You are currently browsing the stories about the SoHo neighborhood

Looking for John Belushi 

by 08/07/2022
Neighborhood: Bowery, SoHo, Tribeca, Union Square

It may be ever-present, this sense that we are teetering on the edge of apocalypse, but these days it seems the custodians of volatile and otherwise crazy behavior are on a whole new level. I won’t pretend that when I was in my 30s and running around on weekend nights with my friends that we […]

The Literary Life

by 02/20/2022
Neighborhood: Lower Manhattan, SoHo

The Literary Life: NYC 1982 I recall distinctly The famous author Standing over me As I scraped the plaster Off her bathroom floor Left behind by Workers renovating The building The first time I talked to her She called me up To express her Indignation About the bathroom I felt I’d done Something wrong Like […]

The Grindstone

by 08/12/2018
Neighborhood: Fort Greene, SoHo

I was two weeks old the night we met in SoHo and you showed me how the world works. Back then, I still couldn’t sleep through the night. I’d lie face-up on the bed I’d bought from the last roommate, listening to the traffic on the BQE a block away. The cars whooshed all night […]

City Frog

by 02/19/2017
Neighborhood: Manhattan, SoHo

It was night when we heard it, the air cold and chalky. We were returning home from a dinner party. Being around other couples had made us pleased with each other, our hands clasped inside his coat pocket. We moved to the sound and saw a tiny frog perched on a pile of discarded palm fronds on […]

The Dress

by 06/18/2013
Neighborhood: All Over, Greenwich Village, SoHo, West Village

For thirty-five years its posture has been folded into a deep curtsy, dormant over a hanger, as if waiting for a curtain call. After that one moment in the spotlight, it’s never been worn again. Unless we consider fleeting fantasies of varying scenarios I’ve had over the decades that flash-forwarded to, well, the age I […]

New York Is Oakland

by 09/08/2012
Neighborhood: Financial District, SoHo, Union Square, Zuccotti Park

Two days after the Occupy Oakland police raid, where an Iraq War vet was shot in the head with a police projectile and hundreds more were sprayed with tear gas while they were sleeping, I get a text from Denise as I’m wrapping up dinner with some friends at Teresa’s Diner in Brooklyn Heights: Show […]

The Puerto Rican Lockhorns Reunion

by 05/04/2008
Neighborhood: SoHo

I moved to New York City on Friday, August 19, 1994. After twenty-one years in South Jersey and four more in Philadelphia, a move to New York seemed to be the most momentous event of my life. As I hooked my gypsy rental van around the Turnpike to face the skyline, even the cars’ lights […]

Jeremy the Liar

by 11/04/2007
Neighborhood: SoHo

“No, it should be to your left,” I whispered into my cell, trying not to disrupt the hushed conversations of the infatuated couples around me. Jeremy couldn’t find the bar, it was tucked away upstairs from a bakery, so I guided him to it over the phone. With each direction I spouted out, I grew […]

My Technicolor Dreamcoat

by 12/31/2006
Neighborhood: SoHo

When you buy a secondhand coat, you never really know what you’re getting into. The lining was a little ripped but something about this vintage coat spoke to me, though I couldn’t tell you what. This coat, with its uncelebrated designer, I found at Legacy on Thompson Street in SoHo. It is fitted on top, […]

Mr. Beller’s Neighborhood’s Greatest Hits: A Truncated Retrospective

by The Editors 06/09/2006
Neighborhood: Multiple, SoHo

Hello. The 6th Anniversary of Mr. Beller’s Neighborhood is here, and the time has come to pay tribute to the site’s past. So many pieces are coming in all the time, piling up on the surface of the site, that it’s easy to forget how much terrific work has accumulated in the deeper layers of […]

Mole Person

by 04/13/2006
Neighborhood: SoHo

On my way down the steps I was stuck behind a man with a cane, so I missed the D train. In my head I said, “Curses,” then clarified out loud, “Not you,” to the guy with the cane. He had enough problems. I didn’t think the next train would be long, though, because it […]

Sullivan Street News

by 03/30/2005
Neighborhood: SoHo

  I sent a valentine to Richie but the mailman brought it back. I have sent valentines to Richie every year since 1985, but I knew this day eventually would come: the valentine would be there, but Richie would be gone. Richie ran the news and candy shop on Sullivan Street in SoHo, just a […]