I felt like getting out of town for awhile. Now, for some people that means a couple of weeks in Italy, or perhaps Vienna with a side trip to Macchu…

I think humanity is alone in the universe, which for me doesn’t cause anomie, just disappointment. At age 55 I already feel cheated that half of things are over with,…

For the most part, Manhattan and even most of the other NYC boroughs have eradicated their alleys. On an island, real estate is in short supply and there isn’t room…

Though standard Philadelphia street signs are green on white, 4-sided and trapezoidal with room at the top of the sign for the cross street, Philly has never been as fanatical…

In Boston, subway and surface lines are identified by color: red, blue, green and orange. Recently, an express bus system was implemented, known as the silver line. Lines can be…

Stamped-metal sign commemorating Andrew F. Hayes, who was killed during World War I, at Tremont and Parker Streets in Roxbury, Boston. I’ve become fascinated with these signs, which can be…

Walk past most police precincts in New York City, and you will notice that almost inevitably the entrances are lit by a pair of lamps mounted on each side of…

When Boston’s MBTA Green Line Arlington station in Back Bay was under renovation in 2006, one of its original mosaic signs was discovered. The sign was incorporated into the redesign,…

The Owls Head Sewage Treatment Plant, on the outskirts of beautiful Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, is accessible by roads from Bay Ridge Avenue (69th Street) and from the Belt Parkway. The…

One thing I’ve noticed while walking around Bayonne, Hoboken and Jersey City (I haven’t attempted Newark, Union City, Weehawken etc. yet) is that while you do see modern green and…

Willow Terrace, between Clinton Street, Willow Avenue and 6th and 7th Streets, looks much as it did in 1880 when it was constructed by the Stevens family (of Stevens Institute…

Great Neck, NY is just one town east of Little Neck, NY (my area) but it may as well be hundreds of miles away, as the two towns are quite…