The subway may be a shithole, but it still is one of the greatest transit systems on the continent, and runs frequently enough where you don't need to check a schedule (unless it's like 2:00 AM, then I recommend checking a schedule because you might be waiting for a while).

If you're spending a day, I would try to plan it roughly around transit stops. Pick a few neighborhoods you want to see, maybe some restaurants / museums / whatever in them, hit a couple of them, then ride to the next neighborhood on your list. The grid nature of the city (at least, Manhattan) and numbered streets/avenues make it very easy to navigate and make judgements about the walking distance between places. The numbered streets run out in Downtown Manhattan though, along with the regular grid, and become names.

I don't go into the city very often, but "The Village" is a pretty cool neighborhood. It's the general area southeast of Washington Square and Union Square parks. This is where Webster Hall is located, and the former site off CBGB's, a notorious music club. There's a lot of restaurants and late night shenanigans in the area, especially around Saint Marks Place.

You probably already know but ra.co has a lot of parties posted. NYC probably has some other local crowd sourced site but I've never been

Figuring out the subway is complicated especially if it's a weekend (the weekends are when the MTA does construction and even ordinary commuters find it hard to keep up with service changes). To understand the subway, you first must understand that not all trains stop at all stations. Express trains are an amazing and unique part of the NYC subway but not all run in both directions at the same time. In Manhattan most express trains run in both directions at all times but in the boroughs many express trains use a third track for one-way peak hour service. This is a pretty decent map for understanding the city. Also be aware that services are much different at late nights, see if you can get a late night map for services after midnight.

If you got time to wander Brooklyn, my favorite haunt while I was in Bushwick area was "Rosie's Pizza Bar". Great pizza, fun people both behind the bar and sitting at it usually, and I found my favorite cocktail there (It's called the Amelia) and if I was ever back in New York I'd legit go there again. So if you'd like to go there, it's off the M line Central Ave/Myrtle Ave. There's also like a small anarchist coffee shop right by there too, think it's called "Till Death".

I enjoyed walking everywhere when I was in lower Manhattan. The south side of Central Park is super fucking touristy but the north-western part is a lot scenic. That shit felt super artificial to me since I'm from Alaska and that park was literally man-made, so it could be an eh experience. I enjoyed it purely because I took a nap next to a tiny waterfall and was left completely alone. I couldn't tell you shit about doing night life stuff, I was too much of a morning person to stay up late enough to actually go party.

Parfois Ornithology à brooklyn est ouvert jusqà 5h 6h du matin si tu aimes le jazz

E: and cheap cover/ no cover