Departments

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New York

  • SOURCE: New York Times
    10/18/2021

    Jefferson Statue to be Removed from NY City Council Chambers

    "Annette Gordon-Reed, a Harvard Law School professor and a Jefferson expert, objected to the idea of taking down the Jefferson statue, but said that if it were to move to the New-York Historical Society, where she serves as a trustee, it would be a best-case scenario."

  • 9/12/2021

    See a Piece of History: Retired FDNY Fireboat John D. McKean

    The Fireboat McKean Preservation Project and the Hudson River Parks Friends offer those in New York the opportunity to visit the McKean at Pier 25 in lower Manhattan. The McKean's half-century of service most notably included evacuation and firefighting support on 9/11. 

  • SOURCE: Bloomberg CityLab
    9/8/2021

    Remembering Minoru Yamasaki’s Twin Towers

    "That two of Yamasaki’s major buildings would end up as rubble, one by politics, one by terrorists, seemed like the last word. And yet critics’ and historians’ views of the towers, as well as views of Yamasaki’s reputation, have also undergone a series of transformations."

  • 3/21/2021

    Incognegro, Part II: How New York Law Enforcement Worked to Destroy Core

    by L.E.J. Rachell

    Ray Wood's memoir alleges that as a rookie NYPD detective he was coerced to act as an agent provocateur to convince members of New York's Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) chapters to commit crimes or other acts that would discredit and destroy the movement. The NYPD and FBI could clear the air by releasing their files on infiltration of Black-led organizations. 

  • SOURCE: New York Times
    2/28/2021

    A New York Drugstore Nearly as Storied as the City Itself

    "The store, on Sixth Avenue between West 8th and 9th Streets, is in the very center of Greenwich Village. And its landmark interior, which dates to 1902, is wonderfully preserved, with its original tiled floor and oak shelves."

  • SOURCE: New York Times
    2/18/2021

    The Real Story of the ‘Draft Riots’

    by Elizabeth Mitchell

    "The story of the merchants’ response to the so-called Draft Riots is a reminder that we can all do more if we don’t want the lives of more Black people to be marred by cruelty."

  • SOURCE: New York Times
    12/5/2020

    East Village Fire Damages 128-Year-Old Church

    Middle Collegiate Church was a beacon of inclusion and tolerance for its congregants and the surrounding community. The damaged building was 128 years old, but the congregation originated before the American Revolution. 

  • SOURCE: The New Yorker
    11/30/2020

    Why New York’s Mob Mythology Endures

    by Adam Gopnik

    "Generally, in Mob stories, the cute bits are not real, and the real bits are not cute. Given that grim truth, there’s something to be said for just shutting your eyes and repeating the cute bits." Some new books on the Mafia unfortunately follow the pattern. 

  • SOURCE: New York Times
    10/12/2020

    Cuomo Unveils Statue of Mother Cabrini

    Governor Andrew Cuomo got the jump on Mayor Bill de Blasio to place a statue honoring the first American to be canonized. Cabrini's name was not on the city's first list of women to be honored with statues, angering many Italian American New Yorkers.

  • SOURCE: New York Times
    8/14/2020

    How the World’s Largest Garbage Dump Evolved Into a Green Oasis

    Freshkills is possibly the least likely poster child for urban ecological restoration in the world, and it is radical not just for the way it works — by encouraging flora and fauna do as they please — but for its sheer size. It is almost unbelievable that New York City would set aside a parcel of land as big as Lower Manhattan south of 23rd Street — and just let it go to seed.

  • SOURCE: New York Times
    8/12/2020

    He’s Sharing the History of Black New York, One Tweet at a Time

    Oluwanisola “Sola” Olosunde is an urban planning graduate student whose Twitter feed is a chronicle of the everyday life of Black New York. He helped bring to light a recent viral video of white Queens residents yelling racist abuse at young Black girls during a period of resistance to desegregation in the 1970s.