when Walter Dun split with Charles Rong and found a new business partner.
Another forlorn owl by Never. (Yes, that's E.T. dressed as Michael Jackson in the adjacent mural.)
This waterside condominium is just a bit out of scale with its surroundings.
A few friends and I once visited this banquet hall during off hours, and the management let us wander around and look at all the rooms. The highlight, without question, was the photo studio.
The Triborough may have been officially renamed a few years ago, but this Druidic pillar, one of a pair straddling the Grand Central Parkway as it makes its way toward the bridge, is having none of it.
This is actually just the approach to the Queens side of the bridge that leads to Rikers. You're not allowed to walk over, but you can take the bus to visit an inmate, or even marry one.
I wonder what word preceded "establishment".
This memorial park, located right across the street from LaGuardia Airport, is named for Frank J. McManus, a local soldier who died in Vietnam and who presumably was the park's sole honoree in the years before 9/11.
IN MEMORY OF
THE 84 EMPLOYEES OF
THE PORT AUTHORITY OF
NEW YORK AND NEW JERSEY
WHO LOST THEIR LIVES
IN THE ATTACK ON THE
WORLD TRADE CENTER ON
SEPTEMBER 11, 2001
These foot-operated underground garbage receivers are a common curbside sight in Astoria Heights, where many of the residential complexes have chosen to install them.
I'll let Kevin Walsh tell the story of this ancient, vine-shrouded dwelling.
One can only imagine the wonders that must lie behind the locked gate of the enigmatic Port Authority landfill forest.
at the very creatively named Woodtree Playground.
It's already turned over twice since we were last here.
Our buddy Never is featured on the trailer this time around.
Opened in 1928; its predecessor was condemned to make way for the southward extension of Sixth Avenue.
(That's a tour bus.)
Why don't they hang out somewhere that doesn't have one of those signs?
It's not just me who thinks these ventilation systems are amazing!
This fountain, located just off Canal Street, is meant to evoke the eponymous canal that was built in the early 1800s to drain the once-vital Collect Pond, which, until befouled by the 18th-century industries that sprung up around it, had long been one of the city's most important sources of fresh water.
(I prefer yellow with orange trim, but to each his own.)
I was sitting on a park bench beside the Canal Street canal-fountain thingy when I looked up and saw my buddy Steve Duncan leading a tour of Minetta Brook and the Canal Street canal. Both waterways are now underground, having been incorporated into the city's sewer system, which helps explain why that guy is peering into that manhole with a flashlight.
The two skyscrapers under construction are (left to right) Four World Trade Center and One World Trade Center.
I bought some cherries from a nearby stand. They were not very good.
This ten-story structure was once the headquarters of The Forward, a Jewish Socialist newspaper (one of the busts just above the sidewalk shed is Karl Marx). The building served an intermediate stint as a Chinese church before becoming what it was really meant to be all along: luxury condos!
Teams from around the US and Canada have come to Seward Park (the first permanent, municipally built playground in the country) to play in this annual Chinese-American volleyball tournament.
Sitting in the middle of the La Guardia Houses, this bathhouse was abandoned long ago, but there are calls to put the building back in service as a recreation center.
I was walking through the darkening streets of the East Village when I came upon an older gentleman taking his dog for a stroll. I noticed the colorful tiles artfully glued to his walking cane, and put two and two together: Jim Power! He's been struggling with some health problems lately — you can support him by checking out his website, where you can watch a wonderful short film that tells his story and shows off many of his new works.
