A recent topic thread in Subchat, the subway blog, made me revisit one of FNY’s long-cherished talismans, the remainders of the old Long Island Rail Road’s “Evergreen” branch, which was a one-track…

When the topic about Brooklyn’s longest streets comes up (and admittedly, that’s once in a blue moon) Flatbush, Atlantic, Bedford Avenues and Fulton Street come up most often. But there are…

I haven’t dealt much with 9/11/01 on Forgotten NY. The reasons for this are many. Whatever a lone weblog developer scribbling away in Little Neck says will ultimately mean little.…

The Beekman Tower, at 1st Avenue and Mitchell Place, is one of NYC’s first, and best, examples of Art Deco architecture. It was designed by John Mead Howells, an architect who…

By 2008 the only real link I had to my home town, Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, is my dentist. I have been treated at the same practice, with two different dentists,…

Recent trips through Staten Island and Queens have reminded me that there are areas of the city, the five boroughs, that may as well be anywhere else — they have nothing…

Your webmaster intends to break new ground in FNY — or, rather, cover new ground in 2009 (check back in December to see if I did!). Staten Island and the Bronx…

Many years ago Donald Fagen of Steely Dan indicated that he wouldn’t be going back to his old school (Bard College in upstate NY). I rarely go back to any of…

Sometimes, NYC history can be preserved in the unlikeliest of ways and in the most unusual places. Take a large mural along East 15th Street in the shadow of the BMT…

I was in Forest Hills/Rego Park the other day (January 2009), 108th Street and 69th Road to be precise, when I vaguely remembered I had found a classic flute-bottomed, olive-colored stoplight…

In early 2009, in a real estate environment that has seen home prices and rents drop precipitously and sales slow to a crawl, battle to maintain New York City’s character is…

I suspect Coney Island will weather its current difficulties. It always seems to. Recent developments, however, have put several Coney Island aficionados in deep despair. To recap, quite sketchily, developer Joseph…