One evening in July I had just gotten out of the dentist in downtown Brooklyn — and I am going in and getting out of oral surgeons’ and dentists’ offices…

This sign reminded me of something: I do most of my Forgottening by myself,  though I do tours that have accommodated between 30 and 60 people. (I’m not much  use…

I have not allowed the debilitating heat and humidity of one of the hottest New York summers in years [2010] in this age of accursed global warming to keep me…

For decades I’ve been a map fan and a map collector — I have maps of all the major American cities, many of which I acquired in the 1970s, making most…

In June 2010 there was a near riot in the normally crowded, but placid South Street Seaport when a Canadian rapper called Drake (whether he is the next Jay-Z or…

Broadway runs north from Bowling Green and, under a variety of names, runs north in NY State almost all the way to the Canadian border. Other than a few other…

Despite having both its east and west ends chopped off in various bouts of urban renewal, Duane Street abides nicely. When it was first laid out around 1800, give or…

Continuing FNY’s Myrtle Avenue walk this week we rather abruptly cross into Queens and two relatively stable, peaceful neighborhoods, Ridgewood and Glendale. If you look at a map of Brooklyn…

I hadn’t walked a considerable length of Myrtle Avenue in Brooklyn since 1965. That year I distinctly remember some aspects of a walk my mother and I took down Myrtle,…

CONTINUED FROM PART 1 Today’s Myrtle Avenue walk extends from the leftover unused el section from Lewis Avenue east to the Madison Theatre, just past the point where the remaining…

Bank windows at Maspeth Federal Savings Bank at Grand Avenue and 69th Street are featuring the very first Newtown Historical Society exhibit, A Walk Down Flushing Avenue in 1929. The…

After reaching Graham Avenue after duly noting the Gothic Most Holy Trinity/St. Mary’s Church and its satellite buildings after proceeding south on Manhattan Avenue, I turned north up Graham. The…