Author Archives: Ben
A Crime of Specie
It’s always been interesting to me how something quotidian from another land can take on a quality of wonderment in another. The erasure of that which is day-to-day may be innocent and unlamented at home, yet constitute an act of thoughtless cultural violence in a different country. This was and still is the Crime of […]
Posted in Essay Categories, Personal Politics
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Just Around the Corner
It wasn’t exactly a blind corner, the one I just encountered. I saw things coming. For years a voice inside me has whispered, Soon it’s gonna be your turn…My late uncle, who fashioned himself S. Newton Feldman, looked a lot like me. Slender, soft-spoken. Same eyes, same face, same disease. What is it with people […]
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Into The Promised Land
From a sign on a former warehouse in Williamsburg, now used as a religious academy: “Danger to Life and Limb” – It is Absolutely Forbidden to Park Here From 800 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. – It is reserved for the Busses of the Talmud Torah” The Torah says that the land of milk and honey […]
Dads and Daughts
Dads and Daughts Hold your fire! I confess herewith to bait and switch. This piece is not about NYC history, nor does it concern Yiddish. So go ahead and put me in the stocks. Down by City Hall near the old Bridewell jail site. What notoriety it would bring me ! What more could a […]
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The Victory Star Club – Part 1
The crush of widespread narcissism and incessant modernity that inhabit every corner of my Yorkville neighborhood frequently bum me out. Constant scenes confront me as my wannabe-wealthy neighbors rush across our proscenium, playing their roles in their soon-to-be-released Movie about Me. Even the briefest saunter down many of its side streets provides relief, however. Better […]
Posted in Essay Categories, Lost New York
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At the Helm
The maelstrom of 9/11 brought many gifts to our city, among them the reinstitution of long-gone ferry service between Manhattan and Brooklyn. A modest-sized high-speed twin hull from the New York Water Taxi fleet now plies Upper New York Harbor between the Wall Street pier and Brooklyn’s Bay Ridge waterfront during rush hours on weekdays. […]
A Sad Goodbye
After a years-long adieu, the last major food exchange in lower Manhattan has disappeared. The Fulton Fish Market is no more, moved lock, stock and barrel this past November to a barren industrial park in the East Bronx. A site that nourished our souls for generations has vanished. The loss in incalculable. No longer will […]
Posted in Essay Categories, Faves, Lost New York
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