RICH BUNNELL The Cross-Bronx Expressway divided the Bronx neighborhood of Tremont, displacing 5,000 people — some say, for no reason. The history of great American cities is the history of great urban planners, and there is none more influential than New York “master builder” Robert Moses. Never once elected to public office, Moses answered to [...]
March, 2012
Kiss from a compass rose
KENJENNINGS.COM Drawing lines in the sand: Maphead author Ken Jennings demonstrates his not-too-shabby freehand mapmaking skills. Ken Jennings’ Maphead is a triumph and a rarity for me as a reader: a book about a weird subculture where I was part of the subculture! I enjoyed reading about the Scrabble nerds in Stefan Fatsis’ Word Freak [...]
At the precipice of an enormous crossroads
RICH BUNNELL The third day of my New York-area quest involved a stop at Pizzaland, as seen in the Sopranos credits. My New York friends gave me looks ranging from quizzical to repulsed when I told them that my third destination would be New Jersey. Exploring the ’burbs within New York is one thing, but [...]
The Bronx is up and my stamina’s down
RICH BUNNELL The Hudson Bridge marked a picturesque end to the 30th mile of my trip, but it sadly wasn’t open to pedestrian access. I have to say, when I was charting out this trip, I was erroneously operating under the assumption that New York didn’t have hills. I knew Staten had its share, but [...]
The island of misfit New Yorkers
RICH BUNNELL The FDR Boardwalk, featuring a view of the Verrazano Narrows Bridge, runs down a 2.5-mile stretch of northeastern Staten Island. You can take the boy out of San Francisco … Staten Island is the outcast New York borough — so much so, in fact, that it has repeatedly attempted to secede — and [...]
