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The Job of the Forcible Entry Team
by Thomas R. Ziegler 02/06/2006Neighborhood: Bronx, Outer Boroughs
Autumn has arrived and the cooler air has dampened but not ended the fires of this years “Summer Offensive.” Somewhere the trees are changing color but here in Hunts Point it has been one of those days. We’ve already caught more work on this day tour than any company outside the ghetto will see in [...]
The World of Darkness
by Jill Dearman 01/19/2006Neighborhood: Bronx, Outer Boroughs
Heath Avenue. I recognized the building right away. Public housing always stands out from all other domiciles. It looms, and, like a tall man, commands your attention. But when you look up, expecting to see his face, you see a blank outline, no distinguishing features. No nose. No mouth. No eyes. We parked on the [...]
It Followed Me Home
by Thomas R. Ziegler 01/12/2006Neighborhood: Bronx, Outer Boroughs
Oh man, he’s going to die! I live 100 feet from Interstate 95 and from my living room window have an unobstructed view of this sea of vehicles. Having lived here many years the sounds of impending trouble are familiar. So when the horns started blaring it was a cue to look out the window [...]
Christ Zig, what did you do?
by Thomas R. Ziegler 12/22/2005Neighborhood: Bronx, Outer Boroughs
Christ Zig, what did you do? Whenever I’m asked if the fire department had an effect on my personal life, those six words explode into my brain. It’s a beautiful summer Sunday afternoon in 1977 at the Bronx zoo with my wife and three kids. The kids are riding a camel and shouting what all [...]
Post Oaks in Pelham Bay Park
by Bram Gunther 09/27/2004Neighborhood: Bronx
We were looking for the old oak trees, the ones rumored to be down by the shoreline. The day was already sweat-lodge hot, at 8 a.m., the seagulls circling lazily in the morning light. We stood in the parking lot, plotting our route; the sweat boiled up under our long sleeved shirts and long pants—protection [...]
Bucket Boy
by Matthew Roberts 03/09/2004Neighborhood: Bronx
1201 University Ave in the Bronx is no place to live. The front door, lockless and crooked on its hinges, wouldn’t bar entry to dogs, rapists or the media. Austin Fenner, a reporter and a friend of mine, arrived there before me. We began patrolling the building together, staying away from the bucket boy’s apartment [...]
Co-Op City Blues
by Victor A. Jouvert 01/02/2003Neighborhood: All Over, Bronx
At the time I was working at Brooklyn Academy of Music (still am, actually). I was 26 and living with my now ex-wife in the Bronx, in a place called Co-Op City. Co-Op City is a place just like all the other “Co-Op Cities”; a bunch of highrise type buildings built outside of the “ghetto” [...]
The Spirit of Scandinavia
by Lauren Grodstein 11/24/2002Neighborhood: Bronx
Ask Bronx resident Keshauna Sanders, 12, what the most remarkable thing about Finland is and she’ll tell you: it’s the pizza. “They put ham on it!” she says. “And pineapple!” Her classmate Priscilla Mercedes concurs. “The food is real weird there,” she says. “But the people are so sweet. When you’re in Finland, you get [...]
War Games in Van Cortlandt Park
by Bram Gunther 11/15/2002Neighborhood: Bronx
I was waiting at the doorstep of the Ranger station in Van Cortlandt Park, the Bronx. I had been an Urban Park Ranger for about three months now, and this was going to be my first tour of the Croton Aqueduct Trail. I was leading the tour with my fellow Ranger, Rich, who was a [...]
What mean ‘Yo’?
by Debbie Nathan 09/08/2002Neighborhood: Bronx
When I first working as ESL teacher twenty year ago I was be a little nervious. In that time I am more young than now, and when I turn around to writing at blackboard, I am think the students looking at my ass. But that a long time ago. Now my ass she is nothing [...]
Bronx Swans
by Bram Gunther 02/17/2002Neighborhood: All Over, Bronx
The John Kieran Trail in Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx is cut through sturdy black locust and black cherry trees, their crowns bending the day’s sunlight. As it veers towards the water, the trail mixes with wet mossy woods with willow branches hanging over the path like Rapunzel’s hair, patches of skunk cabbage and [...]
Its Own Country
by Manny Howard 02/05/2002Neighborhood: Bronx, Outer Boroughs
A sloppy silver and rose sunset is visible over the bunker-like structure of the Whitestone Lanes bowling alley, whose sign says: PLAY AMERICA’S GAME/75 LANES OPEN 24 HOURS 7 DAYS. Ahmadullah Raghbat, his uniform and sneakers in a polystyrene shopping bag, stands waiting for the bus. Raghbat is a young Afghani, and though he has [...]
