I am sorry that you had such a negative experience here the last time you visited, AP. Living here, I certainly have some negative experiences also, but, for the most part, NYers are good people, just uninformed and naive politically.
The Collect Pond was located a bit north of Wall St., just below Canal St (hence the name). Manhattan before development was a beautiful little island with soft rolling hills, outcroppings of rock, streams and woodlands. Oh how it's changed...
All we did was barhop. But the idea of "Don't look at anyone" was disconcerting. It's not a place for someone who is claustrophobic. But that was in the late 80's. I heard Rudy cleaned it up quite a bit.
Looking at NYC from NJ was pretty impressive.