In early June 2022 the weather cooperated absolutely fully for me to do a lengthy walk from Penn Station all the way to Columbia University, mainly along 9th and Columbus…

As a rule, painted signs that have been around for several years mark businesses that have long since departed, but in today’s case we have two painted signs close to…

ODDLY enough, both The Bronx and Queens have Rainey Parks, named for two separate Raineys. The Bronx Rainey Park, pictured here, is by far the newer one as it was…

As a kid, I was a parishioner at St. Anselm Church in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, named for an 11th-Century bishop originally from Burgundy in what is now Italy, but immigrated…

In Manhattan, there are a pair of “mystery poles” that continue to flummox and vex me, as no satisfactory identification of their purpose seems imminent. This one can be found…

BROOKLYN Heights can boast a number of dead end alleys, which are rare in New York City. In Brooklyn Heights, these alleys owe their continued existence to Henry Ford, the…

I don’t have too much to say about this 5-story walkup building at #105 Broad Street, corner of Water, in the Financial District except to say it’s unusual for the…

WHEN The Retrologist‘s Rolando Pujol posted this photo of a shop called “Hot Bagels” I recognized it immediately, as I had passed it for many years while slouching down 86th…

THIS ancient warrior has survived this long In Canarsie, so I don’t think I’m putting it in danger by featuring it here. Located on obscure Nolan’s Lane off East 96th…

IT’S been awhile, maybe a couple of years, since I’ve been in Mott Haven. I’ll admit, since the pandemic began and crime increased in 2020, discretion has been the better…

THERE was a time when Blimpie ruled the roost as far as fast food submarine sandwiches (known by a variety of names elsewhere in the country) in the New York…

THE central Queens neighborhood Fresh Meadows, known best for the eponymously-named extensive residential community centered at 188th Street and the Long Island Expressway that was constructed there between 1946 and 1949…