You are currently browsing the stories about the All Over neighborhood
Random Encounters Underground
by Train Operator X 11/10/2019Neighborhood: Subway
Flushing Ave. on the M The train stops and the doors open, except one door panel is cut out (locked closed, to prevent it from opening). A tall, skinny, black dude on the platform tries to board the train and, wham! He walks right into the closed panel. He steps back and catches his breath. “Whoa…,” just […]
The Bloody Stranger
by Donna Bailey 01/27/2019Neighborhood: Midtown, Subway
I moved to this city from Akron, Ohio in August 1971, and by the Summer of 1972, I was starting to wonder if I could actually make it here. I wasn’t earning enough to have my own apartment and still found the pace of the city overwhelming. I was certainly not going to head back home, […]
Bullet Train: Testimony and Confession
by Leland Pitts-Gonzalez 07/08/2018Neighborhood: Port Authority, Subway
On the evening of April 17, I was waiting for the train like always, far enough away from the edge—standing sideways to brace myself from that wildebeest who might push me onto the tracks. I waited and looked for the train to arrive, as if staring would make it come faster. It never works. We […]
Call for Submissions
by Alisson Wood 02/12/2017Neighborhood: All Over, News
We want to read your true New York City stories. We are interested in a wide variety of topics, including those involving deli meat, baby powder, and graffiti. We’re looking for essays that go beyond a quirky anecdote or a beautiful vignette. Tell us why this story—and this city—matters to you. Past truth-tellers have included Michael Cunningham, Tom Beller, Bryan […]
Underground Analysis
by Dan Baum 02/08/2016Neighborhood: All Over
On the subway Thursday morning, a man sat beside me, with his wife or girlfriend (no ring) standing over him. He was about 35, with long wavy hair pulled into pony tail, and a scraggly beard — kind of a 21st-century beatnik look. She was done up like a character from My Cousin Vinny — […]
My Damn Love Affair
by Gloria Zimmerman 01/18/2016Neighborhood: All Over, Uncategorized, Upper West Side
The New York of the 80’s was not a town that met you halfway. It stopped well short of that, just looking right through you. It really didn’t give a damn what happened to you, daring you to ride the subway late at night and then picking your pocket and laughing about it afterwards. It […]
The Empire State Building Loves Me
by Alexa Brahme 09/13/2015Neighborhood: All Over, Central Park, Midtown, Union Square
The day before my birthday was beautiful. It was one of those clear summer days in New York that somehow evades the typical humidity and the sun’s unbearable heat. Instead of roasting everything beneath it, the sun proudly showcased New York’s beauty. The pink and purple flowers on the High Line unfurled themselves towards the […]
With You Without
by Abigail Frankfurt 07/08/2015Neighborhood: All Over
I am writing this on the laptop you stole from me. Remember? No of course you don’t. What an asshole you were! I had gone back to New York to visit my father at Mount Sinai Hospital’s Head Trauma Unit (he had fallen and bashed his brains in on the way to see Sondheim and […]
52 Places to Go in 2015: Bum-Fuck Middle of Nowhere
by Johanna Mayer 05/28/2015Neighborhood: All Over
The week before I pried myself away from New York and moved to Japan to teach English, the New Yorker carried a tourism advertisement for the rural island where I’d be heading: “For travelers who have seen and experienced Tokyo, Kyoto, and other hot spots in Japan, and who are inclined to venture off the […]
Jews Playing Basketball
by Jacob Margolies 11/06/2014Neighborhood: All Over, Bronx, Brooklyn, Lower East Side
New Yorkers of a certain age who dig hoops can tell you that there is a lot of Jewish DNA in the city game. Basketball was invented in 1891 by James Naismith, an instructor at a YMCA in Springfield, Massachusetts, but the game’s popularity really took off early in the 20th century in the settlement […]
The River, the Floating Lanterns and the White Balloons
by Christine Nieland 10/16/2014Neighborhood: All Over, Financial District, Tribeca, West Village
Friday, September 9, 2011. My friend and neighbor Judy the Therapist and I ponder the upcoming 10th anniversary of the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks. On that terrible day, Judy and a young couple from my building had just picked up the morning paper at a news stand around the corner; they saw the […]
Vesuvius Ave.
by Samuel Howard 05/08/2014Neighborhood: All Over, Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, Staten Island
May and the city rejoices in spring, in light and color, in the sheer goodness of life and its improvements. Spring shows us that things do indeed get better; it’s not all decline — old buildings sparkle, trees quiver in green, mundane streets are remade as pageants. However, let’s not get carried away. Sure, it’s […]