You are currently browsing the stories about the Astoria neighborhood
Everyone’s Glass Onion
by Abigail Frankfurt 11/26/2009Neighborhood: Astoria, Queens
There is something unsettling about having a therapy session at the home of your therapist. It is on par with a Halloween night of childhood trick or treating and having to step through the threshold of a nameless neighbor’s doorway for handful of candy corn or tootsie rolls. Your seven-year-old nose inhales a waft of [...]
Supporting Mick Jagger’s Habit
by Mickey Z. 03/31/2008Neighborhood: Astoria, Queens
In the glory days of Steinway Street, there was an establishment called Record Spectacular. A combination record store/head shop, it was located between 30th and 31st Avenues, on the west side of the street…and was a meeting place of sorts for music aficionados, potheads, and other 1970s misfits. I still remember walking wide-eyed into Record [...]
Dom’s Wife
by Mickey Z. 11/24/2006Neighborhood: Astoria, Queens
When you live in an apartment building, you never know who the hell is gonna move in next door. I remember being in my late teens when a Greek family moved out two doors down and an older couple took the apartment. The guy’s name was Dom and he fixed televisions for a living. A [...]
Power (Outage) to the People
by Mickey Z. 07/27/2006Neighborhood: Astoria, Queens
I slept on my fire escape one night last week but it wasn’t due to martial strife or a daredevil spirit. Rather, the sight of yours truly three flights up sporting boxer shorts and a death grip on the bars came courtesy of Con Edison (with a nod to Mayor Bloomberg). The lights first dimmed [...]
Waiting to be Deciphered
by Alex 04/20/2006Neighborhood: Astoria, Queens
On the way to the laundromat I passed a message chalked out on the sidewalk. In large, neat block letters on a square of pavement it read: “The best part about the night was taking the train home with you.” The note seemed to be directed at the building across the street, but looking up [...]
Schooling at 204 Center
by Mickey Z. 01/12/2006Neighborhood: Astoria, Queens
Basketball has always been my favorite sport to play. I guess that came from living in an urban environment and not always having money. If you had anywhere from 2 to 10 guys, all you needed was one ball and at least one basket. It was a little more complicated in the winter. Fortunately, a [...]
Seeing Socrates
by Zack Pelta-Heller 11/10/2005Neighborhood: Astoria, Queens
Wanting to see the new exhibits at Socrates Sculpture Park, I walked down Broadway from my Astoria apartment. I passed beneath the elevated subway station as an N or W train thundered through. Down past grungy supermarkets and massive discount stores, with their outdoor displays of toilet paper, sandals, fake Persian rugs, and baskets of [...]
Monkey Bars For a Jail
by Hal Sirowitz 11/03/2005Neighborhood: Astoria, Queens
Whenever I took my second grade special education class to the playground, they’d make a mad dash for the swings. Though, the winners would seldom swing. They would spin in circles by twisting the chains. I’d warn them about becoming dizzy, but dizziness gave them an excuse after their turn was over to stumble into [...]
Must Love Brooklyn
by Tara McCarthy Altebrando 11/01/2005Neighborhood: Astoria, Queens
Before I met my husband my one true love was Brooklyn. I’d been living in Carroll Gardens for almost ten years and had watched it turn from a neighborhood I didn’t want to live in (un-cool) to a neighborhood I adored (pretty cool) to a neighborhood I sort of didn’t want to live in (so [...]
Pete’s Gun
by Mickey Z. 02/27/2005Neighborhood: Astoria, Queens
Even though I’ve trained myself in hand-to-hand combat, I’ve never been eager to fight and I always surprise myself if I do something brave in that area. One of my proudest moments came when I was about 18. My friend Angelo was dating a girl Gina who had been seeing this other guy from another [...]
Confessions of an Accidental Voyeur
by Mickey Z. 05/26/2004Neighborhood: Astoria, Queens
I was sitting in the front seat of Frank’s Cadillac Seville when he pulled out of a parking space and whipped into a u-turn without looking. We both saw the approaching headlights too late…and yeah, we got hit. In those pre-seat belt law days, my left hand reached out to the glove compartment to brace [...]
Loveseats & Sex Crimes
by Maura Kelly 02/18/2004Neighborhood: Astoria, Queens
“Let’s see. A sexual assault … in the third degree,” Officer D. of the 114th Precinct in Queens said as he looked down at the paper in front of him, searched for, found and marked the two correct boxes. “Sorry this is taking so long,” he said, glancing up at me with a friendly smile. [...]
