5 Everyone Knows This Is Somewhere, Part II: He Journeyed From the Frozen Wastes of the Great Plains in Search of New York City Cool. He May Have Found It

Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter i
2. CONTENTS v
3. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS xi
4. Introduction 1
5. Part I A Sense of Place
6. 1 The House on West 11th Street: Three Decades After Young Radicals Blew Up an Elegant Brownstone in Greenwich Village, Echoes of the Blast Linger 5
7. 2 Spanish Harlem on His Mind: As Latinos From Many Lands Stream Into New York, Puerto Ricans Watch, Remembering a Time El Barrio Was Theirs Alone 17
8. 3 The Old Neighbors: Who Lives Where We Live? Who Sprinted Down This Hall, Smelled Spring From This Window? In a City Where the Past Is Ever Present, Tracing the Footsteps of Those Who Came Before Is a Haunting Journey 25
9. 4 Everyone Knows This Is Somewhere, Part I: An Englishman Finds Himself in the City of His Childhood Dreams, a Strange, Lofty, Urgent Presence, Beckoning Westward. 32
10. 5 Everyone Knows This Is Somewhere, Part II: He Journeyed From the Frozen Wastes of the Great Plains in Search of New York City Cool. He May Have Found It 36
11. 6 Nothing But Net: The Basketball Court Was Just a Patch of Asphalt in a West Village Playground, an Empty Page in the Urban Landscape. It Needed Players to Give It Meaning. 41
12. 7 New York’s Rumpus Room: For Nearly 150 Years, Central Park Has Been the City’s Endlessly Changing, All-Frills Heart. It’s Hard to Imagine New York Without It. 49
13. 8 Manhattan ’03: The Attacks of September 11 Prompted People Around the World to Articulate How Much New York Means to Them 55
14. 9 Back to the Home Planet: My East Side, No-Name Nabe 63
15. 10 Latte on the Hudson: New York’s Original Starbucks Has Closed. But 162 Remain, and a Day Idled Away in One of Them Reveals That These Marvels of Engineered Mood Have Become the City’s Ultimate Study Halls, Offices and Village Green 67
16. 11 Screech, Memory: The No. 2 Train Roared By Not 25 Yards From His Childhood Bedroom, Punctuating All the Rites of His Bronx Youth 75
17. 12 Bungalow Chic: Discovering the Romance of Rockaway, That Peninsula With an Esteem Problem 81
18. 13 The Allure of the Ledge: Working Close to the Clouds, the Window Washer Is the Ultimate Risk Taker, the Ultimate Voyeur 87
19. 14 There’s No Place Like Home. But There’s . . . No Place: A Long Hunt for an Apartment Uncovers Triple Bunk Beds, a Kitchen-Cum-Shower—and Some Insights Into the True Meaning of Home 95
20. 15 The Town That Gags Its Writers: The Buzz and Banter of New York, a Novelist Argues, Can Make It Hard to Hear Your Own Voice. Try Gainesville 105
21. 16 Rockaway Idyll: Eight in a Bungalow, $250 Each, for a Summer of Stars and Waves 111
22. 17 Waiting to Exhale: In a Town of Towers and Tight Spaces, Claustrophobics Yearn to Breathe Free 119
23. 18 A “Law and Order” Addict Tells All: The TV Series Is a Hit Around the Country. But Its Heart Beats to a New York Rhythm, for Us and Us Alone. 127
24. 19 Look Away: The Unwritten Law of Survival in the Teeming City 135
25. 20 On the Run: New York, Fast Paced and Deeply Social, Taught Him to Love to Smoke. Now the City Has Changed Its Mind and Demands That He Do the Same 139
26. 21 Marriage of Inconvenience? She Was Living Young and Carefree in the East Village. Then Came the Robbery 147
27. 22 Rain, Rain, Come Again: When It Pours in the City, There’s a Sense of Limited Possibilities. That’s Not So Bad 151
28. 23 The Agony of Victory: The Yankees Have Won 26 World Series Titles and 38 Pennants. The Giants, Knicks, Jets, Rangers—Even the Mets—Win Once in a While, Too. So Why Do New York Fans Whine So Much? 155
29. 24 Street Legal, Finally: Married. Divorced. In Your 40’s. Life Has Its Stops and Starts. Getting Your Driver’s License Is One of Them 163
30. 25 Time Out: Loving the Sport. Hating the Scene. Confessions of a Reluctant Soccer Dad 171
31. 26 Wild Masonry, Murderous Metal and Mr. Blonde: An Electrical Mistake, an Accidental Death. New Yorkers Learn That Even Their Powerful City Must Kneel Before the Random Hand of Fate 175
32. Part III New Yorkers
33. 27 Love’s Labors: She and Her Husband Roamed the World in Search of Exotic Plants. Now, Alone in a Bronx Office, Celia Maguire Tends to His Legacy 179
34. 28 Ballpark of Memory: Decades Ago, Lawrence Ritter Journeyed From the West Side to Roam the Country in Search of Baseball’s Past. He Came Back With Perhaps the Best Book Ever Written on the Sport 189
35. 29 The Paper Chase: The Collyer Brothers, Harlem’s Legendary Pack Rats, Offer a Gruesome Cautionary Tale 197
36. 30 The War Within: A Brand-New New Yorker, He Is Enchanted by the Storied City. But His Tour of Duty in Iraq Has Clouded His View of Himself and of His Adopted Home 205
37. 31 Uptown Girl: In Researching Her Book on the South Bronx, Adrian Nicole LeBlanc Absorbed Its Poverty, Its Toughness, Its Glacial Pace. She Also Rediscovered Herself. 213
38. 32 My Friend Lodovico: Finding a Soul Mate on Upper Fifth Avenue 221
39. 33 Fare-Beater Inc. A Former Seminarian Found His True Calling in the Subtle Art of Sluggery 225
40. 34 The Ballad of Sonny Payne: The Subway Is Filled With Panhandlers. But Perhaps None Is as Beloved as the Man With the White Beard and Gentle Eyes Who Moves Through the F Train 229
41. Part IV City Lore
42. 35 The White Baby: In the Botanicas of Spanish Harlem, the Spirits Are Asked to Grant Prayers. But Long Ago, a Visitor Learns, the Gods Cruelly Mocked One Man’s Wish. 237
43. 36 New York, Brick by Brick: The AIA Guide, That Admiring, Classic Work on New York’s Ad Hoc, Additive Architecture, Offers Its First New Edition in More Than a Decade. 247
44. 37 Memory’s Curveball: Thick With the Glaze of Age, the Baseball Evoked Thoughts of a Legendary Team. But It Was Not What It Seemed. 253
45. 38 My Neighborhood, Its Fall and Rise: Safe But Dreary in the 50’s, the West Farms Area of the Bronx Had Grown Desolate in the 70’s. Now It’s on the Mend 261
46. 39 Ship of Dreams: In 1780, H.M.S Hussar Sank Near Hell Gate. Joseph Governali Was in Hot Pursuit, With Good Reason: Legend Says the Frigate Was Laden With Gold 269
47. 40 The Day the Boy Fell From the Sky: Decades Later, a Park Slope Nurse Remembers 277
48. ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORS 285
49. ABOUT THE EDITOR 291