Category: Neighborhoods

Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, "The earth laughs in flowers." If that's the case, then the Green Guerillas are grinning from ear to ear. While some outreach programs spend a lot of their time working phones and crunching numbers to get wo…

Williamsburg, Billburg, Billyburg"¦ call it what you like. But whatever you do, don't call it over. The Utne Reader called it "the third hippest neighborhood in America" a few years back. Like any place that gets hyped this much, Williams…

One hundred and fifty years ago, the New York State Legislature passed a bill designating land in the heart of Manhattan as a great central park. Today, the 843 acres that was saved from being swallowed up by developers is now treasured pu…

Tell someone your address is on Park Avenue in New York City, and immediately you've conjured images of luxury, affluence, and status. Over the last two centuries, Park Avenue has become synonymous with the good life - the home of milliona…

"The whole island is like a garden, and affords very fine scenery." - Henry David Thoreau, Staten Island, 1843 Since Thoreau wrote about its charms nearly 200 years ago, Staten Island has occasionally been referred to as the "s…

Say the name "Greenwich Village," and immediately images of quiet, leafy streets lined with brownstones, or beret-clad bohemians drinking coffee and discussing art come to mind. The Village is one of New York's most famous and recognizabl…

Just about every neighborhood in New York City has had its ups and downs and its own particular stereotypes. Areas rise and fall as centers for culture or as fashionable places to live. For whatever reason, few places have been on the roll…

The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation (LMDC) and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ), the agencies charged with overseeing the rebuilding of the World Trade Center site, have narrowed the field from nine design con…

With all the diversions and distractions on parade past our front stoops 24/7, it's easy for Manhattanites to forget that the New York City metro extends beyond the rivers that ring our little island. Vibrant communities large and small sp…

Thanks to the city's preservation efforts, most of the buildings lining Columbus Avenue from 67th up to 82nd Streets are first-generation developments. These designated landmarks, with their original storefronts intact, elicit memories of …