(The name seems to have come from a previous occupant of the building.)
This is the back of a homemade trash/recycling bin shelter. (Here's the front.)
This is the largest Jain temple in the New York area, and also an "excellent place for matchmaking".
This well-worn chef now hawks Mexican food at Tradiciones el Tejano (which also appears to serve pizza).
Most of NYC's sewers are combined sewers, meaning they collect both sewage from buildings and stormwater runoff from the streets in a single pipe and carry it all to a wastewater treatment plant. During times of significant rainfall or snowmelt, however, the increased volume of runoff entering the sewer can exceed the capacity of the system. In order to prevent a backup, the excess (including untreated sewage) is dumped directly into area waterways.
To help mitigate this problem, the city recently embarked on a plan to build $2.4 billion worth of "green infrastructure" that will "use or mimic natural systems" to collect stormwater runoff before it reaches the sewer. Right-of-way bioswales, like the one above, capture water flowing down the gutter and allow it to seep into the ground through the soil, keeping it out of the sewer system altogether.
The fire hydrant trio, from left to right: Puerto Rico, Colombia/Ecuador/Venezuela, and the Dominican Republic. Further from the camera are two types of Tibetan Buddhist prayer flags: a darchor flag hanging from the pole at the back of the sidewalk and a couple of strings of lungta flags festooning the third-floor window in the background.
Another unique school crossing sign, this one at Leonardo da Vinci Intermediate School 61
Currently home to the Terrace on the Park banquet hall in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, this building originally served as a heliport for the 1964-65 World’s Fair. It stood in the Transportation Area of the fair, with each side of the structure forming a big T, for "transportation". During the fair in 1965, the Beatles landed here en route to their legendary concert at Shea Stadium.
(In the background at right, peeking over the trees, you can see the tallest observation tower of the World's Fair's New York State Pavilion.)
This geodesic dome was built in 1964 to enclose the World's Fair Pavilion at the 1964-65 World's Fair. After Winston Churchill passed away in early 1965, the pavilion was transformed into the Churchill Center for the fair's 1965 season. Within a few years of the fair's closing, the dome was reassembled at another site within Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, where it has served as the Queens Zoo's aviary ever since the zoo opened in 1968. (You can see more photos of the aviary here, and you can check out an aerial view of the structure here.)
"The Entertainer" is a common ice cream truck song, but this is the first time I've ever heard a Mister Softee truck playing something other than the Mister Softee jingle. I tried asking the driver about it, but he wouldn't give me a straight answer.
This was once a yeshiva affiliated with Congregation Tifereth Israel. The yeshiva closed in the 1970s and the building was converted into a residence and music studio that was occupied by the musicians Dan and Ed Gilroy beginning in the mid-1970s. Madonna lived here with the Gilroy brothers for about a year in 1979-80, and it was in this building that she played her first guitar chord, learned the drums, and worked on her budding songwriting. During her time here, she and the Gilroys also started a band — her first — called the Breakfast Club.
