You are currently viewing the stories for May, 2009
The Hidden Deal: Underground Poker in NYC
by JB McGeever 05/20/2009Neighborhood: Across the River, Queens
The story was supposed to begin here at an illegal poker hall in Queens called The River, but The River ran dry and I’m left staring at a blackened door with a mailbox next to it that says, FISH. It must have been a marker or tag for new players to locate the building. Fish […]
It Even Moves
by Roberta Allen 05/20/2009Neighborhood: Upper West Side
That morning in 1949 begins innocently enough in our one-room apartment in the Ansonia Hotel. I am four. My father gets out of bed and goes into the bathroom. I go over to the bathroom door. The keyhole is just the right height. Curious, I peer through it and see my father. I can hardly […]
Almost Feeding the Hungry
by Jeff Kyle, Jr. 05/20/2009Neighborhood: Midtown
I live in New Jersey. That means that I have been known to frequent Manhattan as a somewhat out of place and bemused bridge and tunneler. A friend of mine is a rising star in the New York music scene. (This means that she occasionally gets a free beer and sometimes she even gets paid!) […]
My Mother’s Garden
by Dorothy Spears 05/08/2009Neighborhood: Brooklyn, Brooklyn Heights
The author’s childhood home in Greenwich. (Photo by Alexis Rockman) Even after we all were married, with children of our own, my siblings and I would celebrate Mother’s Day in Greenwich. If the weather was good, we ate sandwiches with our mother and father on the porch, watching our children run together, and split apart, […]
The Duke of Rock
by peter nolan smith 05/08/2009Neighborhood: East Village
Tompkins Square Park had basketball courts. Full-court games were played close to Avenue B. Half-court was against the fences of the asphalt baseball field on Avenue A. Players were 50% neighborhood and 50% from the rest of the city. The quality of the competition was not up to West 4th Street or 125th Street, but […]
How I Got All of New York to Cheer For Me On My Morning Run
by Connor Gaudet 05/08/2009Neighborhood: All Over, From The Archives, Multiple
This past 2nd of November, I walked two blocks from my apartment to 4th Ave in Brooklyn to watch the 38th running of the New York City Marathon. However, rather than being inspired, I immediately felt jealous. The cheering crowd shouting the runner’s names and shared nationalities as they ran by giving a quick nod […]
My Semester With Ralph Ellison
by Hal Sirowitz 05/02/2009Neighborhood: Greenwich Village
In 1971 I took a class taught by Ralph Ellison, author of ‘The Invisible Man.’ It was my last year at the Washington Square Campus of New York University. In those days there was also a Bronx campus. Wannabe hippies, like me, went downtown. I was a little nervous about graduating, because most of the […]
Sex, Craigslist, and Murder
by Daphne 05/02/2009Neighborhood: All Over, Multiple
The Craigslist murder of Julissa Brisman has left me wondering about my own choices as well as those close to me. Brisman’s murder by alleged killer Philip Markoff is a scary fact of what can happen when using the Internet for dating or other activities. I’ve been an avid fan of online dating for years […]
Theft of Service
by Sam Axelrod 05/02/2009Neighborhood: Lower Manhattan
It was the third week of what was to become my first real job, at Irving Plaza, the club in Union Square. I was working three days a week after school, doing odd jobs around the venue. Basically whatever tedious tasks they needed me to do. I was a junior that year, and took the […]