TAKE a look at the detailing on this lamp bracket found at Avenue L and East 99th Street in Canarsie. It once held a lightbulb surrounded by a conical orange…
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RED HOOK is usually fairly decent at preserving its relics (despite the lack of action by the Landmarks Preservation Commission), with the exception of the dry docks since replaced by…
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On the day after the 4th of July 2024 I made my only visit to Staten Island all year and puttered around the Stapleton area, specifically Van Duzer Street and…
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VICTORY Boulevard, one of Staten Island’s longest roads, has a history that goes back to a 19th Century US Vice President. The village of Tompkinsville, founded by a future Vice…
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THREE blocks of New Utrecht Avenue are uncovered by an elevated train. When riding the buses all over southern Brooklyn as a kid, I was on the B35 one day…
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In December 2023 I entered Brooklyn for the first time in what I estimate was three years, a borough I lived in for 35 years; Covid-19 and then a succession…
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A recent jaunt took me into Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, where I noticed that the set of pavement mosaics installed honoring the first and second Fairs were in worse shape than…
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NOT too many of Kings County’s or any other boroughs’ town halls remain. The history of Kings County’s towns is complicated… but the $2 history is: The county’s original towns were Brooklyn (today’s…
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As the trestle carrying the Culver Line elevated train (F), over Neptune Avenue, the Amalgamated Dr. James Peter Warbasse Houses loom up in the background. The co-op apartments were built by United Housing Foundation and the…
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MOST police precincts in NYC display two green lamps at the entrance. The tradition of green lights dates back to colonial times.

 According to the NYPD website, “It is believed…
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PLAIN, unadorned brick buildings, as Bernie Taupin/Elton John would put it, say so much. They are gradually disappearing around town, with those that haven’t been adapted for residential use are…
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QUESTION: When is a park not a park, but a street? Answer: When it’s Washington Park in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, the street at the east end of Fort Greene Park.…