I have always loved bookstores - a great wave of comfort comes over me when I enter one - all those books with the wisdom of the ages just waiting to be tapped.When traveling, I have found a city...

Frequent users of Washington Square Park have been eagerly awaiting its reopening. It has been closed for one and one half years - since November 2007. The renovations were a contentious battle...

If you want to do something controversial, it's easy. Just create a series of themed sculptures and place dozens of them around the city. The last one that I recall was the Cow Parade.Everyone seems to have strong feelings about such displays. Being ...

It is harder and harder to find products and shops unique to New York City or any other. The architecture of the city itself, of course, can not be duplicated. But as I endeavor to ferret out things unique about this city I am often surprised when it...

Wouldn't you like a stadium or sport's complex named after you or your company? Perhaps your immediate thoughts are "at what cost?" In the case of Citi Field, the answer is $400 million dollars - $20 million dollars per year over 20 years. That's a lot...

I was prepared for the worse - I had been told that Willets Point was what Mayor Bloomberg called "another euphemism for blight" or what Robert Moses once described as an “eyesore and a disgrace to the borough of Queens.”But these were...

In the 1980s, I was a strict vegetarian. I met a friend and his girlfriend on the street. I am sure my friend's girlfriend anticipated a chilly comment as I stroked her fur coat and asked what it was. It was not a rhetorical question at all nor meant...

There is a book I enjoyed very much - French or Foe, written by Polly Plat, an American expatriate living in France. The book is oriented towards those who will be in France for extended periods, living or working there. However, it is of value to the...