On a May visit to Bay Ridge (to the dentist no less) I walked Fifth Avenue for the first time in a while, and spotted quite a number of store signs…

St. George, Staten Island is an oasis of urbanity in a borough that, until about 25 years ago, was largely rural and has today transformed into teh worst aspects of suburb-anity,…

The fraternal organization Order of the Knights of Pythiaswas instituted in 1864 by Justus H. Rathbone and was actually the first such organization to be granted a charter by the…

6th Avenue in the Greeley Square area…from 29th north to 33rd… is undergoing change extremely rapid even by NYC standards, as structures from the early to mid 20th Century are…

It’s widely known — at least to Queens history buffs, at any rate — that beginning in 1915 and continuing gradually over the next 15 years or so, Queens jettisoned its…

On a recent ramble through my adopted home town, Little Neck, Queens I discovered an element peculiar to NYC’s more suburban locales: the grassy central median, or as they say in England, “roundabout.”…

Putting a temporary end to my Bronx slump (from summer 2007 through June 2008 and counting, I’ve only been in the Bronx about 3 or 4 times) I made a quick…

Once a year the burghers of Brooklyn in the Prospect Park South, Ditmas Park, Fiske Terrace, Midwood Park, and Beverl(e)y Squares East and West neighborhoods open their doors to allow the…

It’s never hip or cool to be a nostalgist. I’ve always been a nostalgist, and have never cared about being hip. I return to Bay Ridge frequently. But when I lived…

Coney Island Avenue is among Brooklyn’s lengthiest routes, extending from Ocean Parkway and Parkside Avenue where Prospect Park meets the Parade Grounds and runs generally straight south all the way…

FNY has spent too little time in the Bronx over the years — without making excuses, it’s a ways from Flushing and Little Neck. I do have a backlog of…

What you see here is Bay Ridge’s main drag…for most of the 19th Century, that is. Stewart Avenue (it likely takes that name from a landowner along its route) once…