Continued from Part 1 I feel varying amounts of home in whatever neighborhood I find myself in in New York City. But there are some in which I feel more…

A look at any picture book of old Brooklyn will show you that Fulton Street from about 1850 all the way to about 1950 was the pre-eminent street of the…

Is there anyplace more inviting than a classic railroad-car diner? It’s a matter of taste of course, in more ways than one. I’d eat in one every day, but my cholesterol…

FALCONRY is the art of training birds of prey to catch game (in which they are instinctually adept) and bring them back to the trainer, or falconer. Small game such…

SITUATED at a bend on Hillside Avenue on the border of Jamaica Hills is a hidden war memorial that wasn’t always as clandestinely placed as it is today. On a…

OAK Street is just one of Greenpoint’s “alphabetical” streets, that begin with Ash and end with Quay; the L street’s place is taken by Greenpoint Avenue and the P by…

GRAVESEND Neck Road was once a major east-west artery in Gravesend and Sheepshead Bay in the days of carts and wagons. “Neck Road” as it’s called by locals and the MTA…

A few Fourths of July ago I took the #4 train to the end of the line at Jerome and Bainbridge Avenues to Woodlawn Cemetery. (A couple of years later,…

THERE are two monuments to famed 19th Century preacher Henry Ward Beecher (1813-1887) in the Boro Hall — Brooklyn Heights area, the one seen here and one at Beecher’s church,…

SYLVAN” is an adjective that means “woodsy” or “like a forest” and there are three uptown alleys named “Sylvan”: Sylvan Court and Sylvan Place, which are on East 121st Street…

In 2019 Louie & Ernie’s Pizzeria celebrated 60 years in the business at Crosby and Waterbury Avenues. Founder Ernie Ottuso was honored by having the intersection named for him several…

No, this isn’t a recent picture. I got it in 1999 or 2000 at Richmond Valley Road at Madsen Avenue in the south end of Staten Island, years before the…