riis Park, Bay 1, on the eastern end of the beach, has been the gay stretch since the 1940s. Reach it by the Q35 or Q22, or over the Marine Parkway Bridge. It sits in Gateway National Recreation Area. Erosion has closed the swimming beach before; check the NPS alert the day you go. Nudity is not legal there.
Fire Island
The Meat Rack is the wooded tract between Cherry Grove and the Pines, officially the Judy Garland Memorial Pathway. Ferry from Sayville, then walk. Summer weekends and party weeks are the season. Bring repellent. There are no cars and no winter scene.
The New York, Queens, and Fire Island pages list whatever else is published nearby.
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