You are currently browsing the stories about the All Over neighborhood
Apparition
by Kate Neuman 08/15/2021Neighborhood: Manhattan, Subway
Last month on the subway, somewhere near the Rockefeller Center / 47th-50th Street stop, I looked up from my phone and saw, across the aisle in the mirror seat of mine, a woman, maybe in her late 60s, whose style was startlingly close to my stepmother’s. She had the same short, tousled haircut—although her hair was […]
Next Stop the Twilight Zone
by Kelly Kreth 02/28/2021Neighborhood: Subway, Upper East Side
One afternoon this summer I was on the subway. All was normal. Well, except that we are in a pandemic, which makes venturing down into NYC’s netherworld — one with poor ventilation and tons of non-mask wearers – feel like I am putting my life in my overly sanitized hands. It all seemed surreal. The […]
A New York State of Mind
by Natasha Persaud 01/31/2021Neighborhood: Manhattan, Subway
When you sit down on a weather-worn bench in New York—one that is dry and bone colored—it feels like you’ve stepped out of your body. You’ve left a building, a crowded café, stepped off of an accordion bus, or out of a bodega. It’s a pause where you take a cigarette break even though you […]
Still Standing
by Neil Stein 01/05/2020Neighborhood: Park Slope, Subway
It was not so long ago that I would ordinarily drive into Manhattan from my home in Park Slope. However, I had a rule that I wouldn’t take my car to anywhere above 23rd Street. About five years ago, because of an increase in traffic, I moved my boundary to 14th Street. But recently, things […]
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 […]