Category Archives: Lost New York

It happened just the other day. One glance up on a tenement wall, five stories above East Harlem’s Lexington Avenue. Two seconds was all it took. The shock of recognition rushed through my soul. It’s 2006, right? Not. 1912 is more like it. A ghost image, a palimpsest, caught my eye, high above the 116th […]

Growing up in post-War Oak Ridge, Tennessee, a Jewish boy like me struggled in a perpetual state of anomie. Namelessness has many sources and many reasons. Living as an other in a homogenous community reinforces the sensation of unrecognizability. One’s surname might be Smith, but where everyone else’s name ends in Armenian infinity, the search […]

On a solitary bike trip years ago, I suddenly and unexpectedly found myself on the edge of Joseph Rodman Drake Park, 2.49 manicured Bronx acres, bounded by Hunt’s Point, Longfellow and Oak Point Avenues. The site of Joseph Rodman Drake Park in Hunt’s Point was part of an Indian Village. In the late 17th century […]

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 […]