Astoria

Remember when there could be large gatherings of facemask-free people for purely recreational purposes with no guilt trips? I know, the memory is fading. I remember them, though. I regretted…

I have been thinking lately of all the places I have been to once, and only once, since I began work on Forgotten New York in 1998. I will try…

There are plenty of Dutch place names around town … Spuyten Duyvil, Knickerbocker, Onderdonk, and just about every name with a “Van” in front of it from Van Buren to…

Restricted by the Covid crisis, or the Great Infection, In May and June, only camera foraging I did was in the neighborhoods surrounding my home in Little Neck, so that…

Grand Avenue Pizza is not on Grand Avenue but it is on an avenue that used to be Grand. I’ll explain in a minute. Today I got out of the…

While scrolling around Facebook lately, I stumbled on a bit of Astoria history that is hiding on Newtown Road, blocks away from the place where it was originally constructed. I…

From May to December 2019 I had a high-paying (by my standards) but perplexing job at a Very Small Design Firm a couple of blocks from Columbus Circle. I was…

The ethnic group Astoria has been traditionally known for is that of Greek immigrants, but there are also pockets from other European countries such as Spain. One gathering point for…

I’ve written about this fascinating mosaic sign at the Hunters Point Avenue #7 train station before, but it bears repeating. In the good old days, there was more than one…

I have always considered the massive concrete arches that lift railroad tracks to the Hell Gate Bridge over the streets of northwest Astoria almost as imposing as the arch bridge itself.…

Back in Astoria again — or rather, its northwestern end, which is also called Ditmars, named for the boulevard that bisects it and takes the place of 22nd Avenue (coincidentally,…

Well-worn territory for sure, but from November to February I did a fair bit of walking around in Astoria, especially in its northern stretch. This week, I wanted to do…