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The Information Superhighway, Circa 1870
by Matthew Wills 06/03/2006Neighborhood: Chelsea
Right up until the time men started to stop wearing hats, the city was woven together by a network of pneumatic tubes that connected post offices and major buildings. A letter took seven minutes to go from Manhattan’s 32nd Street to downtown Brooklyn through this Pneumatic Tube System, or PTS. Making use of the city’s […]
Robert Andrews: Safe Salesman
by David Shapiro (interviewer) 05/31/2006Neighborhood: Midtown
I call myself a security consultant because it sounds better than salesman but, essentially, I’m a salesman. I sell security products, primarily safes. My dad preceded me in this. He was with the Mosler Safe Company starting around 1948 and, quite frankly, as a kid, the work sounded very dull to me. I wanted to […]
Spare Change
by Philippe Reines 05/30/2006Neighborhood: Upper West Side
It’s 10:20 p.m. on a Tuesday, and the air is filled with the unmistakable sound of coins hitting metal. The multi-colored machine generating all the noise stands almost six feet tall and looks like a cross between an oversized Lego kit and something that toddlers would be crawling over at Playspace. The high tech liquid […]
iPod on the Tracks
by Thomas Beller 05/23/2006Neighborhood: Upper East Side
I was bounding down the stairs into the subway, three steps at a time, hoping to make the train. The stairs were wet. The air was cold. It was a day of harsh weather, a gusting snowstorm, but I had my iPod and was experiencing everything dreamily. To say it was a new iPod was […]
I know it sounds kind of cliché…
by Mickey & Kate 03/16/2006Neighborhood: Letter From Abroad
So I fell in love with this girl named Kate. And all that remains is this sordid little correspondence that I have left from the beginning our affair. I wish it included all the walks we took on the snowy streets of Detroit or the hours we spent laying in bed daydreaming about tomorrow. But […]
Tiny Inhuman Pauses
by Thomas Beller 03/04/2006Neighborhood: West Village
She was an old lady and for a moment I wanted to kill her. We were at the grocer, and she was taking an inordinate amount of time paying. After a long time spent peering into her purse she handed over a few dollars, and a couple of quarters, and a dime and a nickel, […]
Biking through the Apocalypse
by Saïd Sayrafiezadeh 02/22/2006Neighborhood: Union Square
There is no commuter more unqualified to weigh in on the effects of the transit strike than a cyclist who lives and works in Manhattan – which is me. I have been riding a bicycle in the city for the last 12 years and have become so reliant (addicted might be a better word) on […]
The Unsung Hero: A Ford Motor Company Story
by Eric C. Novack 01/26/2006Neighborhood: Letter From Abroad
The headline on the Detroit Free Press was bold. But it was just another clever way of stating the obvious. Ford Motor Company was going to announce “The Way Forward,” actually a way to cut back. Ron Novack sat at his kitchen table and skimmed the story about the plant closures and layoffs that would […]
Adriani For Mayor
by Johnny Adriani 01/26/2006Neighborhood: All Over, Letter From Abroad
Today I had perhaps the most unique experience that I have ever had in my lifetime. I began walking the streets of New Orleans and speaking to people on a one on one basis. This may seem odd to you, and perhaps it is, but I canvassed New Orleans today not as a citizen but […]
Craigslist Love
by erika 01/19/2006Neighborhood: Chelsea
After my boyfriend and I broke up, I was lonely so I put an ad on Craigslist. What is it about a man that makes him think sending a picture of his private parts is going to turn a woman on? A little mystery and anticipation is a great thing. I put the ad under […]
Industrial Ruins, Digital Gallery: An Interview with Lowell Boileau
by Patrick W. Gallagher 08/05/2005Neighborhood: Uncategorized
“Athens has got ruins, Rome has got ruins. Ours are bigger, but there’s no guidebook to them.” —Lowell Boileau Part collage, part museum, part mausoleum, and all constructed around a series of intricately conceived online “tours,” detroityes.com depicts Detroit’s past and present in a library containing thousands of vivid photographic images. For many, the centerpiece […]
My Name in a Book of Matches
by Sairy Gold 07/30/2005Neighborhood: Brooklyn
I have lived in Brooklyn my entire life, but my name and number appear on little black books of matches all across the city. No, I’m not a slinky sultry hot babe whose name and number decorate bathroom walls and little match books in bars. You don’t “Call Sairy for a Good Time.” On the […]