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Can’t Say No
by Maggie O'Connell 01/24/2012Neighborhood: Cobble Hill
You didn't say no. You never said no. You wouldn't even think of saying no. So, when he arrived at the door of my tenement apartment at 1AM, unexpected, unannounced, I didn't say no. I let him in, against all my instincts. "Hi. I was at the community center. We just finished working. We were [...]
The Clerk, the Librarian, the Hobbit and the Cop
by Christine Nieland 01/08/2012Neighborhood: Zuccotti Park
“This,” I realized, “I’ve got to see." In and out of grass-roots politics my entire adult life, I’ve marched, demonstrated, phone-banked, written letters and e-mails, signed petitions, sold buttons, attended meetings, gone on the radio, made documentaries, and helped with organizational duties. Early this October, I had joined in one Occupy demonstration in Washington [...]
Looking For Lady Gaga
by Josh Gilbert 01/04/2012Neighborhood: Featured, Midtown
A Barney's window display of Lady Gaga's work has legendary multi-media performance artist Colette's notorious creations written all over it. Colette, whose seminal performance art and multi-media installations originated out of New York City's vibrant art scene in the 1970's has traveled to museums and galleries all over the world; including the Guggenheim; MOMA; and [...]
The Singing of God Bless America By A Woman Condemned To Death
by JP Olsen 02/14/2011Neighborhood: Lower Manhattan
Throughout the 1950s Stan Novick was locked up at least four times in “The Tombs,” Manhattan’s now-closed city jail and holding cell on White Street. Pictures from that time show “The Tombs,” now torn down, as a Dickensian sort of place with looming towers and small windows. Photos of Stan Novick at that time show [...]
Postcard From New Orleans
by Thomas Beller 02/06/2010Neighborhood: Letter From Abroad
1. My first night back in New Orleans I get pulled over by a police car. It’s night at the edge of the French Quarter. 2. From amidst flashing blue lights, pierced by that one super bright lamp the cops shine into the car, a figure emerges. I am alone. 3. "I’m sorry," I say. [...]
The Check Thieves
by Tina Portelli 08/31/2007Neighborhood: Brooklyn, Carroll Gardens
In my downtown Brooklyn neighborhood were raised a breed of men who are check thieves. A rare breed of men who are slowly becoming extinct. Their turf is Court Street to Smith, Degraw Street to President. These are the sons of the older generation men, who would never let a woman pay for a check. [...]
Mayfair Boys Club & Barbershop
by Zachary Levin 08/31/2007Neighborhood: Clinton
If not for the classic red, white and blue rotating stripes on its barber poles, the Mayfair barbershop on 39th Street between Seventh and Eighth Avenues might go unnoticed among its garish neighbors. Fabric stores clutter the view, along with the other big business in the area: Porn. The sex shops and “XXX” theaters easily [...]
College Town
by Rebecca Chace 12/31/2006Neighborhood: Morningside Heights
I’m thinking about breaking the law. Not the law of the city and state of New York. The law of the neighborhood. I live in a college town. The boundaries of this town are roughly between 110th Street and 125th Street on the west side of Manhattan, though the holdings and minor fiefdoms extend well [...]
Blue on 14th Street
by Claudette Covey 12/31/2006Neighborhood: West Village
Blue never counts the raccoon coat in her estimate. By this time in 1984, t’s too old, even though from a distance it makes her look like a rich person. The coat, which falls to her ankles, is from the 1920s and was her grandfather’s. The inside label even spells out his name in baroque [...]
You’re Supposed to Make Mistakes
by Shawn Vandor 12/31/2006Neighborhood: West Village
“Just like a boxer in a title fight you’ve got to walk in that ring all alone You’re not the only one who’s made mistakes but they’re the only things that you can truly call your own” –Billy Joel I was looking at some apartments with my realtor, Harriet Loshin, just west of Union square, [...]
A Driver You Can Trust in Flatlands
by G. Madlyn 12/31/2006Neighborhood: Brooklyn, Flatbush
My parents and I live in a dangerous neighborhood. It started getting dicey in 1989 when my father got mugged. One night, a man put a gun to his head. My dad foolishly used a dangerous shortcut. It was an error he would not make twice. If my mother didn’t realize it before, she now [...]
The Enchanted Jury Summons
by Laren Stover 12/31/2006Neighborhood: Financial District
I had gotten a summons for jury duty. Or should I say yet another one. I was afraid of those tall, gloomy, impersonal Wall-Street-area buildings full of people in somber look-alike suits. Jury duty was some sort of gulag. Stripped of rights. Where was the joie de vivre? What about poetic justice? Besides, I wasn’t [...]
