You are currently viewing the stories for “May 2025.”
(This essay is adapted from a talk given by the author on May 28, 2025, at the Salgamundi Club at an event celebrating the 25th anniversary of Mr. Beller’s Neighborhood.) In 2012, I was in a bar with my friend John O’Connor. His 2024 book The Secret History of Bigfoot got some rave reviews. You should read it. Anyway, after [...]
New York is a city of extremes—extreme weather, extreme rent, extreme dreams, and just as often, extreme disappointment. As I wandered through the stories in Mr. Beller’s Neighborhood this week, I didn’t land on a clean takeaway like “hope” or “loss.” Instead, I found something messier and more human: a kind of nervous laughter that lingers after the punchline fades. Each [...]
Excursion #2: Public Bodies, Private Meetings In my second walk through the neighborhood, I was reminded that the personal and political don’t just collide in headlines. Sometimes they brush up against each other in a spa room, a Starbucks, or the shoulder of a stranger on the subway. This time, my excursion took me through three very different stories, all [...]
In the beginning, there was a man who preached on the streets of my Upper West Side, Manhattan neighborhood. He was a Black man—actually, coffee-bronze would be a better description of his color. When I first became aware of him, he appeared to be in his early sixties, though he might have been a little older. It was hard to [...]
This year is the 25th anniversary of Mr. Beller's Neighborhood. Our fantastic new intern Zoe Kalaw has been rummaging around the site and finding connections and stories that resonate. Over the next month, she will be offering her thoughts on what she has been reading as well as providing video reflections on our Instagram page. --------------------------------- Excursion #1: Between Polarization [...]
It’s a Friday night in 1994, and I’m with my friend Ann on our way to Veniero’s in the East Village. On most Fridays, we both waitress at a local Mexican restaurant, but we have this night off when our restaurant is shut down by the Department of Health because the ceiling over the smoking section is collapsing. At a [...]
