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…
Astoria
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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.…
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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,…
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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…
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There’s been a lot of news about the subways and transportation in New York City lately, most of it about the deteriorating infrastructure in the more-than-century-old system. Extensive re-routings, rush-hour…