Celebrating Community
The 9th Street warehouses were erected in 1910, the Culver-Smith St line in 1927–1933 (Depression slowed things down). Over 100 buildings were condemned along the corridor between 9th & 10th Street but the Roulston properties were never in play. Why? The elevation of the span over the Canal was dictated by the War Department — the City was required to […]
Pete Hamill was a poet disguised as a reporter disguised as a novelist disguised as a memoirist – there is such a word, I assure you, but Pete would never have used it. It sounds too phony. Like the pre-recorded cheers they pipe in for the radio and TV gasbags at COVID-emptied ballparks. Remember Pete’s columns in the New York […]
In Arthur Miller’s 1955 play, A View from the Bridge, the narrator Alfieri describes our Brooklyn waterfront as “the gullet of New York, swallowing the tonnage of the world.” And the New York Dock Railway was the spoon that kept it fed. We could use such a spoon again, now that United Parcel Service has come to town. In 1982 […]
As the reign of the Anti-Christ mercifully nears its end, how else will 2020 be remembered? The pandemic, of course. 30,000+ New Yorkers dead. Hundreds of infected Red Hookers. A new Depression. George Floyd. Rage against the machine. The Pentagon confirms UFOs exist… What? UFOs exist!? Yeah, and it was barely news for ten minutes. Like many other thoughtful well-groomed […]
I just got a blast message from Governor Cuomo advising New Yorkers: “When you get a call from NYS Contact Tracing – Answer your phone! Any information you give a COVID contact tracer will be strictly confidential and treated as a private medical record.” Wow! If only I had a Governor paving the way for my phone calls when I […]
“I want an uplifting story this time!” George bellowed. “None of that death and gloom you usually dish out. We got enough of that these days.” My mind raced. Uplifting? Hmmm…“How about a nice local story about bridges that lift up over a little stream?” George chomped on his cigar and muttered, “OK, but make sure those bridges don’t blow […]
In late December 2019, the east side of Conover Street between Coffey & Dikeman Streets was sold to the Diamond Development Group (the exception is a 20-foot wide strip at the corner of Coffey Street). The price tag was $8.1 million, with Diamond committing an additional $10 million via a loan from S3 Capital for “development of a condo building.” […]
OK, sure, you can find “worst” music countdown clips on YouTube, but they’re full of all the obvious choices, with none of the deep cosmic thoughts you’ll find here in the Star-Revue. And I can pretty much guarantee no bandwidth problems with this page. Also, this countdown is all about the record, recognizing not only the song, but the artist, […]
I was working the day shift at the bustling Star Revue offices. George was pointing his big cigar at staff demanding more copy as I feverishly surfed the wholesome parts of the Internet, desperate for a story. And suddenly there it was. A 1940 photo of an old two-story federal house at 150 Van Dyke Street. The clapboard frame building […]