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Of Ghouls and Gratitude
by Jade Sanchez-Ventura 10/30/2021Neighborhood: Park Slope
This time a year ago there was talk of canceling Halloween in New York. Though I am a parent of two children, I was unconcerned. Up until that point, Halloween had been a minor event on our family’s calendar. The parent listservs, however, were abuzz with ideas on how to make Halloween happen. The problem […]
Glory Days: Crown Heights, Brooklyn, 1948
by Norbert Weissberg 10/24/2021Neighborhood: Crown Heights
“We’ll have tables for each of your epochs,” Judy brimmed. “One for your elementary school friends, one for your high school friends, one for your college friends, one for your law school friends, and one for your now friends.” She was planning a 70th birthday party for me and was on a roll. “It’ll be such […]
The Fence on Madison Street
by Flo Gelo 09/05/2021Neighborhood: Williamsburg
On a blistering August afternoon in 2012, I visit my childhood neighborhood in Williamsburg after a 50-year absence and approach a teenage girl who sits on a wooden shipping crate in the front of a house on Madison Street. I’m standing in front of a wrought iron fence that forms a boundary between us. She […]
Abandoned Car
by Christian M. Martin 08/29/2021Neighborhood: Caroll Gardens
I’m a 54-year-old New Yorker who lives three blocks from the Brooklyn row house I grew up in. The last 18 months have brought a lot of changes to my neighborhood. Storefronts on Carroll Garden’s Smith Street are boarded up, the sidewalks are lined with restaurant lean-tos, and street parking is more unattainable than ever. […]
The Boys of Crown Heights
by Norbert Weissberg 08/08/2021Neighborhood: Crown Heights
Dr. Schpahl looked like a Nazi out of central casting. A thin mensur crawled down his right cheek, across his pock-marked face, to below his mouth. He spoke in clipped, accented barks, most of which were expressions of severe disappointment. That he was a Hebrew teacher and not a camp commandant may have been a […]
The Flaneuse’s Return
by Felicia Rose 04/25/2021Neighborhood: Kensington
Every now and again I find myself contemplating a suitable place for a desk. This may sound mundane, except that the home in these musings is not where I live. Even in reverie, this desk-placing endeavor is no easy feat. For while the contemplation serves as a daydream, the home—an apartment in Kensington, Brooklyn—actually exists. […]
Memories of an East New York Childhood
by Renee Shanker 04/18/2021Neighborhood: East New York
Boulevard Houses was built in 1950 and consists of eighteen buildings, six and fourteen stories high. Signs in grassy areas warned residents to “Keep Off.” Most people left their doors unlocked, so we could freely go from one apartment to another to chat, play games or borrow a needed item. My family did not […]
This is Jeopardy: Remembering Art and Alex
by Marissa Piesman 12/20/2020Neighborhood: Bronx, Park Slope, Rockefeller Center
Alex Trebek, who hosted Jeopardy for thirty-seven seasons, died on November 8th. My connection to him and the show was through Art Fleming, a prior host of the show, who got Alex the gig. Let me explain. As a child, I was quite the nerd. I could recite the U.S. presidents forward and backward at […]
Sublet on Thompson St
by Jennifer Marcus 11/15/2020Neighborhood: Caroll Gardens, West Village
A friend from high school told me about a sublet on Thompson Street. It was a perfect location for a student at NYU. Norman Fayne, a heavy man with stringy hair and wire-rimmed glasses, showed me the apartment on the second floor. It was the one just above the barbershop with the large, sun-faded […]
The Cemetery Exercist
by Vanessa Beatriz Golenia 11/01/2020Neighborhood: Brooklyn, Ridgewood
A cemetery was never a place I imagined myself doing squats. But in late March, when New York City shut down gyms and public parks and braced itself for a deadly COVID-19 outbreak, I found myself at the gates of Evergreens Cemetery in Queens, sporting black leggings and a pink hoodie, ready to sweat. Like […]
The Horseshoe Crab and the Rain Collector
by Stas Holodnak 10/04/2020Neighborhood: Brighton Beach
“If I had a dollar for every dead Subaru battery, I would be a millionaire”, the roadside assistance man tells me in a tone that is both wishful and annoyed. “Since Subaru started manufacturing their own batteries, people keep on calling. If it’s not recharged frequently, the battery will run out of juice, especially in […]
THE SUPREMES and Me
by Marissa Piesman 09/19/2020Neighborhood: Bronx, Brooklyn, Washington DC
Ordinarily, I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about the Supreme Court. I practiced law for forty years, reluctantly. But the news of Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death tonight has me very agitated. Ruth was a tough old bird, a borough girl. Like her sisters on the Court, Sonia and Elena. All three are borough […]