On a whim, I decided to walk the entire lengths of two Flushing roads for which I have always had some fascination, Station and Depot Roads in Flushing and Auburndale.…

The Astoria Elevated runs from Queensboro Plaza north to Ditmars Boulevard on 31st Street; it has been here since 1917, and was originally run in an unusual joint operation by…

Over on my Facebook page (you should try it — if you’re a Facebook subscriber, “friend me” — it’s 100% fun with no nastiness, politics and personal attacks) I occasionally…

Central Flatbush, clustered around Flatbush and Church Avenues, boasts a number of historic buildings in a relatively small area, similar to other originally Dutch Colonial NYC towns like Flushing and…

In Queens, Springfield Boulevard and Springfield Gardens are a bit misunderstood. The belief persists that the Springfields in these names originated from when Creedmoor State Hospital was a rifle range,…

Danish-born crusading journalist and photographer Jacob Riis (1849-1914) made his home in Richmond Hill, Queens, beginning in 1886. In 1887, Riis photographed the squalid, inhumane conditions prevalent in New York City’s…

I braved the ice floes in the first week of February 2021 and hit the 7 and G trains to the Broadway stop at Union Avenue. I had a desire…

The Yorkville Clock at 1501 3rd Avenue and East 85th Street has been here since 1898 — lasting an entire century and parts of two others. Like many other sidewalk clocks it originally…

Sergey’s recent piece on the Brooklyn Navy Yard reminded me of the street that I think has changed more than any other in New York City since the mid-20th Century.…

Andrzej Tadeusz Bonawentura Kościuszko isn’t the only Polish Revolutionary-era patriot honored with a bridge across Newtown Creek. Manhattan Avenue formerly connected with Vernon Avenue (now Boulevard) in Long Island City via a…

The intersection of 7th Avenue South and Christopher Street has existed only since the 1910s, when 7th Avenue was hammered south to connect 7th and Greenwich Avenues with Varick and…

Concrete Plant Park, built along the Bronx River between 2004 and 2009 for about 10 million dollars (much of which was spent in removing petroleum-tainted soil from the site), runs…