From the Daily News:Visting the Morningside Heights tomb of the 18th President just got better with the addition of a brand-new visitors center.
Overlook Pavilion in Riverside Park, across from the General Grant National Memorial, was recently revamped and now serves as an attraction for visitors.
It opened with a thunderous boom on what would have been Ulysses S. Grant's 189th birthday.
The pavilion, which overlooks the Hudson River, had been closed since the mid- 1970s due to the city's financial crisis. Nearly 40 years later, the exterior of the pavilion has been restored to how it looked when it opened in 1910. But the inside underwent a massive overhaul that now includes a bookstore, restrooms and a community meeting room.
Interesting that the News would omit an actual photo of the pavilion. Well, here it is:
(No signs indicating where the rumored restrooms, bookstore and community meeting room are...)
Here's the curb next to the pavilion:
When you cross the street back over to the tomb, you come across barricaded steps that are too fragile to walk up:
Here are shots of the slate sidewalk next to the tomb:
And here's where tourists enter:
You and I would be heavily fined if the sidewalks in front of our property were in this condition. Why restore a part of the monument but neglect the stairs and sidewalks? Aren't any of the pols who represent this area embarrassed by the conditions at Grant's Tomb? No ice cream money for the National Parks Service?
See previously, from 2007: Rolling over in his grave
