FREE MAP (if you can get your hands on one): NYC's best map

Doncha hate maps that ...

a) Tear along the creases, especially when flapping about on a windy street corner, and gets soggy when wet.
b) Omits streets. I'm sorry, a useful map has to have EVERY STREET marked to be called a map.
c) Is super detailed in some respects, but not others.
d) Folds stupidly, like a bowl of fruit, or so you mangle trying to fit in your pocket/on your bike handlebar clip

I discovered what I consider York's best map - all things considered being a freebie, assuming you can get your hands on one. It's by a company who craftily call themselves NYTAB.COM - New York Travel Advisory Bureau, sounding as government-sanctioned as "Department of the Interior". In fact it's a private venture that, for the sin of such a ballsy moniker, redeems itself by giving the goods away free, even providing nice downloads on their site.

The map is a simple, envelope-sized concertina shape with subway lines crystal clear. It names every street. The best feature is you can fold to precisely the area you're traveling in and flip it a page forward or back, one at a time as you go up or downtown. No massive unfolding or refolding. Much noted by a design-efficiency nazi like yours truly.

Admittedly, the paper stock is just a simple semigloss, so I got mine laminated at Staples for $5. It was worth it. Now it's ballistic.

I would love arrows to indicate if a street is one-way, and have the bike lanes superimposed too, but that's the cyclist in me.

And yes, the print might be a leeeeetle small for some.

And if they could somehow incorporate the elusive restroom circuit without the map becoming busy ... well ...

But all things considered, it's been my saving grace when out boulevardeering, as my entrenched NYer friend calls it.

Entranced by this map, I tracked down one of the owners, Jim Sorrell and met him at his favorite coffee nook in the South St Seaport.

"It's actually a map for concierges at hotels," he explained.

Yes, it does indeed have the usual ugly tourism ads on one panel - Jim does need to eat kobe beef once in a blue moon - but they are carefully placed to not overwhelm the map itself. And apparently, the ads really sell, says Jim.

"Amazingly successful, we have a waiting list for space."

Of course, concierges are wined and dined once a year to make sure they keep handing out the map, but since it's so useful it deserves to be supported.

Go track one down now, I expect to have mine in the orange pocket of my Traffic Cone Bag for many years to come. They're not building new streets in Manhattan any time soon. Now if they would just do one that goes up past 135th street to the very tip ...