FEW Brooklynites prefer to admit it but Brooklyn is indeed the western end of Long Island. Long Island University still acknowledges this, but the Long Island Historical Society long ago…

A program cooked up by the Department of Transportation in 2011 to alert the public that walking into traffic isn’t a smart move. It’s called “Curbside Haiku” and features twelve…

WHILE edging down Hudson Street In October 2021 I once again passed Golden Rule Liquors at #457 with its pair of neon sidewalk signs, one above the door, one suspended…

YOU can’t tell by the Forgotten New York website design in which red and white dominate, but in actuality, black and yellow is my favorite color combination even though I…

“I know what I am, I’m glad I’m a man, and so’s Lola,” Ray Davies of the Kinks once sang. It’s good to know what you are. I’m not a…

I was recently sent this image of a Fteley / Watson Avenues sign from the Soundview Bronx neighborhood. These navy and white signs were employed in Manhattan and the Bronx…

I cannot tell you if Al Horn Baking Equipment, a wholesaler in the Westchester Square area, is still in business. I can tell you that the ghosts of its plastic…

In September 2021 I was making my unsteady and furtive way down 34th Avenue from Woodside to Jackson Heights when I spotted this extra-large 69th Street sign. Hard to see…

As a rule, I am a passing observer on the daily scene. I don’t discuss politics either here or on social media, as my opinions will infuriate everyone, and today,…

As Midtown commuters know, Penn Station has been a complete morass of construction, at least for Long Island Rail Road customers, as the Metropolitan Transportation Authority is expanding the main…

YOU can observe a lot just by looking, as Yogi Berra used to say. For example, here’s a handsome brick building on Washington and st. Mark’s Avenues at the edge…

THERE was a time, specifically back in the 1960s, when tiny signs like this, at 39th Street and 8th Avenue, were all you had to indicate a bus route as…